A 4 min read Advertisement: Our competitors’ computer salespeople are paid according to the value of the products they sell, so they have a financial incentive to convince you to buy the most expensive units—whether you...

A 4 min read In a study of office workers at a corporation, Australian researchers found that, on average, those who spent up to 20% of their work day browsing the Internet for purposes that were not work-related...

A 4 min read In a study, researchers repeatedly measured the thickness of a specific artery in each of thousands of volunteers over several years. The researchers found during the study that the artery became thicker more...

A 5 min read Letter to the editor: Organic farming does not contaminate soil and groundwater with pesticides and chemicals as conventional farming does. However, since organic farming is only about half as productive...

A 4 min read Harvester-ant colonies live for fifteen to twenty years, though individual worker ants live only a year. The way a colony behaves changes steadily in a predictable pattern as the colony grows older and larger. For...

A 3 min read Last year Comfort Airlines had twice as many delayed flights as the year before, but the number of complaints from passengers about delayed flights went up three times. It is unlikely that this disproportionate...

A 4 min read Appendicitis (inflammation of the appendix) is potentially fatal; consequently, patients with symptoms strongly suggesting appendicitis almost always have their appendix removed. The appropriate surgery is low-risk...

A 3 min read In persons with astigmatism, the clear outer layer of the eye is deformed in a way that impairs and sometimes distorts vision. The elongated figures in the paintings of El Greco (1541–1614) were so unusual that some...

A 4 min read Radio Stations with radio data system (RDS) technology broadcast special program information that only radios with an RDS feature can receive. Between 1994 and 1996, the number of RDS radio stations in Verdland...

A 5 min read Psychologist: In an experiment, two groups of volunteers read a story in which a character learns that there is a  chance of rain later in the day. Group I was told that the character chose to carry an...