Buddhism and the brain are more closely related than you might think.

"the understanding of design outside design circles is still immature. Not for long: The attention devoted to a new category of metrics measuring the actual health, dignity, and well-being of a population is on the rise."

"Thankfully, three trends foreshadow a potential breakthrough in global higher education for sustainable development."

Background on new research into what actually causes autism. Hint, it's not vaccines.

How food, on a chemical level, affects your brain activity.

Bora provides his reasons for leaving ScienceBlogs.

"Our understanding of who these men and women are is central to the authority of modern science, and if, as seems to be the case, there are emerging problems with that authority, then a clarification of the scientist’s identity is in order."

"The reputation that ScienceBlogs had built meant that you could trust the veracity and the integrity of those who appeared on the network. It was this reputation that Pepsi wanted to buy and which Seed was only too happy to sell them."

"To my mind, one of the best ways to ensure quality both among bloggers and in the mainstream media is for bloggers and journalists to be critical of each other—and themselves."

"What's needed, it seems to me, is a simple blogging platform, probably WordPress or Drupal, that could host all the science bloggers who wanted to be free of the corporate situation."

Very poor decision by Scienceblogs to sell blogging space to Pepsi Co. The message seems to be keep your PR out of our newswire.

"Three experts discuss the Gordian Knot of wealth, fertility, and environmental impact – and why making do with less stuff matters so much."

"Since the big bang, every quantum event—every atom randomly deciding to go along one path or another, every photon deciding to be spat out by an atom not spat out—has injected information into the universe. A fantastically enormous amount of information."

Seed Magazine interviews pioneers of open and accessible science data. Interesting insights into the systems currently being created.

Interesting interview with Jessica Bank of RockPaperRobot, a design company focused on experimenting with furniture.