Skip to content

All Articles


Haiti. Chile. California. China. Is there something unusual going on in the earth’s crust, or is the recent spate of major earthquakes a statistical fluke? And do we have any […]
We should arrest the Pope "only if that is where the operation of due process and the rule of law actually take the investigating and prosecuting authorities," writes Allen Green.
Gordon Chang writes that this will likely not be the "Chinese century." Rather, the country has "just about reached high tide, and will soon begin a long, painful process of falling back."
Using instruments in space and on the ground, Scientists have developed the most complete picture yet of how large solar eruptions affect the Earth.
If Christopher Hitchens were to spend "a long and arduous evening in the alehouses and outer purlieus" of 19th Century London, he'd want to be doing it in the company of Charles Dickens.
Faced with plummeting endowments and overextended commitments, public universities are moving toward privatization, writes Edward J. K. Gitre, who worries about the long-term consequences.
Saffa Khan is on four college wait lists, and writes that these lists "prolong the holding pattern of teenage life." Instead, colleges should simply reject those without a reasonable chance of getting in.
Citing numerous clues, experts believe that a painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art that was long attributed to the circle of Francesco Granacci is really by Michelangelo.
John Dickerson writes that Sarah Palin has become more a celebrity than a politician. Like Al Gore, she is "a personality–influential, polarizing, and not likely to be president–who talks about political affairs."
Elif Batuman unearths seven unproduced screenplays written by famous intellectuals, including Nabokov's story of a sexually frustrated London circus dwarf, and Sartre's failed Freud epic.
There may be plenty of fish in the sea, but we humans tend to get overwhelmed by too many possibilities—whether in choosing potential mates or choosing between brands of jam […]
The recent case of a Tennessee woman who sent her 7-year-old adopted Russian child back to Moscow is becoming a test for the international adoption vetting process, writes Daniel Wood.
"If the Rubik’s Cube is like life ... then a good life is like a good puzzle," writes Stefany Anne Golberg. "It can be solved within the order of solitude but is more rewarding in the chaotic company of others."
Stress hormones may indirectly promote the spread of cancer in the body by hurting the immune system's anti-tumor mechanisms and encouraging new blood vessels to form.
Does assassinating top terrorists really make us safer? Robert Wright looks at research suggesting that "decapitation doesn’t lower the life expectancy of the decapitated groups."
Despite the fact that cilantro is happily consumed by millions of people around the world, it inspires "a primal revulsion among an outspoken minority of eaters" who say it tastes like soap.
"Hyenas ... have been terribly misunderstood," writes Constance Casey. "The creatures may not be beautiful, but they don't deserve contempt."
Scientists now believe that the trace metal contaminants around ancient sun-like stars are "remnants of rocky, potentially water-bearing bodies that crashed into their mother stars."
A new study suggests that birds, bats, and lizards may play an important part in preserving the Earth's climate by eating insects that forage on plant life.