All Articles

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 […]

No, this is not a still from David Lynch’s Dune. But it could be! The Cat’s Eye Nebula, or NGC 6543, is one of the better known planetary nebulae for […]

“He who fights against monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you stare persistently into an abyss, the abyss also stares into you.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

In my last post, I talked a bit about the fundamental purpose of technology: reducing uncertainty. Uncertainty is a double edged sword in the human experience – it provides us […]

Mikael Genberg wants to put a little red cottage on the moon. The ambitious project, according to a supportive team of scientists and engineers, would serve as an inspiring symbol to and for humanity.

Do you want to be more effective and attract desired outcomes? The ancient Chinese did, too. They devoted themselves to understanding wu wei—effortless action, or spontaneity. They saw it as […]

Las Vegas. A young man, about 22, fist pumps an oversized beer mug out of the passenger seat window. Rookie move. A strip cop spots the amateur, flicks on his […]

An important difference between persuasion and manipulation is that persuasion is done with people and manipulation is done to them.  Like all dishonest people, manipulators habitually underestimate the people they […]

A report from the US National Academy of Sciences urges the space agency to make a decision on its long term goals. Those goals, argue scientists, need to include putting astronauts on Mars.

Dear Biosphere, While you are well aware of the physical inputs we humans inject into your system, you may be blind to the human politics and polling and psychology about […]

Tonight’s Major League Baseball amateur draft wraps up years of prep work by team scouts, executives, and medical professionals. With millions of dollars of player investments hinging on drafting the right players, baseball front offices have got their strategies down to a science.

In one of the weirder instances of a feed-the-hungry fundraisers, pest control company Ehrlich donated $5 for every diner at a DC restaurant who agreed to try an insect. The DC “Pestaurant” was one of many that popped up across the globe yesterday.

Top scientists from across the globe back e-cigarettes in the midst of calls to regulate them.  E-cigs, say the scientists, are “part of the solution.”

Here’s what it would look like if we started dreaming again. “There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program — your tax-dollar will go further.” –Wernher von Braun […]

Oh, the places you’ll go! For recent graduates who see the world as their oyster—and it is—such a vantage point can be overwhelming. There are so many decisions to face […]

“Early in life, I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasions to change.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

Industrial-scale maggot production has just begun but is already showing sings of promise. But will consumers accept maggot-fed meat on their plate?