Wall Street Journal Columns

Can Just Taking a Picture Be a Treatment for Infertility?  July 29, 2017

An imaging technique to diagnose reasons for childlessness has a surprisingly happy result

In Tough Times, Religion Can Offer a Sturdy Shelter, July 1, 2017

Many recent studies have shown that religious observance can strengthen resilience to stress and illness

The Link Between Detached Dads and Risk-Taking Girls, June 2, 2017

New research on daughters and risk-taking behavior

A Twins Study Shows ADHD Isn’t Just Genetic, May 6, 2017

If school environment plays a part, what should we change?

In Domestic Abuse, a Gauge of Words and Deeds, April 7, 2017

New research on the links between threats and violence

Does Gender Affect the Way We Navigate? March 10, 2017

What we can learn from Danes, Mexicans and Namibians

Slow Progress on an Intimate Women’s Problem, February 4, 2017

Researchers report improvement but much needs to be done

Mobile Banking Gives a Big Boost to Kenya’s Poor, January 14, 2017

Benefits go to women particularly; ‘financial resilience’

Brains That Are Still Getting Wired In Babyhood, December 15, 2016

Cells migrate long after birth and affect development, new research shows

Brain Surgery That Takes on Tremors Without a Drill, November 18, 2016

A new procedure that uses focused ultrasound to destroy a spot in the thalamus may help people with tremor

Did Campfire Talk Spark the Rise of Human Culture? October 12, 2016

What we can learn from 20th-century Bushmen

We Need More Answers on Teens and Pornography, September 23, 2016

Good American research on the causes and consequences of children’s exposure to internet pornography is hard to come by

New Hope in the Search for a Treatment for Obesity,  August 27, 2016

A study finds that the medication setmelanotide led to dramatic weight loss in two teenagers with an obesity disorder

Lighter Penalties for Those With ‘Violent’ Genes?  July 23, 2016

Now we have tools to understand chemical changes that let genes affect levels of violence

For Peaceable Humans, Don’t Look to Prehistory,  July 2, 2016

Archaeology has finally laid to rest the idea that earlier human societies were completely peaceful. Melvin Konner on new evidence

A ‘Polypill’ May Be the Next Big Preventive Fix,  June 8, 2016

Polypills—at least in one configuration—battle heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses all at the same time. Should everyone over 50 be taking them?

What the West Can Learn from Tibetan Pain Management,  May 12, 2016

The Tibetan tradition and its herbal medicines offer an inviting alternative to the typical Western approach

Scientific Tools Bring to Life a Mammoth Hunt, April 14, 2016

New research enables almost a play-by-play account of how men brought a mammoth down 45,000 years ago

Watch the Hype: Cancer Treatment Still Has Far to Go,  March 17, 2016

Two decades’ achievements are modest

Brain Mutations Guarantee Our Individuality,  February 18, 2016

Recent research shows that in brain development, cell mutations are ubiquitous

Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer,  January 20, 2016

Melvin Konner, whose work on ancient eating habits helped lead to the low-carb paleo diet, gives us an updated version of what we should be eating

Why Do Rituals Grow as a Year Dwindles? December 23, 2015

From ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to Christmas trees, the end of the year is full of rituals. Melvin Konner explains why

What Economists Fail to See in the Act of Gift-Giving, December 2, 2015

New research suggests why holiday gifts—unlike purchases for oneself—have a value far higher than some economists previously thought

What’s Missing in Studies of a ‘Missing Link’ in Human Ancestry, November 5, 2015

Homo naledi discovery raises plenty of new questions