Professors threaten failing grade if students use the terms he or she and male or female

“The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc [the state ideology of Oceania], but to make all other modes of thought impossible.”

Be careful, your love of science looks a lot like religion

Was fire harnessed by scientific method? Did developed countries become developed through randomized controlled trials? Many innovations obviously work or plainly don't; testing is often for close calls. That isn't to deny the progress of science or its unique role but only to relativize it as one precious mode of discovery among others. Promoting science's quieter, humbler spirit would have numerous upsides.

Many psychology studies fail the replication test

"Not everything we do gets published. Novel, positive and tidy results are more likely to survive peer review and this can lead to publication biases that leave out negative results and studies that do not fit the story that we have," he says.

"If this occurs on a broad scale, then the published literature may become more beautiful than the reality."

The rise and fall of paranormal experimentation

"If you think your house is haunted, you don't need an exorcist, you just need a sceptic. Because I guarantee if I come along, nothing will happen."

Wikipedia is corrupting science with blowjobs and elves, scientists warn

"One commenter on the journal article notes that 'the authors seem to falsely correlate the number of changes to an article and the veracity of those changes' – the researchers assume that all changes are, by their nature, inaccurate and negative. But the pages with more changes are also areas of constant research. It's understandable that as the field of climate change develops, its Wikipedia page would too."

Why the World's Remaining Hunter-Gatherer Societies Are Some of the Biggest Pot Smokers

"Countless rituals have developed around food that do not relate to nutrition. The same goes for sex, clothing, shelter and other utilitarian behaviors. All these behaviors are (and were) essential to survival and reproduction, but we humans have a tendency to elaborate everything. We think the same might be true of recreational drugs."

Learning Might Buffer Brain Against Addiction

"At first, all the mice overwhelmingly returned to the chamber where they had presumably enjoyed the cocaine. But in subsequent weekly drug seeking tests, the mice who had received cognitive training showed less preference for the chamber where they had been high on cocaine. And that pattern continued."