When we look at the sculpture of Auguste Rodin, we can’t help but feel what his figures feel. Every inch of those sculpted bodies “speaks” the language of passion, whether […]

A.k.a. Black Hat Land

It is no secret that the late rock musician Kurt Cobain felt alienated growing up. But a recently released animated video, which illustrates a lost interview he gave in 1993, reveals surprising insights about the rage he felt as a teenager and how he came to express it in punk rock. 

Dr. Pattberg explains why certain Chinese words are mandatory for global citizenship. 

Public health campaigns have been ineffective. So the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation issued a grand challenge to design "a next-generation condom that significantly preserves or enhances pleasure."

My students looked a little funny this morning. Nails were brighter, curls were bouncier, rumples were sparser and a few young men even sported ties. Today was senior portrait day, […]

The FCC is considering a proposal that would allow "airborne calls and cellular data use by passengers once a flight reaches 10,000 feet," while maintaining restrictions during takeoff and landing.

Have we already reached peak car? This is the term that urban planners are using to describe the decline in vehicle miles traveled per person. 

We are so conditioned to relating to others in adversarial terms that we seldom think of how futile that is as an everyday code of conduct. 

      I just read an alarming piece on what the world will look like, possibly soon, when the efficacy of our current arsenal of antibiotics really starts to fade. There […]

An oyster reef costs about the same amount of money - $1 million per mile - as a seawall. But when you consider other factors outside of cost, the oyster reef wins by a mile.  

An oyster reef costs about the same amount of money - $1 million per mile - as a sea wall. So as an infrastructure investment, it's a tie. But when […]

When I say “visual communications,” you might think I’m referring to video conferencing, which has been around for a long time and is most often used by executives in large […]

For younger Americans, the President might very well be most vividly remembered for the way he died.

In 2014, voters in Switzerland will decide whether their country should send a monthly check for $2,800 to every Swiss citizen and legal resident. This idea may never fly in […]

The mission would have to take advantage of next alignment of Earth and Mars, which occurs in 2017. Miss that window and we'll have to wait another 15 years to take advantage of the orbital dynamics of the planets, which significantly reduce the distance and cost of the trip. 

While harkening back to our hunter-gather ancestors may be good nutrition, it’s not necessarily good thinking. 

Early humans lived in a world that one evolutionary geneticist compared to the fantasy world of Lord of the Rings. Not only were there many hominid populations, but these populations interbred, contributing to the genetic diversity of modern humans.

This image is an artist's illustration of the 4U1630-47 star system featuring powerful jets emanating from a black hole candidate that is just a few times the mass of our sun. So what type of matter is contained in these jets?  

Neuroscientist Christof Koch proposes that consciousness is to be found in complex systems all around us. Therefore a dog, or a smaller animal like an earthworm, or even the Internet, all possess consciousness.