The SciencesFebruary 15, 2011
Convincing evidence: Our wills aren't as free as we (or I) would like to think
Stories by John Horgan
John Horgan is a freelance journalist and a former Scientific American staff writer. He comments on science in his free online journal, Cross-Check, and he has also posted his self-published books Mind-Body Problems (2018) and My Quantum Experiment (2023) online. Horgan teaches science writing at the Stevens Institute of Technology.
The SciencesFebruary 11, 2011
Egypt's revolution vindicates Gene Sharp's theory of nonviolent activism
The SciencesFebruary 7, 2011
Sebastian Junger's documentary film Restrepo deserves an Oscar, but his theory of war is wrong
Space & PhysicsJanuary 28, 2011
Is speculation in multiverses as immoral as speculation in subprime mortgages?
The SciencesJanuary 24, 2011
A modest proposal for curbing homicides: Socialism
The SciencesJanuary 12, 2011
How many massacres will it take for gutless politicians to stand up to gun nuts?
The SciencesJanuary 7, 2011
Freeman Dyson, global warming, ESP and the fun of being "bunkrapt"
January 3, 2011
Why A.D. 2011 beats 100,000 B.C.: More choices, free will, freedom
Has civilization been a big mistake? My friend and former neighbor Kirkpatrick Sale thinks so. Sale is a smart, feisty critic of modernity, and especially technology and big government.
The SciencesDecember 27, 2010
New Year's Resolution: I will believe in free will
The SciencesDecember 13, 2010
The truth we'll doubt: Does the "decline effect" mean that all science is "truthy"?
Mind & BrainDecember 7, 2010
Healing thyself: Does psychedelic therapy exploit the placebo effect?
Mind & BrainNovember 29, 2010
Cybertherapy, placebos and the dodo effect: Why psychotherapies never get better
The SciencesNovember 22, 2010
Thanksgiving guilt trip: How warlike were Native Americans before Europeans showed up?
The SciencesNovember 16, 2010
Scientific regress: When science goes backward
The SciencesNovember 8, 2010
Margaret Mead's war theory kicks butt of neo-Darwinian and Malthusian models
The SciencesOctober 29, 2010
"Gene-whiz" science strikes again: Researchers discover a liberal gene
The SciencesOctober 25, 2010
Margaret Mead's bashers owe her an apology
The SciencesOctober 18, 2010
Benoit Mandelbrot (RIP) and the quest for a theory of really everything
Mind & BrainOctober 11, 2010
Be wary of the righteous rationalist: We should reject Sam Harris's claim that science can be a moral guidepost
The SciencesOctober 4, 2010
Are war crimes caused by bad apples or bad barrels?
HealthSeptember 24, 2010
Doubts about psychedelics from Albert Hofmann, LSD's discoverer
The SciencesSeptember 20, 2010
Battle fatigue: Can pretend warfare cathartically curb real war?
September 13, 2010
Cosmic Clowning: Stephen Hawking's "new" theory of everything is the same old CRAP
The SciencesSeptember 6, 2010
Contemplating the end of the world, math, mystery and other things