The 9/11 strikes left an indelible impact on our minds, but in relative terms, the scale of casualties actually wasn't all that high.

If the cartoon were completely accurate, though, life would be a cacophany of spoinks.

But the 20th century suffered "two" ideologies that led to genocides. The other one, Marxism, had no use for race, didn't believe in genes and denied that human nature was a meaningful concept. Clearly, it's not an emphasis on genes or evolution that is dangerous. It's the desire to remake humanity by coercive means (eugenics or social engineering) and the belief that humanity advances through a struggle in which superior groups (race or classes) triumph over inferior ones.

We can shape events in each other's brains with exquisite precision.

It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer. But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Overcoming naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity's highest callings.

Like the early days of the Internet, the dawn of personal genomics promises benefits and pitfalls that no one can foresee.

One of the perks of being a psychologist is access to tools that allow you to carry out the injunction to know thyself.