Fascinating article that dives in to how an octopus relates to its environment.

"One decline-believer, Jonathan Schooler “recommends the establishment of an open-source database, in which researchers are required to outline their planned investigations and document all their results.” In other words, state what the experiment is before hand, and then publish the results no matter what. Most results will be negative, which may mean that any positive result will be more durable, more robust to future experiments."

Fantastic article on the downsides to not getting enough sleep.

Interesting interviews with participants of the Stanford prison study.

"Some of the qualms about digital research reflect a feeling that anything obtained too easily loses its value. What we work for, we better appreciate. If an amateur can be beamed to the top of Mount Everest, will the view be as magnificent as for someone who has accomplished the climb? Maybe not, because magnificence is subjective. But it’s the same view."

Cool observations on Twitter and how it relates to RSS.

"Technology gave us the tools to map these news communities and engage directly with their members. But it is the oldest journalistic skill of all which gives this process meaning and that is engagement. It is the skill most easily overlooked in the rush towards a brand new journalism: the supreme importance of interaction between two human beings."

It seems that Ulysses and kids ability to exert self-control is less connected to a natural ability to be more zen-like in the face of temptations, and more linked to the ability to reconfigure our environment (tying ourselves to the mast) and modulate the intensity by which it tempts us (filling our ears with wax)."

Beautiful essay about libraries and the future that is ripe for the taking.

A knowledge smackdown about the nuclear reactors damaged by the earthquake in Japan.

"A Russian team searching for signs of life beneath a 14-million-year-old frozen Antarctic lake has had to halt drilling just a few meters from water, potentially damaging 20 years of work in the process."

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

Terrific article about the human brain. Wonderful little nuggets like “The feeling of knowing is just that, a sensation.”

The Atlantic surveys a recent study that focuses on how individual states compare in international math score rankings. The results are fairly surprising. It all goes to show that for schools more money brings more problems.

A look at Technorati's data regarding blogging in 2010.

Early-stage research from one initiative is showing that sometimes what works for students in the classroom is also what improves their test scores.

Really cool feature story on Geoffrey West who is looking for the underlying rules that govern the growth of cities.

An interview with Oliver Sacks about prosopagnosia, face-blindness, and his upcoming book.

"Lets be clear — I am not advocating burning people who are not very happy with their lives and letting them struggle with the pain and agony of burns, the slow recovery, and the comparison to other less fortunate individuals — but I do think that ironically such negative experiences can actually improve the outlook people have on life and their motivation for living."

New research into medieval battlefield corpses lends deeper insight into how warfare was conducted.

"When a surgeon cut into Henry Molaison's skull to treat him for epilepsy, he inadvertently created the most important brain-research subject of our time — a man who could no longer remember, who taught us everything we know about memory."

"As new cases of autism have exploded in recent years—some form of the condition affects about one in 110 children today—efforts have multiplied to understand and accommodate the condition in childhood. But children with autism will become adults with autism, some 500,000 of them in this decade alone. What then? Meet Donald Gray Triplett, 77, of Forest, Mississippi. He was the first person ever diagnosed with autism. And his long, happy, surprising life may hold some answers."

Some tips on how to approach research projects to make the most of innovative contributors.

"Schizophrenia has long been blamed on bad genes or even bad parents. Wrong, says a growing group of psychiatrists. The real culprit, they claim, is a virus that lives entwined in every person's DNA."

Great idea for a writing course from Jason Fried. I'd take this course.

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

Using Flickr to track the progress of a whale.

Great use of the $500,000 MacArthur Genius Grant.

"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 new, as yet unnamed species—the first to be defined solely by its DNA—is unveiled in this week’s Nature. Anatomically, it consists of the distal manual phalanx of the fifth digit or, in layman’s parlance, the tip of the little finger."