Author: Mary

I had never run across the concept of a wicked problem before yesterday, but I’m finding it to be a fascinating concept. A wicked problem has no single so...

This essay by biologist E.O. Wilson, published on the New Scientist site, is an excerpt from his afterword to an edition of four books by Darwin that was publis...

So what exactly is a religion? More specifically, does the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (aka Pastafarianism) count? The CFSM grew from an amusing lett...

When I posted a few days ago about new books on the reading list, I said I’d have more to say about evolutionary psychology. So here’s an interview ...

Maybe you remember the scene from The Big Chill where one of the characters praises the importance of a good rationalization. (Can you get through a day without...

Those of you who know me personally have already heard my diatribes against Daylight Saving Time (DST), which luckily I have been able to avoid for the most par...

Altruism toward community members who are not related to you, with its implications of kindness and generosity, may be intertwined in human history with hostili...

When I was younger, I could bounce back more easily from sleep deprivation; as I get older, it’s becoming harder to deal with a short night or worse yet, ...