The Scale of the Universe. Move the slider both ways, and explore. ... more

10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You . ... more

Ancient Sleep in Modern Times: Breaking a night's sleep into two pieces may not be a sign of insomnia but of a natural sleep pattern bubbling to the surface. ... more

Food & Addiction: Can some foods hijack the brain? ... more

Who's in Control?: How physics and billogy dictate your "free" will. ... more

Sleep on It: How Snoozing Makes You Smarter: During slumber, our brain engages in data analysis, from strengthening memories to solving problems. ... more

Caffeine: Most people rely on caffeine to stay alert. But the latest research suggests that it does far more — lowering the risk of Parkinson's disease and gallstones, for example, and increasing the risk of miscarriages and migraines. ... more

Cardio Quiz: Use Your Head to Protect Your Heart: By the age of 40, your odds of having coronary heart disease are one out of three if you're a woman and one out of two if you're a man. Each minute, another American will die of a heart attack. ... take the quiz

Creating Our Own Meaning, by Michio Kaku: Ultimately, I believe the very existence of a single equation that can describe the entire universe in an orderly, harmonious fashion implies a design of some sort. However, I do not believe that this design gives personal meaning to humanity. No matter how dazzling or elegant the final formulation of physics may be, it will not uplift the spirits of billions and give the emotional fulfillment. No magic formula coming from cosmology and physics will enthrall the masses and enrich their spiritual lives. ... more

So, What Made Me an Addict? by Maia Szalavitz: Many people think they know what addiction is, but despite non-experts' willingness to opine on its treatment and whether Britney or Lindsay's rehab was tough enough, the term is still a battleground. Is addiction a disease? A moral weakness? A disorder caused by drug or alcohol use, or a compulsive behavior that can also occur in relation to sex, food and maybe even video games? ... more

ENVY is
The Green Glance
ENVY is always most intense when it is experienced laterally, not, as we would expect, when it is experienced vertically — that is, when it is inspired by someone we perceived as a peer rather than someone higher on the economic food chain, whose good fortune stirs only theoretical forms of resentment. The maid does not envy her mistress her jewels, she envies the housekeeper her keys. What’s more, envy is so compartmentalized that one profession seldom envies another: The lawyer does not envy the physician, the used-car salesman the mail carrier, the grease monkey the florist. Instead, envy might be thought of as the opposite of xenophobia, of the hatred of strangers; it is the hatred of one’s own, of one’s cohorts, one’s brothers and sisters, Cain’s hate of Abel, Salieri’s of Mozart, Tonya Hardings’s of Nancy Kerrigan.
—Daniel Harris, essayist and critic, in The Antioch Review [Fall 2004]

Is There Anything Good About Men? by Roy F. Baumeister: You’re probably thinking that a talk called “Is there anything good about men” will be a short talk! Recent writings have not had much good to say about men. Titles like “Men Are Not Cost Effective” speak for themselves. Maureen Dowd’s book was called “Are Men Necessary?” and although she never gave an explicit answer, anyone reading the book knows her answer was no. Brizendine’s book “The Female Brain” introduces itself by saying, “Men, get ready to experience brain envy.” Imagine a book advertising itself by saying that women will soon be envying the superior male brain! ... more

Minding our health, by Katharine Mieszkowski: If chemo fails, there's always positive thinking, or so we'd like to believe. Medical historian Anne Harrington looks at our persistent faith in curing ourselves. ... more

Scientists Test New Bipolar Remedies, by Malcolm Ritter: Scientists are casting a wide net to find better treatments for the crushing depression and uncontrolled manias of bipolar disorder, and some approaches they're testing seem pretty surprising. ... more

In Obesity Epidemic, Many Now Turn to Surgery, by Jane E. Brody: Over the course of a decade, despite trying every conceivable healthy way to lose weight and to keep it off, Sharon Clapp watched with alarm as her weight soared to 320 pounds from 220. ... more

Growing Up to Prozac, by Tina Hesman Saey: Peter Pan won't be pleased to hear the latest theory about how Prozac works. A new study shows that the antidepressant stimulates growth of neurons in the hippocampus and speeds the young brain cells toward maturity. The maturation process could be the mechanism by which the drug relieves depression. ... more

The Psychology of Creativity: redeeming our inner demons ; an interview with Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D., by Douglas Eby: Clinical and forensic psychologist, Dr. Stephen Diamond works with many talented individuals committed to becoming more creative. "Creativity," he states, " is one of humankind's healthiest inclinations, one of our greatest attributes." ... more