The bioethicist argues that humans do not gain real sentience until infancy, and that even mothers who commit infanticide should be treated far more gently than other murderers.

Is euthanasia, or physician-assisted suicide, ever justified? And when do vegetative states become inseparable from death?

How bioethicists can steer clear of political tensions on the job, and why past friction between bioethicists and doctors is quickly disappearing.

The discipline is less than 30 years old, but its practitioners have become a fixture in hospitals, and its inquiries have “brought morality back into the field of philosophy.”

A conversation with the bioethicist and fiction writer.

Why the two disciplines are intersecting now more than ever.

How free will and randomness intersect, and how working on ourselves could help events work out in our favor.

The question of human autonomy, the alternate universes that our choices can open up, and the problem of measurement awareness.

People often trick themselves into believing they are significantly more skilled in risky situations than they actually are.

Human beings will make unwise decisions — and sometimes they’ll make radically unwise decisions. But we aren’t fundamentally rational or irrational creatures.

The Florida State University professor on how he got into the study of philosophy and why we sometimes go out and party when we know we should be studying.

A conversation with the Florida State University professor of philosophy.

A profound fear of his own mortality.

Why this year’s Seder will bring a whole new understanding to the holiday.

It’s a stereotype that’s unfortunately true—and spans many religions.

The most difficult aspect of being a rabbi? Dealing with Jewish people.

At the New Shul in Manhattan, being Jewish isn’t everything.

Rabbi Niles Goldstein helped create a modern synagogue that’s home to all sorts of untraditional ideas.

Sometimes too many options lead to disengagement, says the New Shul rabbi.

How martial arts enabled a spiritual leader to open up.

A conversation with the founding Rabbi of the New Shul in Manhattan.

A rock tune celebrating his work has become an Internet hit. But did it please the professor himself?

As the celebrated mathematician writes his memoirs, he reflects on the combination of good luck, hard luck, and constant dreaming that made his life a success.

The mathematician has long believed the traditional understanding of market fluctuations would need to be replaced with his fractal model. Unfortunately, he says, “my time…has come.”

The word “fractals,” which Benoit Mandelbrot invented, has caught on with everyone from kids to club owners.

The father of fractal geometry marvels that his work has led to computer renderings of natural shapes that are indistinguishable from the real thing.

The geometry of fractals may be relatively new, but humans—especially artists—have perceived them in nature for ages.

How a quest to combine aesthetics with mathematics produced one of math’s most famous, and gorgeous, images: the Mandelbrot set.

What are fractals? The man who invented the term—and the geometry to go along with it—explains how complex natural shapes such as mountains and coastlines can be represented mathematically.

A conversation with the mathematician and Professor Emeritus at Yale University.