Does consciousness depend on flesh and blood? The answer is almost certainly no, according to Eric Schwitzgebel, a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. In a new working paper, ...
Humans are the only species known to use fully symbolic language: a system capable of expressing abstract ideas, imaginary worlds and endless combinations of meaning. But how did we get there?
We often assume that how we respond to a rude comment says something stable about us: our personality, our culture, even the language we are speaking. If someone reacts calmly, we presume they are a patient person. If they ...
Scientific discoveries rarely happen alone. Modern research often involves teams spanning institutions and even countries. Yet when research is published in academic journals, credit is reduced to a list of names—a list that ...
When schools abruptly closed their doors at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, millions of students unexpectedly started learning at home, with or without the help of Zoom lessons.
After Sweden removed inheritance and gift taxes in 2005, private firms with potential family successors grew faster, invested more, and paid higher corporate taxes than firms without natural heirs, according to a new white ...
During the development of marine organisms—from fertilization through to juvenile stages—it is often observed that the eggs released into the water column are initially supplied with only a small fraction of the energy they ...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is arguably the most celebrated child prodigy in history, composing his first pieces of music aged five, his first symphony at eight and his first opera at 11. After a study in 1993 found that listening ...
Individuals with high intellectual ability frequently occupy leadership roles across business, science, and politics. To date, it has not been definitively established whether a high intelligence quotient correlates with ...
The fact that Samuel Pepys owned at least two enslaved people in 17th-century London is no secret. In some of his personal letters he was unashamedly open about this. In September 1688, he told a ship's captain that neither ...
