Scientist Discover 200 New Species
For thousands of years, steep mountain ranges and dense forests have limited interaction between many of Papua New Guinea's indigenous groups, creating one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse countries in the world. Geographic barriers also have limited scientific exploration in the country, which is known to harbor many undiscovered species. Trekking by foot, canoe, and helicopter, ... posted on Nov 3, 2458 reads

School Volunteers Fill Void
Lehigh University grad Felicia Cooper has spent almost everyday for the past month in the library of Overbrook High School, devoting her working hours to helping students at risk. A West Philly native, serving these students is a homecoming of sorts. "I am from the School District of Philadelphia, so I know some of the challenges as a student that could be faced." It's volunteers like Cooper that ... posted on Oct 31, 939 reads

A Checking Account of Smiles
Jorge Munoz is a bus driver in New York City who started feeding the hungry in Queens five years ago, using food that would otherwise have been thrown away. Since then, he's been there, day-in and day-out, distributing 121,000 meals over the years. And that's how he discovered a secret- the power of sharing. "People are telling me, 'Jorge, you have no money, you do all this and get nothing back.' ... posted on Nov 26, 2456 reads

Job Perks of an Optimist
A new study by researchers at Yale and Duke Universities find that optimism pays off in job hunting and promotions. After studying the effect of an optimistic disposition on MBA students' job searches, the researchers found that optimists fared better than their less-optimistic peers. Optimistic grads found jobs more easily, with less-intensive job searches. Even better, two years after graduation... posted on Nov 24, 8726 reads

Why Social Value is Good for Business
In a recent interview, David Schmittlein, Dean of MIT Sloan School of Management, hones in on the importance for business to be able to state their social value. "The social contract that businesses, organizations in general, have with the world is changing, and unless organzations can demonstrate and explain the social purpose and the social value that they've fulfilled, they will fail. They will... posted on Nov 23, 3190 reads

Does Thinking Make it So?
In a world that prizes medical science and blames illness on factors such as genes, viruses, bacteria or poor diet, certain perplexing cases stand out. Consider Mr. Wright, a man whose tumors "melted like snowballs on a hot stove" when he was given an experimental drug that he believed would cure his cancer, but was later declared to be worthless by the American Medical Association. His case is ju... posted on Dec 23, 5439 reads

Restoring Paradise for Gentle Giants
When Iain Douglas-Hamilton left Tanzania, in East Africa, in 1970 to study at Oxford University in Britain, he left behind "an elephants' paradise". But when he returned in 1972, the country's national parks looked more like a war zone: ivory poaching had endangered these gentle giants. With elephants on the brink of extinction, the soft-spoken conservationist and author knew he had to act. In his... posted on Dec 16, 2290 reads

Four Ways to Respond in an Argument
From your nervous system's point of view, there are a number of ways to respond to an argument. You can find yourself in one of the knee-jerk reactions such as fight, flight, or freeze. You can roar and bite, escape and hide, or freeze like deer in headlights. Or, you can take a breath, and get your nervous system to smile. Neuropsychologist Marsha Lucas reminds us that taking a moment to catch ou... posted on Dec 13, 24583 reads

Matching Kids and Mentors
To the beat of Aretha Franklin, and with pizza-laden paper plates poised precariously on their laps, families sit in the crowd at the assembly hall of Horace Mann Middle School. They are waiting. They look slightly anxious. It's not graduation day- though it is something akin. The seventh and eighth graders here are at a pivotal time in their young lives, when school dropout problems can begin, ex... posted on Jan 3, 2267 reads

A Passion for Giving
'A Passion For Giving' is a stylish, powerful and beautifully shot film with great music and compelling interviews with fascinating people, some famous some not, who inspire the viewer to give and help other people, animals and the planet. It reinforces the notion that anyone has the capacity to give, not just those with disposable income. From a Tibetan monk to a New York City street artist, thi... posted on Dec 8, 3857 reads

