The universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old. So it’s understandable if, as puny humans, we think of ourselves as relatively inconsequential. Our physical bodies are very small compared to the vastness of the universe. The Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek has a different perspective. He points out that each individual contains about 10 […]
How Elon Musk Built SpaceX
In 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX with $100 million of his own money. Musk had a very ambitious goal for the first privately funded rocket company in the world: to send humankind to Mars. Musk wanted to hire people who were as passionate as he was. They worked hard, but they also got along well, […]
Bill Gates Needs Your Help
By 2050, the effects of climate change could be as deadly as COVID-19 has been. We dump 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases a year into the atmosphere. If we want to avoid a climate disaster, we need to get that number down to zero. Fast. Here’s the problem: greenhouse gases are involved in the […]
How to Stay Sharp
Great news from the forefront of neuroscience: brain decline and memory loss can be prevented, and even reversed. A gradual decline in the brain’s hardware is a normal part of the aging process. The organ shrinks, its folds become more prominent, and its blood vessels harden. But we can maintain (and in some cases, enhance) […]
The Worst Pandemic in Modern History
Piles of bodies. Coffin shortages. Mass graves. The great influenza pandemic infected roughly one in three people—and killed tens of millions of victims around the world. The virus was, in many ways, something that nobody in the medical field had seen before. Victims experienced symptoms so suddenly, and so violently, that many could pinpoint the […]
The Secret Force that Shapes Our Lives
Liars use math to trick people all the time. Knowing how to spot the potential for deception is half the battle. In The Math of Life and Death, mathematician Kit Yates demonstrates how math underpins everything from medical screening to newspaper articles. In articles and advertisements, for example, statistics might be used to inform or mislead readers. How […]
Go Ahead, Eat that Steak
In the Western world, 87.8 percent of people have some degree of insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction. According to The Carnivore Code, that number is a good indication of how unhealthy we are—and why we need to eat more animal foods. Think of it this way: from an evolutionary perspective, a carnivorous diet was an integral part of […]
Can Drugs Make You More Religious?
Twenty-seven percent of Americans consider themselves to be spiritual. But they shy away from organized religion and places of worship. The younger generation, it seems, is looking for something different. And experiments with psilocybin at schools like Johns Hopkins and New York University may be pointing the way toward a new mysticism based on ancient […]
Can You Spot a Psychopath?
A mysterious manuscript led journalist Jon Ronson into the heart of the “madness industry,” where he talked to some of the top psychologists and neurologists who study psychopaths. Ronson’s investigation introduced him to a researcher with an interesting idea: that murderous criminals and corporate executives share many of the same psychological traits. The main difference is […]
The Truth About Diabetes
A dietary disease requires a dietary cure. This principle is the foundation of The Diabetes Code, Dr. Jason Fung’s natural strategy for combining nutrition and intermittent fasting to address Type 2 diabetes. More than 90 percent of diabetes cases worldwide are Type 2, which is characterized by insulin resistance. When left unchecked, diabetes can wreak havoc […]
