Orion Jones

Current technology is not far from ushering in a new paradigm of human learning, said Google’s vice-president of research Alfred Spector at a recent conference in New York.

Environmentally friendly office space makes employees happier and more productive, according to a broad range of studies that have examined temperature, sunlight, and plants. 

When we see the future through rose-tinted lenses, we are less likely to take the action necessary to achieve our goals.

It was fifty years ago that the French philosopher and author Jean-Paul Sartre graciously refused the Nobel Prize for Literature. How different (and more noble?) his world was from ours.

Because intelligence is such a strong genetic trait, rapidly advancing genetics research could result in the ability to create a class of super-intelligent humans one-thousand times higher in IQ than today’s most brilliant thinkers.

While it’s more pleasant to be pleasant with those around you, being a crank can have its benefits when it comes to getting your way.

There is a point beyond which life is no longer worth living, both because of diminished mental and physical capacities, and because of how the living will remember us.

Two astronomers have a new theory which suggests that intelligent life on planet Earth may be as old as can be expected in our galaxy.

The Norwegian town of Lillestrøm recently undertook an experiment that demonstrated the economic value of emission-free transportation by giving cash to its citizens.

Although Isaac Asimov declined to participate in a 1959 government-run conference for anti-ballistic missile technology he did pen some thoughts about the nature of creativity.

Two U.N. rapporteurs have advised Detroit’s government that its actions risk violating international human rights norms as a result of its shutoff policy.

A great number of stories in the Western “literary” canon were not written to be read at all, but rather to be seen on stage in the purview of the live theatre. 

We often extrapolate from coincidental events to say they “happen for a reason,” suggesting that there is a greater meaning to them. Even atheists do it, but is it good for us or society?

If our present scientific achievements pale in comparison to the grand gestures of putting a man on the moon and building nuclear weapons, it may be that our capacity to tell imaginative narratives is suffering.

An international survey of school teachers has found that the vast majority believes in myths about the brain and wrongly adapt their lessons to accommodate these myths.

In most respects, neurology’s attack on free will seems to have won the day, not the least reason being that randomness is a far cry from making free and intentioned decisions.

The nation’s highest-profile technology companies are creating some unusual policies in order to encourage women to keep working through the peak of their childbearing years.

Having a much more interesting time with life than your peers is a recipe for social isolation, according to a report published in Psychological Science.

Now that another Texas healthcare worker has contracted Ebola, and was allowed to fly commercial airlines before the diagnosis was made, health officials risk losing the public’s trust. 

New research suggests that drinking coffee has more to do with your genes than previously thought.

By meditating on having compassion for someone in your life, a new study suggests that you can become a more sympathetic person in as little as two weeks. 

The more hours you put in at the office, the more likely you are to become obese, according to a new paper from the US Census Bureau.

The way our political parties approach freedom risks producing individuals who are slovenly free and in pursuit of their most base passions.

It may be that by increasing the already substantial blood-flow to your brain, exercise can help build your IQ and work to keep you safe from neurological conditions that result from old age.

It may surprise you to learn that the entrepreneur behind dating sites like OKCupid and Match.com got his start by creating SparkNotes.com and Edonkey, a video-sharing site.

When cultural commentators remark on the dangers of technology, they are not all Luddites by trade.

150, 50, 15, 5. Those are the magic numbers in the sociology of friendship, according to University of Oxford professor Robin Dunbar.

When it comes to the overall happiness of a marriage, it matters more that the wife is happy with the relationship than the husband, according to a recent paper published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. 

Being poor results in sleeping less for a variety of reasons. One major factor is public transportation and the fact that conforming to bus schedules can sometimes take hours out of one’s sleep schedule each day.

What does equality mean when it comes to birth control?