Social Science
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Why Do We Believe?
March 10, 2010
Science is developing new insights into how religious beliefs may have evolved, but often the research brings up more questions than it answers.
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A Sober Assessment
March 03, 2010
Alcohol is an important part of life in many cultures throughout the world, but there are many misperceptions about this common social lubricant.
public perception, research, research blogging, social science
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Mosquito Noses and Baby Brains
February 23, 2010
In this week's Findings Log, we examine new research that studies mosquitoes' sense of smell, bilingual babies, brain-computer interfaces, and more.
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Seed Salon: Fowler + Barabási
January 21, 2010
Connected coauthor James Fowler sat down with physicist Albert-László Barabási to discuss what Facebook says about our real-world relationships and the delicate interplay between networks and human behavior.
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TV’s Unintended Consequences
December 23, 2009
The proliferation of passive sedentary activities like television viewing has led to inactive lifestyles and decreased physical fitness. But can TV positively affect health as well?
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Winds of Change
December 21, 2009
The stories we tell provide us with a record of our continuing struggle to understand the peculiar effects weather has on our lives.
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Search Me
December 11, 2009
Amid a roll-out of a number of new features, Google’s biggest change went largely unnoticed, even though it could further fragment our shared pool of knowledge.
bias, climate, consensus, information, social science, week in review
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Hair Raiser
November 20, 2009
Malcolm Gladwell and Steven Pinker duel over balancing scientific rigor with relatable narrative, while the future of personal genomics goes under the microscope.
biotechnology, communication, social science, week in review
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Perfect Strangers
November 16, 2009
The eerie emotional response brought on by near-duplicates of our selves raises interesting questions about perception and expectations.
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Altruism vs. Selfishness
September 26, 2009
The idea that evolution explains selfishness well and altruism poorly is starting to stink. Can we please bury it now?
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Survival of the Kindest
September 24, 2009
In his new book, The Age of Empathy, Frans de Waal outlines an alternative to “Nature, red in tooth and claw.” Can a vision of a more empathic world change the way we behave toward each other?
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Designing Responsible Behavior
August 24, 2009
We visit the somewhat chaotic desk of an industrial designer who is leveraging the power of design to convince people to live greener lives.
decision making, design, innovation, social science, workbench
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Truth or Lies
August 17, 2009
A new study raises the question of whether being honest is a conscious decision at all.
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Did Cooking Make Us Human?
June 09, 2009
A new book argues that cooked food is the key to our evolution. Did it also enable pair bonding and the concept of ownership?
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The New Interface of Governance
June 02, 2009
If we can just tweak the way we make choices, we can make smarter ones. A look at Obama’s plans to put the science of human nature to work.
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The Last Experiment
April 22, 2009
It’s up to social science to make us act in an environmentally conscious way. But can we trick ourselves into saving ourselves?
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I Can’t Believe It’s Science (for July 9, 2007)
July 10, 2007
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I Can’t Believe It’s Science (for June 18, 2007)
June 18, 2007
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I Can’t Believe it’s Science (for June 4, 2007)
June 04, 2007
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I Can’t Believe It’s Science (for May 28, 2007)
May 29, 2007
Now on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
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World
Press Gang
With New York City about to let bloggers qualify for press passes, a look at what breaking down the walls between old and new media means for science reporting.
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Culture
The Ancient, Distant, and Dead
Inspired by scientific research, Katie Paterson creates art based on data from faraway melting glaciers, long-dead stars, and the initial moments of the universe.
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Ideas
A Sober Assessment
Alcohol is an important part of life in many cultures throughout the world, but there are many misperceptions about this common social lubricant.
