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Nature invented software billions of years before we did. “The origin of life is really the origin of software,” says Gregory Chaitin (inventor of mathematical metabiology). Life requires what software does. It is fundamentally algorithmic. And its complexity needs better thinking tools.

Researchers have found young women are less likely to use contraception.

An influx of humans into any environment can mean trouble for the local animal population.

When it comes to issues such as climate change, government agencies like the EPA are charged with setting a stage for solutions rather than taking action themselves.

Algorithms are in charge of hiring people and data collection. You should have the right to know what they’re saying about you.

Consciousness is an emergent property of the brain, resulting from the communication of information across all its regions and cannot be reduced to something residing in specific areas.

“Print this map. Get off the internet. Take to the streets.”

Researchers are here to assure you that memory doesn’t go all at once as we age. Some parts strengthen as other parts give way.

Last week’s $1.5 billion jackpot was a record that likely will be broken again and again. But when, if ever, should you play? “I’ve done the calculation and your chances of […]

Robots have already bested humans in chess and Jeopardy; now, developers are trying to create the next poker master.

Franklin Pierce Adams (1881 – 1960) was an American columnist, well known for his wit and his newspaper column, “The Conning Tower.”

Donald Trump is the topic of our national conversation, and the reason for his popularity seems to revolve around his distaste for political correctness—but why do we love that? 

The odds against those with obesity aren’t good — not just in terms of health, but also in losing that weight gained.

If you want to understand how a galaxy works, visible light is just the start. “Our knowledge of stars and interstellar matter must be based primarily on the electromagnetic radiation […]

Don’t let their adorable faces fool you. They are killing machines.

In Munich last week, physicists and philosophers debate what makes for a scientific theory. Surprisingly, no one agrees. This piece was written by Sabine Hossenfelder. Sabine is a theoretical physicist specialized […]

A British academic’s remarks that “it’s inevitable that students will be allowed to use the Internet in exams” sparks a debate over the purpose of testing and the encouragement of learning.

Researchers show how the pace of aging varies from person to person, and how chronological age is irrelevant when treating diseases—it’s biological age we should be concentrating on.

Many organizations are reluctant to share important information across national borders. Astronaut Ron Garan, whose time in space helped him see the world in a whole new way, argues that these apprehensions fail to take into account the big picture: We’re all in this together.

Recent trends in the tech sector suggest the liberal arts degree is making a major comeback.

A UK hospital hopes the device will help patients manage their medication and track their symptoms.

Hayek viewed markets as distributed-intelligence systems that evolved to compute resource allocations. We can now update that view with ideas from computer science, biological signalling, and evolution.

Rupert Murdoch now owns 73 percent of National Geographic. What does this mean for the organization’s future? 

People like rewards. Researchers found people are more likely to participate in programs as well as change their behavior if there’s a little money coming their way.

Technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil says our brains, as complex as they are, are constrained by an upper limit of 300 million “pattern recognizers.” But our future, cloud-based “virtual brains” will have no such constraints.

If there is a quantum theory of gravity, is String Theory the only game in town? “I just think too many nice things have happened in string theory for it to […]

Marijuana might steal the headlines, but psychedelics are making headway in the American consciousness. DMT: The Spirit Molecule producer/director Mitch Schultz discusses this trend. 

I was misdiagnosed as bipolar largely as a result of the pervading gender bias in ADHD diagnosis, and that is indicative of a really big problem.

If you want a vivid barometer for the health status of worldwide marine ecosystems, look no further than the global seabird population. Unfortunately, new research estimates that the global seabird population has dropped 70 percent since the 1950s. That’s not good.

With self-driving cars as well as other new tech, Apple and Google maintain starkly different corporate values with regard to transparency.