Generous Vegetable Seller
After the morning hustle, a lone lamp shines on a vegetable stall. With head bowed, Chen Shu-Chu is the first to arrive in the market and the last to leave. She earns marginal profits. Yet, her frugality has allowed her to donate NT$10 million (about 350,000 US $) towards various charitable causes, including schools, orphanages and poor children. The generosity of a woman with such a humble income... posted on Feb 7, 2905 reads

Removing Stigma One Idli At A Time
A small idli shop in south Tamil Nadu, India, is the talk of the town. At daybreak, people crowd around to buy idlis and dosas from two women who are HIV positive. Despite the stigma of HIV/AIDS in their town, the customers are aware of their condition and continue to patronize their shop. With community support, Vijayarani and Sumathy have overcome the devastating news, "look as healthy as any... posted on Feb 8, 2398 reads

Importance of Kindgergarten
An experienced teacher and a small class in kindergarten can set a person up for life. At least according to a large-scale study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The bureau study, conducted by a team of economists, draws on data from Project STAR, one of the most widely studied education experiments in the United States. The project spans 11,600 students and their teachers in kindergar... posted on Jan 5, 3808 reads

Love, Honor, and Thank
If you've ever lived with anyone else --from a spouse to a college roommate --you've probably had conflicts over doing the dishes, the laundry, and countless other household chores. But researchers Jess Alberts and Angela Trethewey have found that a successful relationship doesn't just depend on how partners divide their household chores; it also depends on how they each express gratitude for the ... posted on Apr 24, 15454 reads

Runner Crawls to a Finish For Her Coach
Jim Tracy, a cross-country coach at San Francisco's University High School, was recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and now walks with difficulty using braces on his legs and his back. But that doesn't stop him from coaching. And inspiring. At the state meet this year, star runner Holland Reynolds collapsed near the finish line. Despite all odds, she finished the race, crawling on hand a... posted on Feb 6, 2144 reads

Makeovers For A Cause
Makeovers -- for the body and the home -- have become a staple of reality television shows. And now, for a handful of young adults in New York, they are becoming an actual reality. Blissful Bedrooms is a nonprofit organization committed to transforming the bedrooms of young people living with disabilities. They don't have an office, or paid staff, but they do have a website, a Facebook page, and ... posted on Dec 20, 2776 reads

Out of Ice, Comes Music
Terje Isungset is a composer and percussionist who crafts stunning pieces of music from ice. "It is very inspiring to be able to make music out of the world's most important resource: water. Pure, clean water from a lake or river. I seek for new sounds in music, new colors; I try to find a new flower somehow - and to me the ice opens up a new landscape. A landscape of beauty and silence," he remar... posted on Jan 19, 3906 reads

Pilot Holds Plane for a Dying Child
Time was running out, and Mark Dickinson wasn't sure whether he'd get to see his dying 2-year-old grandson one last time. A long line in security had kept him from getting to his gate on time. In a desperate last attempt, Dickinson's wife called the airline to ask them to hold the plane for him. That's when the pilot stepped up and held the flight at the gate until Dickinson arrived, running in so... posted on Jan 22, 9868 reads

'Barefoot' Grandmothers Electrify Rural Communities
"If you ask any solar engineer in the world, 'Can anyone make, install and maintain solar power in a village?' they say it's technically impossible. And if I say a grandmother is making it who is illiterate, he can't believe it, it's beyond his comprehension," says Sanjit "Bunker" Roy. A social entrepreneur and founder of the Barefoot College, Roy has been championing a bottom-up approach to educa... posted on Mar 11, 6525 reads

Visit the MET From Your Desk
Google has taken its 360-degree Street View cameras into some of the most famous and acclaimed galleries, opening the world's art collection to the internet. From the Tate Britain in London to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, you can now browse 385 rooms in 17 galleries, and see more than 1,000 works by 486 artists. Zoom in close enough, and you can see individual brushstrokes, hairline cracks in t... posted on Feb 12, 6184 reads

