Pope Francis' message on the environment is actually a radical call for humans to accept a more modest material lifestyle, and for a major redistribution of the world's wealth and power. That's great stuff for a sermon, but not so helpful as a practical guide for achievable change.

Lisa Bodell, founder of the innovation research and training firm futurethink, explains that with the right knowledge and tools, everyone has the power to innovate.

What would you do? Imagine you’re a politically conservative, devoutly religious art dealer fleeing your war-torn country when you suddenly see art radically unlike anything you’ve seen before. Do you stay the course or gamble on this next “big thing”? Now add the sudden death of your pregnant young wife, which leaves you with five children under the age of nine whose futures now depend entirely on your choices. Do you roll the dice with your life and theirs? If you’re Paul Durand-Ruel and that artist is Claude Monet, the original Impressionist, you don't just make that bet; you go “all in” — staking your family’s fortunes to those of a family of revolutionary artists. The exhibition Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting, currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, goes “all in” with Durand-Ruel’s gamble and pays off big with a stirring tale of personal courage and art history in the making.

No horror movie scenarios ensued.

This is really happening. And solar power is the key.

When we say prostitution is a scourge on society, we typically mean (without knowing it) that able-bodied people have better alternatives.

On this week's Tuesdays With Bill, Rachel, a Columbia University student, asks two questions for the price of one: What would happen if a human being went the speed of light, and why don't we just eject our trash into outer space?

Researchers found kids will assault a robot, even when it pleads for its abusers to stop.

Pope Francis's moving plea to save life on Earth from a dystopian future calls on people to sacrifice some material comfort, live more modestly, and recognize that we share a common home and have a responsibility to the future. Given the nature of the human instinct to survive and prioritize ourselves over others and the immediate over the future ... good luck with that, your Holiness.

Meet the mischievous computer whizzes who started it all.

Help enact behavioral change by adding a step on the scale to your daily routine and charting your progress.

Catch MIT scientist Sara Seager take you to the cutting edge and into the future, with a live blog (plus commentary) right here! “Hundreds or thousands of years from now, […]

Spiral galaxies have a skeleton-like structure that supports them. See the Milky Way’s first discovered bone! “The progress of science is strewn, like an ancient desert trail, with the bleached […]

Our anger over the murder of nine black church-going individuals in South Carolina is real and justified, but is it useful?

A whole new Jurassic World, where Disney princesses meet velociraptors. “A princess is many things, and a raptor is one of them.” -Laura Cooper It’s important to take time every […]

Words of wisdom from Cuban national hero José Martí: "A knowledge of different literatures is the best way to free one's self from the tyranny of any of them."

If you have to say "never forget," you've probably already forgotten.

What makes a great artist? According to French writer Émile Zola, it's talent coupled with tenacity.

"If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way."

Words of wisdom from the great composer and pioneer of ethnomusicology: "Competitions are for horses, not artists."