When you drop a piece of food on the floor, is it really OK to eat if you pick up within five seconds? This urban food myth contends that if food spends just a few seconds on the floor, dirt and germs won’t have much of a chance to contaminate it. Research in...

Oliver Sacks, the celebrated neurologic storyteller who died at the end of August at age 82, once described himself as “strongly atheist by disposition.”

Sacks could write sensitively about religion, including a recent article on the role of the Sabbath in his...

Western countries and the Middle East are (finally) engaged in serious negotiations around resettling many more of the refugees from Syria – the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II.

While arguments around global complicity and moral obligation in the Middle East should and...

If the recent surge in the polls by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has proven anything, it is that politics – like love – means never having to say you’re sorry. The blustering billionaire businessman and former reality television star has made...

As classes began this year, male students at Dillard University, a historically black institution, were asked to don suits and ties. Students leading the effort believe that through this custom, students will better represent the school and themselves upon...

Stephen Colbert’s hopes and prayers have come true.

Last month, Colbert – the new host, executive producer and writer of CBS' The Late Show – told the New York Post, “Every night I light a candle that [Donald...

Math can’t catch a break. These days, people on both ends of the political spectrum are lining up to deride the Common Core standards, a set of guidelines for K-12 education in reading and mathematics. The Common Core standards outline...

There is a growing concern about the cost, quality and value of higher education.

Despite the increasing cost of an academic degree, recent studies show substantial percentages of students, even in the most selective US colleges and universities,...

In the 1980s, sociologist Viviana Zelizer proclaimed that we were living in the age of the “priceless” child.

She noted that in the late 19th century, children were valued primarily for their economic contributions to their...

The mass media are filled with images of desperate refugees struggling to escape civil unrest. But it is not only the poor and the displaced who are on the move. The rich, especially from countries such as...