Across three experiments the link between making goals public and actually working towards them was tested. What they found in every study was that when participants had shared their goal with someone else, instead of increasing their commitment, it reduced it. When they had shared their goals with another, participants put less effort into studying, trying to get a job and taking advantage of opportunities for advancement.

This project is investigating developments in neuroscience and their implications for society and public policy. Increasing understanding of the brain and associated advances in technologies to study it will enable improved treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and mental illnesses. These advances will also increase our insights into normal human behaviour and mental wellbeing, and give the possibility of other enhancement, manipulation, and even degradation of brain function. These developments are likely to provide significant benefits for society, and they will also raise major social and ethical issues due to wide ranging applications.  Brain research is likely to have implications for a diverse range of public policy areas such as health, education, law, and security. Progress in neuroscience raises questions about personality, identity, responsibility, and liberty. The Brain Waves project explores the potential and the limitations of neuroscience insights for policymaking, as well as the benefits and the risks posed by applications of neuroscience and neurotechnologies.

The U.S. military has been after self-guided bullets for years. Now, government researchers have finally made it happen: a bullet that can navigate itself a full mile before successfully nailing its target. Each self-guided bullet is around 4 inches in length. At the tip is an optical sensor, that can detect a laser beam being shone on a far-off target. Actuators inside the bullet get intel from the bullet’s sensor, and then “steer tiny fins that guide the bullet to the target.” The bullet can self-correct its navigational path 30 times a second, all while flying more than twice the speed of sound.

"Was jemand willentlich verbergen will, sei es vor anderen, sei es vor sich selber, auch was er unbewusst in sich trägt: die Sprache bringt es an den Tag." Victor Klemperer, LTI, Lingua tertii imperii, Notizbuch eines Philologen, Leipzig, Reklam, 1947

“Ultimately, I’m interested in creating a bio-computer by using actual slime molds, whose information-processing system will be quite close to that of the human brain,” Aono said. “Slime molds do not have a central nervous system, but they can act as if they have intelligence by using the dynamism of their fluxion, which is quite amazing,” Aono said. “To me, slime molds are the window on a small universe.”

In an Army-backed experiment called "Power Dreaming,” Naval Hospital Bremerton, in Washington State will help traumatized troops battle their nightmares — with soothing, digitally-made dreams crafted in virtual worlds. No, this is not the script for the sequel to Inception. So the researchers will ask troops to take control of the “creation of the customized healing imagery (therapeutic dreams) to counter the impact of nightmares,” according to a military contracting document. “The model is to develop imagery that is both customized by the [soldier] and neurologically ‘distracting’ to stimulate the development of a clinical relaxation response,” contract documents say.

Doctors are planning the first clinical trial of ecstasy in the UK, to see whether the drug can be beneficial to the traumatised survivors of child abuse, rape and war. Ecstasy and other illegal drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms are potentially useful in treating people with serious psychological disturbance who cannot begin to face up to their distress, some psychiatrists and therapists believe. But because of public fear and tabloid anger about illegal drugs, scientists say they find it almost impossible to explore their potential.

An Open Letter to Terry Allen, Noam Chomsky, Alexander Cockburn, David Corn, Chris Hayes, George Monbiot, Matthew Rothschild, and Matt Taibbi: According to several left-leaning critics of the 9/11 Truth Movement, some of its central claims, especially about the destruction of the World Trade Center, show its members to be scientifically challenged. In the opinion of some of these critics, moreover, claims made by members of this movement are sometimes unscientific in the strongest possible sense, implying an acceptance of magic and miracles. After documenting this charge in Part I of this essay, I show in Part II that the exact opposite is the case: that the official account of the destruction of the World Trade Center implies miracles (I give nine examples), and that the 9/11 Truth Movement, in developing an alternative hypothesis, has done so in line with the assumption that the laws of nature did not take a holiday on 9/11. In Part III, I ask these left-leaning critics some questions evoked by the fact that it is they, not members of the 9/11 Truth Movement, who have endorsed a conspiracy theory replete with miracle stories as well as other absurdities.

The idea that sex ratios alter sexual behavior is well-established. Analysis of demographic data from 117 countries has shown that when men outnumber women, women have the upper hand: Marriage rates rise and fewer children are born outside marriage. An oversupply of women, however, tends to lead to a more sexually permissive culture.

"Jeder kennt das sog. "Großvater-Paradoxon": Jemand reist in die Vergangenheit und beseitigt die Ursachen seiner Existenz. Schade nur, dass dieses Paradoxon knapp an der eigentlichen Problematik vorbeischrammt. Es ist nämlich völlig unerheblich, ob der Zeitreisende seinen Vater, seinen Großvater oder sonst einen Vorfahren erschießt. Sein Vater ist nicht sein Vater und sein Großvater ist nicht sein Großvater. Er hat gar keine Vorfahren. Die wesentlichen Ursachen seiner Existenz existieren gar nicht, denn sie liegen in der Zukunft."

Julius Mittenzwei vom Chaos Computer Club erklärt im Interview den Anonymisierungsdienst TOR. Er glaubt, dass ihm eine große Zukunft bevorsteht, auch weil der Staat immer mehr wissen will.