By Stephen Pincock

Online at FT.com

The couple in the corner were oddly distracting. It was the summer of 1987, and Joe Forgas, a psychologist who studies the interplay of moods and thinking, had taken his wife out for dinner to a little place in Heidelberg, Germany, where he was on sabbatical for the year. The trouble was that his eyes kept being drawn to the amorous display going on across the room. “I remember it still so clearly,” he laughs. “It...

By Carolyn Y. Johnson

From The Boston Globe

CAMBRIDGE - Metal detectors, X-ray machines, and dogs are used at security checkpoints to look for bombs. Now a next-generation technology under development in Cambridge will look for the bomber.

With funding from the US Department of Homeland Security, Draper Laboratory and other collaborators are building technology to detect potential terrorists with cameras and noninvasive...

From O, The Oprah Magazine

By Aimee Lee Ball

Alas, our romance with shopping seems to be coming to an end -- or at least it's up for careful reevaluation.

According to research from Stanford University, more than one in 20 adults are compulsive shoppers, purchasing things they don't need, use, or even want.

That's because shopping, once devoted to procuring necessities, has come to fill multiple emotional needs -- it's entertainment, a bonding activity,...