Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Writer Ariel Levy on the silence around the animal facts of women's physical lives, her comically awkward experience with the shamanic hallucinogen Ayahuasca, and much more.   

It’s not too late to change course, but we’re headed in the wrong direction faster than ever now. “Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,For strip-mined mountain’s majesty above the asphalt […]

Can democracy remain vibrant if the public, and especially children, don't have the tools to distinguish sense from nonsense?

Known as Cunningham's Law, it is the assertion that "the best way to get a right answer on the internet is to post a wrong answer." It turns out our impulse to correct a wrong online may outweigh our desire to merely give answers. 

It’s durable, exponentially scalable, and it’ll last millennia, if not millions of years.  

That's a big yes, as an incredible new study from University of Melbourne researchers found.

New study suggests chronic sleep-deprivation causes overactivity in the brain’s self-cleaning mechanism, leading to the destruction of healthy cells.

NASA’s Earth observing missions aren’t the only casualty. Arguably, eliminating education is even more egregious. “First Rate People hire first rate people. Second rate people hire third rate people.” –Hermann […]

NASA announces the details of its mission to the sun, set to launch in 2018.

Career global security expert Richard Clarke identifies three potential game changing events that could adversely affect the wellbeing of humanity itself.

Hitler appeared to have been highly sensitive to disgust, and research shows this trait is linked to numerous dimensions of ideology.

Some scientists posit that our brains are actually quantum computers.  

A new study from the Netherlands shows a direct link between exercise and anxiety disorder and depression. 

When Shoshana Johnson decided to join the military, her intention wasn’t to make history. 

It's not the ice that turns Greenland white, but the lack of data

Did you guess ‘resonance’? Guess again. “At least six lamp posts were snapped off while I watched. A few minutes later, I saw a side girder bulge out. But, though the […]

A recent study shows that migrant workers in the U.K. are three times less likely to be absent from work than their native counterparts.

Communication is more than a string of words that gets across static information. The language we use to converse does more than give facts—it can actually offer understanding.

The gluten free trend is growing. Does the science behind it hold up? 

Is the idea of “choice” real or is choice just an idea in our heads? Are our brains inventing our own answers before we’ve even thought them through? The answer might surprise you.