A huge research project about DNA (ENCODE) has provoked more scientific controversy over just what proportion of that huge molecule plays an active role in making us us. When […]
All Articles
Critics both left and right (such as Timothy Noah) are pretty down on the president’s acceptance speech. The consensus is that Obama’s speech was easily the weakest of the convention’s […]
Researchers now believe that tucking a problem at the back of your mind is not necessarily the best way to find novel solutions to old problems. Instead, do something boring, they suggest.
Some of the world’s top professional writers swear by software that makes the Internet inaccessible while they write. Is Internet access keeping you from more create enterprise?
A British psychology professor is working with European and American foundations to inspire young people toward a career, and lifestyle, in the physical and human sciences.
I’m home again after my swing through the U.K., and I’ve finally had time to go through all the pictures I took. Here are a few of the best from […]
A team of Chinese researchers have found that an organic chemical in green tea aids in the generation of brain cells, hedging against age-related neurological diseases and improving brain function.
I enjoy reading George Will for a variety of reasons but I don’t often agree with him. He commented on “This Week” that the genesis of the ballyhooed war on […]
Scientists have discovered that animal organisms can support the existence of photosynthetic chloroplasts, so could the human body one day make its energy from the sun?
This is part 3 of my review of Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of Our Nature”. Read Part 1 here and part 2 here. In my previous post, I discussed […]
A German scientist claims to have found a gene that plays a role in Internet addiction, allegedly establishing that Internet overuse is more than simply a bad habit.
The “endowment effect” explains our irrational tendency to overvalue something just because we own it.
Researchers have used the IBM supercomputer Blue Gene to better understand how new medicines function on the quantum level, speeding trial times and improving research.
The technological advance of biomedical sensors will soon move beyond counting calories and enter a stage where every conceivable piece of private data is shared between groups.
I’m happy to report that my post on the moral significance of sex workers and people with disabilities has made it into the nominees for the 3 Quarks Daily Philosophy […]
Despite assumptions that organic food is more nutritional and a more sustainable way of farming, recent studies cast doubt on whether organic is the best solution in every case.
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame (surprise, surprise) reveal that tailgating is not just a huge excuse to get drunk, but an important community-building exercise that brings value to a university.
Writer Tony Naylor comments on the increased use of technology in UK restaurants, focusing on wine lists that come to the table on an iPad.
A Cleveland State University study suggests that speaking up during sex leads to more satisfaction with your sexual life…but some still prefer nonverbal cues.
According to a new study, fathers who co-sleep with their kids experience lower levels of testosterone. The findings imply that the ability to nurture children has a deeper biological basis than previously suspected.
Today’s Power Woman is manifested in popular culture as a positive, gutsy role model, breaking new ground and inspiring conversation and debate about women’s role in society.
A study done by Vonage shows that its users aren’t leaving or retrieving voicemails as often as they used to, leading some to wonder what this means for the future of voice message technology.
What if advertising could be used for things that we really do need? Alain de Botton imagines what a world would look like if the tools of advertising could be used to nudge us to be the best of ourselves.
Was Shakespeare gay? Stephen Greenblatt says that Shakespeare inhabited a world in which “it is much more possible to express homosexual passion and enact that passion without triggering a social crisis.”
There’s an indelible story in Jim Collins’ Good to Great about Admiral Jim Stockdale, a war hero who survived torture as a POW in Vietnam. From Collins’ book: “I never […]
In Part I, I introduced the idea that we should employ the principle of charity when engaging with ideas (particularly online) – especially from new and unknown interlocutors. Many problems […]
What’s the Big Idea? As the K-12 school year starts up again in full force, it’s worth asking: are American public schools really failing? According to the measure set by […]
The Democrats have a lot to cheer about after a terrific convention in Charlotte. God, however, is shaking her head. On Wednesday, Mitt Romney lambasted the Democrats for removing a […]
Thanks to a huge Kickstarter response, the Oculus Rift is ready to bring virtual reality technology back into gaming, motion sickness and all.
A recently-released line of state-of-the-art mainframes proves that, all these years later, IBM is still going strong in the Internet age.