While we know superstitious laws are silly, we may be better off obeying them. Doing so will save us the guilt of having gone against conventional wisdom if misfortune should come our way.
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In an attempt to encourage sympathy across the battle lines of ethnic conflicts, neuroscientists are working with the Pentagon to better understand how violence works in the brain.
If President Obama is re-elected in the Fall, he is likely to face a Congress even more polarized than today, with the ideological divide greater than at anytime since before […]
Being trained by evolution to avoid confronting your own mortality, your brain may register a feeling of terror to read news articles about death. We have a strong aversion to our fragility.
Harvard researcher Elizabeth Spelke studies the minds of babies to better understand how we think and behave as adults. She believes language is the key to our creative processes.
Scientific research suggests that empathy works more strongly on the non-religious to motivate generous behavior. Religious people are guided more by doctrine and community.
The idea that social classes are intentional constructions built and reinforced for strategic purposes is appealing because no other idea of social class makes much sense to me.
Scientists have determined that whether or not you like the smell of pork, a large component of how it tastes, is determined by a gene in your DNA. There is a genetic link to the food we like.
Two previously blind British patients have had partial vision restored by a microchip implanted behind their retinas, indicating to the brain that the eye is receiving light.
I was getting ready to tape a show yesterday with Sean Yoes, host of WEAA’s Afro First Edition political show, when I first heard about the “Life of Julia” ad […]
Forget marathons, people. The first 20 minutes of exercise confer all its essential health benefits. Fitness researcher Gretchen Reynolds says you can do anything to get your body moving.
Using nanotechnology, medical researchers have successfully cloaked anti-cancer drugs so they do not affect the body’s healthy cells. Some patients’ tumors have shrunk greatly during treatment.
By creating video games that allow non-professionals to diagnosis diseases like malaria, health professionals can reliably turn to the public to help them save time—and lives.
The fact that contraception is back on the national agenda astounds sex therapist Marty Klein. Yet the struggle for humane sex laws is also about our struggle for democracy.
Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught political philosophy since 1980. His recent book, Justice: What’s […]
Writers invest their very lives in their work, so who should they turn to when a manuscript is finished? Increasingly, literary agents are taking the place of publishing house editors.
Improv isn’t about wisecracks and one-liners. It’s about creating a structure where characters and narratives are quickly created, developed, sometimes forgotten and other times resolved.
What is the Big Idea? The United States is ready for terrorist attacks and natural disasters, according to a new report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). But where […]
We all have something about the world we want to see changed in our lifetimes. Here’s how you can go about doing it, starting today.
Emer O’Toole has some advice for preparing women for the summer months. The short story writer sprung into (in)action when she saw how ingrained many gender roles had become.
If I were asked, “do you believe that human beings evolved millions of years ago from ancestors shared in common with gorillas and chimpanzees?” I would answer emphatically and unequivocally: […]
This is just stunning. In fact, it’s hard to believe it’s true. But the Heartland Institute, a fiercely conservative and libertarian think tank that champions denial of climate change, […]
What’s the Big Idea? Long-time political activist and self-proclaimed “party crasher”Richard Tafel believes that American democracy is under threat. The environmental, economic, healthcare, and political systems we’ve relied on for decades are […]
TED meetings, Aspen Institutes, SXSW, and Sundance are all billed as “thought-leader gatherings” where “rock stars” emerge from their “silos” to learn about “disruptive” ideas that have been carefully “curated,” […]
A team of astronomers at Johns Hopkins University recently used space and ground-based telescopes to capture the death of a star that was “shredded” by the gravity of a supermassive black […]
A South African model, Jessica Leandra, took to Twitter recently, expressing her anger at being accosted by a man in a store. She said: “Just, well took on a an […]
We are rapidly turning into a nation of drone enthusiasts. According to a recent Freedom of Information Act request from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), there are now 63 drone […]
While literature has been criticized as a corrupting influence at different points in history, recent research suggests that works of fiction draw out the empathy in us, encouraging justice.
Perhaps the world’s most modern instrument, engineers and DJs behind the Reactable are sharing their tracks’ layers to make remixing free and easy to anyone who wants to try.
This past week, Restaurant Magazine, a British F&B trade publication, unveiled its latest list of the world’s best restaurants. This annual ranking–properly known as the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best […]