In 1543, Polish astronomer and mathematician Copernicus published a then-radical theory, carefully timed just before his death: the Renai...

StartFragment What makes the human brain so, well, human? It’s not purely a matter of size—from studying the cranial cavities of Neandert...

Given that a good reporter is supposed to be both truthful and balanced, how should journalists cover an issue when opposing camps refuse...

Scientists trying to get to the core of creativity encounter a very basic problem at the outset. Unlike, say, size, or time, creativity i...

Even if you from time to time think about your neurons, those little chemical-electrical switches that dictate your mental and physical a...

The human brain is one of the true wonders of the world; after all, it contained the source material for building each of the seven famou...

Have you ever wondered how your brain and your smartphone's operating systems compare? After all, people commonly draw analogies between ...

Imagine waking up in a hospital room, unable to move. You can hear the doctor telling someone that they're not sure what level of brain f...

The American Heart Institute estimates that 1 in 6 Americans currently have metabolic syndrome—and it's likely almost none of them know i...

What do you and your cat have in common? Well, one possibility is a unicellular organism called Toxoplasma gondii. There are roughly 7 bi...

Western medicine prides itself on the ability to diagnose and treat a variety of maladies that a very short time ago were considered fata...

Ants are amazing. They can carry 50 times their body weight. Their total biomass worldwide equals the total biomass of humans. Fungus ant...

The Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci guaranteed his immortality when he literally put his name on the map—at least, if ...

General George B. “Little Mac” McClellan was the Union force commander during the Civil War. Beloved by his men, and a stickler for train...

In January of 2013, I wrote a post on one of neuroscience’s most famous cases. New details make it necessary to retell the story. It’s th...

How do I know Thanksgiving is over? I simply look out the back window of my home to witness the brilliant array of Christmas lights. To b...

I’m writing to you from Shanghai tonight, a city of contradictions where it’s just as likely you’ll find a person on their Macbook Air as...

Mickey Mouse is far more formidable than you might imagine. It’s no secret that Walt Disney has built an entire empire––or kingdom, if yo...

The airlines have an interesting policy. Unofficially, it’s called the 1% Defection Rule, and it goes something like this. Imagine that y...