Discovered: Video games can help dyslexic kids read; pregnancy increases foot size; around 100 million sharks are killed annually; mammalian sperm swims upstream.
Antonio Villaraigosa on immigration reform, George Packer on Southern Republicans, Jennifer Welsh on France's intervention in Mali, Chris Cillizza on the Senate losing its lions, and Gary Younge on Obama's Iraq amnesia.
Discovered: Scientists dig up Frodo fossils; autistic people hear music better; babies' brains foretell adult diseases; Deepwater Horizon cleanup could hurt coral all over again.
Yesterday, Destiny's Child got R&B fans pumped for their big return to the studio. It didn't take long for their new track "Nuclear" to appear online, and for some reason Mashable got to midwife the official release.
Under current federal funding guidelines, international HIV/AIDS programs have to adopt anti-prostitution policies if they want U.S. money. But in taking up a new case Friday, the Supreme Court decided to put that mandate to the First Amendment test.
Words like epidemic tend to get tossed around willy nilly whenever flu seasons get nasty. But the CDC confirmed Friday that what the U.S. is going through right now officially qualifies as an epidemic.
Alex Koppelman on Joe Biden's gun talks, Kimberley Strassel on gun control roadblocks, Paul Krugman on why we should mint the trillion-dollar coin, Stephen Carter on why we shouldn't, Eleanor Clift on Obama's chief of staff search.
Talk about mixed signals. On the very morning The New York Times signaled its plans to reassign its nine environment desk journalists to other sections, the paper ran a chilling photo of "extreme weather" above the fold on A1.
Party-pooping politicians tried to quash the two-weekend expansion of Miami's giant electronic dance gathering Ultra Music Festival. But the increasingly popular mega-rave could not be contained.
Discovered: "Whole grain" labeling doesn't mean much; brown-eyed girls (and boys) deemed more trustworthy; birds are smart enough to hide their food; heel-to-toe barefoot runners gain ground.
Vladimir Franz has more face tattoos than Lil Wayne, but that hasn't hurt his poll numbers. The odd man out in the Czech presidential race has earned a sizable chunk of the vote by calling out ruling parties on corruption.
Women who take sleeping pills have been inadvertently double-dosing, according to a new announcement from the Federal Drug Administration.
He's bringing music back ... in three days. Today's tease didn't go anywhere, but word has it that singer's follow-up to FutureSex/LoveSounds is in the pipes, with Timbaland, Jay-Z, and Beyoncé onboard.
Amy Davidson on the platinum coin, Edward Kleinbard on Obama's plan B for the debt ceiling, Ezra Klein on Joe Biden in 2016, Meghan Daum on Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Liel Leibovitz on violent video games.
Discovered: The NIH connects artificial sweeteners with depression; why fingers get all pruney underwater; insulin findings could lead to needle-free diabetes medication; deaf mice made to hear again.
Doctors say we're entering the worst flu season in a decade, Boston's mayor has declared a public health emergency, and Chicago hospitals are having to turn away sick people. So we should panic, right? Not yet, according to recent flu epidemics.
Preliminary hearings on the legal fate of accused Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes wrapped today, after the revelation of disturbing images from Holmes' cell phone.
Beyoncé is reprising her role as Obama's inauguration serenader. Oh, and Kelly Clarkson and James Taylor will be there, too. Not that a lot of Beyoncé fans know who James Taylor is, exactly.
Tim Weiner on John Brennan, Jonathan Chait on elusive centrist debt solutions, J. Michael Cole on Japan-China hostilities, David Hirst on a possible Kurdish state, and Leonid Bershidsky on Gerard Depardieu taking Russia.
Discovered: Canadian tar sands impact regional water supplies; therapy doesn't necessarily stop teens from becoming suicidal; first images of the high-energy cosmos; city birds grow up fast.
New evidence emerging from this week's hearings into the Aurora movie theater shooting paints a chilling picture of the meticulously laid bombs waiting for first responders.
Still think book critics are too nice these days? You won't after reading the scathing reviews nominated for this year's Hatchet Job of the Year awards.
Always one for flipping conventions, David Bowie is celebrating his 66th birthday today by giving his fans the gift of new music. This morning he released a new single and announced his first new album in almost 10 years.
David Brooks on Chuck Hagel, Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly on guns, Ramesh Ponnuru on the debt ceiling, Simon Tisdall on Syria, and Michael Specter on genetically modified crops.
Record companies are usually quick to capitalize on the never-before heard recordings of their biggest artists. So why did Sony drag their feet and hush up the release of new Bob Dylan rarities? The answer lies in a complex copyright law.
Discovered: Global warming could cause more lava flow; humans started popping pills ages ago; babies begin acquiring language in womb; Mars astronauts would be very sleepy.
