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There is a moral case for intervening in Syria.

I’ve got a roomful teachers everyday that help me do my job.

The feeling of certainty might be our default setting. We spend most of our mental life confirming our opinions, even when those opinions involve complex issues. We believe we understand […]

Historians believe that Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, making today his 449th birthday. He also died on this date in 1616. And so Shakespeare is the subject of today’s Mind Memes.

Today’s Medicaid could affect a small number of poor people within two years. Truly finding out how Medicaid might change their lives would take much longer. Moreover, Medicaid would change with time, too – and almost certainly for the better.

The story of discovery goes something like this: the inventor investigates what he knows (the properties of stapholycocci) and uncovers something else (penicillin), which changes the world. The scientific method […]

The study, which involved anonymous tracking of commuters in urban areas, is the first to use data from phones rather than from surveys or census records.

Launched via a 35-day crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, Matterform blasted through its initial fundraising goal of $81K in 1 week and has raised over $460K. With 4 days left to go, the company announced that it has outgrown its production facility and decided to add color scanning to what is the world’s 1st affordable home 3D scanner product (currently $599).

Last night Ben Goldacre appeared on BBC Newsnight (viewable from UK ip addesses or portals only, for the next 7 days) discussing the ongoing havoc caused by the MMR scare in […]

The question is not so much work-life balance, but is rest versus effort. 

Is it just us, or does it seem like everyone is turning into a conspiracy theorist these days?Aliens, spirit guides, the Illuminati – name some mysterious pocket of paranoia or […]

More than 75 percent of signers to an online petition live outside the US, and a number of those live in countries with active Internet censorship. They say Google Reader is their only pathway to uncensored material.

Not only does the image represent our growing understanding of the physical processes in the brain, it represents our willingness to accept neuroscientific explanations for just about anything. 

Thanks to a government lawsuit, a digital rights group has released what they claim is a partial list of organizations across the country that have applied for permission to fly drones.

Update 13/05/13 12PM: The Guardian have now corrected the article to place David Eagleman’s quote in appropriate context. 1.55PM: The paragraph has now been cut completely with the following note “A paragraph that […]

In a new study at the journal BMC Medical Ethics, my colleague Declan Fahy and I analyze the journalistic and critical reception of Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 best-selling book The Immortal Life of […]

A thin wire mesh on the surface of the skin could allow for the wireless transmission of health metrics, such as temperature and hydration, to central medical stations in hospitals.

In a charming essay on envy, A.S. Byatt observes that it “works inwardly; concealment is part of its nature.” Envy is a festering kind of sin. It’s also the Deadly […]

There were three great scientific horse races in the last century. The first two, the race to the moon and the race to split the atom have been widely reported. […]

Today we explore books on biology, recommended by our experts, editors and readers.

RIP Aaron Swartz, you will not be forgotten. 

An information security training firm has erected a 6-by-8 foot miniature that mimics an actual town right down to the power systems and the (virtual) inhabitants.

“I believe the children are our future.”  Never has a more brazen tautology graced the opening line of a Top 40 song. But when Whitney Houston popularized these words in […]

One of the things that we find to be such an important element of many of the rituals and practices that people do as part of their religious traditions is […]

Ever since our first digital search we’ve all spent increasing amounts of time on the web looking for the information we need. Since most of us are in a hurry, […]

A scientist has created a new form of electronic ID that gives sites only the minimum amount of information needed for authentication. 

Humans are an optimistic bunch. We overestimate desirable traits (humor), skills (driving) and our future states (well-being and health). Worse, we believe that we are immune to these better-than-average errors, […]

It’s the closest star system found in almost a century, and will hopefully serve as “an excellent hunting ground for planets” and a possible destination for a future manned mission.

Scott Barry Kaufman (@sbkaufman) is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology at NYU, co-founder of The Creativity Post, Scientific American blogger, and a friend. He is also the author of Ungifted: Intelligence […]

So one of my other major interests is this computational problem called genome assembly.  So the genome again is this large molecule, but the way we can sequence it are […]