Right Now
Why Taxi Drivers Don’t Die of Alzheimer’s
Explaining taxi and ambulance drivers’ protection against Alzheimer’s disease.
by Erin O'Donnell
The Early Days of the H-bomb
If we build it, we lay the groundwork for acts of mass destruction and violence toward mankind. But if we don't build it, we leave ourselves...
by Elizabeth Gudrais
"Hypochondria of the Heart"
In 1688 a Swiss doctor, Johannes Hofer, identified a new medical syndrome, nostalgia: "the sad mood originating from the desire for return...
by Craig Lambert
Shakespeare's "Tenth Muse"?
Illustration by Bartek Malysa Perhaps the second-most-cultivated plant in Elizabethan England, after wheat, was hemp--Cannabis sativa...
by Craig Lambert
Exploding Evolution
Evolution will occur wherever organisms display variation, differences in fitness, and the capacity for inheritance. Humans have always sped up...
by Craig Lambert
Locking Down Crime?
If a nation's crime rate is any measure of its gentility, the United States is getting downright civilized. From 1990 to 1999, crime--which for...
Snap Judgments Work!
An attentive glance, an affirming nod, a warm smile--these may sound like the makings of a love sonnet...
by Harbour Fraser ...
Prosperity and the Pill
Hailed as a medical miracle, the birth-control pill has been lauded and vilified for its virtually fail-safe powers as an oral contraceptive...
The Brain at Midlife
Researcher Francine Benes has penetrated a "blind spot" in neuroscience. Photograph by Tracy Powell Those of you...
by Elizabeth Gudrais
The Cosmic Antipode
Astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) presented data that strongly suggest the existence of an "event horizon"--the black hole's one-way boundary from which nothing, not even light, can escape.
The Deadliest War
Drew Faust speaks on how the Civil War’s astounding death toll reshaped American society.
by Craig Lambert