Surprising Science

A new wave of research into bullying’s effects suggests that bullying can leave an indelible imprint on a teen’s brain at a time when it is still growing and developing.

They might be best known for space travel, but the folks at NASA are determined to shape the future of commercial aviation. The agency says airliners need to be greener.

Breathing other people’s tobacco smoke is the cause of one in every 100 deaths worldwide, but a risk over which its victims have no control, says the World Health Organization.

Institutions of public health and the commercial interests that surround it, including the media, do more harm than good to the nation’s health, says Cornell professor Richard Klein.

Like female African cichlid fish, humans might also possess an overwhelming evolutionary imperative to find the toughest, most combat-ready mates.

Rates of Alzheimer’s and other age-onset diseases are projected to increase dramatically in the coming years.

Why do some people have so much willpower, and how can we boost our own? According to new research, it may simply be a matter of reframing what willpower is.

Studies show that radiation can promote longevity and heal our bodies faster. So why don’t we rethink our relationship with atomic power? The Independent reports.

A new way to create and interpret real-time brain scans could help addicts consciously control their cravings by making them aware of how their brain is functioning.

Richard Thaler of the U of Chicago catalogs wrong scientific beliefs that were held for long periods of time, the flat earth and geocentric world among them.

A single pill could reduce your risk of HIV infection dramatically, but are you willing to spend $12,000 a year and risk headaches and nausea just to stay HIV-negative?

Is Hawking right to claim that reality is dependent on the model used to describe it, that models generated by biochemical processes in our brains constitute “reality”?

Traumatic brain injury increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease—a problem that could affect thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Technology already allows for primitive versions of superhuman abilities. One day we might also have contact lenses that allow us to surf the Internet and see infrared radiation.

At birth, children’s brains are prepared to learn from social agents—other members in a group. New research suggests this “social brain” helps a person learn over a lifetime.

Blind patients suffering from a type of eye disease that strikes in childhood will become the second group of people in the world to receive stem cells left over from fertility treatment.

Will Facebook’s up and coming messaging medium prove an important advancement in communication technology or just another step toward communication overload?

An inventor believes he has solved the riddle of how to get humans exploring serious ocean depths previously too dangerous to investigate—by getting us to breathe liquid like fish.

Wi-Fi may be killing trees. A study by a Dutch university suggests that Wi-Fi radiation causes strange abnormalities in trees and stunts the growth of other plants, such as corn.

Expertise might come with a dark side as all those learned patterns make it harder for us to integrate wholly new knowledge. Jonah Lehrer on why expertise is inflexible to new ideas.

Researchers at M.I.T. have taken a step toward replicating organs by discovering a way to make “building blocks” containing different kinds of tissue that can be put together.

As reassuring as that G.P.S. voice can be, you may want to turn it off next time you’re trying to find your way. It may be dumbing down a region of your brain.

Humans could be walking on Mars within the next couple decades, for only a fraction of the cost if explorers are given one-way tickets. It’s not a suicide mission, say cosmologists.

Legendary physicist Sir Roger Penrose says he has found the first evidence of an eternal, cyclic cosmos that is refreshed by Big Bangs, of which there have been many.

Smart phones. One can’t imagine life without them.  Ah, the endless convenience: looking up a restaurant on Yelp, finding out a movie’s rating on Rotten Tomatoes, seeing that cute guy’s […]

Many people who don’t develop dementia are nonetheless discovered after their deaths to have the brain lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Supposedly, the proper use of statistics makes relying on scientific results a safe bet. But in practice, widespread misuse of statistical methods makes science more like a crapshoot.

Astronomers have for the first time discovered a planet in the Milky Way that came from another galaxy. The planet has a mass of at least 1.25 Jupiters.

“The critical thing is to figure out a way to get the technology engine restarted,” says the venture capitalist. “And we should have less government regulation to enable that.”

Technological innovation is the most important thing that developing countries should focus on, says Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and PayPal founder. In his most recent Big Think interview, Thiel […]