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As Scots go to the polls to determine their future, one oracle has already decreed that independence is inevitable: Englishman Terry O'Neil discovered this piece of chicken in his KFC meal, and was struck by its resemblance to the contours of Britain -- minus Scotland. 

“Society cares about the individual only in so far as he is profitable. The young know this. Their anxiety as they enter in upon social life matches the anguish of the […]

Exerting self-control often means coping with emotions that tell us to indulge, feel melancholy, or focus on the negative.

The downsides to feeling other people's pain.

Not a chance. What we’ve found may be a mystery, but it’s definitely not our Universe’s missing mass. “Time takes it all whether you want it to or not, time […]

How to turn the greatest NASA images in history into wallpaper, curtains, fabric and more! Image credit: Elinor Medezinski, Suprime-Cam/Subaru Telescope; ZwCl 0024–17. “I’m coming back in… and it’s the […]

An ancient relic from the young Universe is covered in surprising riches near the galactic center. Image credit: Paul Chasse (astronewb11) of flickr, via https://www.flickr.com/photos/astronewb2011/7247070648/. “Ancients knew that you need […]

It’s the faintest and hardest object to see in the entire catalogue, but the rewards — and knowledge you gain — are priceless! “If there is nothing new under the sun, at least the […]

With the iconic pillars and fairy inside, this star-forming region in our galactic plane just might be the most spectacular of them all. Image credit: ESO, via http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0926a/. “The most […]

During a plague epidemic in Medieval Europe, cats were killed (and later dogs) for allegedly spreading the Black Death. The severe drop in the cat population only made matters worse, […]

Paul Allen talks about the process of tackling humanity's greatest challenges through the collaboration of great minds.

It’s one of nature’s most amazing sights, but how does it work? “I love the sounds and the power of pounding water, whether it is the waves or a waterfall.” –Mike […]

In the heart of our nearest big galaxy cluster, a massive spiral fights for its life. “Ali always said I would be nothing without him. But what would he have been […]

“Crazy at any price!” read a sign above the modern art masterpieces at the Nazi-sponsored Entartete Kunst (“Degenerate Art,” in English) exhibition in Munich, Germany, in 1937. The fevered brainchild […]

It’s a hot debate. Should businesses make money off poor people? Paul Polak, the 79-year old entrepreneur, founder of the International Development Enterprises (IDE), and co-author of soon to be released The Business […]

The term “Big Data” naturally conjures up images of Big Users, like the government or Google or Costco. It’s easy to see why big enterprises crunch data to learn, for […]

“Workers of the world, unite!”Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels bellowed in The Communist Manifesto in 1848, largely in response to the Industrial Revolution (and Second Industrial Revolution) threatening not just […]

Last week taught us some important lessons about fear. One is that fear is neither good nor bad. What matters is how we let fear affect us. It spurred racism […]

Just before leaving office in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a farewell message in which he warned of “the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the […]

Not all vitamins are good for all people, all the time. In fact, some can kill you. And guess what? We know where the bodies are buried.

Fellow pseudonymous neuroblogger Neuroskeptic(to whom I owe a great deal in inspiration) has published a fantastic piece in Trends in Cognitive Sciences ($) on the benefits to science of anonymity. Last November Neuroskeptic became […]

The psychologist Paul Ekman says you need to keep a diary of your emotions during an emotional episode. This will enable you to determine what is triggering certain emotional responses, and control them.   

As the candidates gear up for Tuesday night’s second presidential debate, it occurs to me how strange a ritual this is. President Obama, according to Helene Cooper of the New […]

When you enter the voting booth on Tuesday and pull a lever or jab a touchscreen for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, you will be registering a vote not only […]

It was this map of Greenland that triggered this post. I say map, but I mean hole in a drainpipe.  This picture was sent in by Ruland Kolen, who was […]

As kids, my siblings and I would flip through old family albums and marvel over old pictures of family members in their youth. More than just thicker hair and thinner […]

For the third year running, here’s a very personal, very subjective, “I can’t read everything, so I probably left out something, so mention it in the comments, OK?” list of […]

The first QD televisions–like current flat-screen TVs, but with better color and ultra-thin displays–will be available in shops by the end of next year. And later, the roll-up version.

Some Darwinians, such as Francis Fukuyama, Larry Arnhart, Jonathan Haidt and the late James Q. Wilson, openly and proudly acknowledge that the results of their research point in a moderately […]

By consciously practicing optimism, Jason Silva believes, we create circumstances that make external challenges weaker and easier to overcome. It’s mind over matter – thinking your ideal world into being by choosing to believe it already exists.