“It is little wonder that boxing, more than any other sport, has functioned as a metaphor for life. Aside from the possibilities for self-fulfillment, boxing can also contribute to our moral lives.”
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Unhappy with his art, Richard Wright destroyed all of his paintings in the late 1980s and gave up painting altogether for two years. Returning to the art world from that […]
Your friends likely have more friends than you do. Please don’t take that personally. As the sociologist Scott L. Feld was first to point out, this is simply a mathematical […]
You may hate contemporary art, but it hates you even more, says filmmaker and provocateur John Waters. The point of art is to “wreck whatever came before it,” he believes. […]
Anti-masturbation crusader Christine O’Donnell beat establishment favorite Rep. Mike Castle last night in Deleware’s GOP senate primary, with a helping hand from the Tea Party Express. O’Donnell first rose to […]
Daily Show host Jon Stewart is the most trusted man in America. Or at least as Chris Smith writes in a cover story at this week’s New York magazine, in […]
Britain now faces a ‘Winter of Discontent’, which is what many commentators claim will happen each winter, taking their cue from the winter of 1979, when the country ground to […]
PopTech–an organization focused on promoting social innovation and the spread of problem-solving ideas–has announced its inaugural class of 20 Science Fellows. The fellows are early to mid-career leaders in fields […]
A quick programming note: I’ll be off on the Geosciences Fall Field Trip – this year down to the Smokies of southern Tennessee/western North Carolina/northern Georgia – so there won’t […]
“The foods you eat often affect how your neurons behave and, subsequently, how you think and feel. From your brain’s perspective, food is a drug.” This is your brain on food.
MIT historian John Dower examines the history of American militarism through its justifications for military expenditure, namely that other cultures lack the capacity for Western logic.
“Collaboration yields so much of what is novel, useful, and beautiful that it’s natural to try to understand it. Yet looking at achievement through relationships is a new, and even radical, idea.”
“How do you get your hands on power? And how do you keep hold of it once you’ve got it?” The Economist says that management gurus are surprisingly disappointing on this subject.
“Many vital crops capture the sun’s energy in a surprisingly inefficient way. A borrowed trick or two could make them far more productive.” The New Scientist on improving photosynthesis.
“Some robots can already sustain damage and reconfigure themselves, like how our bones heal after we break them. Now others can deceive other intelligent machines and even humans.”
“Women who go through early menopause and cannot have children were offered new hope today after scientists found a way of getting ovaries working again.”
“Can we, and should we, do without foreign correspondents?” What is the difference between a local blogger and a ‘parachute journalist’? Newspaper economics may provide the answer.
The mysterious Jonathan Franzen is unraveled in an imagined conversation between himself, Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf. The author’s new book ‘Freedom’ is the talk of the town.
While we consider the ability to ignore distraction crucial to a productive life, recent research shows that creativity is aided by the intervention of seemingly irrelevant occurrences.
The past few years have yielded a promising array of designs inspired by biomimicry, radically diverse in domain and application but unified by a common tangent of brilliant simplicity and […]
What’s going on chemically in your brain as you feel the pierce of cupid’s arrow? Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher explains the cocktail of neurotransmitters that cause you to fall in (and out of) love.
“But ultimately, the world of high finance, [Stone] said, is just a backdrop for a film ‘about trust, love, greed betrayal.’” This is from Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Dealbook column in […]
Psychiatrist Norman Doidge, author of “The Brain That Changes Itself,” discusses how neuroplasticity can be hijacked by an addition to pornography.
We’ve had a lot of success with the Q&A series here on Eruptions, so why not keep it up. Earlier in the summer, I briefly mentioned an article that was picked […]
Craigslist Canada is under pressure from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to take down the erotic section of their Web site following a decision by the U.S. site to remove […]
American politicians and lawmakers are deeply conflicted about human enhancement technologies (medical interventions that extend the capabilities of the human body). Stem cell research doesn’t qualify as enhancement; rather it is […]
Almost two years ago global brewing powerhouse InBev bought U.S.-based Anheuser-Busch for a staggering $52 billion, creating AB InBev, which now controls about a quarter of the world’s beer market. […]
My mailbox is overflowing with questions from viewers who have watched “Sci Fi Science.” It would take too long to answer all of them, but let me answer a few […]
Batwoman is gay. Originally introduced as part of DC Comics’ 52 series as part of a push to introduce more minority superheroes, the new Batwoman was fleshed out by Greg […]
Spanning over 69 years, and taking him from vaudeville theater to feature films to Broadway to television series, Joel Grey has had a storied career as an actor and entertainer. […]