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Is the financial crisis the best thing that ever happened to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer? As Jan Hoffman writes in the New York Times today, two years after he resigned in scandal the Sheriff of Wall Street is back on his horse and charging again toward Wall Street reform. Will this focus on reform help the public forget about his fling with high-end call-girl Ashley Dupré?

“Biologically, oysters are not in the plant kingdom, but when it comes to ethical eating, they are almost indistinguishable from plants,” writes Christopher Cox.

Vice President Joe Biden writes that the country’s new nuclear stance “leaves Cold War thinking behind” and recognizes that nuclear terrorism and proliferation are the biggest dangers to global security.

“Otto Dix is a difficult artist to like,” writes Judith Dobrzynski of the Weimar artist known for his harsh, cruel depictions of social and moral decay. “But admiration is a different thing altogether.”

Economic prognosticators are increasingly looking for indicators in unconventional urban data. The newest offbeat predictors are finding information in obscure places — but can they be trusted in forecasts?

“Non-paternity” (when a child turns out to have a different father than they thought they did) is estimated to be somewhere around 10%. New over-the-counter tests make it easy to find out the truth.

Eli Kintisch suggests scientists may have to attempt some radical fixes to address the shift in global temperature. Should we build an umbrella in space? Reflective panels covering the polar ice?

A new technology called “Skinput” uses bio-acoustic sensors to allow people to use the skin on their fingers and forearms — or any part of their bodies — as touchpads to control mobile devices.

It can be shocking to hear stories about female terrorists like the Russian “black widows” and America’s “Jihad Jane” — particularly because women so rarely turn to violence.

“Those who think of themselves as great fans of progress, of technology’s inexorable march forward, will change their tune as soon as progress destroys something they care deeply about,” writes Nicholas Carr.

Extensive research over the past 40 years shows that sleep deprivation is a quick, inexpensive and effective treatment for depression. So why isn’t this fact more well known?

Tuesday’s court ruling, which found that the Federal Communications Commission does not have jurisdiction over how internet providers regulate their service, has sent the FCC’s national broadband plan back to […]

The director of the census bureau in charge of marine species, called the Global Marine Species Assessment, has issued a warning about the deterioration of earth’s coral reefs. It was […]

Here’s a story about balancing work and family, as recounted recently by Teddy Kennedy: One day in 1961 John F. Kennedy was comforting his crying daughter at the family’s Hyannis […]

Vinod Khosla, founding CEO of Sun Microsystems and founder of Khosla Ventures, is on record as having said that he can’t imagine oil being more than $30 a barrel by […]

Like many kids in the 80s, I was convinced I would die in a nuclear war. Dialogue between the United States and the Soviet Union had broken down after the […]

Via Gawker we learn that a New York judge reaffirmed a guy’s right to demand the ring back if the engagement breaks off for any reason. In the case before […]

Insects have long been objects of fascination in classical literature, children’s nursery rhymes, and in the culture at large. Hugh Raffles’ interest in insects stemmed from his work in the Amazon, […]

An FBI Special Agent impersonated a representative of a real, legal anti health care reform group in order to positively identify a Washington man who allegedly left a series of […]

Some of the most arch realists and high-ranking Cold warriors in the US foreign-policy establishment are supporting the idea of a nuclear-free world. But is it actually attainable?

Scientists in the Philippines say they have discovered a new species of giant lizards with bright yellow, blue, and green skin, that lives in the forests and survives on a fruit-only diet.

Researchers have found three new species that apparently spend their entire lives in the oxygen-starved sediment at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

Physicists have developed the smallest electrically pumped laser ever, with a beam that is 30 micrometers long, eight micrometers high, and has a wavelength of 200 micrometers.

“Contrary to expectations and lamentations, widespread piracy does not kill commercial filmmaking,” writes Kevin Kelly. “Existence proof: the largest movie industries on the planet.”

Eating more fruits and vegetables appears to do little to reduce the incidence of cancer — despite decades of exhortations from the World Health Organization that people do so.

Noting Sarah Palin’s meandering phraseology, John McWhorter wonders why mindless speaking no longer prevents someone from becoming a major public influencer.

Robert Wright believes Tiger Woods’ sexual behavior represents a threat to the moral sanction that is vital to the institution of monogamous marriage.

Faced with climate change, some birds are changing their migration schedules and staying closer to home — and in the future they might stop migrating altogether.

A team of Russian and American scientists reported yesterday that they had discovered a new — and very heavy — element, which will be known for now as ununseptium.