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In his new book, The Consciousness Instinct, Michael Gazzaniga does a deep dive into the process of consciousness.

Are all those drunk animals on YouTube actually drunk? Zoologist Lucy Cooke examines what’s really going on when animals go, er, wild.

The fragility of digital memory could let the entire story of our time turn to sand.

In 2015, the United States brokered a revolutionary international deal with Iran about their nuclear programme. Here’s the science behind it. In 2015, a historic agreement was reached between Iran and […]

Schrodinger’s cat is one of the most famous thought experiments of all time, but what does it mean for science, and what happens to the poor cat?

With President Trump appointing officials who want to abolish the departments they hope to lead, one might ask, “What is the rationale for this?”. Milton Friedman offers us an answer. 

As John B Judis writes in The Populist Explosion, this sort of uprising has been with us for years.

Broad Minded Affective Coping technique is one of many tools for coping with low mood. Affirmations and mindfulness help too.

The author of The Purpose Driven Life has a theory about why Paris happened: We haven’t accepted Jesus. 

The glorious meteor shower peaking this week is the most consistent, year after year. Here’s why. “Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, […]

Every year in Japan, a giant penis festival is held, while in America, Chrissy Teigen’s nipple is banned. When will we get over our sexual Puritanism? 

An exposé in this week’s issue of The New Yorker on the surprising depth of jihadist poetry should be required reading for everyone on the swelling list of candidates for president […]

Since 2011 state officials have been restricted from using the phrase “climate change” in addition to a list of other terms surrounding environmental issues.

Officials wonder how long sled dog racing will survive the warming temperatures, which threaten the very landscape of the race.

It’s subtle and pernicious as hell how this happens. How we transform something that’s supposed to make us more open and balanced into a shiny new prison of things, jargon, and obligations.

Marijuana might steal the headlines, but psychedelics are making headway in the American consciousness. DMT: The Spirit Molecule producer/director Mitch Schultz discusses this trend. 

Renowned travel writer Rick Steves, an evangelist for budget-conscious vacationing, supports paying a little extra for the best hotel, transit, and local knowledge.

The one thing that even the best of us do at times, and why it needs to stop. “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”–Mohandas […]

This is Parkinson’s Awareness Month.  It’s a time to celebrate what has been learned and to push the process further along.  There is no screening test to diagnose Parkinson’s disease […]

Nearly 250 years since its discovery, this dense, brilliant core was found to have our Milky Way’s first globular-based black hole! Image credit: Paulino Maldonado, via http://observatorioelojodeowi.blogspot.com/2011/05/subo-algunas-fotografias-de-espacio.html. “And then you […]

“Red and dead” might describe the stars in most ellipticals, but this nearby galaxy tells a different story. “The line that describes the beautiful is elliptical. It has simplicity and […]

The brightest “planetary nebula” is actually a Sun-like star in its final death throes! “When he shall die,Take him and cut him out in little stars,And he will make the face […]

“Sure, today’s Olympics are corrupt, rife with cheating, and riddled with scandal, but at least today’s games aspire to the noble ideals of the ancient Greeks—amateurism, fair play, and peace,” […]

This week, we witnessed another step in the Republican party’s long drawn-out national suicide: “I’ve struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life […]

Here is the story of how far the argument against marriage equality has come, and how feeble it has become, in three steps.

By Rick Popely Someday, personal transportation may be in automated vehicles that drive themselves and run on electricity or an alternative fuel. But for the foreseeable future, most Americans will rely […]

Students at a small, liberal-arts college complained to Mitt Romney about borrowing money to pursue a college major that doesn’t lead to a job.  He replied, sensibly, that some majors have […]

The GOP has a long tradition by which its most educated members criticize the “intellectual elite.” But the conservative brain trust seems to have run dry, with criticism approaching caricature. 

by Nika Sabasteanski (guest blogger) Immanuel Kant proposes a one-ingredient recipe for enlightenment: freedom. Provide individuals with the freedom to use public rationality, give them the tools to escape their […]

Rick Santorum had a great day on Tuesday, winning the Republican primaries in both Alabama and Mississippi—a state in which no poll had shown Santorum in the lead. Newt Gingrich, […]