top story in November-December 2009
Counting the Stars
Graphic representations of how movie stars and their critics rate, according to Metacritic.com.
These Art Critics Love to Ruffle Feathers
Professor Shigeru Watanabe from Keio University in Japan, writing in the journal Animal Cognition, says pigeons can use color, pattern and texture to distinguish good paintings from bad.
Looking Back in Anger
An esteemed professor rightly takes AIDS denialists to task, but his valuable history of the movement is at times a caustic read.
Building a Better Citizen
How the government can make us better at self-government.
Curiosity: The Killer Catalyst
Psychologist Todd Kashdan explores the many benefits of cultivating curiosity.
The Real Cost of Ransom
How can the U.S. and Europe keep ship owners from paying ransoms that make Somali pirates more dangerous?
A Home Remedy For Day Care
Jessica Sager and Janna Wagner train home-based child care providers for the poor neighborhoods that need them most.
40 Years of Muppetology 101
How to get to Sesame Street? Take Wonk Way and turn left on Research Road.
Before the Flood
The U.S. spends billions on levees, but river flooding still causes havoc across the country. Vermont has a better way.
archive
The Inside Dope on Snitching
A law professor explains how to keep criminal informants from duping prosecutors, police and the rest of us.
All the Pretty Beach Horses
Can the descendants of horses left by Spanish explorers coexist with native plants and animals on North Carolina’s environmentally sensitive Outer Banks? A study will tell.
Learning to Play the HARP
The Obama administration has a mortgage refinancing program that needs some tuning.
The Buds of Wrath
A financial stimulus for the recession-battered middle class: pot farming.
Not Playing Chicken
AVMA president responds in the debate on the use of extra-label antibiotics in poultry.
Finding Water from Outer Space
A globe-trotting geologist uses satellites and other remote-sensing platforms to find water under some of the world’s thirstiest places.
What Really Happened in Rwanda?
Researchers Christian Davenport and Allan C. Stam say the accepted story of the mass killings of 1994 is incomplete, and the full truth — inconvenient as it may be to the Rwandan government — needs to come out.
related to November-December 2009
politics
- Pirate Party Docks at Berlin’s Parliament
- Who Owns Government-Funded Research Papers?
- Republicans Like Candidates Who Look Republican
- Calculating an End to Divisive Politics
- Brams: Use Approval Voting in Presidential Primaries
business
- ‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks
- Pressure to Conform Can Inspire Creativity
- Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads
- Five Orcas, Five Slaves or Five Persons?
- Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected No More?
science
- Why Robot Maids Won’t Do the Dishes
- A Light Bulb Moment in the Brain
- CSI: Wildlife — Solving Mysterious Animal Deaths
- Beware of Science as Political Veneer
- Researchers Re-Open Their Minds to Psychedelic Drugs
culture
media
- Female Pop Stars: Prepare to Disrobe
- Scholars and The Big Lebowski: Deconstructing The Dude
- Media and Revolution 2.0: Tiananmen to Tahrir
- The Arab Spring’s Cascading Effects
- Local TV News Spreads Cancer Fatalism
legal affairs
- ‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks
- Five Orcas, Five Slaves or Five Persons?
- The FCC and Indecency: Here We Go Again
- Neo-Nazis and ‘Defensive Democracy’
- Male Circumcision Ban Makes Cut for November Ballot
environment
- Marketing the Mystery of the Giant Squid
- Long Slog for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
- Reconnecting Children and Nature
- CSI: Wildlife — Solving Mysterious Animal Deaths
- Save the Birds — With Doppler Radar
health
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Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
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Prop Planes: The Future of Eco-Friendly Aviation?
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Japan's Earthquake: Deciphering the Fury
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Learning to Read When a School System Falters
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The Perceived Delicacy of the Female Conductor
from the source
Gender Wage Gap Skewed By Survey Flaws
The wage gap between the sexes in America has been closing much faster than anyone realized, but that’s tempered by learning it’s been much wider than measurements had shown.
‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks
An effort to identify five performing orcas as slaves failed in part, argues one scholar, because there’s no legal precedent establishing them as persons.
The Perceived Delicacy of the Female Conductor
New research finds listeners judge symphonic music differently when they’re told the conductor is a woman.
House Puts Transportation in Partisan Crossfire
Transportation used to be one of the few guaranteed areas of agreement when ideology trumped pragmatism in D.C. But that’s no longer the case.
Pressure to Conform Can Inspire Creativity
New research suggests less-creative people do more innovative thinking when they are told individualism is the norm, and instructed to conform.
Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads
A lot of people say they watch the Super Bowl mostly for the ads. But it turns out a good game surrounding those ads makes them seem better.
Overseas Troops Finally Get Fair Shot at Voting
After decades of obstacles hindering the voting process, new laws will allow overseas and military voters to submit their votes in time for the 2012 election.
Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected No More?
World health leaders announce coordinated push to eradicate or control neglected tropical diseases.
Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
A survey of award-winning children’s picture books from 1938 to 2008 suggests our increasing estrangement from the natural environment.
Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely
Rather than moaning about too many cars on the road, the Ridesharing Institute says the real key to battling traffic congestion and pollution is filling empty passenger seats.
Hall of fame
Slugging — The People’s Transit
In Washington, D.C., commuters have taken thousands of cars off highways via a homegrown rideshare system known as “slugging.” Can the government create more slugs — without stepping on any?
Bacteria ‘R’ Us
Emerging research shows that bacteria have powers to engineer the environment, to communicate and to affect human well-being. They may even think.
A New Take on Political Ideology
An evolutionary psychologist proposes a new framework for understanding the root causes of our political beliefs.
The Real Science Gap
It’s not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It’s a lack of job opportunities. Americans need the reasonable hope that spending their youth preparing to do science will provide a satisfactory career.
Triumph of the Cyborg Composer
David Cope’s software creates beautiful, original music. Why are people so angry about that?
