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By studying the neural networks in the brain, scientists have constructed computer-based models that mirror the brain’s complex biological networks. 

“In many ways, WikiLeaks’ 92,000 Afghanistan documents are no Pentagon Papers.” The Christian Science Monitor says the leaked documents confirm already-available information.

I’ve finished migrating my archives of the ol’ WordPress Eruptions (since May 2008), so if you’re looking for more information, try clicking “Archives” at the top of the page and […]

In the latest issue of the journal CBE Life Sciences, National Academies senior staffers Jay Labov and Barbara Kline Pope describe the audience research that informed the writing, design, and […]

Newspapers–and their localized science and environmental coverage–might be in decline across the U.S., but new ethnic media outlets, many of them in languages other than English, are thriving. These outlets […]

I missed this the first time, but Click & Clack from NPR’s Car Talk answered a question about how to volcano-proof your car. If you want to hear it, click […]

One of the great paradoxes of contemporary society is that Americans by way of the Internet and specialized cable TV channels have greater access to scientific information than at any […]

Fronting the NY Times today is a preview of a bold new strategy for engaging hard to reach audiences on science. As the NY Times describes, today’s media event that […]

Why is it that we when we talk about our work, we inspire neither those we address nor ourselves? 

Daryl J. Bem’s experiments on psi caught the world’s attention, as I posted last month, because he used standard psychology-lab methods to gather and analyze his data. Imagine what astronomers […]

As I have written in various articles, when it comes to science debates, the public is far more likely to be miserly in reaching a judgment than fully informed. Most […]

We’re continuing to watch the earthquakes in Iceland, the lava lake is rising at Erta’Ale and a volcano simulator on the web.

Blogging has changed the art of non-fiction writing, says Andrew Sullivan, one of the first political commentators to embrace the form in 2000. When you blog “everything you write is […]

I’m back in DC after spending the previous two weeks in San Francisco as an Osher Fellow at The Exploratorium. It was my second visit this year to the world’s […]

Over at Discover magazine’s terrific Intersection blog, Sheril Kirshenbaum asks readers: “How might we shift public attitudes to be less wasteful and save energy on a massive scale?” A major […]

What do you think of the advertisement below? Does it warm your heart? Does it bore you? Perhaps the answer depends on whether you’re a parent, or even more specifically, […]

On last week’s announcement that CNN is shifting the focus and form of its science coverage, I am going to be posting what is a very different interpretation than the […]

In last week’s cover story at New York magazine on the forthcoming Facebook biopic “The Social Network,” the film’s screenwriter Aaron Sorkin offers his pessimism about the nature and impact […]

Welcome to version 2.0 of Eruptions, the blog on volcanic eruptions and volcano research in general. I’ve been writing this blog (starting over on WordPress) over the last year or […]

It’s human nature to try to understand something new by comparing it to something we already know. We always interpret the present based on past experience. But when we make […]

The annual cull of the endangered pilot dolphins just off the coast of the remote Faroe Islands is barbarism.

I had lunch with a buddy last week and he asked me what I thought Facebook would do about mobile location. I told him that I had no idea, but […]

Pew has a detailed run down on the surge in motivation for information about swine flu. The brief analysis goes on to discuss strategies CDC had put in place to […]

On Friday I will be taking part in the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program at Stanford University, speaking to attendees about how the public uses science information online. Whether news, YouTube, […]

Are you an information technology optimist or skeptic? Chances are, if you are a regular blog reader or poster, you fall in the former category. Yet ever feel like all […]

By way of the Internet, Americans today have more public affairs and science-related information available to them than at any time in history. Yet the availability of information does not […]

“By reshaping our minds, the internet is robbing us of the ability to think critically and creatively, says the author of The Shallows, Nicholas Carr.” The New Scientists conducts an interview.

The social nature of technology instigates a relationship between images and words, and allows many more people to be involved in the drawing platform.

Now that the dust has settled after the immediate reaction to WikiLeak’s release of secret Afghan war logs, clearer lines can be drawn concerning the event’s significance. The most fundamental […]

Tomorrow morning at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, I will be addressing the annual conference of the University Research Magazine Association. I have pasted the text of my prepared remarks […]