Nautilus
The rise and fall of genetic determinism
We’ve all seen the stark headlines: “Being Rich and Successful Is in Your DNA” (Guardian, July 12); “A New Genetic ...
Can we ‘build’ a better banana with genetic engineering?
Reproductively, domesticated banana plants are self-copying machines .... With the emergence of the 20th century, the confluence of the Industrial ...
Do super high IQ children end up successful?
The original motive behind [IQ] tests was to get a diagnostic to select children at the lower ends of the ...
How can seemingly-unique animals be genetically the same?
More and more, biologists are discovering that organisms thought to be different species are, in fact, but one. A recent ...
Why the idea of solving problems with unconscious thought is ‘fanciful’
The great French mathematician and physicist Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) took a particular interest in the origins of his own astonishing ...
Viewpoint: Space colonization could be a really bad idea for humanity
[W]ould colonization of space lead to a dystopia? In a recent article in Futures, which was inspired by political scientist Daniel Deudney’s forthcoming ...
Not so optimized? Human evolution was ‘totally accidental’
Archaeologist Ticia Verveer recently posted a thread on Twitter showing that customer complaints go way back. And I mean way ...
Is genius an attribute or a ‘circumstance’?
[T]he notion of genius as a capability a person can possess has come under attack recently in several ways. Megan ...
Searching for alien intelligence and how dolphins can help
The return to dolphins as a model for alien intelligence came in 1999, when SETI Institute astronomer Laurance Doyle proposed using information ...
Our brain works ’10 million times slower’ than computers—so why is it better at some tasks?
[W]hy is the computer good at certain tasks whereas the brain is better at others? Comparing the computer and the ...
Implantable ‘neural lace’: How we may be able to stimulate our brain to regain youthful functions
[Elon] Musk stated publicly that given the current rate of A.I. advancement, humans could ultimately expect to be left behind—cognitively, ...
How Rev. Thomas Bayes’ faith helped us understand how the brain works
It all began in 1748, when the philosopher David Hume published An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, calling into question, among ...
‘Star cluster’ genetic analysis illuminates history’s social inequalities
In humans, the profound biological differences that exist between the sexes mean that a single male is physically capable of ...
Humanzee: Creating lab-produced human-chimpanzee hybrids would be ‘profoundly ethical’
It is a bit of a stretch, but by no means impossible or even unlikely that a hybrid or a ...
Chasing the ‘Fountain of Youth’ through stem cells
Editor's note: The following is part of a Q&A interview with Vittorio Sebastiano, a research professor of reproductive biology at ...
Singing the praises of the stick’s role in human evolution
Sticks are probably where the story of craft begins—the point at which our very distant ancestors progressed from animalistic existences ...
Neuron by neuron: We often examine the brain too closely to see the big picture
[Rafael Yuste thinks neuroscientists have been looking at the brain too close. “It’s just like a TV screen—if you’re watching ...
Mom was right: We get wiser with age and manage stress better
[Professor Dilip] Jeste points out that some things get better with age, like the ability to make decisions, control emotions, ...
Viewpoint: ‘Mutation-centric’ cancer treatment ignores critical environmental factors
[Editor's note: The following is part of an interview with James DeGregori is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry ...
Peak athletic performance: What are our human limits?
Athletic performance follows a normal distribution, like many other quantities in nature. That means that the number of people capable ...
‘Gettier case’: Philosophical puzzle illustrates challenge of understanding what is true
Philosopher Edmund Gettier devised a thought experiment that has become known as a “Gettier case.” It shows that something’s “off” ...
Universal structures? Galaxies and neural networks ‘strikingly similar’
We — an astrophysicist and a neuroscientist — joined forces to quantitatively compare the complexity of galaxy networks and neuronal ...
Here’s why conscious robots are possible — and needed
People often ask me whether human-level artificial intelligence will eventually become conscious. My response is: Do you want it to ...
Masters of everything: Should humankind look to colonize the universe?
Humanity is already exploring outer space; give us a few billion more years of technological progress and we can probably ...
What would ‘seeing’ like a blind person feel like?
What does a blind person see? Your first guess might be that she sees a vast blackness...The answer, of course, ...
Seeing what others don’t: Do genius and madness walk hand-in-hand?
[Given the various so-called mad geniuses in history, many people assume] that creativity and psychopathology are intimately related...But some recent psychologists ...
Sex and the gender spectrum: How genetics help determine gender identity
That genes have anything to do with the determination of sex, gender, and gender identity is a relatively new idea ...
Genetics key to why world’s greatest solo climber doesn’t feel fear
[Alex] Honnold is history’s greatest ever climber in the free solo style, meaning he ascends without a rope or protective ...