Naomi Wolf on Kate Middleton Topless, Pussy Riot, and the Sexualized Female Body

Tracy Bloom / Truthdig Sep 20, 2012 According to the author of "Vagina: A New Biography," we are undergoing an "unprecedented struggle" among women, their bodies and sexuality. Citing recent examples including the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, the frenzy over "virginity tests" in Egypt and recent efforts in the U.S. to legislate the female body, Wolf argues that female sexuality is being targeted around the world. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The Brain-Vagina Connection

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Sep 8, 2012 In the course of writing her new book, “Vagina: A New Biography,” author and activist Naomi Wolf discovered research in neuroscience that strongly suggests that “the vagina is not just a sex organ at all, but a powerful mediator of female confidence, creativity and the sense of the connections between things.” Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Doctors Get a Clue About How Shock Therapy Works

Staff / Truthdig Mar 20, 2012 It's long been a subject of controversy, as well as a few dramatic movie scenes, but electroconvulsive therapy, aka shock therapy, also appears to work when other treatments don't in some persistent cases of depression. Now the medical community has a little more insight into how it helps patients. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Culture or Neurons?

By Susan Okie Mar 9, 2012 What accounts for our species' self-consciousness and awareness of our mortality, for our impulses to create art, to cling to our memories of childhood, to believe in a deity? Two new books suggest distinct approaches to such elemental questions.What accounts for our species' self-consciousness and awareness of our mortality, for our impulses to create art, to cling to our memories of childhood, to believe in a deity? Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Facebook May Morph Your Brain

Staff / Truthdig Oct 19, 2011 Here we have the latest news in the blossoming social networking subdiscipline of neurology, about which we are not entirely kidding, as a team of researchers from University College London has found a possible link between the size of their subjects' flocks of Facebook friends and the size of certain parts of their brains. (more) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Eternal Frontier

Angel Boligan, Cagle Cartoons, El Universal, Mexico City Jul 25, 2011 Dig deeper

Violent Video Game Ban Blown to Smithereens

Staff / Truthdig Jun 28, 2011 The Supreme Court overturned California's ban on violent video games; social networking sites may be effectively enhancing our social lives; and a case of public urination in Oregon forces a city to flush its reservoir. These discoveries and more after the jump. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

On Art and Lying

Staff / Truthdig Jun 8, 2011 It's been noted before, by the likes of Marlon Brando and others, that art might be a socially sanctioned form of lying -- or confabulating, as neuroscientists might call it. Could this be true? Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Cellphones Might Cause Cancer, Maybe

Staff / Truthdig May 31, 2011 If you're feeling confused about this issue, you're not alone: Conflicting reports have been released, but now a group of experts from the World Health Organization is claiming that cellphones, under certain heavy-use circumstances, may cause cancer in humans. (more) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Conservative Brains Have More Fear, Less Courage

Staff / Truthdig Dec 30, 2010 Scientists at University College London went poking around the noggins of a couple of MPs and 90 students and were surprised to discover that the brains of right-wing subjects were more prone to fear and anxiety and less so to courage and optimism when compared with their counterparts on the left. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Beauty and the Brain

Staff / Truthdig Nov 30, 2010 How's this for a mental image? In an effort to make our synapses sexier to the general public, one enterprising neuroscience aficionado and Ph.D.-to-be cooked up a book of pretty pictures of the human brain as rendered from past to present. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

More News, Less Turkey

Staff / Truthdig Nov 24, 2010 Today on the list: Bribing Israel, the possibilities of precognition, the value of banks (it's complicated), and the incredible shrinking withdrawal date. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )