Science & Technology
The Myth of Pristine Nature
A review of Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World
The Great 9/11 Dust Debate
Science finds no link between WTC dust and cancer. Politicians want to pay for treatment anyway.
A Trick of the Mind
Looking for patterns in life and then infusing them with meaning, from alien intervention to federal conspiracy.
Why Are People "Irrationally" Generous to Strangers?
New research finds that nice guys tend to finish first.
The Cybersecurity-Industrial Complex
The feds erect a bureaucracy to combat a questionable threat.
Natural Gas Flip-Flop
Big environmental groups were for fracking before they were against it.
An Environmentalist Joins the Reality-Based Community
A review of Mark Lynas' The God Species
Climate Change and Confirmation Bias
A new study suggests that your values, not science, determine your views about climate change.
Lukewarmers, Denialists, and Other Climate Change Skeptics
Impressions and reporting from the Sixth International Climate Change Conference