Stories by John Horgan

Germans were debating the “body–soul problem” by the mid-19th century, but Socrates pondered the problem first

Science will never tell us who we really are, and that is why it will last forever

The quantum theorist thinks we’ll solve war, global warming and consciousness—and that will be just the beginning

Is weirdness only in the eye of the beholder or is it an objective quality of reality?

Evolutionary theorists propose that female desire for domineering males helped create a patriarchal world

A meditation for the Winter Solstice

For far too long, Darwinian theory has justified sexist attitudes and behavior

As long as we lack a "consciousness meter," we can’t resolve debates about what is or isn’t conscious

Speakers at a meeting on animal consciousness dive into a deep ethical debate

Over lunch, a philosopher and suburban dad tries to describe the highest state of mystical consciousness

Neuroscientist Christof Koch calls for a “crash program” in brain technologies to make us smarter

An encounter with a Buddhist teacher provokes a meditation on the nature of spirituality

In 1970 a psychiatrist at Tulane University electrically stimulated the brain of a gay man while he had sex with a female prostitute

Eliminating the threat of nuclear weapons once and for all will require ending the threat of conventional war, too.

U.S.-made guns wreak havoc around the world as well as in the U.S.

Neuroscientist based at Yale in 1960s controlled bulls, monkeys and humans with brain implants and envisioned a “psychocivilized society”

We don't have time for scientists to gather definitive evidence linking climate change to big storms

The FDA just approved the first gene therapy for sale, but such therapies remain far from fulfilling their early promise

A new book argues that meditation can benefit us individually and globally

There is nothing admirable about a white male arguing that white males are biologically more fit for jobs in tech

Nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein also speaks out on nuclear terrorism, proliferation, modernization, eradication and civil defense

The biologist and atheist, whose latest book was released this week, talks about the reliability of science, artificial intelligence, religion and the president

If Kuhn had “never lived,” there “might still be a President Donald Trump”

Shannon, a pioneer of artificial intelligence, thought machines can think but doubted they "would take over”