Jan. 1, 2011 | Morality is mediated by biology, not intuition and certainly not God, says Patricia Churchland. Consider the prairie vole... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | I envied her for her heart, Simone de Beauvoir said of Simone Weil, who abandoned intellectual life for the joyful suffering of manual labor... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Nazis and nudity. Mein Kampf sold well in the Third Reich, as did a book of naked, well-oiled Germans exercising. You''re surprised?'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Feeling blue? There''s an app to manage your emotions - your cognitive ability, weight, and attention span, too. How about an app for narcissism?'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Errol Morris is promiscuous with his enthusiasms. They include levitating frogs and Thomas Kuhn, who once threw an ashtray at his head... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Patrick Leigh Fermor, warrior, scholar, autodidact, travel writer, extraordinary raconteur, is dead at 96... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | William F. Buckley long ago faulted academe for its failure to engage unfashionable topics. Is ignoring anti-Semitism the latest example?... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Dangerous minds. If a brain scan could determine that your child is likely to become a violent criminal, would you want to know?... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Last requests. In death, John Ross wanted his ashes mixed with pot, rolled into a joint, and smoked at his funeral... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | The city that Darwin built. Can evolutionary theory bring aimless, shabby Binghamton, N.Y. back to life?... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | To thine own self be true, said Polonius. Timeless advice, but who are you, really, other than an enigma to yourself?... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | When it comes to excavating the history of consumerism, never underestimate the value of a good dung-fork... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Among the countless pleasures of profanity is versatility. Noun, verb, adverb, or adjective, four-letter vulgarities are indispensable... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Quantifying Hamlet. Franco Moretti doesn't so much read as data-mine literature, looking for a new understanding of character... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Beyond branded tchotchkes. Big Pharma is putting its marketing muscle toward something more valuable: the contents of medical journals... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | David Eagleman fancies himself the Carl Sagan of neuroscience. Maybe he is. Or maybe his ambition is little more than chest-thumping hubris... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Lying and art spring from a common impulse: to escape reality. Art is in fact a kind of lying, and lying a form of art... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Paul Theroux loathes luxury. He set off 50 years ago in search of miserable, difficult places; forbidden cities; and back roads... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Michael Lind has a question: Why do the American media lavish attention on a vulgar and shallow huckster like Niall Ferguson?... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Pronghorn antelopes sprint at 60 mph, and elite marathoners are chasing them on foot to test a new explanation of how humans became hunters... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Think Yiddish, act British. As a child, the Anglophilic David Brooks named his turtles Gladstone and Disraeli. Now the trans-Atlantic love is mutual... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Growing up Qaddafi. Saif''s reformist ideas earned him a contract with Oxford University Press. Now the despot''s son is the face of tyranny'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'We are known by the trail of 0''s and 1''s we leave in our wake. Who owns that information? Is sharing it - creating a data commons - a civic duty?'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Henry Kissinger has lots to say about China, the subject of his new book. And he''s happy to talk, so long as you don''t ask about human rights'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Al Jazeera is a Rorschach test: anti-American propaganda arm of a Gulf monarchy or populist voice of the Arab Spring?... more »