Professor Saul Levmore looks at the origins and tools of economics, using examples like "Why do we download from iTunes?" "Why does a house costs more than a cookie?" and "Why would a King behead his subjects for saving coins?"

The news is the latest in a series of escalating business deals in the wake of the Obama administration's announcement in December that the U.S. and Cuba would pursue full relations for the first time in 54 years. 

Some supposed rationalists would have us believe we are ill-fated idiots. An ancient Greek myth of Prometheus can help us see how to avert this modern tragedy of reason (whereby a sub-natural view of rationality risks making ancient idiots of us).

"There's a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words."

Without this one piece of the puzzle, everything we know falls apart. “Is no one inspired by our present picture of the Universe? This value of science remains unsung by […]

The Icelandic government is considering a radical financial shift that would effectively end banking as we know it.

Research shows that kids who get to school under their own steam enjoy learning benefits in the classroom. Unfortunately, varying social factors and infrastructural limitations often make such commutes difficult, if not impossible.

Behind every behavior there are four potential explanations: It’s been done to solve a tangible and practical problem. It’s a habit (and thus an automatic response to a cue). It’s […]

The genius of meetings at the office, and other forms of communal decision-making, is that everyone can bring their unique knowledge to bear on a specific problem.

Steel yourself before a job interview — research shows nervous, slow-talkers tend to not get the gig.

Beards are badges of symbolic honor that, by expressing dominance, help men to compete for female suitors.

Giving others credit when it isn’t due may sound counterintuitive, but it is what skilled managers and leaders do. The principle applies to people who work for us as much […]

"We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That's a clear prescription for disaster."

Professor Steven Pinker illustrates how the study of linguistics can give us a rare window into the conscious mind.

Professor Tamar Gendler uses the work of three titans of the discipline — Thomas Hobbes, John Rawls, and Robert Nozick — as a lens to guide us through the taut debate over the role of government in society.

What if we could find one single equation that explains every force in the universe? Professor Michio Kaku explores how physics could potentially shrink the science of the big bang into an equation as small as E=mc².

In his lecture, Professor Joel Cohen teaches you how demography can provide answers to the life or death questions caused by the world's swelling population and dwindling resources.

He hasn’t shot an episode of Let’s Make a Deal for decades, but Monty Hall’s name still graces a statistical brouhaha from the early 1990s, and the drama he cultivated on […]

Biomechanical scientists have created a simple device that can increase walking efficiency, or "human gas mileage," by an average of 7 percent when worn around the ankle. 

Best-selling author Kabir Sehgal explores the future of money during the age of space tourism and explains why it's better to pay attention to predictions of science-fiction than those of economists.