A team of British computer scientists is working to create the best computer simulation of the human brain yet. When finished, the machine will model the behavior of one billion neurons.
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An award from the John Templeton Foundation will seek to answer important scientific questions about immortality, such as how experiences of the afterlife vary across cultures.
As I’m writing this post, NASA’s latest Mars mission – the Mars Science Laboratory, also known as Curiosity – is just hours away from its destination. By the time you […]
When I go to my favorite political websites these days I have to see “Chick Fil A” as one of the hot topics. The CEO’s against same-sex marriage, but he’s […]
Telephone polls have been in their dying throes for years. At about 12% response rates, they shouldn’t even work now. But they do, so far. That said, pollsters expect them […]
On Friday afternoon, I got a call on my cell phone from an 800 number I didn’t recognize. I let it go to voicemail, and I’m glad I did, because […]
A genome passed down to a child by the mother may contribute to a longer life span in women versus their male counterparts.
Data from a 32 year study conducted in New Zealand examined the social academic and relationship development of participants from childhood to adulthood.
Teen pregnancy has gone down 40 percent since 1990. Researchers believe free access to IUDs will help to lower the percentage even more.
Doctors say that mild cases of depression and anxiety should be taken just as serious as the more severe cases of depression and anxiety.
New discovery in the HIV protein within its early stages of infection give doctors hope in finding an effective vaccine to ward off the virus.
There’s a lot of talk about transparency these days. In the internet age we are letting it all hang out—whatever it is—for better and for worse. And it looks like […]
Learning guru John Seely Brown is not being even slightly ironic when he says that he’d hire an expert player of World of Warcraft (the massive multiplayer online fantasy videogame) over an MBA from Harvard.
There was a time when violence and hierarchy determined who was sleeping with who, but that was before women collectively decided that security was preferable to fertility.
As urban populations continue to grow, we increasingly lead our anonymous lives in public. That results in people employing some interesting strategies to avoid interacting with strangers.
The passing of America’s man of letters, quintessential as he was combative, has left the nation morally emptier. He once recommended Americans read two books above all others.
First lady Michele Obama has written a new gardening book. Called “American Grown,” the book extols the virtues of sustainable local agriculture, school gardens and childhood nutrition.
NASA engineer Adam Steltzner is driving his team to attempt the seemingly impossible.
If you want to adopt a new lifestyle that pays big returns, work less. Our idea that dogged labor produces the best results is relatively new and at odds with our knowledge of human performance.
If the Olympics are all about bringing the world together in one place to play, then William Shakespeare could be credited with holding the first London Olympics all the way […]
In some ways, it’s quite practical.
Last month, AlterNet published a column by James Rohrer, a history professor and self-identified progressive religious believer who had some unkind words for the New Atheists. I’d like to take […]
Writer Alain De Botton believes that status anxiety is more pernicious and destructive than most of us can imagine, and recommends getting out of the status-as-self-worth game altogether.
“Are You Married?” is supposed to be a YES/NO question, and not a short essay format. Still, in the exam blue book of life, some might prefer to give a […]
Sex symbol. Lethal weapon. Superstar. Chuck Norris dominator. Whatever epic descriptions we use to remember Bruce Lee, it’s hard to imagine this legendary martial artist once struggled in his career. […]
For a long time people thought that the self was unified and eternal. It’s easy to see why.
Women want to have the career, husband and the kids, but to have it all is very difficult—and it isn’t because women are incapable of doing it all.
We tend to think of the brain as a giant lump of gray matter, as a marvelously complex structure that controls consciousness and intelligence. But what if the human brain is […]
When I heard the news of Jonah Lehrer’s fabrications on Monday — indiscretions that led to an apology and his resignation from the New Yorker on Tuesday — my jaw fell. Like […]
New wearable devices like Google’s Project Glass and forthcoming smart watches will open community businesses by advertising directly to people who already like their products.