Stories by John Pavlus

New Books Explore Puzzles of Taste, Gender and Addiction

Scientific American Mind weighs in on recent titles from neuroscience and psychology

What NASA Could Teach Tesla about Autopilot's Limits

Decades of research have warned about the human attention span in automated cockpits 

The Clumsy Quest to Perfect the Walking Robot

Why is it so hard to build a walking robot?

Inspired by Genius: How a Mathematician Found His Way

The mathematician Ken Ono believes that the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan—mathematical savant and two-time college dropout—holds valuable lessons for how we find and reward hidden genius

Why We Love the Games That Enrage Us Most

The psychology of intrinsic motivation and “hard fun” could improve education and, naturally, the next generation of video games

On the Horizon: Lab-Grown Spare Parts for Brains

Researchers have figured out how to coax stem cells into becoming organized clusters of neurons

How to Be a Better Sleeper

Expert advice on lighting, timing and hacking your dreams

The Billion-Dollar Race to Reinvent the Computer Chip

With the end of Moore's law in sight, chip manufacturers are spending billions to develop novel computing technologies

Placebos Work Better for Nice People

Agreeable personalities produce more of the brain's natural painkillers

Searching for Easy Answers to Hard Computational Questions

Whether or not machines can quickly answer yes-or-no questions could affect everything from national security to the limits of human knowledge

World Changing Ideas 2010

Ten thoughts, trends and technologies that have the power to transform our lives

Human Number Crunchers

When research is like a video game, computers finish second

The Game of Life

Bringing joysticks and scoreboards into our daily routine may be the key to making us better people

A Wandering, Plant-Eating Robot

It gobbles up wood chips, leaves and other “biomass” and generates electricity

Borrowing Nature's Code

Algorithms inspired by Mother Nature help us run our vast digital biosphere

Laying Odds on the Apocalypse: Experts Assess Doomsday

Could modern civilization really come to an end? Experts take stock of eight doomsday scenarios

Good Riddance: Human Creations the World Would Be Better Off Without

Our highly selective list includes Teflon, dropped calls and the space shuttle

Today's Sharks: Smart, Tagged, and in Short Supply [Slide Show]

Research on sharks, and knowledge about them, is still just gaining speed as marine biologists race to learn about the cartilaginous predators before they are fished out of existence

The Power of Garbage

Trapped lightning could help zap trash and generate electricity

More Ideas to Watch