Dr. Stone explains what motivates men who commit serial sexual homicide and whether or not they are born evil.

Thanks to MRI and fMRI bran scans, we now know much more about how damage to or deficiencies in certain parts of the brain may underlie "evil" behavior.

Evil is so subjective that what we perceive as evil, Islamic terrorists do not, says Stone. But we can all agree that Bernie Madoff is evil.

Some children—thankfully few—are born without a conscience or the ability to feel compassion.

We’re all guilty of a little Facebook stalking now and then, but the men Stone describes are driven to extreme lengths by their obsessions.

Psychiatrist Michael Stone explains his 22-point scale of evil, ranging from justified homicide to crimes so shocking and unspeakable they "take your breath away."

An interview with the Columbia University forensic psychiatrist.

In describing economic growth, some economists ask how much our mental states have to do with how the economy functions. Trust, for example, is heralded as a necessity for transactions to occur.

Besides dampening the spirit, when a person experiences racist thoughts and feelings, stress hormones rush the body, the heart pumps harder and the blood vessels constrict.

While scientists often leave their religious beliefs at the door, it is much harder to abandon one's philosophical beliefs, which are equally unproven yet influence science to a high degree.

The error of the Chicago school was that it fixed reality around its economic theories of the rational consumer and producer. We should begin with irrational reality and proceed from there.

As metaphors for the mind go, one researcher at Stanford says our brains function much more like search engines than computers. We are more probabilistic than deterministic, she says.

Why did modernism skip England? One academic asks why a people so close to the Second World War cling to their outmoded literary traditions while the world around them has progressed.

Public intellectual and Postwar European historian Tony Judt should be remembered for his consummate political stance: an ardent defense of the welfare state until his last moments.

156 years since Thoreau published 'Walden', his criticism of technology remains as vital as ever. Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic says we need reminding how to use technology well.

Fats, oils and grease are increasingly reprocessed into biofeuls, a method that was put on display when a giant butter sculpture of Benjamin Franklin was melted and made into diesel.

The net neutrality framework laid out by Google and Verizon exempts wireless networks from rules that would govern broadband service and allows providers to set up Internet 'toll lanes'.

Is it possible that it is not yet boring to talk about the end of books, the end of literature, the increasingly (at once obsessive and trite) making rare of […]

It’s been over four decades since Greenland lost an ice chunk like the one “born” last week. The ice island – four times the size of Manhattan – calved off […]

Liberal eugenics and morality-enhancing drugs could combat amoral and anti-social character traits, and could foster the sort of cooperation that will be necessary for tackling global issues that threaten our race.