The Present

How does our perception of social status relate to health and success?

Tesla's Elon Musk gives a grave warning to those trying to hold back self-driving car technology. According to him, we have it all backwards.

Some patients who went through gender reassignment surgery reported feeling just as out of place. A few were even suicidal. 

A new study from Cornell University shows how metaphors influence our ability to be impressed by genius and uncovers a gender hook – it seems we prefer to conceive of male genius as an exciting idea explosion, and female genius as a long, hard labor of hard work. 

How do we make fair contracts? These guys figured it out, and their work has implications in ethical and business questions about companies like Enron and privatized prisons.

Will this EU power be the first to prove that a modern, industrialized nation can make major shifts towards cleaner, greener energy without catastrophe?

Find a penny, pick it up, all year long, you'll have that f*cking penny. There is a mounting consensus that the US should retire its tiniest coin. 

Two billionaires are apparently funding research into how we can escape the simulation they believe we’re trapped in.

People tend to believe that learning in the style they feel best suited to makes them soak up information more efficiently. This study debunks that belief.

The question isn't, "Are you a narcissist?" — it's "Which type are you?"

The CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation lays out three tools to boost innovative ideas and re-draw the frontiers of business and creativity.

Has the oldest problem in the book become taboo again? C. Nicole Mason expresses concern over a nation-wide moral failure that is leaving the U.S.'s most vulnerable to struggle in silence.

The average person checks their phone 200 times a day. It borders on addiction for some, but according to cyberpsychologist Mary Aiken there are easy ways to unlearn this compulsion.

Swiping a bank card and Venmo-ing your friends has made money more abstract than ever – and therefore so much easier to thoughtlessly spend. A proposed new tech device would make cash-free purchases tactile again.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes a species of bumble bee – the rusty patched bumble bee – should be under federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.  

Researchers at MIT have developed a system that can read a person's emotions, even hidden ones, at a distance.

Job automation won't be as bad as we think, so we need to learn how to stop working and prepare so we're not dragged into the future kicking and screaming.    

There is software that can track drones in open areas, but none that can do so in tight-knit, urban ones.   

Earners keepers? According to Larry Kudlow, there's a secret history behind the US's history of tax reduction and it involves John F. Kennedy.

As a society we place a high value on the practical nature of science and business degrees. But what about the practical nature of the humanities? 

Do you think it's fair that corporations can move their offices offshore to avoid tax bills? 

Female political aides in the White House have banded together and are using a combo-technique of amplification and 'shine theory' to make sure their voices are counted.   

Here’s why your wife won’t let you forget that stupid thing you did 6 months ago.  

Soon after the 9/11 attacks, the Library of Congress started to gather pictures, photographs, poems and other material for preservation. 

The North Korean government bans sarcastic speech against itself or Kim Jong-un. 

1 in 3 people over the age of 65 live alone in the United States, and by age 85 it's 1 in 2. Loneliness is an epidemic. Here's how to fight it.

Turns out simplicity is really, really complicated. Having worked with Steve Jobs for years as an advertising creative director on Apple products, Ken Segall has taken a blood oath to uphold the principles of simplicity.

Recent research in psychology reveals insights into how the stories we are exposed to affect our identities and ideas. What implications does this hold for the influence of the news and the ethics of journalism?

Rumors of a terrorist gunman escalated at LAX. A panicked crowd trampled an old woman, snapping her femur. In our best Dick Cheney voice: "If you allow blind fear to disrupt society, the terrorists have already won."

Do you know how your iPhone works? Because cybercriminals do. Futurist and global security advisor Marc Goodman explains how our void in tech knowledge lets hackers have a field day, and how to make yourself less vulnerable.