By taking advantage of the low refractive index of low-density aligned nanotubes, University of Michigan researchers have made 3-D objects appear as nothing more than a flat, black sheet.
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The world’s most-used manufacturing materials, steel and aluminum, are being replaced by layered carbon fibers, which being lighter than traditional materials, saves on fuel costs.
When Harvard researchers created a computer game that mimicked online social networks, they found that selfish people were quickly excluded, motivating a change in behavior.
The International Energy Agency, often criticized for its bias toward nuclear and fossil fuels, reports that renewable energies are becoming competitive even without subsidies.
Read the recap of Day 1 here. Day 2! I have to admit I missed the first talk of the day by Joe Nickell (see my previous post about goings-on […]
Today we will take a few minutes to show a little appreciation for an important right in Western society – the right to divorce. It is important to celebrate this […]
One evening last week I attended Tech Night at my daughter’s elementary school. Sponsored by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), it’s an evening designed to bring parents of the school’s […]
In many areas of the increasingly networked global economy the middleman is more in demand than ever.
Based on current discovery rates, we will have discovered thousands of exoplanets by 2020. But how can we concentrate on habitable ones? One astrobiologist proposes a unique solution.
The abundance of oil in the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, might fill state and private coffers but will the profit come at the expense of sustainable environmental policies?
Having a space vehicle capable of launching humans into orbit, and beyond, remains the gold standard among the international space community. For the moment, only Russia has that.
To most journalists, a good story is defined in large measure by how much attention it will get. A story that makes page one, or leads the newscast, is […]
Nobody’s so politically correct as to be offended by Happy Thanksgiving. From a merely historical point of view, maybe we should be more sensitive.
The Amwell Township of western Pennsylvania sits on one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves. But are the political benefits of mining natural gas worth the human costs?
Ahead of a U.N. climate conference, another large cache of emails stolen from climate scientists has been published. Where does such fervent doubt over climate change come from?
I’m eager to join in the “Which five books on a desert island?” game suggested by Big Think editor Dan Honan in a recent post. As a blogger, would-be critic, […]
While America has always led the world in supporting new entrepreneurs and launching innovative new companies, the democratization of the Internet over the past decade means that we are all […]
I love Rockwell’s rendering of the Thanksgiving feast. Three generations circle the food—a nuclear family more rarely seen today in person, but still existing in our hearts and minds in modern permutations.
As promised earlier, here’s a full wrap-up of my weekend attending Skepticon IV in Springfield, Missouri. I really have to give tons of credit to the organizers, who not only […]
A couple of months ago, physicists at CERN, Switzerland, claimed they had found a fatal flaw in Einstein’s theory of relativity. Their findings immediately lit up the Internet with activity, […]
Last year Americans spent more money during Black Friday Weekend than the GDP of North Korea. Larry Summers argues America needs to save, while other countries, like China, need to spend, in order to increase global prosperity.
The crowd surges around you, lurching forward in one overpowering swell. There’s panting and shoving, sharp elbows and raised voices, clawing and tearing, frenzied looks and frazzled nerves. Light blaring […]
Our power to manipulate our brains and genes is increasing dramatically – and it raises serious ethical questions.
I was going to update my previous post, but this got long, so I’m spinning it off into a separate post. Read the other one first if you need more […]
Have you ever poked around in the “People You May Know” box in Facebook? For the first few score people, it’s a pleasure. Click: A person I forgot I knew. […]
Stanford’s experiment in offering its three most popular computer science classes to the public for free online has seen a huge take-up, with 200,000 people enrolled.
Patricia Milligan discusses the conflict between a generation that has carved out a niche and is intent on securing it and a generation that’s burning for a shot. The give-and-take between the two is global in scale.
The emotional rollercoaster ride that lies behind they hype of being a high tech start-up founder is seldom talked about. Success, not sadness, sells, but it’s not the whole story.
Until now, the concept of info-vision–streaming information across a person’s field of view– was science fiction, but scientists have developed a prototype lens promising the real thing.
Researchers from the University of Milan and Facebook have found that the average number of acquaintances separating any two people in the world is now not six but 4.74.