NASA has agreed to fund a study into whether or not mining asteroids for precious metals and minerals is economically sound. Surely not at the moment, but it might be in the future…
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This month, NASA chief Charlie Bolden pitched the idea to the White House. And while the government may balk at the price tag, the private space industry could step in to help…
Using shots from the Hubble, NASA has looked back further into the origins of galaxies and our universe than ever before. The James Webb space telescope will look even further back.
In the coming months, NASA must decide whether it will launch a flagship mission to Mars in 2018. Such a mission would likely collect and return Martian rocks to Earth for examination.
In our current “War on Terror,” it’s sometimes hard to imagine or appreciate the terrors of times gone by. For Americans of the 19th century, stories of shipwrecks struck deep […]
I’ve been writing a lot lately about reasons to quit the Catholic church, and judging by the demographic trends in many Western countries, there are a lot of people whose […]
The California legislature has passed a bill that will allow for autonomous vehicles, or cars that are driven by the machines themselves, to potentially hit the roads by 2015.
After Youtube refused to take down the incendiary film “Innocence of Muslims” the Iranian government has taken down Youtube. And Gmail. And all of Google.
A scientist has created a new process for treating wood with fungus that allows new violins to sound like Stradivari.
Selling a story is no different than selling any business idea. Hollywood writers just happen to have a unique gift for pitching their stories. Storytelling, after all, is their business. So what are the elements of a successful Hollywood pitch that anyone can learn from?
As Obama and Romney attack each other for waging “class warfare,” a new study from the Public Religion Research Institute shows how little anyone really knows about the largest block […]
Jaron Lanier: if we don’t learn to acknowledge that real people are actually creating the value online, we’re never going to learn how to create the information economy that can really create employment and self-determination.
A few weeks ago, I received a few emails and Tweets asking my opinion of Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist and intelligence researcher from the London School of Economics, joining […]
New interactive robot wants to be your Facebook friend.
With car’s on-board computer systems become more complex it was only time before they started receiving online updates, the same as a laptop or cell phone.
“If all medicines in the world were thrown into the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes.”
Over the weekend, I was interviewed by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor from the Freedom from Religion Foundation for their Freethought Radio show. That episode is now available for […]
Throughout Africa and southern Asia, farmers are using pumps and other small-scale methods to irrigate their crops.
In the past, the leading cause of injury deaths in America has consistently been car crashes but a new study has found that there are now more deaths each year from suicide.
Over 90% of respondents around the world said that the War on Drugs has failed — and it’s no surprise why.
How do we understand the rate of technological change and how can we develop the tools to best adapt to this change?
It is frightening to observe how persistently people reject evidence that presents some truth inconvenient to their deeper beliefs and self identities; excessive fear of vaccines, or fluoride, or nuclear […]
Argentinians have been using Paypal to circumvent the devaluation of the peso, but new government restrictions are making it much harder.
While there are many ways in which pundits are gauging economic recovery, some light can be shed from the Red Lobster’s tasty cheddar biscuits.
Scientists combating the effects of climate change, such as rising water levels and eroding coastlines, have found natural ally in the mangrove.
“They always say time changes things,” Andy Warhol once said, “but you actually have to change them yourself.” Warhol simultaneously embodied and changed his time—a combination that continues to work […]
What type of ethics training do both individuals and organizations need to navigate through the ethical minefields of business in the 21st century?
Urban noise pollution is associated with increased risk factors for fatal diseases, says the World Health Organization. But sound can also be employed to make cities better places.
In laboratory conditions, scientists successfully created a fearful memory in the minds of volunteers, then erased it. The findings could aid in the treatment of anxiety disorders.
Just a brief announcement: The weekend of November 9, I’ll be in Springfield, Missouri for Skepticon 5. Since I had such a blast at Skepticon 4 last year, there’s no […]