Pop Culture

Every smoker knows that smoking poses serious health risks, but the prospect of quitting can be daunting. Nicotine withdrawals can last between three and 14 days, and some smokers find ... Read More

Professor Martin S. Bergmann died January 22, 2014, at a little less than 101 years old. In style, he was the quintessential European gentleman of a certain age and class. Although his ... Read More

Celebrities do it, regular folks of all ages do it, and several articles and blog posts have been written discussing and analyzing the fascinating trend that is the selfie. It’s a word ... Read More

Mary-Lynne, the 10-month-old baby in a video called “Emotional baby! Too cute!” (see below) feels her mother’s musically expressed emotion very strongly. As her mother soulfully sings ... Read More

About half of all Americans believe in ghosts, with 22% reporting a personal experience with ghostly phenomena, according to a 2009 CBS News poll. Science and religion have long competed ... Read More

People have long constructed elaborate stories to explain things that science can’t. Almost every society has at least one origin myth. Ancient people constructed human-like gods ... Read More

You’re not paranoid if they really are out to get you. More than 50 years after Ernest Hemingway committed suicide, we know that Hemingway was being tracked and hounded by the FBI, ... Read More

In the classic television series The X-Files, FBI agents attempt to uncover a conspiracy between aliens from another world and the U.S. government. Ideas about aliens vary from culture ... Read More

is inextricably linked to cultural norms, and the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—psychiatry’s diagnostic bible—makes this readily ... Read More

There’s no escaping the fact long-distance relationships are tough. From missing out on major events in your partner’s life to facing the daily ups and downs of life alone, ... Read More

Electroconvulsive therapy, sometimes called shock treatment, has been the subject of controversy for generations. Decades ago, ECT was sometimes administered involuntarily, but current ... Read More

Women face overwhelming pressure to meet an often unrealizable “beauty” ideal. The result is that 80% of women report being unhappy with their appearance, and three-quarters of all ... Read More