The stories intertwine on the point of personality: is Mark Zuckerberg a genius? Is Julian Assange? At what point does (at least in Aaron Sorkin’s vision of the Facebook founder, […]
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He’s known as the “Berlin patient,” and he seems to be the first man to beat HIV.
The first effective anti-retroviral treatment for HIV, Azidothymidine (AZT), was approved for treatment in 1987. But HIV is highly prone to mutations and thus likely to develop drug resistance. It […]
The disease seems to develop as beta amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles gather inside the brain to clog synapses and nerve cells—but what is its root cause?
On the issue of climate change, among the most important, yet frequently overlooked segments of the public are farmers living in the agricultural Midwest and across major agricultural districts of […]
Desperate times call for desperate measures. But what happens when desperate times strike cultural institutions such as museums? The International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (aka, Cimam) […]
Quick note as I almost forgot to post last week’s Smithsonian/USGS Global Volcanism Program’s Weekly Volcanic Activity Report. Busy week all around for volcanoes – we’ve seen activity at Bromo, […]
Democracy is a great concept, but its micro-implementations in matters as petty and mundane as agreeing with coworkers on what music to stream at the office can be a messy […]
The waiting rooms of Cornell Weil, Columbia University and New York University fertility clinics have up to forty women waiting to see specialists on any given day. Many of these […]
“A lot of people get upset at young people,” says Walter Mosley, “They say, ‘Young people aren’t living up to their potential. Young people are interested in things which are […]
Lots of news here on the last Monday of November! Indonesia: Bromo in the Tengger Caldera continues to look like its ramping to a new eruptive cycle. There have been […]
2010 has been the most exciting year for HIV/AIDS research since the discovery of the antiretroviral “cocktail” 15 years ago.
“Diplomats are honest men, sent to lie by their Governments”, or so runs the old adage. Ironically, Britain’s former Ambassador to the United Nations, Sir John Sawers, is a good man […]
What made the decision in Bush v. Gore so startling was that it was the work of Justices who were considered, to greater or lesser extents, judicial conservatives.
Can an iTunes-style makeover bring the short story to new audiences? Ian Burrell of The Independent meets the authors and innovators who are selling small tales.
As evidenced by the Copenhagen Conference, global action is not going to stop climate change. The world needs to look harder at how to live with it, says The Economist.
The biggest problem that the Church faces in backing off its condemnation of contraception is a potential loss of religious authority, which is no small matter in a hierarchical church.
Evidence shows that the mobile phone is becoming indispensable to us: more people are paying for apps, and they’re more willing to trade privacy for benefits.
Being sociable has its advantages—across more than 500 mammal species, animals that lived in social groups had bigger brains than those that lived by themselves.
When you meet a paradox, you’ve got only two choices. One is to accept that the implausible is true; the other is to reject the conclusion, and explain why the argument is wrong.
The job of the media is not to protect the powerful from embarrassment. It is for governments to guard public secrets, and there is no national jeopardy in WikiLeaks’ revelations.
Five centuries ago, Gutenberg’s printing press was the new technology that swamped the world with data. What can we learn about our own times from the event?
Forcing countries to agree to emissions caps will never work, argue Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. Instead, they say, the focus should be on technology innovations.
An introduction to Joomla was my birthday present to myself this year. If I had known the open source content management system was this good, I would have started using […]
I hope this puts to rest the notion that we would live in a liberal paradise had Hillary Clinton become president instead of Barack Obama…not to mention the notion that […]
Texas-based designer and builder Dan Phillips builds extraordinary low-cost homes out of reclaimed materials. In his witty and insightful talk from TEDxHouston, he showcases a dozen of his remarkable creations […]
Why are Republicans trying to block ratification of the new START? The original START—short for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty—was proposed by President Reagan to limit the number of strategic nuclear […]
An oft-heard homily—”It’s the thought that counts”—is put more lyrically by the Chinese—”To walk a thousand li and present a swan feather; the gift is light but the friendship is solid.”
Law schools are manufacturing more lawyers than America needs, and law students aren’t happy about it. The demand for lawyers has fallen off a cliff, reports Slate.
Social media have increased the volume of our communications yet diminished the substance of them. Neal Gabler reviews Facebook’s new initiative to replace email.