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Big ideas in the news from around the web
What's the Latest Development? A paper published this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (US) details the challenges involved in what its authors call "climigration": the resettlement of communities that are losing their land due to the effects of ...
What's the Latest Development? "Ellie" is the name scientists at USC have given to a combination of hardware and software that together presents patients with a highly realistic virtual therapist. While her rendered image appears on the screen, three devices track and record the patient's words ...
What's the Latest Development? With automation invading business sectors in ways that were once restricted to science fiction novels, experts are speculating on what the employment picture could look like for mere humans. For example, while driverless transportation in general would be safer and ...
What's the Latest Development? Once considered a pioneer in digital publishing when he offered a short story solely in e-book format back in 2000, Stephen King has announced that his latest novel, Joyland, will be released solely as a physical book starting June 4. Although Amazon does have it ...
What's the Latest Development? New figures released by the Leichtman Research Group show that for the first time ever, multi-channel video providers -- including cable, satellite, and telephone companies -- lost customers over a 12-month period, in this case the period from April 2012 to March ...
What's the Latest Development? A Wisconsin engineer who wishes to be known only as "Joe" has successfully created a low-end version of the 3D printed Liberator handgun originally designed by Defense Distributed, which had released its schematics online earlier this month before the US State ...
What's the Latest Development? A recent report authored by the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Agency argues that overcoming our squeamishness about eating protein-rich bugs may make the crucial difference in overcoming global hunger. "According to the FAO, more than two billion people—30 ...
What's the Latest Development? Thanks to technological innovations in the past decade, film making has become increasingly decentralized and going to the movies is no longer the go-to entertainment option. Still, Hollywood is dreaming as big as ever and several movie studios are set to begin ...
What's the Latest Development? A recently published study conducted by Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff has found that the more national debt a country has, the greater tendency there is for slow, or negative, economic growth. The study was seized on by fiscally conservative politicians who seek ...
What's the Latest Development? The once-gritty city of Berlin is getting a make over, an afternoon that Barbie would surely approve of. Two interactive, life-size dollhouses launched recently as Barbie maker Mattel's latest effort to expand the doll's franchise. One of the dollhouses in central ...
What's the Latest Development? The public debate over gay marriage in France is decided but a modern group of Catholics who still speak strongly in favor of traditional marriage has emerged as a modern sociological phenomenon. "Today, everyone asserts their identity, why shouldn't we?" asks ...
What's the Latest Development? The concept of empathy—putting yourself into another's shoes—has fueled political and moral thinking of late, inspiring presidents and academics to hail the feeling of another's pain as necessary to curing the world's ills. Crucial to empathy is "victim ...
What's the Latest Development? A partnership between Google and NASA has resulted in the purchase of a quantum computer which both organizations expect to aid in the development of artificial intelligence, specifically machine learning, a branch of AI that focuses on construction and study of ...
What's the Latest Development? Controversy surrounding a Harvard dissertation which claimed a genetic link between race and intelligence has cost its author, Jason Richwine, his job at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. Richwine, who recently wrote on the high costs of ...
What's the Latest Development? In terms of urban landscaping, New York City's Central Park is a major achievement. Built in 1859 to contest Europe's monopoly on sophisticated city-living, the ample greenery of Central Park contributes to the quality of life New Yorkers have come to enjoy. In ...