Paying individuals more money has long been seen as an acceptable and effective way of motivating them to do better work, but recent research highlights the limits of money as motivator.

The poet Christian Wiman has written a careful, probing, and spiritual account of his rare, incurable and unpredictable cancer. His point of view is that of the modern day believer.

Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University hope to begin testing an HIV vaccine on humans in just a few years, thanks to an innovative approach which helps the body's immune system target the evasive virus.

While medical literature commonly identifies race as an independent risk factor for certain diseases, such an emphasis may obfuscate the search for more significant causes of illness.

If you are young and healthy, then obesity, which causes problems in 15 or 20 years, is relevant. With age, though, the balance may tip in favor of extra weight to fight ill health. 

Only recently did Michael Pollan, the country's most popular food writer, become comfortable in the kitchen. Now he has written a new book about the importance of cooking and family eating.

A recent report authored by the UN's Food and Agricultural Agency argues that overcoming our squeamishness about eating protein-rich bugs may make the crucial difference in overcoming global hunger.

While film making has become increasingly decentralized, Hollywood is dreaming as big as ever. Several movie studios are set to begin massive expansion projects to attract new talent. 

Recovering from debt means, of course, saving money rather than spending it. So growth that was fueled by debt accumulation not only halts, but is no longer supported by capital flow. 

Ever the lightening rod for public controversy, the opening of a Barbie Dream House in the center of Berlin provided occasion for protest and reflection on sexism and the state of capitalism. 

For the past five years, the Catholic presence has been expanding dramatically on the Internet, through a new generation of bloggers who are happy to lobby for the Pope and Christian values.

Globalization has resulted in a call for a global ethics, one in which all the people of the world are considered part of the human family. Unfortunately, empathy does not function on such a large scale.

A partnership between Google and NASA has resulted in the purchase of a quantum computer which both organizations expect to aid in the development of artificial intelligence, specifically machine learning.

Highly abstract thinking represents a cultural adaptation to the complexity of modern technological society, but the complexity of contemporary life is not evenly distributed. 

People who live one standard deviation above the green space mean experience a decrease in mental distress that is about one-third as large as the difference between being single and being married.

A team of scientists from Oxford University have shown that zapping the brain with electrical impulses improves its ability to complete mathematical problems in the short and long term.

Computer scientists and artificial intelligence experts say that a project to create digital roundworms represents an essential stepping stone toward the fusion of life and non-life.

While only three percent of the world's surface is covered by urban landscapes, more than half of the human population lives in city environments. That's changing human culture as well as human biology.

Pediatricians are encouraging children to play more video games, as long as those games run on consuls that depend on body movement, such as Xbox-Kinect and Wii, to move the game forward.

Biologists at Princeton and Johns Hopkins universities have created an artificial human ear—using a three-dimensional printer, no less—that detects sound better than natural human ears.