Genealogical Anxiety
Pondering the origins of your beliefs and yourself can be the first step toward making a better world...
Stories by John Horgan
The Dawn of Self-Consciousness
A sudden moment of self-awareness in childhood propels people on a quest to explore life’s mysteries...
We Should All Be Science Critics
A Harvard scholar says viewing science and technology with a critical eye can make the world a better place...
Cancer Medicine Is Failing Us
Our aggressive, expensive approach to cancer is doing more harm than good...
Can Psychiatry Heal Itself?
A Harvard historian urges psychiatrists to focus less on making money and more on helping patients...
What Does a Medical Nihilist Do When He Gets Sick?
Philosopher Jacob Stegenga, author of a scathing critique of medicine, discusses vaccines and his own health...
Is Medicine Overrated?
Given medicine’s poor record, physicians should prescribe and patients consume far fewer medications, a new book argues...
Meta-Post: Posts on Cancer
Cross-Check columns on cancer and related topics...
My Encounter with the Late Mitchell Feigenbaum, Chaos Pioneer and Critic
The renowned discoverer of order underlying chaos was surprisingly skeptical of claims that computers were creating a revolutionary new science...
Quantum Computing for English Majors
The poet who discovered Shor’s algorithm answers questions about quantum computers and other mysteries
Why Freud Should Be Dead
Freud’s most implacable modern critic recounts the flaws of psychoanalysis and its founder and deplores their persistent influence...
Was Darwin Wrong?
A journalist recounts the epic story of modern challenges to evolutionary dogma...
Free Will Is Real
Philosopher Christian List argues against reductionism and determinism in accounts of the mind...
From My Archives: Quark Inventor Murray Gell-Mann Doubts Science Will Discover "Something Else"
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Murray Gell-Mann’s first paper on quarks, Gell-Mann biographer George Johnson has written several terrific posts about one of the truly great theorists and characters of modern physics...
Be Careful with Occam’s Razor, You Might Cut Yourself
A biologist-philosopher cautions against banishing from our worldview things that science cannot comprehend
Meta-Post: Posts on Brain Implants
Cross-Check columns on brain implants and other technologies for manipulating minds...
Meta-Post: Posts on Buddhism and Meditation
Cross-Check columns, critical and not so critical, on Buddhism, meditation and related topics
Meta-Post: Posts on Psychedelics
Cross-Check columns on psychedelics and related topics...
Why We're Still Fighting over Freud
A debate over the relevance of psychoanalysis to brain research highlights science’s lack of progress in understanding the mind...
Meta-Post: Posts on Mental Illness
Cross-Check columns on efforts to explain and treat mental disorders...
