All Articles

Once they’re gone, mammalian arms and legs can’t ever be restored. But if you cut off a salamander’s leg it will reappear in just a few weeks. The enigma of amphibian organ regeneration has long puzzled scientists. Now, a new wave of scientists hopes to put it to use.

In my experience it’s easier to change a home design than to change your heart, or your feelings. Take the case of “staying together for the children,” a familiar marital […]

How important is motivation in education? As the nation’s top universities begin to offer free online courses, will developers need to make them more like video games to retain students?

From challenges over WikiLeaks to Anonymous, Twitter has established a record of standing up for its users’ rights. Now the sites is facing new censorship efforts from Homeland Security.

Like the MP3 or ACC format used in music, a recipe needs to become a standardized digital good, one that can be bought, sold, shared, edited and annotated, says foody and techi Richard Fitchard.

If our digital devices were people, we would probably describe them as high maintenance and wonder quietly to ourselves if it was time to break up with them, says director at Intel Labs Genevieve Bell.

One of the most prominent scientists to express doubts about climate change scenarios in the future is the physicist Freeman Dyson, who responds to critics in two videos on Big Think.   

The America I live in is not 90% white. The America I live in does not have more hogs than people. The American I live in does not have 60% […]

Does it ever seem that you enjoy the world through your smartphone these days? Documenting every event can be bad for your mind and always being connected stunts creative solutions.

2012 started with off with a $5 million funding round for Coursekit, a New York based startup founded by Joe Cohen, Dan Getelman, and Jim Grandpre. The three University of […]

2012 started with off with a $5 million funding round for Coursekit, a New York based startup founded by Joe Cohen, Dan Getelman, and Jim Grandpre. The three University of […]

If you’re like most people, you’ve already broken your New Year’s resolutions. No worries. Here’s a different promise to yourself that should be easier, more enjoyable, and more educational to […]

My earlier post, “Storming the Ivory Tower“, discussed the real harm that religion is doing in the world, harm that Very Serious People overlook while tut-tutting at atheists. The natural […]

Happy 2012! By now, you’re probably still in the earnest stage of your New Year’s resolutions. If one of those is about your determination to cut back on drink, this […]

In our period of economic uncertainty, it may seem wrong to question the growth imperative. But, then again, perhaps this is exactly the occasion to rethink the goals of global economic policy.

Five years after São Paulo, Brazil, began its fight against visual pollution by banning billboard, poster and bus advertisements, people are happier and businesses more creative.

The urge to predict is understandable. We forecast the future, and continue to do so even after repeated mistakes, because of the deep psychological need for a sense of control, to keep ourselves safe.

Climate change deniers lost an important ally in 2011, as Berkeley physics professor Richard Muller recently switched sides. James Lawrence Powell dissects the curious case of this former climate skeptic. 

Many signs of Chinese unrest, targeted mostly at local officials, go unreported by state media. An estimated 90,000 riots, protests and mass petitions occur each year, mainly in rural areas.

In addition to recent military posturing, Iran is looking to extend a softer version of its influence to South America by signing trade contracts, opening embassies and financing development projects.

I had a drink with a friend a few weeks ago who informed me that the only men looking for a woman my age (mid-forties) are men in their early […]

My last post, following the lead of David Brooks and Rod Dreher, was about giving the argument for “communitarian conservatism” in the context of Dreher’s decision to move back to […]

After the drink company left South Africa during apartheid, it set up shop in neighboring Swaziland. But now its tax payments support the country’s notorious dictator, Mswati III.

Happy New Year, everyone! As I may have mentioned in the past, I like the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions: it’s an entirely secular holiday whose point is self-improvement, […]

June 23, 2012 will be the hundredth anniversary of Alan Turing’s birth. The so-called Year of Turing also presents an interesting framework for us to gauge the progress of computing. 

In the busy world of the 21st century shouldn’t we be making it easier, not harder, to vote?

Labeling coffee as “fair trade” can boost sales by 10%, finds a recent study. The findings shed light on the rapid growth of the fair trade and organic markets.  But […]

Over the Holiday break, I read Walter Isaacson’s masterful and absorbing biography of Steve Jobs.  As his biography reveals, Jobs was a dark, complex and often deeply contradictory figure. “There […]

I like the idea of “literary New Year’s resolutions” suggested by Ruth Franklin in The New Republic, and I’ve decided to hop on the bandwagon. But while Franklin’s resolutions primarily concern […]

In the video below, author Gretchen Rubin describes two frequent mistakes people make in setting goals for themselves. Watch the video here: