Is It Ethical to Own an iPhone?
Business ethics may trump social ethics, but individuals are struggling in the light of revelations of suicides and inhumane labor conditions among some workers in China who make many Apple products.
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Brains May Be Wired for Addiction
Abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts, according to scientists at the University of Cambridge, who found the same differences in the brains of addicts and their non-addicted brothers and sisters. The study, published in the journal Science, suggested addiction is in part a “disorder of the brain”….
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Hurricane Allows Scientists to Watch Evolution in Action
A devastating hurricane has made it possible to test a rarely observed effect of evolution in the wild for the first time. Scientists transported forest lizards to a group of Caribbean islands stripped bare of vegetation by Hurricane Frances in 2004. They collected pairs of brown anole lizards from a large forested island near Great…
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Supreme Court Rules Religion Is Special … This Time
Is religion special? In its decision on Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. E.E.O.C., the Supreme Court indicates that it is. That may be the one thing that they got right in this case. The U.S. has on the books a number of valuable laws against discrimination in the workplace, and all organizations (businesses,…
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Low IQ and Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice
There’s no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy. The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle,…
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Path Is Found for the Spread of Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease seems to spread like an infection from brain cell to brain cell, two new studies in mice have found. But instead of viruses or bacteria, what is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau. The surprising finding answers a longstanding question and has immediate implications for developing treatments, researchers said. And…
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Obama Administration Challenges Schools to Embrace Digital Textbooks
Are hardbound textbooks going the way of slide rules and typewriters in schools? Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski challenged schools and companies to get digital textbooks in students’ hands within five years. The Obama administration’s push comes weeks after Apple Inc. announced it would start to sell electronic versions…
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Does Sending Food Aid to Struggling Nations Do More Harm Than Good?
In a study just released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, economists Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian find that our well-meaning helping hand has often had the unintended consequence of aggravating conflict. Focusing on U.S. food aid windfalls that were triggered by bumper crops in the Midwest, they find that unexpected increases in wheat…
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Newfound Super-Earth Planet Could Support Life
A potentially habitable alien planet — one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface — has been found around a nearby star. The planet is located in the habitable zone of its host star, which is a narrow circumstellar region where temperatures are neither…
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Brain Region Bigger in Popular People
An area of the brain associated with understanding the minds of others is larger in people who have bigger social networks, a new study finds. The study is one of several that have linked specific brain regions to an active social life. In research published last year, scientists found that some brain regions that process…