We like to believe that a few bad apples spoil the virtuous bunch. But research shows that everyone cheats a little—right up to the point where they lose their sense of integrity Dan Ariely, author of the new book, “The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty,” explains why   Not...

In the 17th century, the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes famously argued that, “the mind or soul of man is entirely different from the body.” With this move, Descartes forever enshrined himself as a dualist. Modern science tells us that Descartes was wrong; our bodies...

Modern humans have created many thousands of distinct cultures. So what will it mean if globalization turns us into one giant, homogenous world culture?   Stroll into your local Starbucks and you will find yourself part of a cultural experiment on a scale never seen before on this planet....

David Eagleman‘s Laboratory for Perception is located on the ground floor of Baylor University’s Ben Taub Medical Center, but the vibe is more creative think tank than clinical academic enclave. The walls are enamelled in dry-erase paint and marked up with impromptu sketches,...

It is gratifying when people see you just as you want to be seen. But don’t count on it. If you like to think of yourself as a gentle person of few words others may nevertheless find you boring and pathetic. You may like to think of yourself as curious and passionate about ideas, while...

When someone else falls on their buttocks in a spectacular display of flailing limbs, or another spills some soup on a pristine white shirt at a fancy office party, aren’t these the moments that make life worth it? Commonly enough, most of us will have to suppress a naughty chuckle at the...

In a country where psychic hotlines dominate public airways at nighttime, university psychologists have begun to prove the ability to read auras is simply an added biological trait. Emilio Gomez is the supervisor for Oscar Iborra’s doctoral thesis, regarding special infrequent types of...

Why Good People Do Bad Things   Over the past decade or so, news stories about unethical behavior have been a regular feature on TV, a long, discouraging parade of misdeeds marching across our screens. And in the face of these scandals, psychologists and economists have been slowly...

WHY are we thinking so much about thinking these days? Near the top of best-seller lists around the country, you’ll find Jonah Lehrer’s “Imagine: How Creativity Works,” followed by Charles Duhigg’s book “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business,” and...

Pando, the Trembling Giant   Compared with a mite or a virus, we humans are enormous. But we share this planet with other organisms that, in turn, dwarf us. At 100 feet, a blue whale is about 18 times longer than the average person; a giant sequoia, three times that. There are even larger...

Speaking a second language can change everything from problem-solving skills to personality – almost as if you are two people   Cognitive enhancement is just the start. According to some studies, my memories, values, even my personality, may change depending on which language I happen...

In this lecture for Westmont College’s series titled “Beyond Two Cultures: The Sciences as Liberal Arts,” string theorist Jim Gates offers his thoughts on the complementary natures of science and the liberal arts — and how the human mind formulates “systems of belief” in both...

Spooky quantum entanglement just got spookier. Entanglement is a weird statewhere two particles remain intimately connected, even when separated over vast distances, like two die that must always show the same numbers when rolled. For the first time, scientists have entangled particles after...

Frank Wilczek, a physicist, MIT; recipient, 2004 Nobel Prize in physics; author, The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces When I first took up the piano, merely hitting each note required my full attention. With practice, I began to work in phrases and chords....

When it comes to stimulating creativity, brainstorming is one of the least efficient methods. The idea behind Groupthink models is that creativity and achievement requires other people. Lone geniuses are out, and collaboration is in. Society is snuffing out the potential of introverts –...

The recent epic failure in rationing superlatives reminds us that hyperbole should be saved for the best of the best   One of the things that makes language fascinating is that it’s always evolving. Just sometimes, we need to intervene with that evolution, do a 360 and start a...

I just came back from a jazz festival at Katy High School in Texas that show-cased student stage bands from ten schools mostly near Houston, but some as far away as Beaumont and Brownsville (the latter band stole the show). The festival was also a teaching event, with each band or ensemble...

14 Lessons From Benjamin Franklin   Benjamin Franklin was a man of action. Over his lifetime, his curiosity and passion fueled a diverse range of interests. He was a writer (often using a pseudonym), publisher, diplomat, inventor and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. His...

These days, spotting the future requires a different set of tools. There’s an infinite amount of ink and pixels spilled on most any topic. So how do we spot the future—and how might you? The seven rules that follow are not a bad place to start pinpointing the inventions and trends that...

Being online does change your brain, but so does making a cup of tea. A better question to ask is what parts of the brain are regular internet users using.   This modern age has brought with it a new set of worries. As well as watching our weight and worrying about our souls, we now have...

The “dangerous” realisation that there is no top-down meaning; that our actions aren’t found to be important by anyone (or One) other than ourselves. This idea destroyed and continues to destroy many ideas I embraced (and that I encounter). Based on this, one must ask what follows. One...

