nautil.us

As a paleoclimatologist, I often find myself wondering why more people aren't listening to the warnings, the data, the messages.

The rise and fall of the claustrum epitomizes the hunt for consciousness in the brain.

If a headless worm can regrow a memory, then where is the memory stored? And, if a memory can regenerate, could you transfer it?

Where might the US be if it heeded her discovery of global warming's source?

The plan may sound "fanciful," but researchers say a miniature magnetosphere could be used to protect humans and spacecraft.

In the Netherlands, people have been seeking out windy exercise for more than a hundred years. Today, the practice is so common that it's known as "uitwaaien."

Plants communicate, nurture their seedlings, and have emotional responses. Why isn't this broader knowledge?

Emerging bio-, nano-, and cyber-technologies are enabling criminals to target anyone anywhere.

It's time to give the violent metaphors of evolution a break.

We're not as bad as the headlines make us out to be.

What our experiment in the desert taught us about social networks and human cooperation.

Mark Beeman and his colleagues found that people are more likely to maintain broader attention and solve problems when they're in a positive mood.

A few summers ago, Stefano Piraino was walking along the rocky shoreline on a small island off the coast of Sicily when he spotted a washed up jellyfish. Naturally, he tore a piece off and popped it into his mouth.

Living in China with the app that knows everything about me.

William Labov took something as small as one letter and showed how a subtle detail of our language could tell who we are.

Can birds on different branches of the evolutionary tree really be part of the same species? The answer depends on what you mean by "species."

The modern world has made kindness harder. Empathy has dwindled steadily, especially in the 21st century. The average person in 2009 was less empathic than 75 percent of people in 1979.

Modern American society, and Western societies more generally, tend to look back on ancient Rome as the pinnacle of Western civilization. We emulate their institutions and cultural practices. Why? Are they worth it?

The great irony of black holes is that, in all the decades that we astrophysicists have talked about them, we never had any direct observational evidence for them. Until now.