01.17.2012 After doing some much-needed research, cognitive scienctists are suggesting a new way to boost students’ lagging scores: Get rid of the hallowed (and stultifying) classroom lecture.
Hard data support old-school fans' objections to the newer, more specialized collections. 02.03.2012
Can remote sensors give us Minority Report-like powers to detect people who will soon break the law? 01.23.2012
Minimally conscious and vegetative patients show different patterns of neural activity. 01.05.2012
Tiny clumps of neurons doze off, even while the brain as a whole is awake. 01.05.2012
A new study suggests that environment accounts for more than half of autism risk, while genes are responsible for about 40 percent. 01.05.2012
A 50-minute phone call boosts metabolism in the brain regions closest to the antenna, including areas involved in language, decision making, and emotional processing. 01.05.2012
A clever new system helps paralyzed patients and computers work together to control a robot, helping to connect locked-in people with the world. 01.04.2012
Overconfidence can help explain wars, financial disasters, and collapsed civilizations. Social scientist James Fowler explores how such a destructive social trait manages to thrive. 12.29.2011
When perceptions get mismatched in the mind, we can fall prey to maddening illusions, and reality is turned on its head. 12.15.2011
Researchers are studying the role that the endocannabinoid system plays in cravings, and using their findings to try to control our excesses. 12.01.2011
Over 50 years ago, he began a revolution that's still playing out today. 11.29.2011
To heal the brain, scientists are trying to poke through the shield that isolates it from the rest of the body. 11.15.2011
No dice yet on getting a jetpack in every garage, but the near future will include some other nice improvements to our lives and communities. 11.14.2011
Some birds seem to have grammatical rules in their songs. And they'll let you hear about it if you mess up. 11.07.2011
Drugs that alleviate symptoms of mental illness in mice often wind up producing human treatments. There is just one small problem: Rodent breakdowns look nothing like ours. 11.05.2011
Neuroscientist David Eagleman explores the processes and skills of the subconscious mind, which our conscious selves rarely consider. 10.27.2011
A personalized source of stem cells could help find safer, more effective treatments for mental disorders. 10.25.2011
A British family with a bizarre speech deficit has led linguists to FOXP2: a gene that begins to explain how our ancestors acquired language. 10.17.2011
A DISCOVER writer stretches his mind and earns a place at the World Memory Championships 10.06.2011
Humans have a perplexing tendency to fear rare threats such as shark attacks while blithely ignoring far greater risks like unsafe sex and an unhealthy diet. Those illusions are not just silly—they make the world a more dangerous place. 10.03.2011