Tania Lombrozo

George Takei is famous for his role as Mr. Sulu on Star Trek. Now a new documentary, To Be Takei, delves into his personal story — including growing up in Japanese internment camps, and coming out.

• Ancient Egyptians transport a large statue by sledge, headed by a person who pours water from a vessel.
• Before stepping onto the pitch, a soccer player ties and reties his shoelaces for good luck.
• In Indonesia, a Kantu' farmer decides where to establish a new farming ...

Many children's books and songs double as mini-lessons in counting (One Elephant), letters (the alphabet song) or fine-motor skills (Thumbkin). It's less common to find such activities for young children infused with basic science.

Take evolution. Perhaps it hasn't made it into classic nursery rhymes because it's ...

Last year the American Medical Association voted to recognize obesity as a disease. In a June 18, 2013, press release, AMA board member Dr. Patrice Harris explained:

"Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately one ...

With peak graduation season just behind us, we've all had the chance to hear and learn from commencement speeches — without even needing to attend a graduation. They're often full of useful advice for the future as seniors move on from high school and college. But what about the ...

With the Fourth of July just around the corner, families across the nation will be firing up their gas and charcoal grills in pursuit of grilled meat bliss.

But if you really want a juicy, tender slab of barbecued meat, the secret lies in old-school steel ovens and wood. The ...

Most parents I know suffer from occasional — or constant — eruptions of parental self-judgment: moments when they feel they fall short of being the parents they could be. There's a gap between what they know about effective parenting (in the abstract) and what actually happens in everyday practice — ...

Secretary of State John Kerry is touching on a number of complex foreign policy issues this week — from violence in Iraq, to political instability in Egypt and the conflict in Ukraine...

Science doesn't just further technology and help us predict and control our environment. It also changes the way we understand ourselves and our place in the natural world. This understanding can inspire awe and a sense of grandeur. But it can also be unsettling, especially when it ...

Is learning to code software a valuable skill? Is it one that prepares people to join the workforce of the future?

On the one hand, the popularity of computer science as a college major and the proliferation of coding bootcamps suggest the answer is decidedly "yes." Code.org, ...

When I attended my first scientific conference at the tender age of 20, one of my mentors surprised me with the following bit of advice. Transcribed directly from memory:

"You should be sure to attend the talk by so-and-so. You can always trust his results."

This casual remark ...

The 2014 winners of the Best Illusion of the Year Contest were announced this past Sunday. Hosted yearly since 2005 by the Neural Correlate Society, the contest celebrates "the ingenuity and creativity of the world's premier visual illusion research community."

Visual illusions aren't just cool — they can also ...

May has been a demoralizing month for news about global warming. The third National Climate Assessment was released on May 6, with its bleak message that time is short if we hope to prevent catastrophic climate change. Soon after we learned that polar ice is irreversibly melting. ...

A few weeks ago I flew to Los Angeles to participate in a conference related to my work. As a mother with two young children, I was only able to do so thanks to a special team of helpers.

My parents picked us up at the LA airport with an ...

Saturday at about 10:30 in the morning, as New York took a turn for the muggy in what turned out to be anticipation of rain, I climbed the steps to the Metropolitan Museum Of Art and rented one of the audio guide units that hang around your neck on an ...

Raising children does funny things to your experience of time.

Sometimes minutes ooze by with painful viscosity as you wait for the baby to (finally!) fall asleep, seek another way to entertain the (grumpy!) toddler or wait for the teenager to come home (past curfew!). But then you blink and ...

In a recent post at New APPS: Arts, Politics, Philosophy, Science, philosopher Helen De Cruz asks important questions about the role of evidence, arguments and debate in public discussions about evolution and creationism:

"Debates don't seem to do any instrumental good. If we are not going ...

I sometimes hesitate to tell people I'm a psychologist because it can put them on guard. I've heard all of the following reactions:

"Oh no! You'll be able to tell how crazy I am!"

"Can you tell what I'm thinking?"

"Are you analyzing me now?"

I quickly clarify ...

When I had a second baby earlier this year, my three-year-old suddenly seemed enormous. "Check out the size of those feet!" I marveled. She seemed so heavy, so tall, so substantial.

She even seemed more capable, more robust. Images of airborne cookware and toppling bookshelves faded. The staircase didn't seem ...

Mind Maps: Stories from Psychology is a current exhibit at London's Science Museum. Co-sponsored by the British Psychological Society (BPS), it explores our understanding of the human mind through 250 years of mental health diagnosis and treatment.

When the exhibition's lead curator arrived to give a tour last ...