Orion Jones

Given the substantial role that money plays in our culture, asking to borrow some from a friend is a loaded emotional gamble, says author Anneli Rufus, who suggests asking family. 

In animals of reasonable intelligence, a cause-and-effect logic is naturally present. Children, however, lack a concrete understanding of the world which encourages them to persist and learn. 

Novels that are transparently taken from more original works are sometimes praised as the stuff of art and other times are lamented by authors who think they violate their sacred work. 

The Olympics are obviously a contradictory event, says David Brooks. An opening ceremony which celebrates virtues of unity and equality are shortly followed by fierce competition.

The often-overlooked function of our justice system is its putative role. So how far are people willing to go to punish criminals? How many of your own resources would you sacrifice to punish a thief? 

Physicists at the UK’s National Physics Laboratory have created a device which could be scaled to store numerous ion-based quantum bits, paving the way for a quantum computer microchip. 

As a predictor of technological change, the little known Wright’s Law outperforms Moore’s Law, which famously (and mostly correctly) states that computer power doubles every 18 months.

A team of MIT and Harvard physicists have successfully turned a laser into a single beam of photons. The advance is essential to creating tomorrow’s quantum computers. 

This year’s winner of the Google Science Fair is 17 year-old Brittany Wenger, who has coded a cloud-based computer program to think like the human brain and locate malignant tumors. 

Researchers at Cambridge University have observed chemical reactions at the quantum level for the first time ever by isolating individual atoms and cooling them to incredibly low temperatures. 

New calculations based on the mysterious nature of dark energy suggest the Universe will end by ripping itself apart 6 billion years before the infamous heat death is expected. 

Since it was launched in 2009, NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered more than 700 confirmed planets outside our solar system. Some may be quite appealing to humans in the future. 

NASA has successfully tested a new and improved heat shield capable of carrying heavier payloads to higher latitudes on Mars. Managers are looking ahead to a manned mission. 

Like Galileo, those who advocate a new understanding of ourselves often face persecution. While tight budgets are cited for a lack of NASA funding, there may be something larger lurking. 

In the search for planets beyond our solar system that could support life, scientists have drawn up a more specific list of bio-signature chemicals, including sulfur gases and ethane. 

Industry representatives have long coached their employees on the addictive properties of mobile devices. Now they are warning the public that there can be too much of a good thing. 

Higher-learning institutions are beginning to offer classes online, but this is just the start. Within fifteen years, concepts like grades and dividing students by age will also be challenged. 

Rather than talk of social media as representing a separate online life, we should admit that we can now respond to all of our experiences, which was once the domain of the artist. 

The Justice Department maintains that Apple’s agreement with major publishers over how it markets e-books prevents its competitors from setting prices that would benefit consumers. 

Facebook’s new manager of energy efficiency and sustainability wants to develop apps that allow users to share and compare their energy use with friends, leveraging the power of friendship.

The economic situation seems to be improving, but many Americans think differently.  Is the U.S. recovering or headed for another recession?

The economic state of mind for many countries, and the actual status of the country’s economic state don’t always match up.

The U.S. looks to China to support them in its attempt to restrict Iran’s nuclear objectives. 

The Director of National Intelligence admits in writing that there was at least one occasion when government spying was in violation of civil rights. 

Women want to have the career, husband and the kids, but to have it all is very difficult—and it isn’t because women are incapable of doing it all. 

Having found a way to measure the sensation of awe in laboratory settings, researchers have found that appreciating majesty helps us live in the present, making life more satisfying. 

If you experience stress because you feel you don’t have enough time, researchers say the best way to overcome that feeling may actually be to give more of your time away. 

While compassion is often the subject of religious and philosophical dictum, we can readily make ourselves more compassionate by thinking differently, say experimental psychologists. 

A young Russian entrepreneur is courting the world’s richest men and women to fund his plans to make humans immortal. Called the 2045 Initiative, the quicker funding is found, the better. 

One of the world’s foremost authorities in IQ measurement says that over the last century, women have grown smarter at a faster rate than men, perhaps because they’ve been given more rights.