Surprising Science

The Data Design Diabetes challenge asks participants to bring human-center design and open data to the diabetes community. Here we examine the competition’s semi-finalists. 

In two unrelated studies, researchers found that adults who eat chocolate regularly are slimmer than abstainers and that consuming fast food is strongly linked to depression. 

Eastern Europeans have child rearing habits that we could learn from, such as teaching independence (Slovenia) and the importance of family (Macedonia).

What is the Big Idea? A new mobile app that helps young Beijingers hook up is a runaway hit, according to Economic Observer. Weixin, which means “tiny message” uses geolocation […]

Children whose parents were responsive at 18 months of age show more extended and imaginative play at four years, while children whose parents were directive spend more time in the immature pattern of merely touching or looking at toys.

The all-knowing device used in the TV program Star Trek has been brought to real life by cognitive scientist Peter Jansen, who equipped the machine with an impressive array of sensors. 

How soon until you can roll up your computer screen like a newspaper? Two recent developments will make computer screens and e-reading devices flexible enough to bend. 

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, are developing a suite of satellites armed with powerful lasers to change the course of asteroids that threaten Earth. 

You might think the debate over the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act is a classic confrontation between state power and individual liberty, big government liberalism versus minimal state […]

The super-Earths discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission may be better at supporting life than Earth itself, says the Harvard astronomer who coined the term super-Earth. 

When density perturbations in space cause it to collapse, black holes are created in a range of sizes. Some are extremely small and could pass straight through the Earth. 

Facebook says employers who request applicants’ passwords will face ‘unanticipated legal challenges’. What does that mean, exactly? Would you hand your password over for a job?

By turning super computers loose on massive amounts of data, companies are able to make more informed decisions, but making decisions based on computer output can be humbling. 

York College behavioral scientist Robert Duncan addresses whether researchers have successfully located consciousness in the brain’s biology and what that might mean. 

Using light to activate specific proteins in the brain which recall memories, scientists have found that just a few cells in the hippocampus can contain rich and powerful memories. 

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has committed $300 million to the Allen Institute for Brain Science, doubling its staff of scientists, to map the brain’s basic circuitry of perception.

Combining patient health records with user symptoms and demographic data, a new online data crunching project wants to help offer quick and accurate medical advice to those in need. 

Because cancerous cells are worse at defending against viruses than healthy cells, medical scientists across the country are working to modify viruses to specifically target cancer. 

New research suggests that abnormally quick prenatal brain growth is a biological marker of autism. Scientists have traced the growth back to gene expression, suggesting possible treatments. 

As any parent of a distractible seven-year-old knows, the neural circuits involved in self-control are some of the latest-developing parts of the brain. This important set of abilities is worth the wait, though—as well as some parental effort. Parents can accelerate the development of self-control by encouraging their children to pursue goals that are challenging but not impossible, a moving target that depends on the child’s age and individual abilities.  

My research for Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence, Love, Sex, and Relationships wasn’t all orgasms in brain scanners.  As I sifted through the scientific literature on love and sex, what I thought was a discussion about romance kept circling back around to decision-making.

What is the Big Idea? Belachew Girma was once a school teacher, store owner and hotel owner. It seemed like he had it all. But after a series of bad […]

Clay Johnson, author of The Information Diet and co-founder of Blue State Digital, the firm that built and managed Barack Obama’s online campaign for the presidency in 2008, argues that there’s no such […]

In his latest book The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind and Brain from Vienna 1900 to the Present, Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel talks […]

In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg takes an unflinching look at the science of habit, and offers concrete strategies for transforming harmful habits into beneficial ones.

The amount of medical information we have is doubling every five years. By using advanced computers like Watson, doctors can process that data into clinical cancer treatments. 

What is the Big Idea? It’s late May and the year is 1989. Among the chaos in Tiananmen Square is 20-year-old David Tian, who is one of millions bravely chanting […]

What is the Big Idea? Earlier this month, 20-year-old student Tsering Kyi emerged from a public restroom at a produce market in Tibet, soaked in gasoline and with a defiant […]

We were promised Jetsons-style helpers but all we have is a big hockey puck that vacuums hardwood floors. Will inventors ever create great humanoid robots? If they do, will we accept them?

Maybe it’s because I’m a product of post-sixties America, born into an anti-authoritarian culture of individual liberty and self-expression. Maybe it’s because I’m the rebellious son of a tough, Italian-American mother. But I’ve always had issues with discipline . . .