The state of the universe.

If you'd like to sort this department listing by headline, author or date, please use the Slate search.

• Libertarians With Antlers What Robert H. Frank's The Darwin Economy gets wrong about evolution.
  John Whitfield Sept. 28, 2011
  
• The World's Most Traveled Man How wanderlust turned into a competitive sport.
  Ken Jennings Sept. 22, 2011
  
• Here Be Dragons A history of map monsters.
  Ken Jennings Sept. 20, 2011
  
• Who Killed 3-D? A box-office whodunit.
  Daniel Engber Sept. 14, 2011
  
• That's Hot What does it take to inflame a pyromaniac?
  Jesse Bering Sept. 14, 2011
  
• Contagion: A Dialogue Could they really make a vaccine so quickly?
  Arthur Allen Sept. 8, 2011
  
• Risibility of the Planet of the Apes On the great divide between humans and chimpanzees.
  Jon Cohen Aug. 25, 2011
  
• So Close, and Yet So Far Away The contorted history of autofellatio.
  Jesse Bering Aug. 8, 2011
  
• L'Eau Pour Chien Why do dogs rub up against things that smell bad?
  Jesse Bering July 25, 2011
  
• Cranky Little Bastards Taking stock of the centipede.
  Constance Casey July 18, 2011
  
• A Bad Case of the Brain Fags And other mental problems you probably won't get in America.
  Jesse Bering July 11, 2011
  
• Disconnected? We've heard that obesity and divorce can be passed from one person to another. Critics now wonder how the "social contagion" studies ever passed peer review.
  Dave Johns July 4, 2011
  
• The Discovery of Arsenic-Based Twitter How #arseniclife changed science.
  Carl Zimmer May 27, 2011
  
• The Return of Sonar Boy America learns, yet again, that humans can echolocate. Why are certain scientific discoveries made over and over?
  Daniel Engber May 26, 2011
  
• The Century of Disasters  Meltdowns. Floods. Tornadoes. Oil spills. Grid crashes. Why more and more things seem to be going wrong, and what we can do about it.
  Joel Achenbach May 23, 2011
  
• Prophecy Fail What happens to a doomsday cult when the world doesn't end?
  Vaughan Bell May 20, 2011
  
• How the Brain Got Its Buttocks Sixteenth-century anatomists couldn't keep their minds out of the gutter.
  Jesse Bering May 17, 2011
  
• The Century of Disasters Meltdowns. Floods. Tornadoes. Oil spills. Grid crashes. Why more and more things seem to be going wrong, and what we can do about it.
  Joel Achenbach May 13, 2011
  
• Is Cursive Dead? Not on your life.
  Brian Palmer April 29, 2011
  
• The Human Skin Condition Mother Nature gave us pimples, and then she made us self-conscious about them.
  Jesse Bering April 18, 2011
  
• Too Old To Hold The mystery of gerontophilia.
  Jesse Bering April 5, 2011
  
• Naughty by Nature What should we think of people whose addled brains are driving them to nymphomania?
  Jesse Bering March 3, 2011
  
• Jeopardy, Schmeopardy Why IBM's next target should be a machine that plays poker.
  Chris Wilson Feb. 15, 2011
  
• Are You There God? It's Me, Brain. How our innate theory of mind gives rise to the divine creator.
  Jesse Bering Feb. 1, 2011
  
• Invasion of the Baby-Snatchers Our irrational fear of infant abduction could be causing real harm.
  Daniel Engber Jan. 25, 2011
  
• Darwin's Rape Whistle: The Morning After A response to the critics.
  Jesse Bering Jan. 21, 2011
  
• We're Not So Different, Slime Molds and Us New research suggests some single-celled creatures can grow their own food, just like humans.
  Scott Solomon Jan. 19, 2011
  
• Darwin's Rape Whistle Have women evolved to protect themselves from sexual assault?
  Jesse Bering Jan. 13, 2011
  
• Crazy Talk We're too quick to use "mental illness" as an explanation for violence.
  Vaughan Bell Jan. 9, 2011