An Amnesty International reports says that while opposition to the death penalty has gained much global support, powerful countries like the U.S. and China continue to execute convicts.
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As the world rallies behind the Libyan population, it is hard to understand why the Ivory Coast—where civil war is brewing—is just a footnote in international news and on the diplomatic agenda.
An E.U. bailout of Portugal now seems inevitable. But at some point, E.U. taxpayers are likely to tire of bailing out nations like Portugal, which seem unwilling to curb their spendthrift ways.
By day, Aleksei N. Navalny is a lawyer in Moscow. By night, he runs a website that exposes corruption in the Russian energy sector. A friend of the people, he is making government enemies.
Analysts in the U.S. and Europe did not expect revolutions in the Arab world, and those who did, did not expect them to come from such unlikely actors or be this widespread and peaceful.
Three of the world’s great armies have suddenly conspired to support a group of people in the coastal cities of Libya, known, vaguely, as “the rebels”. But what do we really know about them?
Where is Twin Peaks? The fictional town at the centre of the eponymous TV series isn’t too hard to pinpoint. But things aren’t so clear cut as they seem.
The reactor situation in Japan suffered yet another setback yesterday, with water levels in Unit 2 registering 10 million times normal levels.
A deadly Egyptian cobra is AWOL from the Bronx Zoo. Anybody got a spare mongoose? [Photo credit: Pandiyan, Creative Commons.]
I don’t know if this is such an appropriate post for Sunday morning. A study from Northwestern shows that people who regularly attend religious services are 50% more likely to become […]
This study just out in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin claims to have found a general societal prejudice against women who breast-feed. Reports about the work concurred. But I think […]
It has been a few weeks since the new activity at Kilauea along the Kamoamoa Fissure stopped, but little else started back up along the volcano’s east rift. The Kamoamoa […]
Orr’s piece in the New York Times Book Reviewon an O magazine photo shoot with young poets is a perfect example of how to write about something you know a […]
People who experience the “impostor phenomenon” believe their successes are undeserved—and they live in constant fear of being unmasked despite consistently good performance.
Two psychology researchers at Wilfrid Laurier University say they have come up with a simple test that reveals whether two friends will have a tempestuous relatoinship or not.
If you think you determine the course of your life, you’re more likely to work harder toward your goals. If you think you don’t, you’re likelier to behave in ways that fulfill that prophesy.
Scientists report in a new study that a male mouse’s desire to mate with either a male or a female is determined by the brain chemical serotonin, which regulates other sexual behaviors.
Researchers studying the most ancient yet least understood of the five senses—smell—have discovered a previously unknown step in how odors are detected and processed by the brain.
With the increasing cost of health care and the constant threat of litigation, doctors and hospitals are under enormous pressure to keep patients and their families happy.
Whether right or left-handed, people associate “good” with their dominant side. But if that displeases you, it can be changed. Our minds are perhaps more easily influenced than we think.
Empathy is one of our most powerful emotions yet society has all but ignored it. Autism expert Professor Simon Baron-Cohen reveals the science behind “the world’s most valuable resource”.
Researchers are finding strong evidence that parts of the brain are involved in gaining control over smoking and nicotine addiction, and that different areas may be important for each individual.
Neuroscientists at M.I.T.’s Picower Institute of Learning and Memory have uncovered why relatively minor details of an episode are sometimes inexplicably linked to long-term memories.
The three most feared words in the lexicon of a nuclear scientist is “breach of containment,” i.e. an uncontrolled release of radiation into the environment. It appears that we may […]
Commentators and advocates tend to argue that the Europe Union has taken the lead in climate policy in reaction to strong public demand across member states. Yet the reality, argues […]
So, yes, I watch American Idol–not obsessively or religiously, but whenever I can. It’s a conservative show. It promotes a meritocracy based on singing excellence, and that excellence is not […]
A couple of days ago, I wrote about an op-ed William Cronon wrote in The New York Times arguing that by attempting to strip public unions of their bargaining rights, […]
The F.D.A. has recently approved the drug Yervoy, which is the first treatment shown to extend the lives of late-stage melanoma patients. There are indications it may even cure some.
Although women go under the knife in the name of beauty in larger numbers, a new report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons shows an increase in operations among men in 2010.
People with Tourettes struggle with uncontrollable physical tics and verbal outbursts, but a new study reveals that they also have highly developed cognitive control over their reactions.