by Barbara J. King
Like many parents around the world, some moms and dads in Brooklyn are choosing to raise their children without using any diapers. How does this work and does it make any sense? Commentator Barbara J. King checks in with anthropologist Meredith Small, who embraces the idea with enthusiasm.
by Marcelo Gleiser
How do you explain it when unseen forces act across time and space? The fact is that reality is far stranger than we can suppose when we step into the quantum world. Physicist Marcelo Gleiser lays out the bones of this modern ghost story.
by Adam Frank
Time is special. How we see it helps determine how we see the rest of the Universe. Physicist Lee Smolin has a new book out that says we've been looking at time the wrong way. Adam Frank digs in and offers his own perspective on Smolin's argument.
by Tania Lombrozo
People crave explanations that are simple, broad, elegant. But the prettiest, most satisfying explanations aren't always the best explanations, as the dark story of Dutch social psychologist Diederik Stapel makes clear.
by Alva Noë
Sacks turns 80 this year. Philosopher Alva Noë asks the question: What makes Sacks' work so important?
by Stuart Kauffman
How did life originate? This seemingly eternal question was recently the focus of an unusual gathering at CERN in Switzerland. Commentator Stuart Kauffman was at the center of the action and takes us on a journey through the ideas that led up to this meeting of the minds.
by Barbara J. King
A performance of Mozart's Requiem has commentator Barbara J. King thinking about the ways humans grieve. Of all species on Earth, we alone mourn across time and space for people we have never met.
by Marcelo Gleiser
The quantum world is mysterious. It behaves in ways that just don't match up with what we see in the larger world. Commentator Marcelo Gleiser probes the space between what we see and what we know in search of a bridge between both realities.
by Adam Frank
Refining our capacity to notice is an act of reverence that we can bring to everywhere and everywhen. It's an invitation, bringing the world's most basic presence into view, opening our horizons and restoring our spirits.
by Tania Lombrozo
For US VegWeek 2013, commentator Tania Lombrozo digs into the paradox of people who love meat but don't love the idea of harming animals. Is there a way out? One place to start is the 7-day VegPledge.
by Barbara J. King
Henry David Thoreau's careful recording of flowering dates of plants in Concord, Massachusetts in the mid-1800s invites comparison with today's data. The results deserve our notice.
by Barbara J. King
A study out last week analyzes charred food remains in Japanese pottery dated to 15,000 years ago. Results show that hunter-gatherers in Japan cooked fish in the pots, a finding commentator Barbara J. King says adds new depth to our comprehension of the complexity in human prehistory, even before farming.
by Marcelo Gleiser
Is the importance of life on Earth shrinking as science continually re-defines our world as a meaningless speck in an endless and uncaring Universe? Or is life here a precious thing that grows in importance with our ever-deepening knowledge of the Universe? Commentator Marcelo says it's the latter.
by Adam Frank
Scientists can't just agree to disagree. It's not because we are stubborn or ornery (OK, maybe we are). It's because science faces a fundamental problem when it can't agree on numbers like the value of the Hubble Constant. The whole point of science is to establish an understanding of the cosmos on which we can all agree.
by Tania Lombrozo
Is periodic humiliation an inevitable feature of motherhood? Is it something to embrace or endure? Commentator Tania Lombrozo shares some thoughts and experiences.
