Surprising Science

“Next time you visit a car dealership, avoid sitting in soft chairs and you’ll negotiate a better deal.” Psychology Today on the unconscious impact of texture, hardness and weight.

When you celebrate yourself online, are you part of a brave new social future, or are you just being an ass? Evan Ratliff, in Wired, says it’s the former, if you strike a balance.

Science journal Nature defends the World Health Organization’s handling of the H1N1 pandemic, amid a European council’s claims of unjustified fears and wasted spending.

Jill Tarter, Director of the Center for SETI Research, is searching for signs of extraterrestrial life. But what kinds of signals is she hoping to find? Tarter explains that her […]

Buyer beware: cigarette companies, no longer allowed to use words like “light” or “mild” to advertise, are turning to the psychology of colors to “reframe” the hazards of smoking.

“Who would have thought that the sound of God would be so whiny?” quips The Independent. Physicists at the LHC say “the God particle” sounds like “a bunch of coins spinning in a wine glass.”

Neuroscientists believe they have located the part of the brain that allows some blind people to process visual information to sense the presence of objects without seeing them.

I would like to engage the readers of Dr. Kaku’s Universe and hear your thoughts on what you would like to see me write about in upcoming blog posts. There […]

New York University neuroscience professor Joseph LeDoux has a passion for understanding the inner processes of memory. But he’s also really into rock music. And, luckily, he’s found a way […]

Distraction is a much better tactic for calming children than conventional reassurance, which often heightens fear, researchers have found.

A U.K. health watchdog’s call for “life-saving” food labeling and other dietary changes has met with an unenthusiastic government response.

Your brain doesn’t work as well as you think it does. At least that’s what psychologist Christopher Chabris argues in his new book “Invisible Gorillas,” which calls into question the […]

Internet comment sections are typically seen as a bastion of free speech, but have they outlived their importance? When do abusive and lazy comments override anonymous expression?

“Ten years ago people talked confidently of stopping Alzheimer’s disease in its tracks. Now, they realise they have no idea how to do that,” says The Economist.

Microsoft’s new Xbox frill, Kinect, uses detailed sensing technology that could enable a host of practical applications from improved home security systems to hands-free medical files.

“When does a passion for gadgets turn into an addiction with symptoms that include headaches and back pain?” asks the Independent. Scientists now study this very modern affliction.

A ten year study of Ugandan chimps has documented violent territory struggles between rival camps, but what impresses researchers is the cooperation needed to carry out the attacks.

Justin Frankel, the software developer behind Winamp and Gnutella, stopped by Big Think today for an interview. In advance of the interview, we solicited questions on Reddit, and one of […]

Nobel-Prize winning physicist William Phillips admits that “laser cooling” is a somewhat confusing concept. How can light energy, generally thought of as a source of heat, be used to cool […]

The question of how single celled organisms evolved into more dynamic multicellular ones is difficult to answer, but scientists in Tennessee believe genetic on/off switches provide a clue.

“NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered a whopping 706 candidate planets beyond the solar system,” says Science News. The find nearly doubles the amount of known planets outside our solar system.

Physicists have developed an experiment involving super cold matter and an empty elevator shaft that will test one concept crucial to Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.

“Reality is already outpacing ‘Minority Report,’ the 2002 film that imagined technology in far-off 2054: Pre-crime systems, 3D video and gesture-based computing are already here,” says The New York Times.

Miller-McCune reports that, “Using artificial intelligence and the graphics techniques behind ‘Avatar,’ a USC institute creates ‘virtual humans’ and interactive immersions that train American soldiers.”

“As counterintuitive as it may be to say so, oil is a green fuel, while ‘green’ fuels aren’t,” says Jonah Goldberg, who makes a sobering and conservative assessment of America’s need for black gold.

For the first time, researchers have cataloged forty distinct signals orangutans use to communicate with each other, including gestures for “I want to play” and “Give it to me”.

Ten years after sequencing the entire human genome, some call the achievement a false start; The Economist calls it only the beginning of a marathon that has begun to revolutionize biology.

Last year’s H1N1 pandemic may have been milder than global health experts had feared, but this is no cause for complacency. Researchers in Hong Kong reported today in the online […]

“A combination gene therapy that endows human stem cells with three ways to resist HIV has passed its first safety test in humans,” reports a study published today in Science Translational Medicine.

“A new study from — where else? — France suggests listening to love songs may increase women’s receptivity to amorous advances,” reports Tom Jacobs for Miller-McCune.