The old issue of genes, race and intelligence has exploded once again. The trigger this time is social scientist Jason Richwine, who recently co-authored a study of immigration for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The study contended that granting amnesty to illegal immigrants could cost the U.S. more than $5 trillion. After the [...]

I’ve been mulling over how I should follow up my previous post, the one with the subtle headline “Crisis in Psychiatry!” My meta-theme is that science has failed to deliver a potent theory of and therapy for the human mind. I’ve made this same point previously, notably in my 1996 Scientific American article “Why Freud [...]

In 2007, while teaching at George Johnson’s Science Writing Workshop in Santa Fe, I met a talented young writer named Jessica Reed. We’ve stayed in touch over the years and corresponded on many topics, especially on mental health issues. After my recent rant “Crisis in Psychiatry!,” which riffs on the latest debate over the Diagnostic [...]

What is mental illness? Schizophrenia? Autism? Bipolar disorder? Depression? Since the 1950s, the profession of psychiatry has attempted to provide definitive answers to these questions in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Often called The Bible of psychiatry, the DSM serves as the ultimate authority for diagnosis, treatment and insurance coverage of mental [...]

Can social science ever become as rigorous, as “hard,” as, say, nuclear physics? I explored this question in a recent post, which I wrote in part as a response to The Physics of Wall Street: A Brief History of Predicting the Unpredictable, by James Owen Weatherall. I’ve known Jim since 2005, when I started working [...]

My last post, “How Can We Condemn Boston Murders and Excuse U.S. Bombing of Civilians?”, has provoked lots of commentary, including a vigorous discussion on reddit. The larger question people are wrestling with is when, if ever, lethal force is justified. Here is my attempt at an answer, which I originally presented in The End [...]

Ever since the Boston Marathon bombings Monday, something has been bothering me. I’ve tried to put it out of my mind, but I can’t. So, perhaps unwisely, I’m going to write about it. We Americans are justifiably outraged at the attacks in Boston, which killed three innocent people and injured many more. But over the [...]

One of the best things about teaching at Stevens Institute of Technology, which I joined in 2005, is shooting the shit with distinguished historian of science James E. McClellan III. Jim has authored, co-authored or edited half a dozen books, including Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction, which he wrote with our late [...]

In a recent post I raised doubts about two big brain-mapping projects, one in the U.S. (to which Obama just committed $100 million) and the other in Europe. I suggested that these projects might be premature, given our basic ignorance of how brains make minds. I’d like to provide two addendums to my post, which [...]

By Kimberly Parker, special correspondent for Cross-check [Editor's Note: I recently forced students in my Seminar on Science Writing at Stevens Institute of Technology to write short responses to my book The End of War. Kimberly Parker, a sophomore majoring in mathematics, submitted the following essay, which so impressed and heartened me that I'm sharing [...]