The 2011 Tōhoku, Japan, earthquake and tsunami killed thousands of people and damaged more than one million buildings, including the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant. The initial crisis of rebuilding […]
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This June, an online data collection company called DataCoup will begin seeking individuals willing to sell their personal information to large corporations for a direct profit.
Even if the BICEP2 results turn out not to be from gravitational waves left over from inflation. “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of […]
“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.”
– Zelda Fitzgerald
Following in the footsteps of other health-monitoring devices, a new internet-connected lighter is designed to help you quit smoking by measuring your tobacco intake.
“This common household object can kill you. Which one is it? Find out at eleven,” says the local news anchor promoting his show. This is an old joke. But the […]
This is how you turn cow farts into energy.
With opposition to Obamacare waning, Republicans need a new issue to propel them toward November and beyond.
We are all good at reacting and responding, putting out fires, and crisis management. In addition, organizations large and small have learned how to be lean and agile, and how […]
Wealthy indivdiuals are working longer hours today than ever before, unlike past generations to whom leisure time was a primary indicator of their wealth.
Cash-strapped nutritional organizations have steadily increased the extent to which their views are influenced by large food companies from PepsiCo, Domino’s Pizza, Nestlé, and so on.
If cars were powered by thorium, a super-dense energy source far more compact than coal, your mode of transport could last over 100 years between fueling stations.
Interesting piece in The Economist today about Academic prestige – Why climb the greasy pole? I can only speak about the humanities, not the sciences. So, to start with: “better research” has nothing […]
These international borders follow mathematically impartial pathways, laid out by so-called Voronoi diagrams named after the Ukrainian mathematician Georgy Voronoy.
Rising concerns over the timetable for climate change highlight to extent to which humans remain shortsighted in their concern for future generations.
Just 1,400 light-years away, among all the dust of a crowded star forming region, is the Flame Nebula. NASA released this image on Saturday, and explains on its site how the […]
A pair of scientists in California are believed to have discovered a potent genetic cause of cognitive variation. The gene in question is called KL-VS.
Stephen Dubner on the strategy lessons of his latest book Think Like a Freak.
To be more innovative and productive, break out of the office culture.
What glitters with the brilliance of 100,000 Suns? This guy. “It’s not what you have on the outside that glitters in light, it’s what you have on the inside that shines […]
TOKYO – One of the most controversial of all world rankings is the annual ‘World University Rankings of the Times Higher Education’ –some say a rather biased and telling indictment of […]
I was very surprised to see the following headline earlier today on a parenting website of all places: Just keep your promises: Going above and beyond does not pay off. […]
The US Navy is funding a research effort to equip robots with the decision making tools necessary to make split-second decisions between right and wrong.
Income inequality has a stronger presence in the American social conscience today than it has had since the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, and social scientists say there is more than money at stake.
Using data from one of the world’s oldest continuing studies of aging men, researchers have discovered a possible connection — in the form of a certain type of gene — between body height and lifespan.
The surge in devices marketed towards children is creating a corresponding demand for testers in target age ranges. One enterprising 11-year-old even heads a startup that charges companies for access to his groups of young consultants.
TransProse measures the number and density of words associated with basic emotions — anger, joy, fear, and so on — and generates music designed to reflect the moods on the page.
According to a new study, that’s the frequency of electric current that, when sent to the frontal cortex via electrodes, best induced sleeping test subjects to become aware of their dream state. (Lower and higher frequencies had little effect.)
Partially in response to recent research into adolescent sleep patterns, one English school has announced that sixth-form classes — attended by students aged 16-18 — will start at 1:30 PM and end at 7:00 PM.
By a unanimous vote, Carson’s city council agreed to send for final approval a measure that would make bullying of children and young adults — up to age 25 — a misdemeanor.