Latest science news in Psychology & Sociology
The ethics of keeping a killer cat | Hal Herzog
Cats kill billions of small animals a year, putting animal lovers in a fix – how do you reconcile keeping a predator as a pet?There have been two serial killers in my...
The Boy With a Thorn in His Joints
When 3-year-old Shepherd Strauss got sick, his parents turned to doctors and drugs. But they couldn’t anticipate that what would help him feel better didn’t come with a prescription.
Research Leads to Award-Winning Film, Helps Whales
Graduate student Eric Keen did more than conduct research during his time in the fjords of British Columbia.
7 speakers, 12 minutes each
As “shopping week” wound down, half a dozen popular professors — and, for the first time, one undergraduate — put their best wares on display Thursday evening at Harvard Thinks Big 4,...
Video: Making money from viral videos
When it comes to online videos that get passed around like hot gossip, it's hard to know the winning formula for what will be successful. Kara Tsuboi reports how some...
If you are impulsive, take modafinil and count to 10
Poor impulse control contributes to one’s inability to control the consumption of rewarding substances, like food, alcohol, and other drugs. [...]
Xu Liangying, 92, Scientist and Democracy Advocate
In a life that spanned many of the convulsions of 20th-century China, Mr. Xu evolved from an ardent supporter of the Communist Party into an outspoken critic of the government.
The New Old Age: Caregiving, Laced With Humor
Sacha Goldberger, a French photographer, turned his 93-year-old grandmother, Frederika Goldberger, into a minor celebrity — an outgrowth of their caregiving relationship.
Columbia & Challenger - Astronaut Jerry Ross Remembers | Video
Retired astronaut Jerry Ross shares deeply personal memories of the Columbia and Challenger accidents with SPACE.com's Clara Moskowitz. Col. Ross was involved in comforting and counseling fallen astronauts' families.
Toddlers start lying as early as age 2
The bad news is: Your two-year-old may be a liar. The good news is: If she is, it's a sign of advanced cognitive skills.
Watch: "Brain Tricks - This is How Your Brain Works"
Fun and informational video from AsapSCIENCE shows how your own brain is playing tricks on you
Medical school gift restriction policies linked to subsequent prescribing behavior
Doctors who graduate from medical schools with an active policy on restricting gifts from the pharmaceutical industry are less likely to prescribe new drugs over existing alternatives, suggests a new...
Autism speaks through gene expression
Autism spectrum disorders affect nearly 1 in 88 children, with symptoms ranging from mild personality traits to severe intellectual disability and seizures. New work examines which genes are responsible for...
The joy of learning
Many students use the break between academic terms to spend time with families and friends or to travel. Some simply relax, rejuvenate, and re-energize before the start of the spring term. But an...
Eastern Philosophy Meets Western Science at the Taj Mahal
Toward a Science of Consciousness - March 3-9, 2013. East West Views on Brain, Mind and Reality, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (DEI) Agra, INDIA.
In the News
Scarred for life? The biology of childhood hardship “Elsewhere, research by one of us, Bruce McEwen, has closed in on how pre- and postnatal stress affects a complex set of...
Teenage hacker sentenced in UK for cyber-attacks
A British court has sentenced a teenage hacker to youth rehabilitation after he and other members of the Anonymous movement carried out cyber-attacks targeting financial sites like PayPal and Visa.
'Bolsa Familia' boosts families in Brazil
Can Brazil's local governments run a federal income-supplement program without political interference? Yes, they can, says Natasha Borges Sugiyama, a UWM assistant professor of political science, who has been studying...
Disengagement—not disruption—key issue in classrooms, survey reveals
Results from one of the largest surveys of school teachers undertaken in South Australia have revealed that it is high levels of student disengagement that are the real problem in...
Science journal offers support for Keystone XL pipeline
An environmental activist says he is somewhat surprised one of the world's leading scientific journals is supporting the Keystone XL pipeline.
Next-generation HD videoconferencing will provide immediate public benefits
The patient, who sees her neurologist regularly for "memory coaching" to counter the effects of short-term memory loss, never has to leave home for her appointments. The doctor, who is...
Nessie as evidence against evolution … and five odder things kids are taught | Jonny Scaramanga
The Accelerated Christian Education curriculum is used in more than 50 UK schools. How can it receive official backing?Accelerated Christian Education's fundamentalist curriculum is used by more than 50 British schools. It is...
New Analysis Challenges Study Suggesting Racial Bias at NIH
Comparison of individual faculty members suggests that productivity, not race, determines who gets grants
Richard Dawkins is the phall guy at Cambridge debate with Williams
Britain's most ardent atheist lost the encounter with former archbishop on paper – but he got laughs for his penis jokeDespite serving as Oxford university's professor for the public understanding of science for...
Addressing the complexities of meritocracy
MIT’s third annual Diversity Summit, held Wednesday at Kresge Auditorium, reflected the growing importance of inclusion at the Institute: From 70 attendees at the 2011 summit, the event has now grown to include...
Lunch with Tiffany
It might seem strange that someone as cheery as John Tiffany is directing a play as fraught with despair as “The Glass Menagerie.” But for the sanguine director, the world is full...
Potential of psilocybin to alleviate psychological and spiritual distress in cancer patients is revealed
A recently published book chapter reviews the potential of a novel psychoactive drug, psilocybin, in alleviating the psychological and spiritual distress that often accompanies a life-threatening cancer diagnosis.
Well: A Doctor's Struggle With Numbers
Oncologists are notoriously bad at predicting survival. We try to provide hope, but not false hope.