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The infamous English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge “was also a metacognitive theorist far ahead of his time,” writes David Schneider.

Did we miss a utopia or avoid a disaster?

“How could you conceivably cut yourself off from other men and from the life they bring you in such abundance? In the name of what uncaring, ivory-tower kind of attitude?” […]

Heat death is a deceptive name. As Michio Kaku explains, entropy doesn’t necessarily refer to dramatic destruction; it’s more about how stuff just tends to fall apart.

Part 1 of the Q&A from Dr. Boris Behncke of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania.

In 1504 no less a historic name than Niccolo Machiavelli, author of The Prince, brought together the two greatest artists of the time to decorate the walls of the Great […]

“My work is just trying to make sense of the disorienting and overloaded world that we inhabit,” says DJ Spooky. “We’re bombarded with sound at every level.” In his Big […]

Our Policy Forum article at Science has generated a monster blog discussion, one that is almost too much to keep up with. I continue to try to keep a summary […]

The Impressionists now stand as the ultimate in artistic comfort food for the mainstream public. The billowy softness of their images graces office walls in framed reproductions and countless calendars. […]

Walking through the Late Renoirexhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art recently, I couldn’t help but be struck by the power of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s paintings of his three sons—Pierre, Jean, […]

Since time immemorial people have considered two ways to be immortal: through one’s progeny or by displaying spectacular achievement in the sciences, arts or politics. Now there’s another way: Tweeting. […]

Imagine it’s 1178 BC and you’re in the middle of writing one of the most essential works in the western canon, when all of the sudden an intense eclipse takes […]

“When I tell people I would like to paint them, I already have their portrait in mind,” German artist Otto Dix once said. “I don’t paint people who don’t interest […]

A doctor who touched off a worldwide panic over an alleged link between the MMR vaccine and autism has been barred from practicing medicine over unethical research practices. Britain’s General […]

In the 20th century, the greatest threats to civilization arose out of ecstatic emotions, especially when they united thousands of people. The last century’s true believers rallied, wept and sang […]

David Brooks’s New York Times column today—on humility in leadership—plays an elegant, if not uncommon, trick via the inversion of a simple pronoun. Once he starts to describe the “humble […]

The Human Body Shop may be just around the corner: In 50 years, the advancing technologies of medicine and tissue engineering could change everything.

We tend to think of work done on assignment as being somehow cheaper than work springing entirely from the mind of the artist. Art on demand never strikes us as […]

My favorite cigar shop is closing today. I got an email on Friday from the owner. “Closing down sale, cash only sale, all must go.” I’ve lived through the demise […]

The distances separating the stars are so vast that it would take a very advanced civilization—perhaps thousands or even millions of years more advanced than ours—to bridge those distances. In […]

Today marks the first day of our series on the future of mobility, with interviews with Beyond the Edge founder Richard Schaden; former mayor of Bogota Enrique Penalosa; and Terreform […]

This spring in the sophomore-level course I teach on “Communication and Society,” we spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter […]

If you want to rile up a biologist and have no pointed stick handy, try this: Tell her that chemistry or physics are “harder,” more fundamentally “sciencey” sciences than hers. […]

This fall in the sophomore-level course I teach on “Communication and Society,” we spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter […]

How do you get people in a democratic society to change their way of life? The theme has come up a lot at gatherings of climate scientists and environmentalists I’ve […]

A Blueprint for Reform, The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the next big idea for the nation’s school systems that the Obama Administration wants Congress to implement, […]

Who are these people in the media who tell us what is important — who decide what the narrative is for the rest of our national tribe? Do they really […]

History may look more fondly upon him than he’s given credit for today. The bailout and the response to the crisis was executed better than many imagined, says Andrew Ross […]

There is an irony, although it is hardly surprising, that a very English Revolutionary and devout Parliamentarian, John Hampden, and the family name of “Hampden,” is better remembered in the […]

Writing in the New York Times, Bono makes his case for anti-piracy legislation. For the first time in the Financial Times’ history, online and print subscribers now contribute more revenue […]