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Nature invented software billions of years before we did. “The origin of life is really the origin of software,” says Gregory Chaitin (inventor of mathematical metabiology). Life requires what software does. It is fundamentally algorithmic. And its complexity needs better thinking tools.

There are lots of wrong reasons out there, but only one that matters. “The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in […]

Robots have already bested humans in chess and Jeopardy; now, developers are trying to create the next poker master.

The Icelandic government is considering a radical financial shift that would effectively end banking as we know it.

Why the argument that “this idea is absurd” is no argument at all. “He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and […]

European robotics experts obviously have their priorities in order because they’re designing a system to help facilitate more efficient winemaking.

Do “free markets” deliver efficiency as advertised? Economists often use “efficient” differently. Therein hides perhaps the last unlaughed-at Utopian ideas. 

David Walsh has found that sports help people cope with big life changes — it acts as an outlet and allows us to have a sense of community. So, how would sports help in the transition to retirement?

We’ve just landed our first-ever probe on the surface of a comet. Here’s what it means, and what we’ll learn. “I must trust that the little bit of love that […]

The possibilities were almost limitless, so why does everything line up? “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless […]

Why do Vermeer’s paintings fascinate us so? Perhaps the reason lies behind a revolution in seeing in both art and science rooted in Vermeer’s 17th century Holland.

Can failed stars, or stellar corpses, give light to the Universe once again? “A single tiny light creates a space where darkness cannot exist. The light vanquishes the darkness. Try […]

A tour de force article by The New Yorker’s Kathryn Schulz details a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that could leave a region home to millions of people in absolute ruins.

Sometimes, it’s the most unexpected ingredients that give rise to the greatest results in the end. “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” –Joseph Campbell When you […]

New robot seeks to bring convenience to your life, and can master new tasks on the fly.

Ian Mitchell argues that alcohol may make you friendlier, but only to certain people.

Gene Roddenberry would have celebrated his 95th birthday today. Many of his ideas have become reality, but some never will. “‘Star Trek’ says that it has not all happened, it […]

How many cumulative hours have you wasted waiting for your chat partner to respond to you? A new program created by an MIT Ph.D. student offers an opportunity to make your instant message intermissions as productive as possible.

Birds can differentiate empty peanut shells from full ones — without even cracking them open.

Journalist Fareed Zakaria discusses the true cost of American higher education and the structural changes that must take place to correct an unsustainable trend.

Today, anyone who is driven by a dream to solve a problem has the opportunity to change the world. This wasn’t the case in past eras.

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek points out several hypocrisies of political correctness while addressing how contemporary totalitarians construct social boundaries to control the population.

Feeling is a form of thinking. Both are ways of processing data, one is just faster. Daniel Kahneman’s mysterious coinages (System 1 and System 2) show how new language can help sidestep centuries of confusion. 

By nature, humans are social creatures, which has led some researchers to suggest that’s why humans enjoy browsing Facebook when we want to unwind.

Writing is a recent innovation in the history of human evolution. So, how then is it that our brains organize this skill?

How do you win a cyberwar against an Internet-savvy enemy like ISIS? One prominent researcher has suggested a troll-based battle strategy. That’s right: internet trolls. Could World War III be fought with memes?

Worldwide, there is an annual net loss of 11 billion trees. Despite all reforestation efforts, this loss reflects the fact that while deforestation is a mechanized, rapid, and highly efficient process, reforestation, mostly done by hand, is a tiresome, laborious, and highly inefficient one.

An autonomous 18-wheeler has been given a license to drive the long stretches of open road that crisscross Nevada.

Mavens are defined as experts in their field, and identifying them can help businesses innovate and grow. So, researchers have developed a test to figure out whether someone is a maven.

It’s home to everything we’ve ever directly explored, but where did our Solar System come from? “When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are […]