Preliminary hearings on the Aurora movie theater massacre began today, and many expect accused shooter James Holmes to pursue an insanity defense. Considering Colorado's unusual laws, he could have a strong case.
Peter Beinart on Chuck Hagel, Doyle McManus on John Boehner, Chris Cillizza on Washington's bargaining problem, Kostas Vaxevanis on Greek oligarchs, and Mark Buchanan on inequality and crime.
Discovered: Scary numbers about sleeping while driving; our moon might get its own moon; decoding the malware genome; fighting HIV with HIV.
After much delay, and much not-so-secret disgust, the Food and Drug Administration came out with rules aimed at curbing food-borne illness Friday. Here's how the proposed new rules will affect what you eat... finally.
We're sure R. Kelly meant well. But his new tribute song for the children of Newtown, Connecticut... well, it just can't help but bring back all kinds of icky memories about his history with minors.
What can we learn when Skrillex, the populist producer followed by a rabid fan base of ravers, aspires to critical credibility with a more cerebral electronica? The Internet's dubstep junkies will not be denied their drops.
Rebecca Dana on Current TV, Paul Krugman on budget bickering, Jeremy Warner on robotic economic growth, Tim Padgett on Venezuela's ailing leader, and William Pesek on India's rape case.
Even though Hillary Clinton will return to her office at the State Department as soon as next week, imaginative people still think her concussion was a convenient cover-up. Which led one sarcastic commenter to ask today: What else is she not telling us about?
Discovered: What a never-before-seen type of rock tells us about water on Mars; forecasting the flu based on weather; atoms get colder than absolute zero; you'll change more than you think.
Big Boi—half of the legendary duo OutKast—might soon appear on the same Frank Ocean track as his longtime partner Andre 3000, causing over-eager blogs to herald a "reunion." But we're holding out for the real deal.
Plenty of now-famous authors barely eked out a living selling their words in their own time, but today their tossed-off grocery lists, doodles, and marginalia can fetch millions. The market for such mildewed papers is booming.
Alex Koppelman on the Sandy relief bill, Charles Blow on future cliffs, Matt Lewis on conservatives losing the culture war, Sheri Berman on waning Arab Spring optimism, and Gideon Rachman on Britain's relationship with the EU.
The masterminds behind Jersey Shore think they'll find the next batch of ridiculous TV personalities at a rave. Their planned electronic dance music reality show sounds tacky, ego-driven, and combustible—in other words, perfect.
We've seen "Cormac McCarthy" Tweet apocalyptic non sequiturs. "Philip Roth" promised us a bite-sized short story. Now a fake Twitter account for British spy novelist John le Carré is spreading bizarre death rumors about J.K. Rowling.
Ezra Klein on the GOP's fiscal compromise, Maureen Dowd on the Democrats' cliff surprise, Amy Davidson on future fiscal fights, Anuradha Roy on rape in India, and Shashank Joshi on Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
Discovered: Scientists hazard their latest guesses about what we'll experience in the new year, showing us previews of rising sea levels, soaring temperatures, and a close encounter with a supercomet.
The last batch of data available in 2012 show Fox News suffering a dramatic ratings decline — and Sean Hannity's viewers in particular keep disappearing, while Rachel Maddow's continue to tune in over at rival MSNBC.
Get all your horse-dancing out before midnight, because PSY will be "ending" his ubiquitous earworm "Gangnam Style" before the ball drops. It just got "too popular," he told MTV News, stating the obvious.
Eric Singer on how the fiscal cliff affects paychecks in Congress, Jonathan Chait on Obama's fiscal caving, Bill Keller channels the NRA's president, John O'Sullivan on mass firings at Russia's Radio Liberty, and Gordon Chang on the Japanese economy.
Discovered: Radiation worries are expanding Japanese children's waistlines; birds respond to music like humans; chemo changes the brain; asparagus each day keeps the hangovers away.
The ASPCA settled a protracted case related to elephant abuse with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey today, agreeing to pay the circus $9.3 million. But even with this victory for Ringling Bros., evidence of three-ringed animal cruelty keeps mounting.
Noam Scheiber on the truth about the fiscal cliff, Paul Krugman on the end of growth, Robert Samuelson on elite high schools, Walter Russell Mead on Syria, and Bruce Crumley on France's colonial legacy.
Books — staid and intellectual cultural artifacts that they so often are — were not all just staid or intellectual this year. Not nearly. There were, in fact, publishing scandals, dramas, and plot twists galore. Oh, and Philip Roth.
Discovered: Pretty much every student in the world with a phone is on it when he shouldn't be; glowing shellfish found in Scotland; Antarctic drilling research called off; monkeys process nice gestures.
In a rare and now controversial investigation, scientists have been asked by Connecticut's medical examiner to study the Sandy Hook shooter's DNA for clues about his violent behavior — but the genetics community doesn't think that's such a good idea.
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