Features
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The Damnedest Lies
The success of fivethirtyeight.com is a credit not only to statistical prowess but also to keen intuition about social habits.
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Agnostic Machinery
Bill Maher hoped to use science to paint religion as a neurological disorder, but the researchers in his film Religulous hold a more complex picture of why we have faith.
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The Double Negative
How can evolution explain both the appeal and recent failings of negative campaigning?
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The Mason's Apprentice
Our closest single-celled relatives reveal the origins of the stuff that holds us together.
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The Statistical Universe
We look up to an expanse of sky that is billions of light-years in size, but the universe may be far larger than what we are able to see.
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No Resting on Laurels
The Olympics, China's world debut, have ended. Now what?
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How We Evolve
A growing number of scientists argue that human culture itself has become the foremost agent of biological change.
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In Defense of Difference
Scientists offer new insight into what to protect of the world's rapidly vanishing languages, cultures, and species.
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The Trouble with Biodiversity
Life is more varied near the equator. But making sense of that has confounded biologists for 200 years.
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What Future for NASA?
America's space agency faces uncertain future on its 50th anniversary.
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Turning a Blind Eye
An image said to reveal an "unknown" tribe instead exposes a history of our ignorance and greed.
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Of Mice and Models
New research shows that neurons across species are not created equal. What does this mean for animal research?
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Mechanical Generation
The unveiling of a 3-D printer that was built to build itself is hailed as a step toward "Darwinian Marxism."
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Beauty and the Brain
Neuroaesthetics promises to reinvigorate science's search for a theory of beauty.
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Large and in Charge
Particles are accelerated to unprecedented speeds at CERN's Large Hadron Collider with ultimate hopes of uncovering the universe's darkest secrets.
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The Creation Simulation
Why does a blockbuster video game that embraces biological evolution resemble intelligent design?
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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Video games are reshaping how we perform and promote science.
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Green Revolution 2.0
As the global food system reaches its natural limits, it's time to rethink genetic engineering.
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Inheriting Confucius
A new genealogy of Confucius widens its scope to women and minorities--but excludes genetic data.
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A New State of Mind
New research is linking dopamine to complex social phenomena and changing neuroscience in the process.