Question: Which contest is the nec plus ultra for puzzle fans and quiz aficionados everywhere? Answer: The MIT Mystery Hunt (MMH), which kicks off every year on the Friday before […]
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This seemingly endless presidential campaign of 2012 will mercifully come to an end on Tuesday (we hope). People will vote depending on a wide range of economic, social, and ideological […]
One day, I found a press release from an academic journal, calling attention to one of its articles. That is unusual enough, since the kinds of articles that Aaron Swartz–a […]
One of cartography’s most persistent myths: mapmakers of yore, frustrated by the world beyond their ken, marked the blank spaces on their maps with the legend Here be monsters. It’s […]
It’s just a few weeks until the U.S. presidential election, and while nothing is set in stone, Mitt Romney’s hopes are looking increasingly dim. Despite the depressed economy, which would […]
What’s The Big Idea? Scientists have given animals consciousness. Not through complex manipulation of the brain or through genetic manipulation, but by publicly acknowledging the consensus, for the first time […]
In a mid-career essay about his elder contemporary Robert Frost, the poet W. H. Auden observes that “[Thomas] Hardy, [W. B.] Yeats and Frost have all written epitaphs for themselves.” […]
In animals of reasonable intelligence, a cause-and-effect logic is naturally present. Children, however, lack a concrete understanding of the world which encourages them to persist and learn.
The team behind the 2008 Beijing Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium are at it again. Herzog & de Meuron joined forces with Ai Weiwei to create this summer’s commissioned installation at the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in […]
A World War II veteran has created a wind turbine that hides its blades inside a drum-like structure so that birds and bats won’t fly into them accidentally.
“Hello China!…… there are just so many of you.” Stefani Germanotta, better known by her Queen-inspired moniker, Lady Gaga, made that appeal to 15,000 screaming teenage Chinese girls in a […]
The discovery of the Higgs boson brought forth a fresh crop of high-minded religious apologists to favor us with platitudes about how science and religion can be reconciled, if only […]
The FAA is forming a panel to investigate the possible future use of tablets and smart phones throughout flights.
The Short Answer Fairy needs to visit President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney before the next debate. For awhile there last night, I wondered if President Obama […]
The United States has already suffered the worst outbreak of West Nile virus ever, with more than 1,100 people ill and 41 dead. And more illness and death are yet […]
With the presidential election less than a month away, it’s hard to go to a museum or gallery in the United States right now and not see art that either […]
A company’s new app represents a bold effort to keep customers’ attention on their TVs while also making a statement about the future of digital media interaction.
My first book hasn’t been out for long, but I’m thinking it’s almost time to start writing the next one. I came back from my trip to the U.K. with […]
Decades of research suggest that we are not only initially attracted to likeminded people but that familiarity is essential for healthy marriage.
Previously limited to explaining the behavior of subatomic particles, quantum mechanics may govern biological life and be selected for by evolution, says cosmologist Paul Davies.
In honor of Earth Day, I wanted to share an article written by my former colleague Ross Robertson for EnlightenNext magazine called “A Brighter Shade of Green: Rebooting Environmentalism for the 21stCentury.” […]
What’s the Big Idea? A few milestones in the short but storied history of machine translation: in 1939, Bell Labs presented the first speech synethesizing device, the Voder, at the World’s Fair in New York. […]
They remember her in colloquia and symposia, they remember her in the journals. They don’t remember her in the streets, her haunts. Reading her great novel Nightwood, Jeannette Winterson has said, “is […]
This blog writes about how we perceive risk, and how those perceptions often don’t match the facts. We’re more afraid of some things than we need to be, and less […]
As Rushdie humanised Muhammad – as he was always meant to be – Rushdie also humanised the faith.
When painter Andrew Wyeth passed away in 2009, the reclusive painter took many of the secrets behind his art to the grave. When I heard that the Brandywine River Museum […]
William Souder’s 2004 biography of John James Audobon, Under a Wild Sky, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His newest book, On a Farther Shore, chronicles the life and […]
What’s the Big Idea? In the U.S., the weekends sandwiching the 4th of July are the most popular travel time of the year. The cherries are ripe, the pool water is swimmable, and […]
Sometime in 1952, the American experimental musician John Cage put the finishing touches on a composition that challenged the definition of music. It was a three-part movement written for any […]
Switching between the different hours of your work and social life can cause you to put on weight, says new research. What if working hours were more accommodating to our social lives?