Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Artificial Intelligence inventor Ben Goertzel on thinking (and feeling) machines.
All Articles
An affectionate sendoff for popular beloved global-health statistician Hans Rosling.
Why Saturn’s Iapetus has three great mysteries… and we’ve only solved one of them. “The dance between darkness and light will always remain — the stars and the moon will always need the […]
The radical idea has a track record of success in some sense. But there are lot of concerns as well.
Are virtual assistants teaching children to be nasty?
A California man is suing Apple for not enabling a lockout feature on iPhones. He’s not the only one.
One of the most famous quantum physicists of all makes his mark in space, 80 years after first predicting it. “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed […]
The idea that reality is comprised of atoms and space goes way, way back.
Evidence suggests that gains in symptom reduction are permanent.
Just as the collective ruckus of science deniers hits its peak, Netflix announces a date for ‘Bill Nye Saves the World’, a heroic new show that will answer the most pressing science questions of our era.
Before you even look through your telescope, you need to know where to begin. “If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control […]
DARPA, the U.S. Department of Defense military research agency, whose work has resulted in staples of modern life such as the Internet and GPS systems, is now working with a […]
The “Philosopher-King” of comedy is Louis C.K. You may know his work, but you might not realize there is some serious philosophy behind some of the best jokes.
Certain sounds, like chewing, drive misophonia sufferers mad. New research might have found a neural misfiring.
In severe cases, a dog can develop pneumonia and even die.
Scientists and Imogen Heap team up to create the perfect song to make a baby happy.
Reading popular science articles is a fun pastime for many people, and can help everybody understand the world of science. But is there a downside to making this information so easy to understand?
It may be the only way to save the USA — and the world — from alternative facts. “If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.” –Ernest Rutherford There […]
While Kellyanne Conway spoke of a nonexistent massacre, there was a real, historical massacre that took place at Bowling Green – in New York City.
Do we really care about privacy? An interview with Manoush Zomorodi, host of WNYC’s Note to Self, about The Privacy Paradox campaign. She discusses an ethical code needed for technologists, why the typical ad-based business model online is not sustainable, and why it’s time for internet users to be “digitally woke.”
Caught between a rock and a hard place, the EU had better get ready for some of these exit-names
Universal Basic Income (UBI) and the movement towards a shorter work week is not just a solution to inequality, but one also aimed at stabilizing the environment.
The pair of papers suggest that sleep is crucial in order to wipe out memories. Yep – it turns out that, sometimes, it’s smart to forget.
The outer three can even be seen with a small, 1.5 meter telescope. This 2010 picture of three of the four known exoplanets orbiting HR 8799 represents the first time […]
How an ancient text, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, may be influencing the actions of powerful Trump advisor Steve Bannon.
There’s still a controversy among scientists as to why humans seem to follow a certain pattern.
A recent conference on the future of artificial intelligence features visionary debate between Elon Musk, Ray Kurzweil, Sam Harris, Nick Bostrom, David Chalmers, Jaan Tallinn and others.
American ingenuity is often foreign-born. With 51% of tech unicorns (valuation over a billion dollars) having an immigrant founder, we take a look at the Top 20 tech influencers with strong immigrant ties.
Two recent studies reveal the effects of LSD on the brain.
A new brain-to-computer interface lets completely locked-in patients tell us how they feel for the first time.