All Articles

When the TSA dramatically upped the level of intimacy for airport security scans this month, public outrage ensued, ranging from tongue-in-cheek mashups to grassroots activism. Now, designers are taking their stab […]

How can an entire universe come out of nothing? This would seem to violate the conservation of matter and energy, but Michio Kaku explains the answer.

In an recent Big Think essay, fellow blogger David Berreby argued that the U.S. deficit is largely a product of our increasingly high expectations about the quality of our health […]

Earlier today, I posted about the opportunity that rising gas prices and Holiday travel affords to engage Americans on energy choices and policies.  The problem, as I wrote, is that […]

This then is the sequence of events that has deeply alarmed the international community, fearful as it now is that full scale war could break out at anytime across the […]

The Chinese may not talk about sex, but they certainly do it. In fact, they probably do it just as much as the rest of us. What is obvious though […]

This holiday weekend, many in the science community are focused on the launch of “rapid response” coordination to provide faster, more accurate details about climate science to journalists and decision-makers.  […]

A quick update on the ongoing explosions at Bulusan in the Philippines. The volcano is still in a state of unrest, with frequent small explosions producing minor ash falls around […]

The first time I was subjected to a full body pat down was 25 years ago, in Detroit, when I went home with a college buddy. We were standing in […]

A new way to create and interpret real-time brain scans could help addicts consciously control their cravings by making them aware of how their brain is functioning.

Australian researchers have found that women who tilt their faces forward are seen as more attractive, while men are considered better-looking when they tilt their heads backward.

We must move beyond cartoonish depictions of villainous, lustful men victimizing vulnerable women, says one woman who is happy she became a professional sex worker.

News that the Dalai Lama may retire in the next year is to be welcomed by all those sick of flattery and new age-type nonsense. The New Statesman goes on a diatribe.

Richard Thaler of the U of Chicago catalogs wrong scientific beliefs that were held for long periods of time, the flat earth and geocentric world among them.

Two years after the onset of the financial crisis, the stock market is recovering and Wall Street’s moneyed elite are spending again, sometimes with a familiar swagger.

A single pill could reduce your risk of HIV infection dramatically, but are you willing to spend $12,000 a year and risk headaches and nausea just to stay HIV-negative?

Is Hawking right to claim that reality is dependent on the model used to describe it, that models generated by biochemical processes in our brains constitute “reality”?

Our national myth of the heroic entrepreneur is dangerous, says Esther Dyson. Encouraging everyone to strike out on their own robs industry of effective middle management.

Among the scientific concepts involved in cooking a turkey, controlling moisture is perhaps the biggest challenge, said John Marcy, a poultry-processing specialist at the U of Arkansas.

Will Saletan of Slate has made a career of suggesting ways that women can compromise their bodily autonomy for the greater good. So, maybe I should take his latest column […]

Traumatic brain injury increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease—a problem that could affect thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Technology already allows for primitive versions of superhuman abilities. One day we might also have contact lenses that allow us to surf the Internet and see infrared radiation.

The scholar and performer gives the new movie “Burlesque” two thumbs down for claiming to portray “original” burlesque while ignoring the art form’s history and vocabulary.  

Well, yesterday I needed a day off – Thanksgiving Break had just begun here and my brain was not ready for any productivity, so now I have a little catching […]

Aside from the almost comically anatomically incorrect shark, the aspect of John Singleton Copley’s 1778 painting Watson and the Sharkthat most catches my eye is the black seaman standing in […]

At birth, children’s brains are prepared to learn from social agents—other members in a group. New research suggests this “social brain” helps a person learn over a lifetime.

Tough problems often demand radical solutions. We should give serious consideration to providing free college and trade school education to all, says Dr. C. Alonzo Peters.

Authenticity is an imprecise, continual assessment, prone to personal bias and human error—not exactly something to build a whole musical movement upon.

The humanities will continue, even if the discussion is between a carbon based intelligence and a silicon or virtual one. Curtis Carbonell says science doesn’t put the humanities at risk.

In the next phase of the world economic crisis, the euro will either consolidate or collapse. And with it, Europe faces the looming prospect of social unrest, says the New Statesman.