Just because Texas oil tycoon Tom Slick died in a plane crash in 1962 doesn’t mean his vision died with him. In fact, his legacy has grown a few lone-star state institutions that bring in over $1 billion a year to the San Antonio area. The Southwest Research Institute and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute are much more well known than one of his other visionary organizations–the Mind Science Foundation.

Originally started as a search for paranormal activity–from the hunt for Bigfoot to telekinesis–the foundation changed focus about ten years ago. It now funds researchers all over the world who are conducting neuroscience studies that will help scientists understand how the human brain creates the experience of consciousness.

The Mind Science Foundation has moved from the realm of spoon bending to studying the generosity hormone, oxytocin. But in keeping with Tom Slick’s vision, the foundation also likes to explore the edge of neuroscience, wherever that may lead.

Is there a gene that determines how generous you are? That’s one of the questions that a new research initiative at the University of Notre Dame hopes to answer. The new Science of Generosity Initiative has just finished funding 13 projects that will help science (mostly social science) better understand the effects of generosity on the giver and the receiver.

Over the course of the next two years this group of researchers from across the country will study various elements of generosity, from socio-economic conditions that allow people to give to what neural circuitry is involved in doing generous behavior like donating blood or helping the less fortunate.

Based on the premise that underpinned Notre Dame professor Christian Smith’s book Passing the Plate, which examined why Christians in the U.S. don’t give more, the generosity research is aimed at helping non-profit organizations — from the Salvation Army to the Peace Corps — figure out why donors give.

Here’s the gist of the kitchen sink hoax. It starts with the end of the Mayan calendar, adds a mystery planet on a crash-course with Earth. Then there is some nonsense about the planets aligning on Dec. 21, 2012, heralding the end of the world. There are about six different pieces to this hoax, which seems to be gaining public momentum.

But the science just doesn’t hold up. Only a few pieces–yes, we will be experiencing a solar maximum and we will be in the galactic plane during this time–are actually true.

Here’s the hoax sorted out. Listen for yourself.

Entangled Photons and The Lost Symbol

Avid fiction aficionados have anxiously awaited author Dan Brown’s latest rip-snorting adventure through the mysterious. The Lost Symbol is Brown’s new book, which features the largely unknown field of noetic sciences as a means to move his plot along.

Loosely based on the quantum mechanical principle of entanglement, noetics aims to scientifically understand the mind-connection as a way to discover the unconscious.

The Institute of Noetics has been using physics to drive research that has appeared in bona fide peer-reviewed journals. And, now it’s front-and-center position in Brown’s book will surely push it into public consciousness.

When the tax man comes calling most people do not feel a sense of satisfaction or pleasure. But new research from Oregon may have found the part of the brain that enjoys giving money away—especially if it’s voluntary.