On Wednesday, the Supreme Court upended nearly four decades of campaign-finance law, removing “aggregate caps” on how much political donors may contribute to federal campaigns. From now on, millionaires seeking […]
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The new nerdier news has arrived. But can its nerd tools, honed in the “olicausal sciences” (oli = few), handle the greater complexities of journalism? Steven Pinker says, “No sane […]
I went to Detroit this past weekend to speak to the Knight Foundation’s art grantees. Knight is a non-profit that is concentrated on “transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media […]
Do smarter students smoke more pot? According to the video below by DNews, children who tested as having high IQs were more likely to grow up to smoke a […]
Dark matter is four times more common in the universe than visible matter. How do we know that it’s there if we’ve never seen it? The force of gravity keeping […]
These red waves of glowing gas arch toward the constellation of Cygnus. They can be found in the western part of the Veil Nebula, the remnant of a large supernova […]
“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” – George Orwell
If Hannah Horvath is really the voice of Generation Y, it must be a fairly self absorbed generation indeed. It’s more hopeful to think that it might be found in […]
Chicago native Judy Cohen Gerowitz became Judy Chicago in 1970 for many reasons. One was to throw off her father’s and husband’s names and the male dominance behind that practice. […]
If you had never heard of global warming before, how would you figure out whether it’s happening? “There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point […]
Blockbuster was once the Starbucks of movie rentals. When one wanted to watch a new release, one would drive to the local Blockbuster and peruse the shelves. Now the movie […]
Political and economic changes have a way of getting into people’s heads. Once-new tools come to feel as natural as the hands that pick them up; once-new rules, ingrained in […]
This speech will make you proud to appreciate the true finer things in life: string theory, the future of the mind, all things “Cosmos,” and the like. Neil Armstrong may […]
Twenty-three centuries after Euclid of Alexandria composed his Elements of Geometry, some of his favorite shapes – including the triangle, square, and circle – were re-released as repositionable wall graphics […]
It’s safe to say that long before our ancient ancestors developed language, our moon has been a source of fascination. Closing out the turbulent 1960s with humankind landing on the […]
Since the 1820s, scientists have observed an increase of suicides in the spring. The trend has been recorded in dozens of countries around the world. The most suicidal month is May, when rates […]
Around 6,400 light-years away, in the constellation of Orion, is this sparkling skyscape captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. On the edge of NGC 2174, this image shows a corner […]
“Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.” — Arthur Koestler
On July 4, 2012 a team of physicists in Switzerland announced one of the biggest discoveries in science: the Higgs boson–the “God particle” that could explain why all matter has […]
Inflation tells us that it’s likely real, but can it be the answer to any of our scientific questions? Probably not. “Physical reality does not require that we be pleased with […]
I begin my column with a five-part interview series with Bob Tewksbury, the newdirector of player development for the Major League Baseball Players Association. He helps players deal with the […]
Haitian-American singer Jason Derulo’s tweet on Jan 15 displayed youthful exuberance. The 24-year-old included six exclamation marks when declaring his single ‘Talk Dirty’ had reached #9 on the iTunes singles […]
Imagine if I were to ask you to donate blood tomorrow. Now imagine that I were to offer you $7 to do the very same thing. Would this incentive make […]
Warning: Robots are becoming smarter. They can now teach each other how to play Pac-Man. Researchers in Washington State University’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science have developed a […]
The goal of this blog is to help raise awareness of what I call The Risk Perception Gap the danger that arises when we worry about some things more […]
Stargazers have something to look forward to. Over the next few months, a pair of colorful bright objects will be visible close together–Mars and Spica. Next week in particular, Mars […]
“If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.” – Marvin Gaye
If the eyes are the windows of the soul, can the windows of an artist’s studio—the vistas they viewed daily for inspiration—offer a glimpse into their soul? In anticipation of […]
MaryChapinCarpenter has won five Grammys, but she still can’t give you a formula for how to write a song. “You know if I had a way to easily describe the writing […]
As we approach our national day of mourning, the April 15th tax filing deadline, Americans once again are witness to an apparently spontaneous breakout of Kabuki theatre in our capital. […]