Is long-term solitary confinement torture?

Most military experts agree that robots, not people, will inevitably do the fighting in ground wars. In Tennessee, a high-end gunsmith is already there. The story of Jerry Baber and his robot army.

On the late comedian Bill Hicks, just as a performance on Letterman is deemed unfit for network TV.

The decline of the American autopsy and what it says about modern medicine.

On Huck Finn, the book Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, and the evolution of language and race in America.

On the last day of their junior year at Harvard, one roommate kills the other, then hangs herself. The press descends. A year later, a reporter searches for the real story.

The story behind the fall of Saddam’s statue in Baghdad.

On the post-quake presidential election in Haiti.

A profile of video game artist Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind Super Mario Bros.

A profile of Yao Ming published during his second season in the NBA.

The amiable international arms dealer and the sting.

A profile of Larry David, with a focus on his years as a struggling stand-up. “I was hoping that somehow I could get some kind of cult following and get by with that.”

A globe-trotting, pre-CCTV profile of architect Rem Koolhaas.

A stylized account of the fall of ant colony.

“For years, the most profitable industry in America has been one that doesn’t design, build, or sell a single tangible thing.” The case for why investment banking is socially useless.

A profile of April Bloomfield, chef at The Spotted Pig.

“You can treat a lot of people, and India has,’’ says an epidemiologist working on TB. “But if you have tests that cause misdiagnosis on a massive scale you are going to have a serious problem. And they do.”

Are we at war? The U.S. government’s evolving response to cyber security and its impact on privacy.

A report from Nevada, where an economy in crisis and a Tea Party upstart are threatening to topple Harry Reid, the most nationally powerful politician in the state’s history.

A profile of Nick Denton.

What we can learn from procrastination.

The story of how Washington blew its best shot to do something on climate change.

A profile of the perpetually disappointed Alec Baldwin.

Not only is the penny useless, it costs the U.S. Treasury $50 million per year. So why is it still around?

Would you rather have one marshmallow now or two in a few minutes? How a kid’s answer to that question can predict his or her life trajectory.