Canada’s University of Waterloo claims to have the world’s largest and most complex brain simulator. Called Spaun, it can model eight distinctive functions of the human brain.
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A new three-dimensional chip that emits light at different depths in the brain’s tissue could help scientists better understand distinct thought patterns and the sources of neurological disease.
The notion that men are only interested in one thing is a false one, says professor Andrew Smiler. He has compiled statistics suggesting that our culture’s view of the young male is all wrong.
The rule of reciprocation is deeply rooted in our behavior such that we return the favor even when we don’t want to. The behavior has helped our species survive by creating community.
Hemant Mehta has just published a new book, The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide. It’s about the growing and increasingly important demographic of atheist high schoolers – their trials and travails, […]
For a study I am working on this semester while on sabbatical at Harvard University, I wanted to try to estimate book publishing trends over time related to climate change, […]
In September of 1965, Life magazine ran a piece on medicine’s “astonishing” and “audacious experiments” that might even promise a “kind of immortality.” The first article dealt with reproduction. The […]
A new handheld medical device that non-invasively measures your vital signs could replace visits to the doctor with digital diagnoses. The machine is modeled on Star Trek’s tricorder.
Doctors and medical professionals critical of patents on individual human genes have won their day before the Supreme Court, arguing that monopolies on scientific research are harmful.
Given a choice between gifting a smaller reward now and waiting to gift a larger reward later, it’s more likely that you’ll forego rationality and choose immediate gratification if the beneficiary is related to you.
Poetry critic and Harvard professor Helen Vendler has published a refreshing article in Harvard magazine, in which she encourages the school to welcome mediocre students who also happen to be great writers. […]
Researchers have received a grant to pursue the use of electrospinning to create a dissolvable material that, when inserted into the body, will deliver drugs either immediately or over a period of days.
By Zane Friedkin (guest blogger) The drone war being waged by the Obama administration in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia has elicited more media attention than is typical of […]
University of Iowa researchers studied years’ worth of posts on an online health network and came up with a way to rank members based on their contribution to others’ emotional health.
I’m convinced that human beings are far less rational, coherent, consistent and aware in their daily decisions than they are supposed to be. This means we’re out of synch with […]
A few weeks ago I wrote a piece about security in Sanaa and my own sense of unease during my last trip to Yemen. That piece drew several comments both […]
Flexible displays have been here for a while, but the other components of a device need to be flexible as well. 2013 may very well see their debut.
The author of a study that examined recruiter behavior at elite firms says many choose potential employees in the same way they’d choose friends or even romantic partners.
“A poem should not mean/ but be,” Archibald MacLeish declared in his poem “Ars Poetica.” We too-often look to the arts to explain life itself as if they function as […]
The 2008 elections, in which pro-gay-marriage campaigners won a sweep at the ballot box, is a clear sign that the tide of society is shifting in favor of equality. We’ve […]
Elementary health metrics such as a mother’s body weight and whether she smokes have helped researchers build a formula that predicts childhood obesity rates with 80 percent success.
Despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary, the flu shot makes it less likely that you will contract the flu. Studies show that we have a particularly strong mental reaction to getting a flu vaccine.
A new meta-study out of Harvard suggests that salt and chemical preservatives in meats like bacon, salami and hot dogs are worse for your health than the same amount of red meat.
“My daughter and I just finished reading Life of Pi together,” President Obama wrote to the novelist Yann Marteltwo years ago. “It is a lovely book,” the President continued, “an elegant proof of […]
The Democrats, at their convention, stood so stridently for the rights of the liberated single woman that they offered the Republicans the opportunity to counter with a defense of the […]
Evolution is by definition a difficult concept to grasp since you can’t observe it happening in front of you. Nevertheless, some unlikely converts are coming over to Bill Nye’s point of view.
The only thing needed for the Wiki Weapon project to go forward is a federal firearms license.
This seems to be a week of sex-focused controversy. But then sex tends to have that effect, even when it’s just our own species. Nelson Jones wrote about a German […]
Medical tech startup Scanadu has met its goal of having a prototype device ready by the end of this year. It works by reading vital signs from the user’s temple.
Will you be better off this year than your were in the past? To the futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil, the answer is a resounding yes.