A great feature in The Economist highlights the variety of ways businesses and researchers are looking at analyzing the intricacies of our social networks and digital trails to understand who influences us, who we influence, and what that could mean for the world at large. This isn't a new field, per se, but the breadth and subtlety of the analysis, as well as the potential quality of their conclusion, is pretty mind-blowing.

In a recently posted article at the Social Science Research Network, University of Minnesota Mathematics Professor Andrew Odlyzko adds to the growing list of things we should measure by arguing that we need a means to quantify gullibility. Why quantify gullibility?

In what really is not a joke (though is likely a provocation), a group of British physicians published an article in the American Journal of Cardiology last week arguing that fast food companies should start packaging statins with their burgers and

Suppose you manage a sales team. Of course you don't want them coming across as angry or anxious or pushy. Now suppose, instead, that you could screen the tone of your sales team's emails to make sure that they're only happy and helpful. Would you do it?

One of the more startling statistics I learned last year came from something by geneticist and science writer Misha Angrist: At least as of a couple years ago, there were roughly as many board-certified physician-geneticists as astronauts in the United States. This is a problem, given that our need for trained geneticists is likely to be a great deal higher than our need for astronauts in the coming decade.

When was the last time you looked into the refrigerator or at a store shelf with every intention of grabbing a healthy snack--only to wind up with dessert? The problem, of course, is that even while salad might sound good in theory, in practice, in the moment, chocolate sounds a lot better now. But, what if you could filter out the tempting but unhealthy foods, and only see dessert?

The New Scientist has a great round-up of the various efforts geneticists are undertaking to modify farm animals. The story doesn't break any new ground, per se, but it's remarkable for the sheer breadth of ways that genetic engineers are attempting to redesign animals.

As the New Scientist describes it:

A few months ago, I highlighted a treadmill at Japanese gyms that flashes pictures of desserts at exercisers as they hit certain calorie counts in order to keep them motivated. Want that milkshake? Just run another half hour.

Via PSFK, I came across three concept designs for wallets from MIT's Media Lab that would offer real-time feedback on our spending habits. For example, the "Mother Bear" concept wallet would have a hinge on it "with a shorted motor in the hinge that resists opening" when the wallet's owner needs to start saving.

I was presenting some of the forecasts from our recently released HC2020 map last week when I saw a detail in one the map that I had never seen before. Check out this image from the map--something we call an artifact from the future--that highlights our forecast for neurointerventions:

Neurointerventions