What’s the Big Idea? A few milestones in the short but storied history of machine translation: in 1939, Bell Labs presented the first speech synethesizing device, the Voder, at the World’s Fair in New York. […]
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“You don’t arrest Voltaire.” That was French President Charles de Gaulle’s explanation for his pardon of Jean Paul Sartre, who was arrested for civil disobedience during the events of May, 1968 […]
Former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov says Russia is headed for disaster. The next 10 years is a matter of fighting for survival.
Researchers asked people what they wanted out of the storytelling experience and boiled the answers down to four things: immersion, interactivity, integration, and impact.
A recent study reveals that the homeless use social networking just like everyone else, and that it helps them gain an increased sense of belonging to the wider community.
With Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate, the 2012 election is shaping up to be a battle over whether and how the federal government should tackle the […]
[Author’s Note: I’m reposting some old favorites while I’m away on vacation this week. This post was originally from August 2010.] I’ve been writing since the beginning of Daylight Atheism […]
A startup company has received a grant to create artificial meat using bio-ink and a 3D printing process.
Editor’s Note: Please welcome Korey Peters, who’s written a guest post about an atheist organization he’s founded that he’s calling the Calgary Secular Church. In this post, he’ll explain what […]
A new security-based system, available for purchase later this year, will stop a cyberattack on your computer…and then launch a counterattack.
A group from Singularity U’s Graduate Studies Program successfully flew a drone in Zero G gravity, cutting that cost by a factor of 10, and wants to utilize the drones for STEM education, 3D mapping.
Have you ever walked past a monument, stopped to see what or whom it was for, and either still had no idea what or whom it was memorializing or had […]
The scary thing for the Democrats is that Ryan might really appeal to the Millennial Generation—also known lately as the Screwed Generation. Older Americans, of course, are worried that some […]
Stories from scientists, dream clubs and even people who have committed crimes while sleepwalking.
For centuries, great thinkers from philosopher John Locke to scientist Stephen Pinker have debated whether or not humans are born with innate traits like morality and empathy. Some go with […]
This month a few newspapers and online surveys found that Americans cared more about the Olympics, and sports, than the 2012 presidential election. This type of finding tends to get […]
Microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation – “maser” technology – has been redesigned for practical use, with revolutionary implications for a variety of detection devices.
A camera, worn on a finger and providing data to a smartphone, combines augmented reality with wearable technology.
Julian Assange, who has been granted asylum by Ecuador but remains in limbo in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, has been on trial for some time in the court of public […]
Researchers at separate universities are creating kitchens that use technology to “walk” cooks through the steps of meal preparation.
Previous studies vastly underestimate the death toll associated with landslides, prompting calls by researchers to pay much closer attention to the effects of overdevelopment in vulnerable parts of the globe.
Companies are making it possible for electric vehicles to get their power from wind-energy sources. It may not be in the form of a rooftop windmill, but it’s getting there.
Too many published studies make claims that cannot be satisfactorily reproduced or verified. A new service makes it easier for labs to double-check their results before publishing them.
In 2011, I wrote “Pro-Family Christians Support Child Kidnapping“, one of the more despicable stories of how the religious right despises and mistreats GLBT people (and that’s really saying something). […]
There is an interesting new campaign growing like wildfire on Indiegogo right now. After successfully completing his Bear Love Good. Cancer Bad. campaign last month, Matthew Inman aka The Oatmeal […]
What is the meaning of infinity? How can the Higgs boson be explained in a way that is clear and accessible? The answers to these questions and many others can […]
Today a group of investors including three tech space leaders, namely Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Eric Schmidt of Google and Evan Williams of Twitter, put $10 million in EverFi, a […]
What’s the Big Idea? When it comes to making choices about benefits, keep it simple, says Bruce Finley, Senior Partner and the Director of Global Workplace Communication at Mercer — and calculate, […]
When research is reproduced it is confirmed as sound science. The process of turning that science into something, for example, a helpful drug, can then proceed. Unfortunately, an alarming 70 […]
A newly-formed group at NASA hopes to build on the success of the Mars Curiosity rover by creating workable plans for future exploration of the planet.