Psychedelic mushrooms may be the explanation to how the human neocortex experienced a dramatic evolutionary change from early hominids to homo sapiens.
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Three phases in brain development led to the creation of religion. What we do with that is up to us.
All cities have clogged traffic arteries, post-industrial pockets of hipness, and districts that hate each other’s guts for no other reason than that they’re across the river from each other, or on opposite sides of the tracks.
Move over, Middle Ages. Everyone’s favorite bloodsucking worms—leeches—are making a comeback. These have been used in the medical practice for two millennia, if not more.
You may not have heard, but agriculture is about to undergo a truly organic revolution. Indigo is one of many agriculture businesses that’s researching how microbes can help increase crop yields even as our climate changes.
Can we rely on Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” to lead markets to “the best” overall outcome? Darwin’s insights say no.
While a “counter-Earth” may be impossible, there are three other ways it could actually work out. “We are not like the social insects. They have only the one way of doing […]
Skeptic Michael Shermer presents ten major arguments for the existence of God — and counters each one.
A new web series delves into the many reasons why eating creepy crawlers makes sense for your diet and the environment.
The shooting of two charismatic animals stirred international outrage. But a more important event to the developing world concern with animal welfare was publication of Carl Safina’s Beyond Words, What Animals Think and Feel.
Biologist Edward O. Wilson explains how humans came to dominate all other large animals by adopting eusocial behaviors most often associated with insects.
With no tape, markers or adhesives, these accurately modeled animals are a true work of art. “Laughs don’t come in barrels. They come from inside you as your body’s response […]
Strong psychological reactions — call it the yuck factor — could prevent innovative ideas from maturing and therefore from reaching populations in need.
Light and sound are waves that we all know. But gravity makes them, too. “Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, […]
A new scientific study out of Germany confirms that growing genetically modified crops is good for national economies as well as farmers’ wallets, allowing more crops to be grown on less land.
Many take caffeine from tea or mate, an herbal drink popular in South America. But the drug, unlike so many others, didn’t come from a chemistry lab. It came from millions of years of plant evolution.
Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O. Wilson draws from Darwinian theory to posit the appearance and characteristics of an extraterrestrial life form. “E.T. is out there,” says Wilson, and their more like us than we may realize.
In one of the weirder instances of a feed-the-hungry fundraisers, pest control company Ehrlich donated $5 for every diner at a DC restaurant who agreed to try an insect. The DC “Pestaurant” was one of many that popped up across the globe yesterday.
Harvard scientists have created a bioplastic using silk protein and a commonly-found organic substance that gives the shells their strength. The substance, shrilk, biodegrades in a matter of weeks, and its residue encourages plant growth.
Over 3,000 different ethnic groups eat 1,400 different species of insects. Not eating insects? Check out what you are missing from this insect buffet filmed by the Smithsonian. The National […]
What happens when honey bees feed on M&Ms? “My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished […]
The farther north you are, the harder this wonder is to see. But oh, the rewarding sights for those who find it! Image credit: Emi; Ivamov, via http://www.emilivanov.com/CCD%20Images/M06_LRGB.htm. “Happiness is […]
A team of McGill University students are working on providing poorer countries with food products, including flour, made entirely from locally grown insects. Their concept won this year’s $1 million Hult Prize.
“You criticize them too much. If this was 1957 they would have killed you already,” Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s worried mother tells him in a new documentary titled Ai Weiwei: […]
As the human population continues to inch closer to 8 billion people, feeding all those hungry mouths will become increasingly difficult.
Why are today’s paparazzi so terrible? The combative relationship between photojournalists and their celebrity subjects seems to have become an all-out war as photographers look to capture content not already […]
In research done on mice, a compound inside the venom of Chinese red-headed centipedes performed as well as, and in some cases even better than, morphine.
“Moralities and religions are the principal means by which one can make whatever one wishes out of man, provided one possesses a superfluity of creative forces and can assert one’s […]
They may look like ordinary male insects, but they contain genes that kill some or all of their offspring. One test involving GM mosquitoes showed an 80-96 percent decrease in the mosquito population within six months.