It’s human nature to try to understand something new by comparing it to something we already know. We always interpret the present based on past experience. But when we make […]
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The special bond that often forms between people and both domesticated and wild animals maybe be, paradoxically, part of what makes us human, says Dave Munger.
The United States clearly is like other countries in some respects and unlike them in other respects. Exceptionalism thus isn’t of much use as an analytic construct.
Good metaphors are expansive; they compare something we don’t understand, to something we do. You see in a new light both the object of interest and the substrate you rest it on.
A constant news cycle of horrific bullying stories has some parents frequently intervening in their children’s social lives, but they may be dooming their kids in the process.
Ronald Reagan’s tax simplification measures in the 1980s are to blame for America’s high healthcare costs, says The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle. Especially the employer tax credit.
What happens when an industry concerned with the production of culture is beholden to a company with the sole goal of underselling competitors?
As anyone who has walked through an Ikea knows, stores are increasingly designed to draw your interest into the depths of an ecstatic shopping experience.
People’s predilections for promiscuity lie partially in their DNA, according to a new study. The researchers are careful to point out that transgressors are not off the hook.
Will a new clean energy industry—the production of wind turbines and solar cells—be able to replace the manufacturing jobs which have vacated the Rust Belt states?
CLARION is a computer program that performs the same way human subjects do in some impressive cognitive tests—not by mimicking what we think, but how we think.
A firestorm of speculation has been generated by a notice from NASA announcing a major discovery in the field of astrobiology, to be released today at 2 p.m. According to […]
Why should he be afraid of Julian Assange? (We might well assume he is not afraid of anyone.) But Mr. Putin’s classically Slavic cool when addressing what he termed “not […]
NASA issued a news advisory earlier this week announcing that timed with a paper embargoed for publication at the journal Science, that the agency would be holding a news conference […]
In the latest important initiative to emerge from the vibrant journalism ecosystem of university and not-for-profit partnerships, NYU’s School of Journalism and ProPublica have announced a joint project to bring […]
Ideas blog 3quarks Daily is seeking entries for its second annual political blog post contest. This year’s celebrity guest judge is distinguished American writer and editor Lewis Lapham. Last year, […]
Bipartisan cooperation isn’t something you see very often these days. But the Senate just passed The Food Safety Modernization Act by a vote of 73 to 25. 14 Republicans joined Democrats […]
Is lowering the gonorrhea rate worth risking an increase in HIV?
Some AIDS activists and epidemiologists believe that agressive testing and treatment might be enough to stave off the epidemic for good.
To say I’m busy this week is the understatement of the year – we have our finalist coming in to interview and that eats more time than you might imagine […]
Two years ago, the Swiss Federal commission for HIV/AIDS released a controversial statement indicating that people who are HIV-positive and on regular antiretroviral therapy do not transmit the disease through […]
The signs of the holiday season are upon us: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, twinkling lights, overdecorated malls, and now, finally, the annual conservative cri de Coeur—The War on Christmas! This […]
The world’s largest particle accelerator has produced a primordial state of matter akin to what existed at the dawn of the universe by smashing lead ions together creating small Big Bangs.
Comcast has become the quintessential broadband bully—an image that is part outside perception, part self-fulfilling prophecy. Here is a look at Comcast’s missteps along the way.
Despite the reality of fighting two foreign wars, it is hard to recall a time when foreign policy issues played so diminished a role in the American public’s thinking.
Fleeting feelings of heat—such as a warm drink or living in a tropical region—increase our willingness to trust strangers. New research on how bodily cues influence our beliefs.
The latest deadly school shooting, in Wisconsin, will result in agitation for the right to bear arms, not gun control. Go figure, says Alex Hannaford at The Guardian.
The former vice president said that corn ethanol was a “mistake.” He went further, saying that he supported ethanol production because the first presidential primary is in Iowa.
The WikiLeaks cables reveal a profound hatred for democracy on the part of our political leadership, says the world-renowned political dissident and linguist.
A frail mouse with failing organs was restored to vibrant youth when researchers re-activated production of the enzyme telomerase. Discovery News on the recently reported findings.