Beauty and Science: A Conversation with Ed Johnson
As this distinguished molecular biologist says, "the ultimate decision of whether or not a piece of data is going to get used is completely subjective! To put it analytically, you look at your piece of data and you decide whether or not you think it looks pretty." He continues, "Scientists devote not just a great deal of energy in thinking about their problem, but devote a great deal of personal e... posted on Mar 1, 3293 reads

Coach Donates Kidney To Star Player
A college coach has stepped up to the plate for one of his players with an amazing gift. Wake Forest University baseball coach Tom Walter just donated a kidney to freshman outfielder Kevin Jordan, a 19-year-old he recruited last year. Jordan's family was not compatible and could not donate their organs; Coach Walter tested himself and was found to be a perfect match. According to the National K... posted on Feb 27, 1382 reads

Life is 'Baeutiful'
Do you remember the name of your kindergarden teacher? I do, mine. Her name was Mrs White. I don't remember much about what we learned in her class, but my mother once told me that we used to write a lot. And I would bring back what I wrote and she would look at it and see there were so many mistakes. But no red corrections. And always a star. Sometimes even a Good! scrawled in that would make my ... posted on Feb 25, 16403 reads

Japan's Unlikely Hero
They can be seen all over Japan. Springing up in shelters and cities. Molded in the hands of dedicated volunteers. Nourishing tired faces, the recipients both young and old biting into them with smiles on their face. One of the quiet heroes to emerge in this time of grave crisis in Japan is the humble little white ball of rice called onigiri or omusubi. Portable, substantial, and lasting surprisin... posted on Mar 30, 3637 reads

Quiet Justice: Teaching Mindfulness to Lawyers
"When I tell people that I teach a class in law and meditation at UC Berkeley's law school, I often hear snorts of disbelief," Charles Halpern laughs. But the class is no joke. It's part of a groundbreaking movement that has quietly been taking hold in the legal profession over the past two decades: a movement to bring mindfulness into the practice of law and legal education. To a career that tops... posted on Mar 31, 13082 reads

Why Gratitude Is Good
"Count your blessings," we're often told -- but what good does that do us? Plenty, according to Robert Emmons, the world's leading scientific expert on gratitude. After a decade of research, Dr. Emmons has found that people who practice gratitude have stronger immune systems, feel happier and more optimistic, and are more generous and compassionate. In this thorough article from Greater Good magaz... posted on Jun 20, 78292 reads

Why Can't We Be Good?
Philosopher and professor Jacob Needleman maintains that humans have the capacity for great good. In his book "Why Can't We Be Good", he explores what causes us to go astray, and what can help us to stay focused on what he believes is our purpose: to serve. In his book and the interview, offers one practical way of keeping on track--deep listening. Based on experience with many groups of students,... posted on Apr 28, 12699 reads

The Art of Joy
Is artmaking selfish? In this interview, artist Gale Wagner reflects on art as a grateful response to fulfillment, as an expression of joy, and as a way of serving it forward. "We're so fortunate. Do you realize that a third of the world's human population isn't going to have fresh bath water or fresh drinking water? And look at this! I'm wasting it washing my car! The only antidote, I believe, is... posted on May 22, 3352 reads

5 Manifestos for Art, Life & Business
Manifestos are a powerful catalyst. Famous architect Frank Loyd Wright said that "an eye to see nature, a heart to feel nature and a courage to follow nature" were three of his top 10 manifestos. By publicly stating our views and intentions, manifestos create a pact for taking action. If we want to change the world, in ways large or small, developing a set of principles that we believe in and cons... posted on Jul 22, 6853 reads

Learning to Love Uncertainty and Failure
Edge Magazine called for eminent scientists, philosophers, and artists to submit responses to the question, "What scientific concept would improve everybody's toolkit?" The results have recently been published online. A common basis among the responses was that many people currently misunderstand the scientific process, undervalue the need for scientific doubt, and fail to recognize the role of fa... posted on Jun 25, 5498 reads

