This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American A competition for attention lies at the heart ...

You all know the score. A train leaves one city travelling at 35 miles per hour and another races toward it at 25 miles an hour from a city 60 miles away. How long do they take to meet in the middle?

Matthews is a fellow of science and technology policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Russell is the Huffington fellow in child health and L.E. Simmons senior fellow in health ...