For all its glorious views, the Colorado plateau remains an ugly mystery to geologists. They can’t figure out why and how it rose thousands of feet over the millions of years it took to carve spectacular natural wonders like the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley.

The answer may lie deep beneath the plateau’s chiseled landscape, a study in the April 28 Nature suggests. Hot rock welling up from below invades the plateau, causing blobs to drip off the bottom.

“It looks kind of like a lava lamp,” says team leader Alan Levander of Rice University in Houston.

Geologists have wondered about the high...

Why does revenge taste so sweet? Why do we feel the need to chant in the streets after the death of a hated man? The answer returns us to the brain, and to the fascinating ways in which those three pounds of meat mirror the ideals of game theory.

A few years ago, a team of researchers at University College London led by Tania Singer conducted a simple exploration of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. The Dilemma considers the following scenario: You and your accomplice are both held prisoner, having been captured by the police. The prosecutor interrogates you separately and offers each of you a deal. If o...