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The hagfish produces a substance that consists of very thin, strong and stretchy fibers. Scientists believe lab-created simulations could eventually be woven into thin and flexible garments, and provide a sustainable alternative to synthetic fabrics.

This is becoming the central paradox of the Information Age: the easier it is for humans to create content and information on their digital devices, the more likely it is […]

We have to think, not just seven generations ahead – we have to think thousands of years ahead.

Just as religion informed the dawn of civilized man, so too do these 21st century stories act as a shield – protecting our sanity from an overwhelming sensation of entropic change. We are trying to find the signal in the noise. But increasingly, the noise is becoming louder and louder. It’s like this treadmill we’re running on has reached a speed we can’t keep up with. Today’s prowess Kairos is being pushed into yesterday’s fleeting Chronos. It’s a collision of dizzying proportions… everything happens now.

By genetically modifying a unique microorganism, researchers have discovered a way to turn atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into useful industrial products. Their find could lead to the creation of biofuels that “remove plants as the middleman.”

After her uterus nearly erupted, Vyckie Garrison was rushed to the hospital to give birth to her seventh child. The emergency caesarean section nearly killed her. Her doctor warned the […]

You’ve undoubtedly heard the maxim “Life finds a way.” Well, if life has indeed found a way on one of the other trillions of planets in our Milky Way Galaxy, it would likely not be our way.

By 2017, over half of the almost-1,200 islands comprising the country of Maldives will come under guidelines set by two United Nations programs for preserving natural resources.

The project, sponsored by 28 nations, has collected more valuable oceanographic data in the last 13 years than any other projects in the history of the science.

Today, oceans are much louder than they used to be, and the noise is putting marine mammals’ ecosystems in danger. The US is beginning what could be the world’s largest shushing effort.

To wit, it is time to abolish the IRS.

A bizarre ‘planisphere palindrome’ version of the Earth

I had my first spiritual experience when I was 16 years old. I was sitting up late one night having a conversation with my mother about something I can’t remember, […]

 The Dow Jones Average is about to break 15,000. Any day now the atmospheric concentration of CO2 will break 400 parts per million. Think there’s a connection? A couple other […]

Findings published Monday describe a thriving world of microbial life existing 30,000 feet above Earth. Comprising up to 20 percent of particles in their size range, they may affect weather on the ground.

“Once you are a conscious being you have no choice but to be a change agent,” South African anti-apartheid heroine and academic Dr. Mamphela Ramphele told Charlie Rose—a rare male […]

A paper’s authors say that contrary to several decades’ worth of movie images, space travelers would see a steady bright light rather than streaks of stars.

It wasn’t your imagination: The average high temperature in the contiguous US, 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit, beat the previous record, set in 1998, by a whole degree.

Richer countries attempting to keep up with demand by fishing the waters of poorer countries need to rein it in, according to a newly released United Nations report.

The FDA has released documents stating that salmon genetically modified to grow faster are safe to eat and will not harm the environment. Now the public has 60 days to review the information.

A group of companies are coming together to create a new kind of power generator that would harvest energy from currents found at oceans’ deepest depths.

Editor’s Note: I recently read and subsequently tweeted about Submergence, the new novel by J.M. Ledgard.  Then I asked one of the smartest people I know – Brian O’Neill – […]

Poets quite often make the best art critics. The same aesthetic antennae attuned to language and meaning come into play when diving into the meaning of visual art. So, when […]

The team is one of the first selected to perform research during the first official cycle of the world’s largest airborne observatory.

Body weights of many marine fish are expected to shrink by up to 24 percent if greenhouse gas emissions rise, according to a new study.

Witnessing, as we all did, the events of Boston made me turn to the news. This was a mistake. Turning to social media was even worse. A mismanagement of information, […]

If phantom islands can be discovered as recently as 2012, maybe there are still more of them out there. 

The strange birth of America’s two ‘radio nations’

While much of the focus around climate change has been on the poles, a new study documents the effects being felt by ecosystems just off the coast of Venezuela.

I’ve noticed a pattern when speaking to friends about creationism: I say the word, and in response receive a squinted eye and disgruntled head shake, followed by, ‘But no one […]