Using Cognitive Science to Unleash Your Hidden Creativity   Everybody has their own pet theory about how to generate ideas and be productive: some chug caffeine, others relax; some work in groups, others work alone; some work at night, others in the morning. This blog draws from recent...

In memoriam: After years of health problems, Facts has finally died   A quick review of the long and illustrious career of Facts reveals some of the world’s most cherished absolutes: Gravity makes things fall down; 2 + 2 = 4; the sky is blue. But for many, Facts’ most...

Investigating what is right or wrong often leads one into territory demarcated as a No-Man’s Land, to places forbidden, to territory thought too harsh, horrible or “dangerous” to explore. I am not smart enough to be a discoverer of these countries, but more a cartographer, mapping out...

The problem isn’t in failing, it’s the mindset. Mindset is changeable, and by changing one mindset, one will be able to ratchet up his success faster than he ever thought possible.   Carol Dweck, a professor at Stanford, has spent her life studying the two learning mindsets:...

Too much of a good thing … positive feelings can lead to hasty judgments and stagnation The happier you are, the better, right? Not necessarily. Studies show there is a darker side to feeling good and the pursuit of happiness can sometimes make you … well, less happy. Too much...

Eric Kandel is a titan of modern neuroscience. He won the Nobel Prize in 2000 not simply for discovering a new set of scientific facts (although he has discovered plenty of those), but for pioneering a new scientific approach. As he recounts in his memoir In Search of Memory, Kandel...

What our sense connectedness has to do with the osmosis of rationality and intuition   “Some of the most creative leaps ever taken by the human mind are decidedly irrational, even primal. Emotive forces are what drive the greatest artistic and inventive expressions of our species. How...

Amid the squawks and pings of our digital devices, the old-fashioned virtues of reading novels can seem faded, even futile. But new support for the value of fiction is arriving from an unexpected quarter: neuroscience. Brain scans are revealing what happens in our heads when we read a detailed...

Blade Runner and the Phillip K. Dick novel that it’s based on have as one of their central themes the philosophically intriguing idea of “implanted” memories. That is, androids “born” days ago could have years and years of memories implanted in them about their lives – lives which...

On March 24th, surveillance cameras at the Taylor Made Jewelry store in Akron, Ohio captured the startling image of a red SUV crashing through the front windows with two masked men jumping out, smashing display cases, and stealing over $100,000 of jewelry in less than 2 minutes. Both men are...

Exploring the role of social media in perpetuating the culture of fear.  How do those using social media leverage fear?  How is fear spread through social media?  When and where can technology combat fear?  What are the social costs of that fear? 1. We live in a culture of fear. 2. The...

Neil McLachlan says he wants to do for music what Apple did for the personal computer. For over two decades, the scientist, artist and university professor has worked to increase music participation. “Only five per cent of people (in the West) who go through tertiary music education end up...

Jason Zweig, is a journalist; personal finance columnist, Wall Street Journal; author, Your Money and Your Brain Creativity is a fragile flower, but perhaps it can be fertilized with systematic doses of serendipity. The psychologist Sarnoff Mednick showed decades ago that some people are...

“Society has a cultural bias towards extroverts.” – Susan Cain   Susan Cain is a former lawyer who quit Wall Street to write a book about how society is geared around extroverts at the expense of introverts and the wider economy. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a...

A new breed of worker, equipped with uber-geek data-capturing tools, are about to usher in a whole new information era Recently I was preparing for a talk on the future of money, a talk I have given many times in the past, and I became absorbed with one singular thought – the relationship...

You probably don’t know what the Alcubierre warp drive is, but that’s cool. This is called the Learnin’ Corner for a reason—to pick up where our poorly-funded public education system petered to a halt in your life, and quell your eager and absorbent mind with obscure knowledge that you...

Richard Branson launches journeys to the centre of the Earth through Virgin Volcanic. Academy Award winning actor Tom Hanks to join first expedition. Only 500 people have been to space, only three people have been to the bottom of the ocean, but no one has ever attempted to journey to the...

Energy is a fundamental necessity for life, let alone a vigorous society or civilization. This fact has been recognized by humans for a very long time — Sun, Wind, Fire and Water (in the form of rivers and waterfalls and rain), worshipped by most cultures, are manifestations of energy in one...

To those of us who experienced its genesis, the Internet seemed at first to exist apart from an unfortunate status quo; a brave new blueprint for a thriving peer-to-peer society that spurns corporate branding and advertising culture in lieu of actual, genuine human connections. But Isaac...