Why do we feel such a strong urge to share a juicy piece of gossip?'Whisper' via www.shutterstock.comLet’s face it: gossips get a bad rap.
Smugly looking down from a moral high ground – and secure in the knowledge that we don’t share their character flaw – we often dismiss those who are obsessed with the doings of others as...
Facing a sea of red.ReutersPlunging Chinese stocks have been sending worsening ripples across global markets all year, prompting fears of spillovers and recessions.
China’s Shanghai Composite Index lost 8 percent last week alone and is down more than 20 percent since a recent high in December, putting it in bear-market territory. That slide...
Read more: How Chinese mix of frugality and risk-taking is driving global stock markets wild
Looking for relief: Southern California Gas Company and outside experts work on a relief well at the Aliso Canyon designed to stop the ongoing natural gas leak. Dean Musgrove/ReutersThis October, a large leak was discovered at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility in northwest Los Angeles. The leak is a serious health risk to nearby...
Read more: California's Aliso Canyon methane leak: climate disaster or opportunity?
Pablo Picasso's
Bull (1958) is constructed with plywood, tree branch, nails and screws. © 2015 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.A legal battle has erupted between art dealer Larry Gagosian and the royal family of Qatar, with each side claiming to have purchased a Picasso statue from Picasso’s daughter...
Inmates walk outside their cells at San Quentin State Prison in June 2012.Lucy Nicholson/ReutersMental health conditions are more common among prisoners than in the general population. Estimates suggest that as many as 26 percent of state and federal prisoners suffer from at least one mental illness, compared with nine percent or less in the...
Transgenic American chestnuts could soon take root.Claire Dunn, CC BY-NDAmerican chestnut trees were once among the most majestic hardwood trees in the eastern deciduous forests, many reaching 80 to 120 feet in height and eight feet or more in diameter.
Historic picture of a large American chestnut tree (Ten Eyck Dewitt barns, Paul Farm, NY).Provide...
Read more: New genetically engineered American chestnut will help restore the decimated, iconic tree
Demonstrators confront police officers in Chicago after Laquan McDonald was fatally shot. REUTERS/Andrew NellesIn the sixth GOP debate, Donald Trump told Americans: “The police are the most mistreated people in this country.”
On the same day, the Chicago Police Department released a video showing an officer killing Cedric Chatman in...
Read more: U.S. laws protect police, while endangering civilians
Who is responsible for today's campus troubles?Jonathan Ernst/ReutersFifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote “Why We Can’t Wait” to dispel the notion that African Americans should be content to proceed on an incremental course toward full equality under the law and in the wider society. King observed,
Three hundred years of...
Read more: Fulfilling Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream: the role for higher education
Could the hack that took out the power grid in Ukraine happen in the U.S.? rainchurch/flickr, CC BY-SAOn December 23, 2015, two days before Christmas, the power grid in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine went down for a reported six hours, leaving about half the homes in the region with a population of 1.4 million without power, according to...
Read more: Cyberattack on Ukraine grid: here's how it worked and perhaps why it was done
Clinton and Sanders struggle to get their points across.REUTERS/Randall HillThe gloves are off in the Democratic race, and it’s now abundantly clear that Bernie Sanders can throw a punch.
On Sunday night the Democratic presidential candidates met for their final debate before the Iowa caucuses. Hillary Clinton entered the debate with a 25-poin...
Read more: Great night for Sanders could be turning point in race