Where Poetry Comes From
"I think poetry always comes out of what you don't know. And with students I say, knowledge is very important. Learn languages. Read history. Read, listen, above all, listen to everybody. Listen to everything that you hear. Every sound in the street. Every bird and every dog and everything that you hear. But know all of your knowledge is important, but your knowledge will never make anything. It w... posted on May 25, 5020 reads

Raising Kids to be Less Stuff-Centered
"Too often, we turn to acquiring stuff to meet our emotional, social, recreational and other needs. This consumer-mania isn't good for our resource-stressed planet, isn't good for our family budgets and ultimately doesn't work. We have more stuff than previous generations could have dreamed of, but we also have less leisure time, fewer friends and spend less time with our kids." Annie Leonard, aut... posted on Aug 14, 10294 reads

Bill Moyers: Naomi Shihab Nye
Renowned poet Naomi Shihab Nye writes about button-hooks, onions and her grandmother's tea. Her poems speak of ordinary things -- things we take for granted until it's almost too late. For her poetry is a "conversation with the world, conversation with those words on the page, allowing them to speak back to you -- conversation with yourself." The daughter of a Palestinian father and an American mo... posted on Jul 7, 5514 reads

Forgiving Her Son's Killer
It would be easy for Mary Johnson and Oshea Israel to be enemies -- he killed Johnson's only son. But their first face-to-face conversation took a remarkable turn. "You were not that 16-year-old. You were a grown man. I shared with you about my son." At the end of their meeting at the prison, Johnson was overcome by emotion. "The initial thing to do was just try and hold you up as best I can," Isr... posted on May 23, 5207 reads

Using Soccer to Turn it Around
Lisa Wrightsman used soccer to turn her life around, and now she's using it to help others do the same. Wrightsman was in a semipro league, but later succumbed to drugs, alcohol, homelessness and jail. Last year, however, she entered a Volunteers of America recovery program and discovered their street soccer program. With soccer as her pivot, she made a big shift in her own life, and then saw the ... posted on Jul 29, 4025 reads

100 Places to Go Before They Disappear
Last year, global carbon emissions hit a record high, and the latest science tells us that we're almost certainly locked into roughly 2 degrees Celsius (or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming. It might not sound like much, but 2 degrees Celsius will redraw maps, change landscapes, and force cities to deploy aggressive adaptation measures. A new book by Abrams Books, 100 Places to Go Before They Dis... posted on Jun 4, 15035 reads

Female Auto Mechanic Breaks Stereotypes
Aside from a thin coat of powder, there's nothing superficial about 32-year-old Sarah "Bogi" Lateiner. Big-hearted and brilliant, Bogi graduated Phi Beta Kappa and did it in three years with a double major in pre-law and women's studies. Her plan was to go to law school and become a champion for women on a global scale. Although in the end, she decided to go with her plan B, instead. "I had in my ... posted on Jun 10, 5557 reads

5 Classic Commencement Speeches
It's graduation season, so commencement addresses by actors, politicians, writers, musicians and other luminaries are sweeping the world of higher education, sharing advice ranging from the humorous to the profound. Even for those of us that aren't students, it becomes an opportunity to reflect on the most compelling, provocative and deeply inspirational speeches of years past. This article highl... posted on Jun 14, 15541 reads

The Reading Promise: An Extraordinary Father-Daughter Story
When Alice Ozma was in the fourth grade, her family was going through a rough patch. Her parents had just split up, and her older sister had recently left for college. Ozma was suddenly spending a lot more time alone with her dad, Jim Brozina, an elementary school librarian. So Ozma and her father made a pledge: to read together every single night for 100 days. But after 100 days, they just kept g... posted on Jun 19, 4675 reads

Soap That Saves Lives
Perhaps he noticed because his father was a soapmaker in Uganda. When Derreck Kayongo learned how much soap was thrown away by hoteliers in the US, and that 2 million children die each year due to a lack of santitation, he decided to do something about it. He started Global Soap Project. Volunteers across the U.S. collect the hotel soaps and ship them to the group's warehouse in Atlanta. On Saturd... posted on Jun 22, 3125 reads

