A “forbidden research” conference at MIT tackles areas of science constrained by ethical, cultural and institutional restrictions.
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Meet the Cornell scientist who figured out the link between fracking disposal wells and Oklahoma’s earthquakes.
An incredible story, the current controversy, and the hope for the future. Our Universe was born pristine, with no stars, galaxies, molecules or even stable atoms, some 13.8 billion years […]
Loop quantum gravity gets the ancient atomist back into the loop, showing how black holes might explode, and that the Big Bang might be a Big Bounce.
If Scotty beams you up for a trip around the Sun, here’s how to handle it. “I really didn’t have to work, shall we say, with Star Trek. It was a […]
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds the world’s largest collection of seeds, for safekeeping.
Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Historian Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, on the dizzying ethical questions that surround what’s coming next – from superhuman cyborgs to algorithms that know us better than we know ourselves.
There are many scientific explanations for ghost sightings. This is the first ever to involve CERN.
What if we told you that, right now, your phone was making a map of your interior surroundings — whether you’re at work or at home — and sending that data to places unknown?
Hydrogen is #1, Helium is #2. Who’s number 3? Hint: it’s not #3 in the periodic table! “It is the function of science to discover the existence of a general reign […]
Scientists release observation data from 1,600 stars in hopes the public can help find planets that orbit stars outside our solar system.
Pluripotent stems cells might be the key to creating reliable lab-grown meat.
Author Tony Dokoupil predicts a Liberal backlash against grass now that it’s becoming legal.
Prime minister or postal worker: if you’ve been condemned for corruption in France, you’re on this map
Ritualized killings once took place in many societies and in most regions around the globe.
Earth is pretty much the limit of how large you can get and still be rocky. Anything much larger, and you’re a gas giant. “How vast those Orbs must be, and […]
A yeast found in the gut micro biome of infants is implicated in the development of asthma.
PTSD develops after a person experiences, or is a witness to, a life-threatening or traumatic event — a natural disaster, for example — or is exposed to combat, or sexual […]
TRAPPIST-1 is 40 light years from Earth. It would take us millions of years to get there.
Elon Musk, Sam Harris, Ray Kurzweil and other visionaries discuss AI superintelligence at a recent conference.
The physics of why popping off a few rounds in celebration can quickly turn deadly. “I’ve heard it said that God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal. […]
Mathematics is the academic class that is most socially acceptable to regard as your weak point. This is a shame.
We’re about to kick off the sixth great extinction event. And we’ll follow shortly after.
Yale psychologist Paul Bloom suggests a bit of reason in your feeling in his new book, Against Empathy.
NASA finds 50,000 year-old bacteria alive inside gigantic crystals in a Mexican mine.
The Earth is round, Kyrie Irving. But not every world needs to be. “‘I’ll follow him to the ends of the earth,’ she sobbed. Yes, darling. But the earth doesn’t have […]
Facebook knows about your past, present, and likely future. But how do they know this information? Data Selfie is a creepy new tool that will give you an answer. The free plugin provides a gateway into the data mining and predictive analytics that is used by Facebook to create your online identity.
Bill and Melinda Gates lay out the key accomplishments of their philanthropic foundation in response to Warren Buffet.
How gravitational magnification allows us to see what we’ve never seen before. “The problem is, you’re trying to find these really faint things, but you’re looking behind these really bright things. […]
So far, 549 separate paraphilias have been officially identified.