Is it just us, or does it seem like everyone is turning into a conspiracy theorist these days?Aliens, spirit guides, the Illuminati – name some mysterious pocket of paranoia or […]
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A new book on the human proclivity to compete called Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing examines factors that influence our tendency to try and outdo our friends and colleagues.
Deep mathematical patterns that are commonly found in nature may lie behind what we experience as beauty, which may explain why we have trouble putting beauty into words.
Conducted by Carnegie Mellon University, a new scientific study has found that people make better decisions about buying new cars after they have been distracted by an unrelated task.
Once thought to be determined by the biology of the ear, music appreciation is more a matter of training, say researchers. Each musical genre plays by its own set of internal rules.
A team of German and Swiss researchers have created a new tool that helps control when neurons in the brain fire, improving on a groundbreaking procedure called optogenetics.
An imaginary round table discussion with Anthony Robbins and Gautama the Buddha on being the best we can be. I was musing upon an interesting idea: What would it be […]
One of our country’s most able and prolific bloggers, Walter Russell Mead, reports that the idea of being able to sit for the bar after just two years of law […]
Looking for ways to regrow lost or damaged limbs in humans, scientists are taking cues from the animal world where several species are known to effectively regenerate certain body parts.
By switching off specific neurons in the brains of mice, neuroscientists have learned how to control the protein that is responsible for how animals experience the sensation of cold.
A restaurant near the city of Sapporo has implemented a new policy of charging customers who do not eat all their dinner, highlighting the need to cultivate a positive relationship with food.
While the device does not allow the blind to see in a conventional sense, contrast between light and dark allows them to identify the outlines and boundaries of essential everyday objects.
By modifying a genetic toggle switch, synthetic biologists at MIT have found a way to perform logic functions inside of living cells. The technique could be used to regulate drug production.
The facts aren’t in, but here’s what we know: The internationally renowned athlete, Oscar Pistorius, was part of a violent shooting at his home, resulting in the death of his […]
A trade guild reports that top-end butcher shops are reporting sales increases of up to 30 percent as customers continue to steer clear of processed meals containing meat.
I’ve never seen an albatross but I’m told the regal bird can glide for hundreds of miles without flapping his wings. On land, however, the large wings drag like “drifting […]
We might like to think that we have completely original minds, but we are easily influenced by others and have an “unknowingness” of how our “human mind meld” works.
While you’re at it, let your boss know about a recent study that suggests that the amount of willpower exerted in order to avoid using the Internet for personal use could contribute to a decrease in productivity.
We know very little for certain about how TV or iphones affect people at any age, for better or worse. But there’s reason to be skeptical about new products designed to make us and our children smarter.
For help in this endeavor they’re turning to, among others, Charles Darwin, a University of California-Berkeley researcher, and an illustrator at Pixar.
The fear of death. That’s how a friend of mine who works in television described the essential ingredient of hit reality shows like Ice Road Truckers. That’s why people watch. […]
Thanks to a government lawsuit, a digital rights group has released what they claim is a partial list of organizations across the country that have applied for permission to fly drones.
More than 1.7 million were sold last year alone, revealing an aging culture’s devotion to tradition and a technological lag behind other developed countries.
Psychological Science in the Public Interest evaluated ten techniques for improving learning, ranging from mnemonics to highlighting and came to some surprising conclusions.
Rather than admiring from afar the protesters in India, and congratulating the national leaders who have begun to address sexual violence in the U.S. military, we need to confront the broader problem of misogyny in American legal culture.
If any painting could be labeled “not safe for work,” it’s Gustave Courbet’s 1866 L’Origine du monde (in English, The Origin of the World; and, once again, NSFW). Banned even […]
On February 15th, the people of planet Earth will receive a wake-up call from our Solar System. Asteroid 2012 DA14, discovered just 1 year ago, will narrowly miss hitting the […]
Imagine that the president of the United States could legally order the preemptive killing of any American citizen he deemed a potential threat to the country. A Justice Department white […]
There is a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt in today’s world. North Korea might hit us with nukes. The stock market might crash at any moment. The U.S. government […]
Ludwig van Beethoven is credited with saying, “Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” And while some may argue the point, there’s certainly been a good bit […]