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PETMAN is an anthropomorphic robot developed by Boston Dynamics for testing special clothing used by US military personnel. PETMAN balances itself as it walks, squats and does calisthenics. PETMAN simulates […]

“The $2.6 trillion the United States is spending on health care is too much, and we can reduce it without rationing or sacrificing quality,” says Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D.

Innumeracy, in a data-driven age, means ceding control and understanding of an substantial chunk of yourself – your online reputation, the scores that colleges and employers use to screen out undesirable candidates – to others.

The controversial social analyst Charles Murray has written an important book on the unprecedented class divide in America today.  The link is to an article summarizing the book’s key arguments. […]

Earlier this year, Berkeley psychologist Alison Gopnik published an essay entitled, “What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind?” in the Wall Street Journal.  It was a very interesting piece—and one that […]

The era of making big bucks from TV sets has gone. They are now so cheap that the profits have all but been eroded, partly due to oversupply caused by increased manufacturing.

If you saw someone dying before your eyes, wouldn’t you do everything possible to save them? Is there ever a case when saving someone (or something) is the wrong choice? […]

      The battle over Bisphenol A (BPA) rages on, and continues to teach lessons far beyond the particulars of the issue itself. Environmentalists argue that BPA (the supposedly dangerous chemical […]

Everyone in politics pays lip service to data. “Our opponents say X but the facts are plainly Y, which they would admit if they were not (pick one) deceived or […]

Earlier this week, Penn Jillette posted a link to this essay by Mallorie Nasrallah on his Twitter account, concerning her experience as a woman in the skeptical community. To sum […]

We’ve been discussing Islam a lot on this blog in the past few days, and much to my amusement, I’ve seen two different commenters promoting diametrically opposite distortions of my […]

In line with my post a fortnight ago, I recently took a second look at another inspiring book. This time I reread Hugh MacLeod’s Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys […]

The X Prize Foundation will offer a $10 million prize to the first team that significantly boosts the speed and accuracy of D.N.A. sequencing, which could open wide new medical horizons. 

Xi Jinping, China’s presidential hopeful, pays a visit to the White House.

Happy 2012! By now, you’re probably still in the earnest stage of your New Year’s resolutions. If one of those is about your determination to cut back on drink, this […]

It’s not an uncommon problem – it happened to McDonald’s, it happened to IBM, and it even happened to Apple, says Nancy Koehn, professor of business administration at Harvard. 

Thus did the Economistcharacterize the dynamic between China and India, arguing that how they “manage their own relationship will determine whether similar mistakes to those that scarred the 20th century […]

Researchers at the Cornell Creative Machines Lab are experimenting with 3-D food printers, envisioning them as the next fashionable appliance for restaurants and home kitchens. 

Light field technology is the key to a new camera allowing you to be re-focus images minutes, days or even years after the shot, or to view them in 3D.

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11, U.S. Constitution: “The Congress shall have Power To declare War” Rep. Ron Paul in the U.S. House of Representatives, October 3, 2002: “The process by which […]

–Guest post by Erin Brett, American University student. Although the great majority of climate scientists believe that climate change is a serious threat, only two percent of Americans mentioned the […]

Christopher Hitchens has died. I never personally met the man, but I want to say a few words in tribute. Of all the popular figures commonly styled as the New […]

The big news coming out of the CES show in Las Vegas this week was the lack of big news coming out of the CES show in Las Vegas this […]

If you want to understand Occupy Wall Street and the frustration, rage and sadness that drive it, you could do worse than to watch White Christmas. That’s the 1954 confection […]

When this life is all you have, you’re naturally motivated to care more about it. That’s why I’ve often encouraged readers to support the Foundation Beyond Belief, an excellent secular […]

There is a prevailing conception that students must learn facts and procedural knowledge BEFORE they can then engage in so-called ‘higher-order’ thinking skills. Educators, parents, policymakers, online commentators, and others […]

I just can’t help myself. It’s remarkable how little I care about the outcome of the Koch-Cato standoff. Yet, having spent about half my professional life in politics at heavily […]

What are five disruptive cleantech innovations that could enable large-scale change? 3D printing, energy harvesting, energy storage, fuel cell technology, and smart meters.  

This essay was previously published on AlterNet. Last November, I attended a debate in the NYU Intelligence Squared series on the topic, “Would the World Be Better Off Without Religion?” […]

Nothing haunts like a skeleton in the closet. When art museums and cultural institutions talk about their treasures, there are always a few items they’d rather keep out of the […]