The budget wars seem never ending in Washington D.C., with the sequester just one day away and no agreement between the White House and Republican leadership in sight.

Most Americans can probably think of some federal programs that we could do without. But in practice, the  repercussions for each state may be drastically different, depending on their reliance of federal money.

Pope Benedict the sixteenth gives up the papacy today, leaving the world's 1.1 billion Catholics without a religious leader. How will the next one be chosen?

It was 1958. In the midst of the Cold War, the inaugural Tchaikovsky International Competition took place in Moscow. Amid a climate of fear and mutual suspicion between Americans and Russians, a 23-year-old Texan named Van Cliburn performed a breath-taking rendition of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto.

A new study published in The Lancet today has found a common genetic thread running through five well-known psychiatric diseases. Scientists hope the findings will clear up how these diseases are classified, moving from describing symptoms to identifying underlying causes.

Sixty years ago this week, James Watson and Francis Crick unveiled their model for the structure of DNA in the journal Nature. It was a revolutionary event, but it wasn’t built on their work alone.

According to Oxford ethicist William MacAskill, the most effective route to "making a difference" in the world is not to work for a charity but to donate loads of cash instead. And the best way to do that? Get a job on Wall Street.