There’s growing evidence that we experience other people’s behavior in deeper ways than we thought. When speaking or listening to someone, your brain activity synchronizes with theirs. When you’re stressed, your changing heart rate synchronizes with those around you, and then they feel the stress too. When someone hurts your…
Can the soft flap of a butterfly’s wing in Brazil set off a catastrophic tornado in Texas? The notion that very small things can have outsize impacts—the so-called butterfly effect—is the basis for explaining why chaotic systems like the weather (not to be confused with climate) cannot be predicted more…
If you saw the iconic film Alien, you may remember the alien parasite bursting out of the human host’s chest. That type of thing actually happens in nature with parasitoid wasps and their insect hosts. While they’re vital to our environment, the insect world is often a nearly incomprehensible realm…
De-extinction, or resurrecting an extinct species, is an intriguing notion. But the science is challenging and the ethics are complicated. On the one hand, it’s exciting to think about bringing back the woolly mammoth or the carrier pigeon or the saber-toothed cat and we can see the way in which…
Science diplomacy: these two words do not commonly pair up in conversations at cocktail parties. Through the stories of how scientific collaboration with countries such as Russia, Iran, and Cuba, and on global challenges like climate change, have in the past advanced diplomacy, we can see why they can go…
Movies and television shows often transport us to new and surprising landscapes that exist within a carefully constructed framework of rules that ensure that things make sense and hang together. The creative process of world building is informed by what is, while being inspired by what can be. This same…
It’s not news that fatty foods, sugary drinks, salty snacks and a sedentary lifestyle are bad for us. But recent trends in life expectancy in the United States are making it pretty clear just how bad all this is. For the first time since the 1800s, things aren’t going in…
For more than 20 years, virologist Matt Frieman has dedicated his career to the study of coronaviruses. So for a good part of his professional life, an introduction at a cocktail party required that he first explain what epidemiology was followed by a justification for exclusively studying novel coronaviruses. Of…
You are invited to join us in celebrating this year’s Sundance Film Festival Sloan Award recipient, After Yang, with a special talk-back featuring director Kogonada and futurist B Cavello from the Aspen Institute and moderated by Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer, John Nein. Starring Colin Farrell and Jodie-Turner Smith, the…
The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on us all, but perhaps some of the most striking and consequential impacts have been to our children. Deeply dependent on social interaction to nourish their developing brains, babies and young children require the stimulation provided by in-person engagement to flourish and thrive. Patricia…