The Blind Man Who Taught Himself To See
Daniel Kish has been sightless since he was a year old. Yet he can mountain bike, navigate the wilderness alone, and recognize a building as far away as 1,000 feet. How? The same way bats can see in the dark. Since his infancy, he has been adapting to his blindness in remarkable ways. He has learned to use what he calls "Flashsonar," or echolocation. He produces a brief, sharp click with his tongu... posted on Jul 5, 9829 reads

9 Interviews with Creative Visionaries
"I love a good interview. To me, there's nothing so useful for demystifying the creative process as hearing an artist or entrepreneur speak from a very personal perspective about how, and why, they do what they do. This weekend, I combed through my archive of epic and inspiring interviews and came up with this shortlist. Straight talk from Ernest Hemingway, Dieter Rams, Patti Smith, Steve Jobs, An... posted on Jul 13, 14935 reads

High Schooler Pays Forward $40,000
They wanted to show kids in Compton, CA, one of the most dangerous cities in America, how to create community spirit, and so organizers put on a basketball contest for top academic students. But following a tear-jerking gesture from the winner -- it appears the true lessons learned were by the adults. Senior Allen Guei won in front of a packed house. And three months after winning the $40,000 top ... posted on Jul 8, 14453 reads

The Power of Feedback Loops
The premise of a feedback loop is simple: provide people with information about their actions in real time, then give them a chance to change those actions, pushing them toward better behaviors. Why does putting our own data in front of us somehow compel us to act? In part, it's that feedback taps into something core to the human experience, even to our biological origins. Like any organism, human... posted on Aug 1, 5994 reads

How He Crossed the Finish Line
In 1992, Derek Redmond was running the race of his life -- the 400-meter dash at the Summer Olympics. In the previous Olympics, he was forced to withdraw 10 minutes before the race due to an Achilles injury but now he was he was ready and heavily favored to medal. His father was in the stands cheering. The race began and 175 meters into it, he pulled his hamstring muscle and collapsed on the groun... posted on Jul 19, 7344 reads

Secrets to Longevity
They say that the key to a long life is eating well, exercising regularly and reducing stress. Now an eight-decade study indicates that this is only part of the equation. The Longevity Project tracked the lives of 1,500 boys and girls to explain how factors such as social connections, personality and marriage affect long-term health. The results flipped traditional logic on it's head. "Take dispos... posted on Aug 10, 17309 reads

The 3 Stages of Generosity
How do you think about generosity? In this recent TEDx Talk, Nipun Mehta shares his experiences with generosity, broken down into three stages: Give, Receive, and Dance! When you give, you find that the compassion felt around you is contagious and it, in turn, creates a community. When you receive, you discover abundance, you realize generosity exists in so many different ways. And finally, when y... posted on Aug 9, 5220 reads

Friendship Balloons
When 9 year old Sara-Beth Martin let out red balloons in her send-off party a week before her second heart surgery, little did she know that one of them will travel 180 miles to reach 8 year old Reanna -- struggling with troubles of her own. The balloons carried a simple request of praying for Sara for her successful surgery. Reanna knew adversity and pain herself -- she lost her mother to cervica... posted on Sep 18, 3273 reads

7 Ways to Have More by Owning Less
Stuff. We invariably accumulate it and often times develop a certain emotional attachment to it. To some extent, it's the effect of increased marketing, but it is also our own conditioning. Fortunately, new digital platforms and cloud-based tools are making it increasingly easy to have many of the things we want without actually owning them. Because, as Wired founder and notable futurist Kevin Kel... posted on Aug 11, 92223 reads

Her Heart Was Bigger Than This Room
It is a tragic story, but one that touches and inspires. For her 9th birthday, instead of getting presents for her, Rachel Beckwith asked loved ones to donate to charity:water, a nonprofit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Her goal was $300, enough to give 15 children access to clean water, but she only got to $220. A month later, tragedy struck, when her fami... posted on Aug 17, 10921 reads