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Why the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 Is So Special to Me
My dad worked for NASA, recruited John Glenn and knew Neil Armstrong
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Celebrating the Engineers behind the First Moon Landing
My father was one of those who worked feverishly behind the scenes 50 years ago to get astronauts safely to the moon and back
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The World without the Moon
What if our natural satellite didn’t exist?
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The AMA eases its stance on marijuana
The Obama administration announced last month that people who buy or sell medical marijuana in the growing number of states that have decriminalized its therapeutic usage should not be targeted for arrest or prosecution by federal authorities...
Who says love hurts? Romantic partners alter our perception of pain
My mother used to say, “there’s somebody out there for everybody.” It sounds sweet, I know, but when you realize she would say this only in jaw-dropping astonishment at seeing a loving couple out in public in which both partners were, shall we say, aesthetically shortchanged in some eye-catching way, my dearly departed mother somehow doesn’t sound like such a Polyanna anymore...
Are there asexuals among us? On the possibility of a "fourth" sexual orientation
Gay people are often asked by the curious: When did you first realize you were gay?” In my case, I remember undressing my Superman doll--and being terribly disappointed at the result--as well as being motivated to befriend the more attractive boys in third grade...
Unraveling the brain's secrets: Humility required
In early October, the Singularity Summit took place on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a conference that highlighted the prospects for abolishing the ravages of aging and disease.
Brain fest marks a gathering of the tribes
CHICAGO—The Society for Neuroscience, like Woodstock, just marked its 40th birthday. Undoubtedly, some of the attendees at the original Aquarian countercultural assemblage, ended up as full professors of experimental psychology, psychiatry and neurobiology, and now frequent the society's annual event that regularly draws more than 30,000 people...
Should advanced dementia be considered a terminal illness?
Advanced dementia has often been treated as an amalgamation of symptoms in the aging, rather than a deadly illness in itself. A new study, published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine , proposes that it may be beneficial—for patients and caretakers alike—to take the latter approach...
Hospital error leads to CT scan radiation overdoses in 206 patients
How well do hospital medical technicians know their equipment? Not well enough in the case of some health care workers at Cedars–Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where 206 x-ray computed tomography (CT) scan patients were given eight times the normal dose of radiation during brain scans over an 18-month period...
It's all Chinese to me: Dyslexia has big differences in English and Chinese
Chinese dyslexia may be much more complex than the English variety, according to a new paper published online today in Current Biology . English speakers who have developmental dyslexia usually don't have trouble recognizing letters visually, but rather just have a hard time connecting them to their sounds...
God's in Mississippi, where the gettin' is good
At some point over the course of this human life of yours, you may have noticed that wherever there is a trail of woe, God is curiously afoot. At least, since God is often seen both as the cause and the cure of misfortune, the belief in God seems especially likely to be stirred up in the wake of some personal or naturalistic calamity...
The problem with psychopaths: a fearful face doesn't deter them
Buon giorno from Florence, where I’m presently under the Tuscan sun—sizzling like bacon, I should add—as a hive of awestruck, pale-legged American tourists wearing Nikes, cargo shorts and Polo shirts descend with digital cameras at the ready on the Renaissance city’s signature Duomo in the Piazza Della Signoria...
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