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Teens know about the health risks when it comes to smoking cigarettes, but they may be less educated about e-cigarettes. Studies show these electronic vapor devices are gaining popularity among youths.

Scientists at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK, have demonstrated a nine-week training course that successfully teaches individuals to see letters as certain colors.

Thinking about eating less could help us be healthier, create a more sustainable environment, and reduce animal cruelty. Smaller portions can go a long way.

Civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune on never giving in to discrimination:  “If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything… that smacks of discrimination or slander.”

For many people, art museums feel like a foreboding foreign nation with a language all its own. Frederick Wiseman’s new documentary, National Gallery, offers an immersion class in how to speak fluent “museum.” 

It’s been 78 days since my last blog post. It’s shameful to admit, but I wasn’t sure how else to break the silence.   Did I get lost on my […]

A week from today, researchers will gather for a neuroscience conference in Washington D.C. titled “Gut Microbes and the Brain: Paradigm Shift in Neuroscience.”

All you need are clear skies, a telescope, and a plan. Make it a great one. “For my confirmation, I didn’t get a watch and my first pair of long […]

It’s 1962 in an America that has lost World War II…

Office Christmas parties mean free booze and food, but for managers there’s a danger of having to reprimand a rambunctious employee. Set an example before the party, and communicate your expectations.

The next step in Comcast’s uphill battle toward regaining customer trust is to make visits from technicians a less stressful experience.

The nature of our Universe defies our intuition. That just might be the greatest thing of all. “I asked the Zebra,are you black with white stripes?Or white with black stripes?And […]

As children, many of us read in our U.S. history classes about the “great compromiser,” Henry Clay, congressman and secretary of state under John Quincy Adams.  Clay argued effectively for […]

One-hundred years ago, this youngster was likely shouting out headlines related to the Battle of Warsaw or the Boston Braves’ victory in the first ever World Series sweep.

You have to identify the causes of your procrastination in order to beat it. More often than not, ego and a fear of failure are at the root of the problem.

In around 540 BC, the world’s most efficient postal service belonged to the Persian Empire. A message could travel at a speed of roughly 200 miles a day. Today, we […]

Is there another version of you somewhere out there in a parallel Universe? “Go then, there are other worlds than these.” –Stephen King, The Dark Tower One of the most […]

Thank you notes are great for following up with a prospective employer, reconnecting with an old friend, expressing gratitude for spectacular service, or just letting someone know you care.

The president of Iceland explains the secret to the Nordic countries’ recent economic and social success. Social welfare programs such as free access to education and healthcare have proved to be a boon to the free market economy.

Human irrationality is nothing new. But sometimes we get a fresh reminder that the human capacity for clear thinking is hampered by all kinds of stumbling blocks, and that our […]

The appeal of being a manager will wear off quickly once the reality of the position sinks in. In order to succeed, it’s vital new managers maintain perspective.

Feeling blue this week? Chances are you’re a Democrat. I was so addled by the Republican sweep on Tuesday that I could not so much as glance at the front […]

Just because there is more information available doesn’t ensure that we make more informed choices. The modern media provide information in ways that play right into the brain’s instinct to do as little work as possible, including the work of getting that information, and thinking carefully about it.

If learning institutions have become money machines, where does that leave their educational mission?

“Bürgerschreck!” rang the accusations in German at Austrian painter Egon Schiele in April 1912. This “shocker of the bourgeois” found his home rifled by local constables searching for evidence of the immorality locals suspected of a man who lived with a woman not his wife and invited local children to pose for him. The constables brought over one hundred drawings as well as Schiele himself to the local jail, where he sat for 24 days until a court trial during which the judge flamboyantly burned one of Schiele’s “pornographic” portraits in front of the chastised artist before releasing him. That experience changed the rest of Schiele’s life and art. Egon Schiele: Portraits at the Neue Galerie in New York City centers on this turning point in Schiele’s portraits, which remain some of the most psychologically penetrating and sexual explicit portraits of the modern age. Schiele’s capacity to shock today’s audience may have declined as modern mores finally catch up to him, but the power of his portraits to captivate through their unconventionality, sensitivity, and empathy never gets old.

In most respects, neurology’s attack on free will seems to have won the day, not the least reason being that randomness is a far cry from making free and intentioned decisions.

Each day, each of us faces 500 billion opportunities for genetic civil war to break out. Thankfully we’ve also evolved good ways to police and suppress these rogue parts, their mutinous mutations, and their declarations of independence.     

Most new habits require 66 days to form. More intensive habits, such as establishing an exercise routine, may require up to an average of 84 days.

After millions of years of adaptive evolution, our bodies have become naturally suited to functioning during the day, and certain organic chemicals are released into the blood stream accordingly.

How an experiment high above Antarctica — Spider — sheds new light on the cosmic microwave background. Observations of the cosmic microwave background continue to capture public attention, highlighted these last few weeks in […]