While Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley busy themselves making every aspect of our lives more efficient (except, perhaps, for the process of discovering these new technologies, learning them, and integrating […]
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This is hardly a breakthrough delivery system. What it represents, however, is a clever application of a technology that has high novelty value.
This past week at The Hill newspaper, Ben Geman analyzed President Obama’s speech on climate change, highlighting remarks from environmentalists who welcome Obama’s apparent shift in communication strategy. In the […]
Long assumed to be a sterile environment, Lake Vostok may very well host a living ecosystem, according to a new study. If life exists there, it may exist on other planets with similar conditions.
A new Kickstarter campaign seeks $200,000 to propel a CubeSat into Earth orbit and eventually deep space using a miniature propulsion engine.
Capitalism forces nations to compete for market share, natural resources and human capital. Less obvious so, they also compete for names, brands and terminologies.
Researchers speculate that the forest, located just off the coast of Alabama, was buried under sediment for over 50,000 years before being revealed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“Morsi is an idiot,” says a friend of mine. “But he should have been voted out.” Like many people I know, he can’t endorse the military overthrow of a man […]
“Sure, today’s Olympics are corrupt, rife with cheating, and riddled with scandal, but at least today’s games aspire to the noble ideals of the ancient Greeks—amateurism, fair play, and peace,” […]
Wendy Luhabe explains how her mother, who refused to be a victim of circumstance, is the person who gave her a passion for mentorship.
Larry Arnhart, that rare student of political philosophy who claims to be Darwinian all the way down, criticizes me for saying Darwin is only partly right: Of course, many people […]
A new study of 20 health-related sites demonstrated that many contain tracking elements and/or leak search terms to third-party companies, providing data that “could [help] build up a very powerful document with all of your medical conditions.”
That’s the claim being made by documentary filmmaker Chris Barrett, who is responsible for what may be the first-ever arrest captured using the device.
If you’re like most Americans, you probably spent most of the long Fourth of July weekend hanging out at a family BBQ, watching baseball, enjoying the fireworks and… obsessively checking […]
Up until 800 years ago, guilt and innocence in the UK was regularly determined not by judge and jury but through a process known as trial by ordeal: “There were […]
The Australian Paul Mathis has apparently spent nearly $40,000 developing a new symbol and advocating its inclusion as the 27th letter of the alphabet.
In the July issue of The Scientist magazine, my colleague Declan Fahy and I contributed a commentary discussing the need for scientists and ethicists to engage the public on major trends and […]
For the May/June issue of Canada’s Policy Options magazine, I contributed an article adapted from my Spring 2013 Shorenstein Center paper examining the career of environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben. With anticipation building over Obama’s […]
Ron Miller has painted the planets as if they were the same distance from Earth as the Moon, in order to demonstrate their size.
I didn’t want to write this, but then I don’t want to write most of the things I do: I shouldn’t need to tell anyone why thinking gay marriage will […]
At the New Scientist magazine last week, I was asked to provide an analysis of UK environment minister Owen Paterson’s announcement that his government would seek to change the conversation about food […]
In the hours following the deaths of more than 50 Egyptians in Cairo earlier today there were wildly divergent accounts of what actually happened. Here is a summary, from Wendell […]
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, has found Mexico to be the world’s most obese country with an obesity rate of 32.8 percent, a full point higher than the United States’.
A month or two ago I wrote about the rampant proliferation of “hotness” ratings for women where they have no business or place. Even the most accomplished women, ranging from […]
An Australian restaurateur has proposed that the most commonly used word in the English language get a symbol of its very own, one that’s borrowed from the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet: Ћ.
Bryan Sykes on how he became enthralled with nature and natural history.
An orchestral symphony has a lot of instruments, but you tend to concentrate on the soloists.
In honor of Bastille Day, we are looking at five French ideas and how they have influenced the world.