The Parable of the Polygons is an explorable, interactive post that uses a simulation of slightly biased shapes (triangles and squares) to demonstrate how small individual preferences can lead to large-scale, unintended social segregation, based on the work of Thomas Schelling.

Elizabeth Kolbert reviews “Dr. Calhoun’s Mousery,” by Lee Alan Dugatkin, and “Rat City,” by Edmund Ramsden and Jon Adams. This New Yorker review discusses the book about John B. Calhoun’s controversial “Mouse Universe” experiments, which explored the devastating psychological and social effects of overpopulation and resource saturation on rodent communities.