After seeing how mobile and social networking technologies led to popular revolutions in places like Tunisia and Egypt, is it possible that we’ll soon see a similar type of revolution inour own backyard?
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Among the many deplorable effects of reading this blog, according to old-school journalists, is that you can’t count on what The New York Times (here, scroll down to section B5) […]
If you love The Economist, you likely know and love its back page, its obituary page. Economist obituaries are models of the magazine’s style and, more broadly, models of a […]
Salman Khan envisions the kind of school he would like to send his own son to. In a way it resembles the one-room schoolhouses of yesteryear, where teachers and peers alike are empowered to act as mentors, humanizing the classroom.
This just came in via Dr. Boris Behncke (on Twitter) – after some signs such as increasing seismicity that activity was about to start on Etna, sure enough, the volcano […]
The first issue of the Journal of Animal Ethics unexpectedly ruffled some feathers with an editorial note on terminology. The editors raised critics’ hackles by calling upon contributors to use […]
The death of Osama Bin Laden caught the country by surprise. There was no warning, no preamble, no crescendo of media build up, just a simple announcement that crackled through […]
Three months after popular protests began in earnest, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salih continues to cling to power. His military has split. Powerful tribal shaykhs have deserted him and protesters […]
Today I just wanted to bring up a few examples of bad “science” floating around the internet. Finding articles/posts like these always get me riled up, but I wonder how […]
Andreas Tziolas of Project Icarus overviews the general Icarus mission timeline, with a focus on the propulsion techniques that will be required to support the fusion-propelled interstellar vehicle.
A study from U.S. environmental scientists suggests that a method of extracting natural gas from shale rock increases methane concentrations in drinking water taken from nearby wells.
An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will come closer to Earth this autumn than our own moon does, causing scientists to hold their breath (with excitement, not worry) as it zooms by.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released its first-ever detailed analysis of alternative energy technologies and their potential role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease at the age of 21, Hawking, like Einstein, is as famous for his story as for his science. The physicist recently open up about his life experiences in Arizona.
Aging is new. Lifespans today in the industrialized world are 30-40 years more than they were 100 years ago. Older adults are among the fastest growing cohorts in developing economies. […]
Today, Dr. Kaku addresses a question posed by Peth Kwanchit: Will I be able to talk to my dog through a translator?
Hedonistic Sustainability is not an intellectual paradox. It is, instead, the latest and most exciting evolution of the green movement that is just now coming into its own as a […]
Anti-porn feminist Gail Dines manages to completely miss the point of the Slut Walk marches being organized in cities around the country. Dines and her co-author think that the marchers […]
Predicting the end of the world is a rough business. Everyone knows when you’re wrong; and when you’re right, you don’t get to take a victory lap.
I am buried in the final days of the spring semester (and academic year), so I thought it might be a good time to post a new Mystery Volcano Photo. […]
Question: How do you remain mindful when juggling two, three, four, however many things at once? Answer: You probably don’t. For a long time, cognitive scientists have observed that processing […]
A few days ago a friend of mine showed up carrying a city map of Amsterdam in the form of one of the simplest and smartest product redesigns I’ve seen. […]
Try this as an exercise. Give yourself an honest score on a scale of one to ten that represents where you believe you sit in the distribution of physical appearance […]
The always fascinating English philosophic intellectual John Gray has written a book about the various ways most of the leading philosophers and scientists of the late 19th and early 20th […]
Microsoft has bought Skype for $8.5 billion in an all cash deal, and the biggest winner could actually be Facebook. Why?
Hardcore pirate, morally persuadable, legally unaware and mere music sampler. These were Lime Wire’s user categories, as revealed in the hearing involving founder Mark Gorton.
American consumers are inordinately willing to take a gamble on new products and it’s thanks to them that the U.S. regularly produces huge successes like Dropbox.
The concept behind Flattr—an economy of “micro-payments”—should work quite well. The only problem is that it never has.
Why have so many advertising dollars left traditional news media and what can, and should, journalists do to bring them back? A Columbia University report has some advice.
On East German transit maps of Berlin, the city’s western enclave was an unmentionable obstacle