Schools brief
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/media-assets/image/20240720_ABD001.jpg)
Artificial intelligence
A short history of AI
In the first of six weekly briefs, we ask how AI overcame decades of underdelivering
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/2021/09/articles/main/20210904_sbd001.jpg)
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/2021/08/articles/main/20210828_sbd001.jpg)
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20210821_SBD001_0.jpg)
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20210814_SBD001_0.jpg)
Biology brief
How organisms are organised
Like any well-run operation, a body is made of specialised parts
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20210807_SBD001_0.jpg)
Defined by their boundaries
Cells and how to run them
All life is made of cells, and cells depend on membranes
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20210731_SBD001_1.jpg)
Life is born in chains
How DNA and proteins work
Life can make extraordinary variety by following quite simple strategies
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20200912_SBD001_0.jpg)
Putting on weight
Governments can borrow more than was once believed
Hence only muted concern about borrowing to respond to covid-19
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20200905_SBD001_0.jpg)
Hard work and black swans
Economists are turning to culture to explain wealth and poverty
As a result, the ideas of the earliest economists are being revised and improved
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20200829_SBD001_0.jpg)
Buck up
Global trade’s dependence on dollars lessens its benefits
Policymakers around the world yearn to be free of the greenback’s grip
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20200822_SBD001_0.jpg)
Hidden figures
Why does low unemployment no longer lift inflation?
The Phillips curve, the logic of which guides central banks today, has become oddly flat
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20200815_SBD001_0.jpg)