What Are the Jobs That Immigrants Do?
“The data reveals an important point: There is no singular industry or job where unauthorized immigrant workers are a majority. They are outnumbered by native-born workers when you…
Tag: Mind
Why Do People Want to Drink the Sarcophagus Water?
This is a snapshot of who we are right at this moment — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Resisting the Depersonalization of the Work Space
No one likes a bare desk, least of all the people who have to sit there — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Can Child Sex Offenders Be Rehabilitated?
Dexter, the protagonist of a TV series by the same name, commits horrific acts of murder—but he does not sexually abuse children, which seems to make him less…
Getting to the Bottom of Hanger
It turns out there is truth in the idea that when you’re hungry, you just aren’t yourself. — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
The Age of Cultured Machines
Two robots traverse the desert floor. Explosions from a decades-old conflict have left a pockmarked and unstable territory, though many more improvised bombs lie concealed in its vast…
It’s Official: Neanderthals Created Art
Neanderthal art. P. Saura This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. What makes us human? A lot of people would argue it…
Is Cyclical Time the Cure to Technology’s Ills?
The world changed dramatically on June 29, 2007. That’s the day when the iPhone first became available to the public. In the 11 years since, more than 8.5…
Why is Cooperation So Difficult in the Workplace?
Cooperation may be central to our social evolution but American cultural emphasis on the individual and her successes creates a contradiction. — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
What the Cottingley Fairies can Teach Us About Belief
Why do false beliefs persist in the face of facts? — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Why did we give our data to Facebook in the first place?
Photos of our children, favorite movies, milestone photos, check-ins. Why do we take better care of our house keys than our personal data? — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
What If Machines Could Learn the Way Children Do?
A good number of us shout at our laptops when they misbehave, often to no avail. Perhaps soon they will listen. Could we one day teach them—much like…
Why This Paleolithic Burial Site Is So Strange (and So Important)
Ivory beads and ochre—affixed to the pelvic bones of a child—likely decorated the burial clothing of this 10-year-old interred at Sunghir some 34,000 years ago. E. Trinkaus/Trinkaus and…
How Ursula Le Guin’s Writing Was Shaped by Anthropology
In creating other worlds, Ursula Le Guin showed the power inherent in constructions of culture and new realities. Marian Wood Kolisch/Flickr This article was originally published at The…
Why Do We Wrap Presents?
[no-caption] Buppha Wuttifery/Getty Images The holiday season is here. That means presents under Christmas trees, next to menorahs, accompanying Kwanzaa candles, traded at white elephant …
Why Do So Many People Want to Die?
[no-caption] Colin Knowles/Flickr This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons. “You said that you’re afraid of dying. What are you …
Learning to Trust Machines That Learn
Imagine lying on a hospital bed. Doctors with grave expressions hover. One leans down to tell you that you are terribly sick and says they recommend a risky…
Is Quitting Contagious?
Turnover prompts people to question their place within the company. How is your organization addressing this concern? — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Why Humans Are So Smart—And So Stressed Out
Our brains deal with vast amounts of information, but all that processing power comes at a cost. Ars Electronica/Flickr This article was originally published at The Conversation and has b…
The Rise of the Recliner as a Male Social Space
The gendering of spaces changed the way people could relax in their homes — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Understanding The Power of Comfort Foods
The comfort food premise may be a very deliberate social construct. — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
The Perils and Privileges of an Amazonian Hallucinogen
As practices associated with the use of ayahuasca grow in popularity, so do concerns about the appropriation of Indigenous traditions. Barbara Fraser Jens Kossmagk gazed into the darkness…
Schizophrenia’s Tangled Roots
Symptoms of schizophrenia and related disorders likely arise from a perplexing interplay of social, environmental, psychological, and biological factors. Apfelsaft123/Flickr Jacqui Dillon…
How Smart Were the First Toolmakers?
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) makes it possible to image people’s brains while they are moving their arms, which allows researchers to study the brain activity of toolmakers. …