Mind & Meaning
June 2026
Every article published in June 2026. 837 articles · Back to full archive
Psychology
Neuroimaging research on jazz improvisation suggests creative flow may have less to do with inspiration and more to do with learned expertise meeting the willingness to release control
Mind & Meaning
In 1946, a Japanese mechanic named Soichiro Honda began bolting surplus Imperial Japanese Army radio generator engines onto bicycles in post-war rationing-era Japan — and the small company he founded two years later is now the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world
Mind & Meaning
A seven-member South Korean boy band named BTS has contributed close to $50 billion to South Korea's economy across the first decade of its existence, a share of the country's GDP comparable to that of a major Korean airline — and the small Korean entertainment label that signed them in 2013 nearly went bankrupt before their debut
Science
The coldest known place in the universe is the outflow of a dying star, chilled to one degree above absolute zero — colder than the afterglow of the Big Bang
Psychology
A Yale study found that how you think about getting older may add 7.5 years to your life, more than exercise and more than not smoking
Science
In 1868 astronomers found a new element in the Sun's light, named it helium for the Greek word for the Sun, and no one found a trace of it on Earth for another 27 years
Mind & Meaning
Personality tests remain among the most widely used tools in hiring and therapy despite decades of research showing limited ability to predict how a person actually behaves
Science
When a shark bites down on a hagfish, the fish floods its attacker's mouth with slime in a fraction of a second, clogging the predator's gills until it gags and lets go
Science
In October 2024, a team of Chinese researchers at Peking University reported that a 25-year-old woman who had lived with Type 1 diabetes since childhood stopped needing insulin injections within 75 days of receiving an experimental stem cell transplant generated from her own fat cells
Mind & Meaning
The bandwagon effect: a belief doesn't have to be true to spread, it just has to look popular — and the more people who hold it, the more believable it seems to everyone watching
Human Behaviour
A nationwide study of people with chronic illness found that those who prayed daily were 48% more likely to survive over the following 6 years, after controlling for depression, social support, and health behaviors
Psychology
Researchers stopped people to ask for directions, swapped in a different man while a door passed between them — and fewer than half noticed the person they were talking to had changed
Mind & Meaning
Lessons on routine from some of history's greatest minds
Econoplex
The Stichting INGKA Foundation, which owns IKEA — every store, every meatball, every flat-pack hex key — holds roughly $60 billion in assets and was once ranked the world's wealthiest charity, even as it gave away barely a million euros a year, making it one of the least generous foundations on earth
Science