“For Miller the process of runaway sexual selection that gave rise to energetically wasteful ornaments like the peacock’s tail…is precisely what gives rise to Hummers and McMansions.”
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NEW YORK – In his review of Nina Munk’s error-filled and out-of-date book, Bill Gates oddly abandons the rigorous approach to measurement and evaluation that defines his foundation’s invaluable work. […]
At the 2014 Neuroimaging conference held this year in San Francisco, industry professionals exhibited the promises and risks of being able to track, download, and manipulate brain waves.
Certainly among the postwar works, says Princeton University professor Peter Singer, is the notion that art challenges society’s prevailing norms. Oh, the irony.
Ai Weiwei. Kara Walker. Pussy Riot. Guerrilla Girls. Orwell. Art has long been an empowering outlet for speaking out against injustices. Politics aside, just the simple act of enjoying another […]
Elizabeth Taylor would swoon over this stellar jewel box. NASA released this image of NGC 290, an open star cluster and a treasure chest of sparkling objects. From NASA: Like […]
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain
Six seconds unlike any other you’ve ever seen is so worth it. “I saw for the first time the earth’s shape. I could easily see the shores of continents, islands, great […]
In the wake of the Santa Barbara shootings, in which gunman Elliot Rodger video-recorded his own misogynistic outlook on life, a national conversation began about the state of women in society.
It rose up out of the sea, a fearsome roaring monster unlike anything humans had ever seen, horrible, primeval, unstoppable, towering, breathing radioactive fire and leaving total destruction in […]
SEATTLE – Bono calls economist Jeffrey Sachs “the squeaky wheel that roars.” To me, Sachs is the Bono of economics – a guy with impressive intelligence, passion, and powers of […]
The Eagle has landed. NASA released this image of the roughly 2 million years old (a relatively youthful star cluster) of M16, surrounded by glowing gas and natal clouds of […]
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
– William James
In a new dance routine, Japanese dance troupe ElevenPlay explores the relationship between the body and technology by dancing with drones programmed by designer Daito Manabe.
Constitutions that grant citizens the right to revolt often do so to legitimize the process by which a new government comes to power. Yet that right tends to come back to bite regimes whose opponents seek legitimacy.
India’s most populous city will experience its first Metro service on Sunday. The line’s first phase, part of a larger project to be finished by 2021, features 12 elevated stations on an 11.4 km stretch of track.
A NASA satellite shut down in 1997 has been commandeered (with the space agency’s permission) by a independent team of scientists and enthusiasts. The ISEE-3 Reboot Project has established communication with the 35-year-old satellite and can now command it to perform basic functions.
iCracked, an app that launched in 2010, allows users with damaged phones to contact and make appointments with nearby technicians.
It’s the greatest cosmic masquerade of all: a star that fakes its own death! “If you are a dreamer come inIf you are a dreamer a wisher a liarA hoper a […]
According to a new study, chimpanzees are at least as good at (if not better) than humans at adjusting strategy choices during competition.
Maybe so, but everything depends on what your faith is grounded on. Begin by recalling the thought experiment English theologian William Paley proposed in 1802: while traipsing across a field, […]
Terminally ill patients in Quebec may now elect to end their lives. The new law comes at a time when national debate on voluntary euthanasia is heating up in Canada.
With low unemployment in the tech sector providing an advantage for the workforce, employers need to be quick with their hiring processes lest they lose out on the most promising potential employees.
This is an updated version of a Scientific American post: In future economics should be seen as more like history than physics. Steven Pinker says, “No sane thinker would try […]
June 6, 1944. Operation Overlord. D-Day. Seventy years later, relatively few survive who actually lived it. People around the world take advantage of their last opportunities to commemorate the anniversary with veterans in attendance.
Look up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane! It’s comet PanSTARRS C/2012 K1, and NASA snapped this photograph of it crossing the constellation Ursa Major. From NASA: […]
“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
Animated GIFs have emerged as a new form of lexicon for the internet age. A recent museum exhibition highlighted 37 of the most popular reaction GIFs on the internet.
If you’re old enough to remember the 1970s, Lynda Carter playing the title character in the TV show Wonder Woman (shown above) from 1975 to 1979 remains what you think […]
A forgotten almost-hero of the 19th century still has something to teach about science… and style. “There is nothing more contemptible than a bald man who pretends to have hair.” –Martial […]