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Few things feel worse than not knowing when your next paycheck is coming. Economic insecurity has been shown to have a whole host of negative effects, including low self-esteem and impaired cognitive functioning. It turns out financial stress can also physically hurt, according to a paper published in February in Psychological Science. Eileen Chou, a public policy professor at the University of Virginia, and her collaborators began by analyzing a data set of 33,720 U....

This Thursday’s full moon carries the title of “Harvest Moon” for those living in the Northern Hemisphere. But what gives the special moon its name? The moon officially turns full when it reaches the spot in the sky opposite (180 degrees) from the sun. That moment will occur on Thursday (Sept. 19) at 7:13 a.m. EDT (1113 GMT). Thursday’s full moon is the one nearest to the September equinox this year, making it the Harvest Moon by the usual definition....

Today’s world is full of threats. Two of the great bulwarks of our recent prosperity—the postwar European project and a (reasonably) well-functioning democracy in the U.S.—are under siege. Waves of refugees from the civil war in Syria are engulfing Europe and stretching to breaking the long-standing generosity of northern Europeans toward those in distress. We see horrors in the Middle East, faltering growth in China, and global warming. Substantial fractions of the populations in Europe and in the U....

Many early forecasts for Hurricane Sandy last year predicted that the system would fizzle over the Atlantic. Yet a model developed by researchers at the European Center for Medium-Range Forecasts showed a more alarming scenario: the storm would instead turn west to threaten the Eastern Seaboard. The model’s refined predictions pinpointed the hurricane’s landfall around the New Jersey area in time to allow residents to seek higher ground. The key to the more accurate forecast involved mathematical mastery of the storm’s chaotic behavior....

Our memories depend on our ability to recall details about the world—a child’s face, a goose, a lake. To transform them into actual experiences, though, the brain must somehow merge these individual elements into an integrated whole—the look on that child’s face when she sees a flock of geese suddenly take flight from a lakeside stand of reeds. A cohesive sense of memory relies on other factors, too. Our survival over the millennia has depended on recalling not only the right information—say, a lion or a snake—but also the context....

As if the iPhone hype machine needed more fuel, early adopters have been treated to a series of proclamations that the device, through a sophisticated manipulation of the phone’s inner workings, could be released from the shackles of Apple’s exclusive service-provider contract with AT&T. The buzz spread quickly through blogs and, later, television interviews posted to YouTube that the iPhone hack was legit. Yet it’s likely to amount to little more than an interesting exercise in what youthful effort and ingenuity can accomplish....

Tucked inside the current funding bill for the Department of Health and Human Services is a little-noticed provision that regulates how the department handles science and scientific advice. None of the money in the bill can be used “to disseminate scientific information that is deliberately false or misleading,” the provision says. And the department cannot ask candidates for its scientific advisory panels to disclose their political affiliation or voting history. The provision, inserted by Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, represents a tiny victory for critics of the Bush administration, who have become increasingly angry about what they see as the White House’s misuse and abuse of science....

Ocean explorers have finally achieved one of their most alluring but elusive goals: video footage of the legendary giant squid (Architeuthis dux) in its natural deep-sea habitat. Scientists say that the spectacular film, captured during an expedition off Japan’s Ogasawara archipelago, answers enduring questions about the enigmatic invertebrate. The 6-week mission was funded by the Japan Broadcasting Commission (NHK) and the US Discovery Channel, and took place in July. It is only now being discussed publicly, as the two companies prepare to broadcast documentaries that include the footage later this month....

Mexico reopened its energy market to outside producers in August for the first time in more than 75 years. Until now, private companies could only serve as contractors to the national hydrocarbon or electricity monopolies. Mexicans formerly took pride in keeping a major natural resource in national hands. Pemex, the state petroleum monopoly, provided almost a third of federal revenues. Yet Pemex’s production began dropping in the mid-1990s. In 2013, the U....

It was the study that launched hundreds of scientific rebuttals, insinuations that the authors had been paid off by the chemical industry, and charges that it was a “massive” stunt “hidden behind fancy numbers of doubtful quality.” The claim that sparked this controversy? That “bad luck,” more than environmental factors or inherited genes, affects whether someone develops cancer, implying that preventive efforts from smoking cessation to environmental cleanups were largely pointless....

