Turns out, cockroach milk is among the most nutritious substances on Earth. But it may still be a while before you can scurry to health stores for roach-milk protein shakes.
Four states have no insanity defense. Advocates say that means seriously ill people can be executed where in other states they wouldn't be convicted at all, and it makes it harder to get treatment.
Having a serious mental diagnosis doesn't necessarily mean that juries will consider an insanity defense. Some states have changed their laws to exclude people with antisocial personality disorder.
Jurors often are reluctant to acquit someone who committed a crime while mentally ill, or to find that person guilty. So they take a third option: guilty but mentally ill. It's far from perfect.
Artificial intelligence is getting stronger. Education must adapt. Here's a framework for separating out the things schools can and should teach that are uniquely human.
This week the NPR program Invisibilia talks with a guy who despised our mindless worship of celebrities. So he devised an elaborate prank. It succeeded in ways he never would have anticipated.
John Hinckley's not-guilty verdict prompted tighter restrictions on the insanity defense. Civil rights advocates say that means seriously ill people are imprisoned without adequate treatment.
A new study of old masters finds that capturing and showing off decadent and expensive meals is a decidedly old-fashioned practice. Like today's Instagrammers, it was all about projecting an image.
He's the man with a seemingly endless stream of science fun facts at his command. He's also a great gourmet. We talk to the famed scientist about how his two great passions collide in the kitchen.
It sounds like a fairy tale but it's real. A study shows how wild birds and people communicate to find bees' nests and share the sweet honeycomb. The teamwork may date back thousands of years or more.
Weapons have always been a central part of warfare. But humans have turned to another source of power as well: food. Take our quiz to test your knowledge about war and food.
Some plants will release their pollen only to bees that buzz in just the right way. It's a risky strategy — and it's critical to human agriculture, from tomatoes to blueberries.
Summer vacations often take time, energy and money to plan. Expectations can run unreasonably high. This week, we dive into what social science research says about how to have a better getaway.
When someone's angry we tend to get angry in return. But responding in an unexpected way is a valid tool in psychotherapy, and it can help make everyday relationships work better, too.
When it comes to produce, the answer is yes, experts tell us. But the reasons are complicated — and sometimes mysterious even to restaurant critics, chefs and food scientists.
Artists have been painting food into their work since ancient times. You know it looks delicious, but how well can you decipher what foods mean in art? Take this quiz to find out.
Divers exploring the famous Antikythera shipwreck, 200 feet beneath the water's surface in Greece, have turned up a heavy object they think might have been a powerful weapon in the first century B.C.
Almost all of the cells in a human body get replaced over the course of a life. NPR's Skunk Bear Team sets off on an imagined video tour inside the body to find out which body parts never change.
Sure, their beautiful, multilayered complexity has moved poets to weep. But the real answer is more practical: A bulb's gotta keep the baddies away. We get the lowdown from a chemist.
Considering humans' millennia-long struggle with famine, it's surprising anyone spent time or resources cultivating low-calorie celery. But the vegetable's original use had nothing to do with food.
Joe Palca was fresh out of college in 1975, when he got a job as a lab tech, working for a young scientist and country music fan who would one day harness the immune system to fight cancer.
Beyond pesky, mosquitoes kill hundreds of thousands of people worldwide each year. And the bites aren't random. A mouth packed with sensors, drills, spears and straws guides the bug to blood.
Researchers are trying to figure out what cows are saying to each other — and us. Often, it seems that cows moo to communicate that something is wrong, or different.
