Another fascinating essay described a space flight simulation experience in which people who knew that they were not really in space still got great enjoyment from their "trip."

In a fascinating essay published in the Financial Times last year, the historian Joe Moran tried to explain the enduring popularity of these period dramas.

The show shifts to become an often fascinating essay on the China of later years, but without much edge.

And P.O.V. found a fascinating essay on transsexuality in "Metamorphosis."

I wanted the city to be an essay in ugliness but a fascinating essay, one with a strong sculptural interest.

Marcia Pointon's fascinating essay on the contemporary portrait leads us to question the central relationship between artist, sitter and spectator.

"Brahms the Progressive" is the title of a fascinating essay by Arnold Schoenberg, first presented as a lecture in 1933.

The festival program includes a fascinating essay by Susan Carbonneau about the Japanese obsession with dolls, puppets, mechanical dolls and robots.

Ms. Van Evera's fascinating essay on Lady Rich fills out the biographical details, but the music paints a vivid and touching portrait, too.

Perhaps the most fascinating essay is "How We Come to Be," a recondite and educative consideration of the theories, antique and modern, regarding human reproduction.