“Describe your background and how it qualifies you for this job.” While you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that request in an interview, it may put terror in the heart of any new college graduates without much practical experience. In many cases, even those who earn a college degree come up short when it comes […]

Mary L. Bonauto was on a recent getaway to Little Cranberry Island, a lovely spot off the coast of Maine where cellphone service can be spotty. So it took a while before she saw that someone had tried to reach her about a half-dozen times. “They kept calling,” the civil rights lawyer recalled Wednesday. “I […]

True to form, Mary Bonauto didn’t even know she had been nominated for a MacArthur grant. The unassuming yet tenacious civil rights lawyer from Portland has systematically taken the fight for marriage equality into courtrooms across the country, leading a charge that has seen 19 states legalize same-sex marriage in the past 10 years. While […]

For now, Massachusetts car buyers should not expect a significant ripple effect from Monday’s ruling, said John E. Kwoka, an economics professor at Northeastern University who submitted an unsolicited friend-of-the-court brief in support of Tesla. Major automakers like Toyota, Ford and General Motors are still prohibited from opening direct-sale dealerships because of their existing relationships […]

Erika Murray, the mother of four children found living in horrible squalor in August, remains in jail on charges of child neglect. She may face additional charges and is reportedly on suicide watch. As for the house on St Paul Street, it now sits largely empty after cleaning crews hauled away more than two dumpsters […]

The National Endowment for the Humanities has a new home and a new chairman, but the agency’s work to fund digital humanities projects continues unabated. The NEH Digital Humanities Project Directors Meeting was hosted for the eighth time in Washington on Monday, but for the first time in the agency’s new premises in the recently […]

Northeastern University is bucking the trend. The Boston-based research university, where tuition combined with room and board runs about $56,000 a year, has a special co-op program that provides semester-long full-time internship opportunities for students. The program has been around for more than a century. More than 90 percent of the students had internships last […]

Is it smarter to be more skeptical or more trusting of the people we meet? David DeSteno, a Northeastern University psychologist who studies the nature of trust, suggested the latter in response to a question during a recent Reddit AMA: “Our default is to trust people, but it’s a weak default. The reason why is […]

As the U.S. and other Western governments ramp up efforts to form an international coalition to fight the Islamic State, another crisis is brewing in the Middle East: Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is trying to gain back both the influence and the territory it once held in the region, particularly in Yemen. As […]

Among the issues the next Massachusetts governor will face is a growing disconnect between the number of manufacturing jobs available in the state, and workers with enough skills to fill those positions. Researchers at Northeastern University estimate that Massachusetts manufacturers will have to fill 100,000 jobs over the next decade just from retiring workers, let […]

Several weeks ago, Northeastern University’s president dropped by The Washington Post to talk up the private institution in Boston. Joseph E. Aoun wanted to get the word out about “experiential learning” programs that combine professional work with academic scholarship in an attempt to position students for high-powered careers.

The ability to delay gratification has been held up as the one character trait to rule them all—the key to academic success, financial security, and social well-being. But willpower isn’t the answer. The new, emotional science of self-regulation.