At the beginning of Professor Balmurli Natrajan’s anthropology course, he shows his students a simple object, usually a pen. “What do you see?” he asks. At first, they describe the obvious: a pen.

If you heard sounds from your living room in the middle of the night, the first item you reach for to protect yourself would probably not be an aluminium pen. However, self-defence instructor Qin ...

When President Joe Biden sat down after his inauguration to sign a slew of executive orders, alongside the stack of navy folders was a wooden box, situated within easy reach. Inside that box, ready ...