U.S. executives are pulling out of an investment conference scheduled to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, next week — as controversy swirls around the disappearance of a missing Saudi journalist.
The bail system disproportionately impacts low-income people of color and pressures defendants into pleading guilty. But Robin Steinberg is implementing a plan to fix this--without waiting for reform.
Animals like chimpanzees are autonomous beings with rich emotional lives, says animal rights lawyer Steven Wise. He's working to get courts to recognize them as "legal persons" and grant them rights.
Brett Hennig says democracy — and the process of voting — is broken. To fix it, he has a radical suggestion: replacing politicians with a demographically representative selection of random citizens.
Often, people who don't understand the law or can't pay for lawyers end up being mistreated. Lawyer Vivek Maru calls for a global community of paralegals to place the law on the side of the people.
When we look around, it feels like we're seeing an objective reality. But neuroscientist Anil Seth says everything we perceive, from objects to emotions, is an act of informed guesswork by the brain.
Architect Liz Ogbu has seen the pain gentrification creates for displaced communities. She wonders how we can create ways for longtime residents to stay and reap the benefits of gentrification.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have identified a brain region in monkeys that influences their desire to take big risks. When this area is inactivated, the monkeys tend to hedge their bets.
The scientists were inspired by the super-agile fruit fly. And by designing this robot, they've figured out some of the mysteries of one of the fly's fanciest maneuvers.
Mortician Caitlin Doughty is trying to find a more natural and sustainable way to bury our loved ones. But to get there, she says: we need to rethink how we view death altogether.
Lux Narayan analyzed 2000 New York Times obituaries, of both famous and not-so-famous people, over a two-year period. One common thread among them? A fierce desire to help others.
Why do artichokes look so strange? What makes okra so slimy – and how can science help you turn that attribute into a taste sensation? Two botanists take plant science into the kitchen.
Author Mara Altman got tired of hiding her hairy, sweaty self from the world, and set out to reframe the shame in her latest book of essays — part memoir, part scientific exploration, part manifesto.
Unlike other primates, human toddlers watching a competition don't appreciate victors who shove rivals out of the way. Even little kids prefer high-status characters who aren't bullies.
Leaders make decisions for a group in the same way they make choices for themselves, a study suggests. They don't change their decision-making behavior, even when the welfare of others is at stake.
Brick transfers heat to dough more slowly than steel, allowing both crust and toppings to simultaneously reach perfection. In a home oven, that balance is elusive — but you might be able to get close.
A tiny accelerator could be useful in medicine as well as basic science. Instead of speeding up beams of electrons through giant tunnels, the aim here is to build accelerators on semiconductor chips.
This week on the Hidden Brain radio show, we explore how the constantly evolving nature of languages can give us different ways of understanding ourselves as well as the world we live in.
Have you ever wanted to casually point out Cygnus, Leo and Cassiopeia? Just in time for summer, this panoramic video shows you some tricks to help you navigate the night sky.
South Korea's men's soccer team tried to confuse scouts from Sweden's team by swapping jerseys so their opponent couldn't tell the players apart. But could a strategy like that actually work?
So often we get stuck in the past, rehashing what we should have done, and what we no longer have. But researchers say our obsession with the past can tell us something important about our future.
What exactly is attention, and how can we reclaim it? Neuroscientist Amishi Jha says there's a powerful link between mindfulness, meditation and attention.
We consulted experts on how human brains perceive sound. The poor quality of the audio file can be blamed for the different ways our brains perceive it. What we expect to hear also matters.
