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The word parenting, as a verb, has only been around since 1958. Developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik examines when caregiving became the art of hovering, and the pitfalls and anxiety of trying to shape children instead of raise them.

Danger is at hand, and you may have voted for it. Science educator Bill Nye weaves a passionate argument for the importance of science literacy in a country’s elected leaders.

Einstein’s most famous equation didn’t have to be this way, but it is, all the same. “Science is global. Einstein’s equation, E=mc^2, has to reach everywhere. Science is a beautiful gift […]

Does smiling make you happier? These and many other popular claims in psychology are not standing up to scrutiny. Here’s what that means for science.

Think we’d never do better from the ground than from space? This adaptive optics system is proving this wrong! “This event marks the culmination of many years of hard work on […]

How do we make fair contracts? These guys figured it out, and their work has implications in ethical and business questions about companies like Enron and privatized prisons.

If we look to the distant future, with unlimited technology, how far could we reach? “Even if I stumble on to the absolute truth of any aspect of the universe, I […]

“Eureka!” is not always as powerful as “that’s what I thought!” “Reality is what kicks back when you kick it. This is just what physicists do with their particle accelerators. […]

A new study suggests that 70% of the time scientists see brain activity on an fMRI, they aren’t.

New report has some surprising findings when it comes to the gender pay gap.   

The detection of a second binary black hole merger officially begins the robust era of a new kind of astronomy. “It turned out that nature was very kind, and there […]

SETI researchers have found a major radio telescope signal and are trying to nail down where it’s from.

https://players.brightcove.net/2097119709001/4kXWOFbfYx_default/index.html?videoId=5093427476001 In 1946, we made history by photographing the Earth from space for the first time. How far we’ve come! “You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an […]

“Behavioral politics” can shed light on terrorism’s appeal. And why simple appeals to reason might not work. Indeed rationality doesn’t work the way many think it does. What makes us tick must matter for how reasoning works. 

If you’re looking for a point in space, the answer is going to shock you. “The world you see, nature’s greatest and most glorious creation, and the human mind which gazes […]

Sponsored by the Hertz Foundation

It’s a web, it’s a cloud – it’s under attack: how outages reveal the actual shape of the internet

Earlier claims from NASA’s Fermi GBM team indicated that they just might. Here’s the nail in that coffin! “If you’ve seen one gamma-ray burst, you’ve seen one gamma-ray burst!” –Common quote among […]

At its hottest, the closest world to the Sun reaches up to 800º Fahrenheit. But another has it beat. “There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable […]

If it’s such a light element, why are Earth’s stores of it buried beneath the surface? “I have this one little saying, when things get too heavy just call me helium, […]

The gravitational waves were real. But earlier announcements that X-rays and gamma-rays were detected, too? Not so much. “What’s really exciting is what comes next. I think we’re opening a window […]

Implanting false memories could cure Alzheimer’s, PTSD, and depression. It could also make scapegoating easier, allow for witness tampering, or give those under a brutal dictatorship false patriotism.   

Turns out narcissistic personality disorders might be hiding a confrontation with fears of inadequacy. 

If black holes suck everything in and nothing can get out, what does that mean for dark matter? “A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another […]

The strongest pull for hundreds of millions of light years goes toe-to-toe against the most energetic force of all. “We detect motion along this axis, but right now our data cannot […]

If we’re going to send a probe to another star at 20% the speed of light, what hope do we have of slowing it down? “Yes, now there is this technological […]

430,000 people are injured every year due to distracted driving. Will this new invention help combat this trend? 

More Americans now use opioids than tobacco, while pro-painkiller lobbies outspend opposition 200 to 1.

How do you fool a robot? It’s not difficult—machines are only good at what we tell them to do. But even still, many parts of our world may not be “readable” to some robots.

With $100 million invested towards it and an incredible concept behind it, could this be the start of interstellar travel? “Fundamental physics is like an art more or less. It’s […]