Personal Growth

One Today, which began a limited pilot Thursday, enables Android users to donate a dollar a day to one of several prescreened charities.

Prayer effectively deals with sympathetic magic—the notion that your thoughts can alter reality from a distance, or influence outcomes in your life which you have no conscious control over.

Unable to run controlled experiments on a distant star the way terrestrial scientists work with lab mice, astronomers have begun attempting to recreate stellar conditions on Earth.

How could we be so clueless about the wealth gap that defines our society?

Psychologists have observed that children who have a realistic—not inflated—understanding of how they are seen by others tend to be more resilient and less crest-fallen later on.

A few years ago, at mile 20 of my second marathon, I promised myself I would never again run a 26.2 mile race. I had trained impeccably, ran my first […]

Some things that you think happened to you probably didn’t. That’s just the nature of memory, says popular author and neurology professor Oliver Sacks, and that’s a good thing.

The student center at Brooklyn College will be abuzz Thursday evening at 6:30 when two speakers propose boycotting, divesting and applying sanctions on Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians. […]

Long recognized for providing aid to people on other continents, the organization is reporting an increase in requests for help from citizens struggling to survive.

A study which followed 200 British medical patients diagnosed with depression found that the use of self-help books, coupled with counselling sessions on how to use the books, alleviated depression. 

What distinguishes human life from animal life is our ability to search for meaning. Differing from happiness, meaning implies transcending the self while happiness implies its satisfaction.

Certain cognitive biases that make us better at surviving harsh environmental conditions also cause us to make irrational decisions, from betting against the odds to rationalizing wrong decisions. 

Artist Ai Weiwei sees his ongoing battles with the Chinese government as a matter of personal responsibility to “look your enemy in the face and tell them what you’re fighting for.” 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau might say that Congress has become more and more unpopular as Americans have begun to appreciate its basic illegitimacy as a law-making institution.

University of Oxford research psychologist Kevin Dutton conducted interviews at England’s most dangerous psychiatric hospital to glean some wisdom from the most ruthless among us. 

The idea that willpower is a finite resource quickly depleted is wrong, according to a study out of Stanford University. Belief in one’s own willpower makes it a stable fixture.

Work has begun on what may be one of the largest-ever buildings created using cardboard tubes. Architect Shigeru Ban considers his work with the material part of his responsibility to society.

Good health is more than a sum of biometrical data. Being healthy means having a lively spirit and engaging with others rather than exercising and counting calories at every given moment.

Philosopher David Edmonds lists the five books of philosophy that have figured most in his development as a moral thinker. Along the way, he explains when it may be OK to end a life. 

Mercadillos, or “little markets,” are stepping into the gap created between larger retailers who can’t release their stock and struggling customers looking for bargains.

Duke University researchers who poured over three decades worth of standardized test scores have concluded that general intelligence is on the rise and that girls are narrowing the gender gap. 

StraighterLine, a supplier of low-cost online college courses, recently unveiled a new service that allows professors to sell their courses to students and offer amenities, such as office hours, for an additional price.

The rule of reciprocation is deeply rooted in our behavior such that we return the favor even when we don’t want to. The behavior has helped our species survive by creating community.

University of Iowa researchers studied years’ worth of posts on an online health network and came up with a way to rank members based on their contribution to others’ emotional health.

New images unearthed from Albert Einstein’s autopsy suggest his genius had strong roots in the biology of his brain, specifically in the folds of his cerebral cortex, says anthropologist Dean Falk. 

NASA now has a site, Spot the Station, that lets you register to receive a text alert whenever the craft is passing over your location.

Update 11/4: A few hours after I published this post, Mayor Bloomberg decided to cancel the marathon for the reason I develop below.  See my analysis of Bloomberg’s surprising last-minute […]

Communities that sign up with Recovers receive a personalized site that allows them to coordinate relief efforts more efficiently. The platform’s latest challenge: Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Ekso Bionics is developing exoskeleton-like devices combined with robotics that will help people with walking difficulties get moving again.

Why has there been so little discussion of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism? Aside from some jokes on late-night television, dialogue about the Republican nominee’s religious affiliation has been remarkably sparse. One […]