Orphanages linger in the popular imagination as unnatural relics, places from which neglected children need to be quickly rescued. And many international organizations and policymakers have made it a priority to reduce the role of these institutions, trying to place kids into family settings as quickly as possible. But children in orphanages in less wealthy countries appear to be doing just as well as their orphaned or abandoned counterparts who live in private homes—even those living with family members—according to a new study that examined the well-being of some 3,000 children in five countries....

PROGRAMMING FOR ALL In “The Coding Revolution,” Annie Murphy Paul reports on discussions and initiatives related to teaching computer science to all public school students, with a distinction made between coding and “computational thinking,” which is described as “habits of mind that include breaking down a problem, designing systems, and running small experiments.” Enough hand-wringing, please! From my experiences as a teacher and a former senior adviser to the Commonwealth of Virginia for STEM initiatives, I can say that while certain areas of computer literacy are required for today’s students, in general they don’t need a deeper than basic understanding of how computers work any more than they need a mechanic’s knowledge of how a car works to prepare for driving....

In the late ninth century a disastrous harvest precipitated by drought brought famine to China under the rule of the Tang dynasty. By A.D. 907—after nearly three centuries of rule—the dynasty fell when its emperor, Ai, was deposed, and the empire was divided. According to the atmospheric record contained in a stalagmite, one of the causes of that downfall may have been climate change. “We think that climate played an important role in Chinese history,” says paleoclimatologist Hai Cheng of the University of Minnesota, a member of the scientific team that harvested and analyzed the stalagmite from Wanxiang Cave in Gansu Province in northwest China....

The police department in Ferguson, Mo., has finally released the name of the officer who shot and killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown there last Saturday. It is Darren Wilson. The news followed days of protests and violent clashes between police and residents over the shooting. Tensions escalated when police used what many criticized as excessive force: tear gas, smoke bombs and rubber bullets, wielded to disperse crowds of protestors already infuriated by the actions of the police....

Data visualization is something of a cottage industry these days—witness Edward Tufte, an emeritus professor of political science at Yale University, who has built a mini empire founded on his well-received books, which bear titles like Visual Explanations; Envisioning Information; and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. In addition to leading one-day courses and securing a recent presidential appointment to an advisory panel relating to accountability in the economic recovery package, Tufte is, according to his Web site, opening a gallery, ET Modern, in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood....

Global warming has extended the destructive reach of humankind. Plants and animals far from human habitation are now threatened by the climate change resulting from the carbon we release into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels. In fact, according to a new study, global warming may surpass other by-products of human activity, such as deforestation, in driving species into extinction. Forester Jay Malcolm of the University of Toronto and his international team of conservation professionals looked at the changes to vegetation types, or biomes, in 25 so-called hot spots–unique ecosystems with a wide range of endemic species....

E pluribus unum—“Out of many, one”—was the first official motto of the United States, adopted by the founding fathers and enshrined in the nation’s Great Seal in 1782. In its statement of unity, it exemplifies the differences inherent in the United States—a fitting description for a singular nation defined by innumerable internal divergence. Yet, few organizing principles exist to explain these differences, which find their expression in divergent ecologies, histories, average personality traits, and various state outcomes....

Bacterial vaginosis can be devastating. The condition, caused by excessive bacterial growth in the vagina, often results in burning feelings, discharge and a bad odor. It is the most common vaginal infection in women between the ages of 15 and 44 in the U.S., where it affects 21.2 million of them. Although not life-threatening, it can cause infertility, premature births and increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted illnesses. As a result, it can lead to long-term disruptions in sexual relationships and quality of life....

It has been ridiculously warm across the eastern half of the country this month, with many spots likely to see their warmest December on record. New York City may reach as high as 72°F on Christmas Eve. Washington D.C. is forecast to reach the mid-70s, and Miami the mid-80s. One of the factors behind this decidedly un-Christmas-like weather is a feature that came to be associated with the brutally cold winters of the past few years: the infamous polar vortex....

Even though we humans write the textbooks and may justifiably be suspected of bias, few doubt that we are the smartest creatures on the planet. Many animals have special cognitive abilities that allow them to excel in their particular habitats, but they do not often solve novel problems. Some of course do, and we call them intelligent, but none are as quick-witted as we are. What favored the evolution of such distinctive brainpower in humans or, more precisely, in our hominid ancestors?...