Emotion’s Alchemy
Feature / by / March 30, 2010
New insights into the science of emotion unravel the seeming neurological magic that turns emotions into social expressions.
Now In Ideas
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Five Centuries of Influenza
Historical records show that flu pandemics have been occurring for at least 500 years. Researchers are now studying these historical pandemics to help prevent future disease.
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The Revenge of Comic Sans
New research suggests that less-legible, less-elegant fonts might actually promote better recall of information. Dave Munger examines the evidence.
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The Power of the People
Dave Munger test-drives two newly unveiled tools for understanding vast sets of cultural and scientific data.
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Toxic House Cats?
Up to half of all humans are infected by a cat-borne parasite that can cause stillbirth, brain damage, and a host of other subtle neurological effects. Is vaccination the solution?
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The Improvisational Brain
Watching a musician in the throes of an improvisational solo can be like witnessing an act of divine intervention. But embedded memories and conspiring brain regions, scientists now believe, are the true source of ad-hoc creativity.
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Death for “Arsenic-Based Life”?
A hotly anticipated announcement last week from NASA that scientists had discovered an exotic form of life ended up revealing more about science journalism than astrobiology.
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The Human Animal
The special bond that often forms between people and both domesticated and wild animals may be, paradoxically, part of what makes us human.
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All-Natural, All-Toxic
Scientists are beginning to understand the surprising evolutionary mechanisms that allow poisonous creatures to evolve and flourish.
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The Second-Place Sex
Why chess may be an ideal laboratory for investigating gender gaps in science and beyond.
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Redefining “Mental Illness”
As consensus emerges on the physical basis of mental illness, the mental-health community is fracturing over what, exactly, constitutes “mental illness” in the first place.
Ideas
Full Steam Ahead on CS-STEM
By imagining, drawing, and building original videogames, Globaloria students have been boldly demonstrating how art and design and creative cognition can re-ignite STEM learning.
Ideas
The Art of Science Learning
It's no secret: American children are behind in math and science, and falling faster by the year. For a group of innovative thinkers gathering in Washington DC, restoring "STEM" in America must go beyond multiplication drills, beyond the latest in computer apps. It's time to re-imagine science learning altogether, they say: it's time for wood and clay, watercolor and chalk.
Opinion
Buddhism and the Brain
Many of Buddhism’s core tenets significantly overlap with findings from modern neurology and neuroscience. So how did Buddhism come close to getting the brain right?
Research Blogging
Wild Animal Sex
New research in birds, reptiles, and insects is redefining “normal” sexual behavior, revealing that gender-bending, promiscuous, and dangerous sex isn’t limited to humans.
Now on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
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Ideas
I Tried Almost Everything Else
John Rinn, snowboarder, skateboarder, and “genomic origamist,” on why we should dumpster-dive in our genomes and the inspiration of a middle-distance runner.
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Ideas
Going, Going, Gone
The second most common element in the universe is increasingly rare on Earth—except, for now, in America.
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Ideas
Earth-like Planets Aren’t Rare
Renowned planetary scientist James Kasting on the odds of finding another Earth-like planet and the power of science fiction.
