The fourth potentially habitable planet in our galaxy has just been discovered, 22 light years from Earth. This planet, called GJ 667Cc, is too large to be called Earth’s twin. It […]
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So the Susan G. Komen Foundation has withdrawn its financial support of Planned Parenthood. Wailing and gnashing, wailing and gnashing. Erica Greider, my colleague at The Economist, offers an evenhanded […]
Italy, says Italian Historian Joseph Luzzi, is a chiaroscuro nation – a land of sharp contrasts.
In the seething cesspool of Caravaggio’s Rome, violence was a form of advertisement; it let people know you were, so to speak, the wrong guy to f#@k with. Internationally renowned art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon revisits Caravaggio’s life as a kind of model for career success in tough times.
For decades, automobiles have taken priority over pedestrians in city planning offices. That is set to change as we come to grips with what actually makes cities work: pedestrian traffic.
Mitt Romney looks more and more like the Republican nominee after soundly defeating the Republican field in the Florida Primary. Romney managed to get more votes than Newt Gingrich and […]
Your clothes may become the medium through which all the world’s electronic devices are connected. Soft screens woven into fabric may mean one less thing you must carry with you.
Nature always seems to get it right first. New research and computer modelling carried out at MIT suggest spider webs could inspire advances in engineering and online security.
Nanotechnology is working to keep your electronic devices from overheating, improving efficiency and extending their life. Machines as large as electrical transformers stand to benefit.
When it come to renewable energy, portable electronics or electric cars, storing energy is a must, and the more we can store, the better. Batteries are essential to sustainable energy.
“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up,” says washed-up silent film star Norma Desmond in the final scene of Billy Wilder’s unforgettable 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. Gloria Swanson […]
Here is a version of The Trolley Problem, a classic experiment in ethics. Let’s say you are next to some train tracks, and down the tracks and behind a […]
Here is a version of The Trolley Problem, a classic experiment in ethics. Let’s say you are next to some train tracks, and down the tracks and behind a […]
Neuroscientists have taken the first step toward decoding our thoughts into language by observing which parts of our brain respond to different sounds. Potential benefits are endless.
I had a heated debate on Facebook this week over the issue raised in this opinion piece in The New York Times that argues that anti-discrimination laws don’t go far […]
Mysterious dark matter and dark energy may no longer be needed to explain the Universe’s accelerating expansion, which may be caused by tension between matter and antimatter.
As Dr. Michio Kaku has been predicting for years, we are inching ever closer to producing virtual reality contact lenses that will add a layer of interactive, rich information over our mundane […]
America’s most powerful physics experiment, the Fermilab particle accelerator in Batavia, Illinois, is planning to test the results of a European experiment that claims to have seen the impossible.
On the way into work yesterday morning, I listened to Neal Boortz, Atlanta’s local talk radio blowhard, as he tried valiantly to convince one of his callers that Newt Gingrich […]
While Newt Gingrich may have lost the Florida primary, he has been quick to inspire the popular imagination. But just how out there is his idea for a permanent American moon base?
In what should be a boom time for alien-oriented astronomers, given NASA’s recent discovery of an abundance of exoplanets, budget crises are holding back new projects that hold promise.
The mobile health revolution, which started and took off in overseas emerging markets, is rapidly making its way to the U.S. The past few months have brought a surge of […]
What’s the Big Idea? “Your Gravity Theory Sucks!” Margaret Wertheim was surprised to find this comment on an order form for a self-published book called The Other Theory of Physics, […]
David Brooks is unparalleled as a summarizer and popularizer of social science. So we do well to note what he finds especially noteworthy about Charles Murray (with Peter Lawler’s spin added, of course).
New software is turning surveillance cameras into a wealth of consumer behavior data. By tracking customer flow throughout the day, shops can better understand what their clients want.
What’s the Big Idea? On average, students pay $35,000 a year for the privilege of being educated at a private nonprofit American college. In December of 2011, indebtedness among college […]
[Readers: here’s a largely non-relationship column, for a change of pace…] My cell phone is an idiot. It’s a straight-up, dingbat dumb-ass. It can’t do anything, except make phone calls, […]
Every Wednesday, Michio Kaku will be answering reader questions about physics and futuristic science. If you have a question for Dr. Kaku, just post it in the comments section below […]
My son told me yesterday that he doesn’t think he will be dating this year since he refuses to date any girl who smokes. He is in grade 7. I […]