The first human-like robot, named R2, was sent to space this year to become a permanent resident of the International Space Station. Robonaut 2, or R2, was developed jointly by […]
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A fabulous Rheinpanorama from the early days of leisure travel
Brief post, but we just felt that M5.9 earthquake that occurred in Virginia (see top left) here in Ohio. My third floor office was swaying pretty good, but my wife […]
Co-authors Daniel Altman and Jonathan Berman argue that businesses will do better business and more social good by considering all of their activities – humanitarian and otherwise –in terms of how they impact long-term profits.
A permanent robot presence on the Moon may be the most feasible option for future lunar exploration. Robonaut, the first humanoid robot in space, is taking baby steps in that direction.
The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is sponsoring a video contest on the future of news to […]
George Taylor, an economist at Wharton School in the 1920’s, claimed there was an inverse relationship between the state of the economy and skirt lengths.
Our BIG THINKING friend Robert de Neufville has outlined an important component of President’s Obama’s case for a second term. Sure, the economy is tanking. And so are the president’s ratings, because […]
If talking is one thing, and conversation another, then what is chat? Online chatting has come of age, reviving the lost art of word play that characterized speech in bygone eras.
About eighteen months ago, I wrote a piece titled “Smiling All The Way To The Bank” that featured commentary about the Congressional testimony of one Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of […]
A federal court has made it easier for companies like Amazon and Google to create music databases in the cloud without violating record labels’ copyright provisions.
While the tech talk on Google’s acquisition of Motorola is all about patents, small business owner Gene Marks sees a nightmare of vertical integration ahead, forcing users to take sides.
One in six children fail to read books as they spend increasing amounts of time texting friends, sending emails and visiting social networking sites, a new study has found.
Internet users are being tracked all the time and shaking off a virtual tail can be tough. The desire to track users continues to outstrip privacy features in browsers.
A defiant president Bashar al-Assad warned against outside interference in Syria and shrugged off international criticism in a live interview with state television on Sunday night.
A rebel victory in Libya would likely put added downward pressure on oil prices, which are already falling amid concerns about the slowing economy, experts say.
Is the battle for market share of the Internet a zero-sum game? Who will be the biggest winners and losers if and when Facebook becomes the de facto operating system of the Web?
Recent crises in the west like America’s debt debacle and London’s riots have lent the east some moral authority, but the triumph of eastern nations is anything but guaranteed.
As leadership changes reshape the Middle East, science stands to benefit. New projects are moving forward thanks to interim leadership that wants to bring science back to the region.
I wanted to get this news out quick because it is for today only. The Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Scaled Nodes group is sending ROV ROPOS to Axial seamount today […]
The head of Libya’s National Transitional Council (N.T.C.) has announced the end of the Gaddafi era, while sporadic fighting continued across the capital, Tripoli.
As the possibility of the first female President of the United States draws nearer, we are reminded that voting rights for women, and even more so for black women, are a relatively fresh victory.
The conceptual art project known as PETA says it’s planning to launch its own porn site. PETA has gotten a lot of attention for degrading women in order to stress […]
Just goes to show that neither $1.8 million chandeliers, nor Crocs have any business existing. [Photo credit: ellenm1, Creative Commons. For illustration.]
For Amazon, a publishing program is the next logical step in its long-term business strategy. For the rest of the book industry, it’s cause for a bad case of nerves. […]
Lack of trust is at the root of many of the world’s problems, says the neuroeconomist Paul Zak, who claims to have found the brain chemical, oxytocin, responsible for empathy.
A few updates! First, Lessons from Sherlock Holmes is moving to a new home on Scientific American. So, Holmes fans can now read the column in a more continuous fashion. The […]
Influential neurologist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran explains some mirror experiments you can try at home to better understand how your brain perceives the world around it.
Decision fatigue is the newest discovery involving a phenomenon called ego depletion, a term coined by the social psychologist Roy Baumeister in homage to a Freudian hypothesis.