Recently, we raised the question of how political journalists should deal with candidates for president who mouth the quackery of climate change denial. But the problem of how to write about ...

Recently, I was watching an old MythBusters with my son. It was the one where they investigated the Hindenburg myth, that what caught fire was not the hydrogen but a thermite mixture in the paints ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

During my first term of full-time teaching in 1977, I used astrology as a case study in my course in the philosophy of science. The goal was to guide the students through the differences between ...

There is no such thing as pseudoscience, and Michael Gordin has written a book about it. In On the Fringe, Gordin, a historian at Princeton University, does not deny that there are endeavors afoot in ...

That U.S. House candidate Paul Nehlen is an anti-Semite is not surprising. That the Wisconsin Republican, trounced by House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2016, was outed by puffing the retired psychologist ...

Have you ever taken a personality test seriously? Or maybe you’ve wondered if you could freeze yourself in liquid nitrogen to help revitalize your body postmortem? Human tendencies to believe in such ...

Zac Efron doesn’t say much except “Dude” and “Wow” in his Netflix docu-series Down to Earth. It’s a mostly innocuous show. If you’re the type of person who’s into the actor’s buff, scruffy bro-dude ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that “any ...

Peter Ellerton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

Michael Nees does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...