All Articles

Self-control: we could all use more of it. Even those of us who are best at exercising self-control on a daily basis have so-called hot triggers, the special circumstances that would make us, too, lose our cool and start to behave less than rationally.

We won’t be able to prevent the next major Flood, Earthquake or Tsunami. Kevin Steinberg of the World Economic Forum’s Risk Response Network says we will need to be really good at coordinating the response.  

Our memories affect our choices. It makes a whole lot of sense: we decide based on what we know.  And if we don’t have any experience with a particular decision, […]

A book, any book, is for us a sacred object. Cervantes, who probably did not listen to everything that everyone said, read even “the torn scraps of paper in the […]

Late last week Frank Cilluffo and Clint Watts released a policy brief from George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute entitled “Yemen and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula: Exploiting a […]

How do you reconcile your desire to honor your own values without forcing the people you want to help into more dangerous conduct? Former New York Times columnist Randy Cohen tackles this ethical query.

Brief post today after a few longer ones … but first, A reminder: Tomorrow (Friday July 1) is the deadline to submit your questions for Dr. Clive Oppenheimer. Take this opportunity […]

According to this expert, that president’s big advantage is that he’s not attracted primary opposition in his bid for re-election.  The left may be dissatisfied with him for not showiing […]

The idea of collecting solar energy in space and beaming it to Earth has been around for at least 70 years. English researchers now hope that it will become a reality within a few years.

Equipping robots with language and learning capabilities could take some of the heat off human handlers, enabling the robots to navigate tough tasks in small groups.

A computer chip marinated in neurons and stem cells creates super bursts of activity that could one day stimulate quiet areas to reboot after a stroke or other brain damage.

A USB charger for lithium-ion batteries has been developed with Uganda in mind so that locals can become one-stop electricity providers, but you can use it on your devices, too.

In an effort to woo business users, Cisco has redesigned the Android operating system to make a tablet that also works as a desktop computer, along with sophisticated voice software.

I.B.M. has solved two related problems with phase-change memory and now says the next-generation data-storage technology will be ready for use in 2016 in servers.

If the Eighties was the decade of greed, then the Seventies was the decade of Satan. Some would argue that Satan is always with us (you know who I’m talking […]

I had a conversation with Scott Meech at Edubloggercon this year in which we discussed the fine line between ‘naming the problem so we can solve it’ and ‘shaming and […]

The NASA Earth Observatory has been doing an excellent job of monitoring the eruption at Eritrea’s Nabro using all their eyes in the sky. The latest image, taken from the […]

Three significant events are going to take place in America in the next 18 months. We will increase our nation’s debt ceiling, despite all the political showboating. We will not […]

Asteroid 2011 MD reached its closest point to Earth when it crept within 7,500 miles of the planet’s surface—closer than some satellites—before whipping away again like a slingshot.

A new study by Google projects that aggressive investment in clean energy technologies would add $150 billion in additional economic output and create 1.1. million new jobs by 2030.

Due to carbon laws, European airline carriers are placing orders for biofuels. Last week, for the first time, a jumbo jet used a blend of biofuel and kerosene on a transatlantic flight. 

More than 1,000 new species have been discovered in New Guinea in a 10-year span, according to a new report from the conservation organization World Wildlife Fund.

The human exploration of Mars is not a task for some future generation. It is a task for ours, says aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin. In his new book, he details a feasible plan.

Arguably, the invention of the ATM by IBM nearly 40 years ago was one of the greatest moments in the history of modern consumer banking. These ATMs revolutionized the way […]

And if it’s literature, do we care if it’s violent? “Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed,” wrote Justice Scalia, in his majority opinion in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants […]

Rosetta Stone CEO Tom Adams explains why the best leaders embrace the future now and ask questions later.  

Astronomers have been actively searching for extraterrestrial civilizations for the past 50 years, but so far have come up empty. Now a top Russian astronomer predicts the “eerie silence” will be broken by 2031.  

We talk a lot about the hazards that are present at Washington’s Rainier mostly in terms of what might happen if the volcano erupts. However, remember that even when Rainier […]

I feel badly for a couple I know who have recently divorced after several decades of marriage but are still bound together by the family home that they cannot sell. […]

The Master Chef, part-time Paleontologist, and former Chief Technology Officer for Microsoft, Nathan Myhrvold, offers a scientifically-informed approach to the ancient human art of cooking.