Pause and Effect: How to Stop Jumping to Conclusions
A sociologist offers hope for finding better solutions to complex problems by asking better questions about causation.
science
It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature: ‘Against the Anthropocene’
Scientists have argued for a new period in Earth’s geological history, the Anthropocene. Cultural critic T.J. Demos offers a critical take on the concept, pros and cons.
Alan Alda’s ‘If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?’
Alan Alda wonders, could scientists become more personable and available if they studied the art of improvisation?
Trumpaholism, or, Is “Liquor Before Beer, Never Fear” a Piece of Fake News?
How I worry when I drink, and why Distilled Knowledge is diffuse knowledge.
Nutty Professors? The Case for Scientist-Humorists in the Culture Wars
It's time for the personalities of the science community to emerge from their labs and to get into the ring.
‘Meathooked’ Gets Hung-Up on Its Own Problems
Beneath a thin veneer of science journalism lies a vegetarian manifesto in Marta Zarasta’s Meathooked.
Lil Bub: Science and Magic: A Soundtrack To The Universe
Occasionally a record comes along that reminds us that there is beauty in the world that only the pure of heart can make us see. This is that record, a perfect capsule of hope for the young and old.
‘Houston, We Have A Narrative: Why Science Needs Story’ — Just Not This Story
Houston, do we have a problem?
In ‘The Fly Trap’ Fredrik Sjöberg Writes Much Like His Subjects Behave
If Sjöberg's stylistic tics are an impediment to real investigation, they at least provide an aesthetic pleasure all their own.
On Chasing an Enemy That’s Too Small to See
Confronting Contagion tries to capture the 3,000-year history behind a modern scientific breakthrough: the discovery that tiny organisms invade our bodies and make us sick.
Has AIDS Been Lurking Amongst Us Since the ’50s?
Many shoddy theories exist about the origins and evolution HIV/AIDS. Dorothy Crawford's work examines both in great, nail-biting detail.
What Is Permissible in the Name of Science, Wartime Expediency, and National Security?
"Our Germans beat their Germans," someone quipped when Wernher von Braun's team of rocketeers put Americans on the Moon, but Operation Paperclip reveals that US involvement with ex-Nazi scientists was far deeper, and far darker.