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Why don’t we hesitate getting into a car and driving 60 miles an hour with cars coming towards us at 60 miles an hour in the opposite lane?

            Control. Without a sense of control, we feel less safe. With a sense of control – whether we actually have that control or not – we feel safer. A […]

Even low levels of certain drugs found in waterways affect fish behavior. A team of Swedish researchers have created a wastewater treatment that reduces drug residue.

There’s a popular myth in the American yoga community that Indian vegetarianism began as a spiritual response to humanity’s place in the cosmos. The concept of ahimsa, or non-violence, is […]

A conversation with Matt Arnold, Managing Director and Head of the Office of Environmental Affairs, JPMorgan Chase.

 Dan Fagin’s new book “Toms River, A Story of Science and Salvation”, about a classic type of environmental story back in the 80s and 90s, the ‘cancer cluster’, is a […]

Fox News this week has the not very surprising news that the Obama Administration is looking for social scientists to help form a “Behavioral Insights Team” that, like the group […]

At a conference titled “The Present-Day Habitability of Mars” scientists discussed the possible seasonal existence of liquid water as well as the survival tactics of Antarctic microbes, among other topics.

A paper published Thursday describes the use of carbon dating to determine the precise age of plants uncovered beneath a retreating Peruvian ice sheet at different points in time. The results demonstrate the speed at which the sheet is disappearing.

Some biologists think humans may be more commonly infected with mind-altering parasites than is typically believed by psychologists, who examine mental defects as purely behavioral phenomena.

There’s much to criticise about this map of Pangea [1], but in spite of the geological anachronisms, it’s hard to tear your eyes away from it.  The map shows a […]

Digital cuisine is something that everybody gets excited about, and for good reason. 

In Mexico City, one of the world’s most polluted cities, construction is underway on a tower shielded with a tile screen that breaks down smog into less dangerous components.

The California city may be the first in the nation to replace residential electric meters with smart meters that provide outdoor wi-fi through a separate channel.

The brave new world of Massive Open Online Courses – perhaps the hottest technological trend ever in the field of higher education – is disrupting more than just the conventional […]

By genetically modifying a unique microorganism, researchers have discovered a way to turn atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into useful industrial products. Their find could lead to the creation of biofuels that “remove plants as the middleman.”

A study published in the recent issue of Geology ties seismic events in central Oklahoma to wastewater produced from oil extraction and injected deep underground.

In the US, it may not be in gasoline or paint anymore, but it’s still present in the environment and is increasingly being attributed to a wide range of health issues.

Money is a very powerful symbol and it influences us in a number of different ways.

This week my son’s school was canceled for the day, in the usual hyperventilating overreaction to weather. At first the school proposed to open two hours late, and I was […]

1. The Topless Revolution Targets Putin  “Putin leered like Benny Hill at a topless protester,” was the headline on The Reliable Source. Gawker has the video of Putin giving the thumb’s up. […]

If there’s one thing that unites the good guys in movies and TV shows, it’s a hatred of “procedure”—those legal niceties that get the bad guys out of jail and […]

There’s a tendency, particularly when looking at brain function, to be over-awed by the brain and, this is understandable.

The last thing we want to do is water down the teaching of biology because some people don’t recognize that evolution happened.

Choking is honorable failure and panicking is dishonorable failure. It’s important to maintain a line between those two things. 

One mining company speculates it’s in the low nine figures; astronomers think that’s a stretch. There’s no way to be sure, of course, but its Friday fly-by has both groups thinking about future close encounters.

I wrote an article inHarvard Business Review asking why can’t we build a $300 house? Now, why do you need a $300 house?  Just let us look at a simple […]

Inventors rarely have those hallowed ‘Eureka’ moments. Developing an idea and making it work takes time and patience. While technology develops fast, successful ideas take time to finesse. 

Scientists are hoping that some of 3,000-plus possible exoplanets discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission have moons that exist outside a circumplanetary “habitable edge.”

When Yahoo recently terminated its telecommuting policy, forcing employees to return to the office rather than work from home, it likely stymied the creative capacities of its work force.