What’s it like to face a faceless world? Acclaimed neurologist Oliver Sacks once apologized for almost bumping into a large bearded man, only to realize he was speaking to a mirror.

The notion of a “tortured genius” or “mad scientist” may be more than a romantic aberration. Research shows that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia correlate with high creativity and intelligence, raising tantalizing questions: What role does environment play in the path to mental illness?

New Orleans native Lisa P. Jackson is administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She is the first African-American to serve the post. She started her career working for the …

Should we limit the use and knowledge of genetics in the case of conception? What about using genetic engineering to make humans healthier—or even enhancing humanity by manipulating DNA?

This statement is false. Think about it, and it makes your head hurt. If it’s true, it’s false. If it’s false, it’s true. In 1931, Austrian logician Kurt Gödel shocked the worlds of mathematics and philosophy by establishing that such statements are far more than a quirky turn of language: he showed that there are mathematical truths which simply can’t be proven.

Psychologist Paul Bloom joins Brian Greene for a spirited exploration of consciousness, memory, empathy, free will, and the elusive workings of the human mind. This program is part of the …