Shortly before venturing into a mysterious uninhabited biome known only as “The Shimmer,” a psychologist and a biologist take a few minutes to discuss the difference between suicide and self-destruction. Most people aren’t consciously suicidal, the psychologist explains. They are, however, self-destructive in some way or another (like choosing to venture into a mysterious uninhabited swampland kno

With a few minor exceptions, there are really only two ways to say “tea” in the world. One is like the English term—té in Spanish and tee in Afrikaans are two examples. The other is some variation of cha, like chay in Hindi. Both versions come from China. How they spread around the world offers a clear picture of how globalization worked before “globalization” was a term anybody used. The words th

This post has been corrected. Adding another nail to the coffin of Reaganomics, a recent study published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has concluded that, contrary to the principles of “trickle-down” economics, an increase in the income share of the wealthiest people actually leads to a decrease in GDP growth. “The benefits do not trickle down,” the authors of the study write, directly

Jeffrey Hall, a retired professor at Brandeis University, shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries elucidating how our internal body clock works. He was honored along with Michael Young and his close collaborator Michael Roshbash. Hall said in an interview from his home in rural Maine that he collaborated with Roshbash because they shared common interests in “sports, rock and roll,

You probably have a good idea of who the so-called “alt-right” are: a group of white supremacists and nationalists, bound up by a fiery loathing of “political correctness,” “cultural Marxism,” and those pesky “social-justice warriors.” You might have also seen the articles that tell us to stop using that term and call them out for the fascist, neo-Nazis they are. In the wake of the “Unite the Righ

Gitteol, whose name means Feather in Korean, opened six months ago after its owner noticed the growing ranks of Koreans engaged in honsul, or drinking alone. On a recent night as she mixed discounted highballs, Hongyang, a 41-year-old painter, said she wanted to give Koreans another choice apart from going out in a group. There’s lots of bar seating, so lone arrivals can chit-chat with her, rather

“The future of work” is suddenly everywhere—which is an interesting feat for a 500-year-old discussion. Since the beginning of 2016, the topic has been featured in marketing campaigns by Walmart and GE, declared a priority by two widely respected global economics think tanks, and featured on the covers of myriad business and pop culture magazines. The Atlantic, The Economist, and the New York Time

But one week after his product hit Kickstarter in December 2015, Sherman was shocked to see it for sale on AliExpress—Alibaba’s English-language wholesale site. Vendors across China were selling identical smartphone case selfie-sticks, using the same design Sherman came up with himself. Some of them were selling for as low as $10 a piece, well below Sherman’s expected retail price of £39 ($47.41).

It is increasingly common for governments to give poor people money. Rather than grant services or particular goods to those in poverty, such as food or housing, governments have found that it is more effective and efficient to simply hand out cash. In some cases, these cash transfers are conditional on doing something the government deems good, like sending your children to school or getting vacc

We raised our family in Utah, Florida, and California; my wife and I now live in Colorado. In March, we will have been married 40 years. I attribute the love between us as a part of our success with the children. They see a stable home life with a commitment that does not have compromises. Here’s what we did right (we got plenty wrong, too, but that’s another list): Chores Kids had to perform chor

But in many Latin American homes, including in Colombia, Costa Rica and Bolivia, the pile of presents that magically appears Christmas Eve comes from the infant boy, known as Niño Jesús. Choosing the gift bearer is no child’s matter. Indeed, the battles over which fantastical character is assigned to the task represent nationalist pushback to the waves of outside influences that have washed over t

Offices with open floor plans have become ubiquitous in the tech industry. The idea is that eliminating physical barriers between workspaces also eliminates intellectual or interpersonal barriers to collaboration. And, of course, it’s a cost-efficient way to squeeze a lot of people into a small space. The problem is, programmers hate open floor plans. The CEO of Stack Overflow, Joel Spolsky, laid