It is common for people to scoff at tears as a behaviour and a subject of investigation. Tears are, they say, feminine, self-indulgent and melodramatic. It is not hard to notice, in those beliefs, the patriarchal assumptions about what should be valued and what should be mocked. Writing teachers will instruct students not to show their characters’ sadness through crying, calling it cheap.

You're having a conversation with someone and suddenly his eyes drop to his smartphone or drift over your shoulder toward someone else. It feels like this is happening more than ever, and there are signs that the decline of eye contact is a growing problem.

How has the ubiquity of online porn affected the sexual development of children and teens? The scientific consensus is: We have no idea.

13 scientific studies that teach us how to live happier and more optimistic lives.

This week on Distort, we are measuring how slow (and dumb) humans are, in centimeters. Guest Dr. Adam Gazzaley explains reaction time and tells us why our brains are more like plastic, not cement.

Fast-accumulating data seem to indicate that our close cousins, the Neanderthals, were much more similar to us than imagined even a decade ago. But did they have anything like modern speech and language? And if so, what are the implications for understanding present-day linguistic diversity?

When members of a choir sing, their heart rates quickly become synchronized, beating in the same rhythm. Researchers think this may be why singing together is a key part of religious rituals around the world, and such a joy for the singers.

Déjà vu is a rare occurrence, but you know it when you feel it. As you walk through a new city for the first time, something familiar clicks in your mind, giving you pause. You’ve definitely been here before. But you haven’t. So what gives?

How can we ‘hear’ ourselves speak even when we are not speaking aloud? Research published this month suggests that the same mechanism that means we cannot tickle ourselves is responsible…

If both men and women have nipples, why don't men also produce milk and breastfeed? It's a question that's been on all our minds, leading Laci to, once and for all, explain the reason for male nipples.

Would you like to live forever? Probably not. According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, most Americans don’t want to stick around much longer than current life expectancy. Sixty percent don’t want to live past 90. Thirty percent don’t want to live past 80.

New footage reveals an isolated indigenous tribe in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

My best friend at 9 was white - but interracial friendships later became a struggle. Here's why everything changed.

Abraham Lincoln and Emma Watson have something in common. So do Eleanor Roosevelt and Christina Aguilera. They, like an estimated one third to one half of the population, are introverts.

Search warrants reveal letters Hannah Anderson sent to James Lee DiMaggio, a series of phone calls the day of her abduction, and references to trips the two had taken in the past.

Why did the heirs to one of the largest fortunes in America grow up horribly neglected and abused?

A billion people have been lifted out of poverty in just the last 20 years. Did you know that? Do you know how it happened? Do you sit around thinking about how wonderful that is?

Amid the horde of world-ending dipshits hogging the headlines, there are those kindly folks out there who don't cause us to pray for Ragnarok.

Look, we all know how it is. You're at work, but your mind is somewhere else. It happens. You can't be too hard on yourself. Ideally your lack of attention wouldn't result in the wrongful demolition of two houses, but you're only human, right?

Once, on a trip to the beach with a girlfriend, I watched her disappear under one of the biggest waves I've ever seen before it pounded her into the sand and stripped off the top half of her bathing suit. Concussed and embarrassed, she staggered to shore where I was clapping and whistling to keep her oriented toward safe ground.