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“Can aquatic snails better remember lessons learned when they are hopped up on methamphetamine?” Scientific American says the answer could give insight into the nature of addiction.
“The things patients complain about, like excessive noise, may be more than a nuisance. They may actually be bad for their health,” writes Drake Bennett on noise pollution in hospitals.
The British Petroleum rig spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico pales in comparison to amount of oil spilled annually in Nigeria, a reminder of the double standard when it comes to poor countries.
Nancy Cohen at the L.A. Times says the traditional terms “pro-choice” and “pro-life” are too simplistic to have a constructive debate over abortion; she calls for more nuanced language.
Generation Y is often mocked for its narcissism and supreme self confidence, but Judith Warner writes that pumped-up egos may be just the thing for weathering our economic storm.
“Today’s college students scored 40 percent lower on a measure of empathy than their elders did,” according to a new study that demonstrates the selfish, competitive nature of the times.
“US fashion commentators are now suggesting that economic strength might also be reflected in the length of men’s swimming trunks,” reports The Guardian. But is it a truncated theory?
“Art is a conversation between and among artists, not a patent office. Reality can’t be copyrighted,” writes David Shields in his spirited defense of artistic appropriation.
“Progress without pollution may sound utterly unrealistic, but businesses are putting green chemistry into practice,” by using more ecologically benign chemicals, writes Scientific American.
Many technological hurdles on the road to building household robots have recently been cleared leaving one nagging question in the air—just what do we need them for?
“If Americans were to learn of wartime inequalities, the public would become more circumspect about future military action,” writes Douglas Kriner after studying class inequalities in the army.
A new study suggests that the effectiveness of celebrity product endorsements is explained by positive emotions associated with a celebrity then transfered to the product being sold.
“The priest, like every human being, needs to love and be loved,” say twelve Italian women who have written the Pope urging that priests be allowed to have intimate relationships.
A few weeks ago, we looked at how designers were revolutionizing sight for the vision-impaired. Today, we focus on another kind of sensory disability — can design make deaf people […]
Chinese people are still suffering from the most gruesome biological warfare attacks in modern history. Judith Miller looks at Japan’s “forgotten” biological crimes against China.
Might the Internet serve as a deterrent thanks to its ability to lay bare truths? Vet Patty Khuly comments on a video of the “most horrific scenes bullfighting has ever offered.”
What is it about Foxconn, the factory in China which makes most of Apple’s devices and has already shed thousands of its workers, that is driving so many of them to suicide?