The process—in which the brain converts a sequence of actions into an automatic routine—is known as 'chunking,' and it's at the root of how habits form. Habits, scientists say, emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort. Left to its own devices, the brain will try to make almost any routine into a habit, because habits allow our minds to ramp down more often.

France's three wealthiest families are coming to the rescue of a national icon, spearheading a fundraising drive to rebuild Notre Dame that has topped $700 million. The billionaires behind luxury giants LVMH Group, Kering and L'Oreal on Tuesday pledged a combined €500 million ($565 million) after a massive fire ripped through the Paris cathedral. LVMH (LVMHF) and its CEO Bernard Arnault have promised €200 million ($226 million). The donation has been matched by the Bettencourt Meye...

The world wastes more than 1.3 billion tonnes of food each year. The planet’s 1 billion hungry people could be fed on less than a quarter of the food wasted in the US and Europe. In a recent report, the World Economic Forum identified cutting food waste by up to 20 million tonnes as one of 12 measures that could help transform global food systems by 2030. Now South Korea is taking a lead, recycling 95% of its food waste.

A hacker group has breached several FBI-affiliated websites and uploaded their contents to the web, including dozens of files containing the personal information of thousands of federal agents and law enforcement officers, TechCrunch has learned. The hackers breached three sites associated with the FBI National Academy Association, a coalition of different chapters across the U.S. promoting federal and law enforcement leadership and training located at the FBI training academy in Quantico, VA.

Tropical forests that regrow on abandoned agricultural land contain within a few decennia already most of the species of the original old-growth forest. Within 20 years the species richness is already 80% of that of old-growth forests. Their species composition, however, is totally different. Tree species are different, as well as their abundances, a team of around 80 researchers writes in Science Advances.

Let's just call this reason No. 580 not to leave your kids alone with technology: They might lock you out of it. That's what happened over the weekend to Evan Osnos, a staff writer at The New Yorker and a fellow at the Brookings Institution. He put out a tweet -- or a cry for help -- letting the world know of the little situation his toddler put him in.

Nine trillion metric tons. That's how much ice Earth's glaciers lost in the 55 years between 1961 and 2016. An international team of scientists used satellite and direct field observations to conclude that Earth's glaciers have melted such a profound sum of ice in the last half-century. They published their report Monday in the journal Nature.

There is an instinct among political pundits to confuse caution for practicality — an assumption that those who advocate for incremental change are being reasonable, while those pushing for bold reforms aren’t. This is seen most starkly in the debate around health care reform, despite the fact that the “practical” pushers of limited reform fail to address the real problems in our health care system.

Images from the 1950s and ’60s have a better resolution than Google Earth

Both members of Liverpool band Her's have passed away after being involved in a car accident while on tour in America, the group's label has confirmed. Stephen Fitzpatrick and Audun Laading were both killed in the crash along with their tour manager Trevor Englebrektson while on their way to a gig in Santa Ana, California on Wednesday (March 27).

Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk has doubled down on his dire warnings about the danger of artificial intelligence. The billionaire tech entrepreneur called AI more dangerous than nuclear warheads and said there needs to be a regulatory body overseeing the development of super intelligence, speaking at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin, Texas on Sunday.

A national bookstore in New Zealand has pulled the self-help book written by controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, following the Christchurch mosque massacres. This week, Whitcoulls, a chain that has 56 stores across New Zealand, pulled “12 Rules for Life” from its shelves, tying their decision directly to the Christchurch shootings, in which 50 Muslims were killed and another 50 were injured by a white supremacist. Whitecoulls has not given an official reason for pulling the ...

When Melissa Marti saw the email that caused her to sit in her driveway sobbing into her steering wheel, she knew she was going marry Seth Visser. She just didn’t know when. “We had been talking about it for years — we had even started making plans,” said Ms. Marti, who is from New Ulm, Minn.

Philosophy is a profoundly interesting subject. Often many people have little to no understanding of what the subject actually is, and don’t realise how influential it has been on numerous aspects of their lives. Ever come across the question “if a tree falls in a forest and there’s nobody there to hear it, does it make a sound?” Well that annoyingly difficult question was sprung out of the philosophical notion of Idealism.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren released an aggressive plan on Friday to break up tech giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook, targeting the power of Silicon Valley with her populist message as sprawling Internet giants face mounting political backlash ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Alphabet Inc's Google will ban political advertising on its platform before the Canadian federal election, after the country introduced stringent transparency rules. The Bill C-76, which was passed in December, requires online platforms to keep a registry of all political and partisan advertisements they directly or indirectly publish. "For the duration of the 2019 federal election campaign, Google will not accept advertising regulated by Bill C-76," Colin McKay, Google Canada...

Bacteria could help protect crops without man-made pesticides, according to a study which used vaccine manufacturing techniques to make the microbes safe to humans while retaining their anti-microbial properties. UK researchers were able to remove the risk of lung infections from a modified form of the bacteria while still allowing it to prevent “damping off” a disease which kills off seeds and seedlings.

It’s been just over one year since filmmaker Kevin Smith suffered a near-fatal heart attack that would eventually transform his health for the better. The filmmaker wrote on Instagram that he spent the one-year anniversary “living it up” with longtime friends and “Jay and Silent Bob” co-stars Jason Mewes and Jason Lee, to work on the upcoming reboot.