Scientists have created a type of artificial soil that, when combined with a special solution, becomes transparent, allowing 3D imaging of plant roots and the organisms that live in them.
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“We see on the basis of what we believe, not the other way around,” Errol Morris told Big Think in a recent interview. In other words, our relationship to the truth is never neutral nor “value-free.”
TechShop, which bills itself as “America’s 1st Nationwide Open-Access Public Workshop,” gives the average person access to 2D and 3D building tools that are normally reserved for well-trained professionals.
What is this thing called love? I took my own stab at understanding the neurobiological circuits underlying love and sex with my own book, DIRTY MINDS: HOW OUR BRAINS INFLUENCE […]
A report released Tuesday says that several obstacles stand in the way of a 2015 deadline allowing civilian drone aircraft in the US, including concerns about privacy as well as overall safety.
Since my post on the U.S. embassy riots had so many good comments, I thought I’d write a sequel and continue the discussion. I’d like to offer some further thoughts […]
Is the effort extended to identify the problem matched by the effort to solve that problem? How many times have you seen an institution devote extraordinary efforts to identify a […]
Shakespeare’s Caius Martius Coriolanus isn’t really suited to politics, but his family and friends urge him on, and so he makes a game effort at putting up with the smelly […]
The introduction of tablets to the kindergarten crowd sounds like a phenomenal opportunity to assert the leading role of American innovation.
Mitt Romney dug himself a deep hole this week when Mother Jones released a secretly recorded video of him speaking to a group of millionaires and complaining that 47 percent […]
“What are you thinking?” is a booby-trapped marriage question. I know this, but I can’t always resist its shiny lure. My husband John and I were on a long […]
“Americans censure nepotism on the one hand and practice it as much as they can on the other.” –Adam Bellow (the son of Saul Bellow)
As scientists attempt to tell the story of the last 120,000 years of human history, patterns emerge that more clearly connect the movement of humans across the continents to changes in climate.
While much of the news about ice melts has come from the Arctic, a study published this week describes interior “ice streams” and their effect on the integrity of the Antarctic ice sheet.
A recently-published study documents scientists’ use of carbon-based molecules, ice, and lasers to duplicate one theory of how life may have evolved on Earth.
A NASA scientist reveals at a recent symposium that he and his team have taken the first tiny steps towards making faster-than-light speed — generally seen as necessary for interstellar travel — a reality.
Photos released from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) represent the first step in a project that will help astronomers better understand the makeup of the universe and the causes behind its rapid expansion.
My latest column has just been posted on AlterNet, Right-Wing Religions of the World Unite to Oppress Women and Gays More Ruthlessly. In it, I write about the strange phenomenon […]
Are you planning for this week or this year? Are you planning for this year or next year? If you are meeting the needs of students today but not keeping […]
“[I]t was here that I found a scene that did not exist elsewhere. I suppose I was like a child in a sweet shop. The California beach was like heaven,” […]
Cureeo, a woman-led startup, aims to fill a gap by providing a site that saves artists time on sales and marketing and saves collectors time on searching for new works.
Despite appearances I have not forgotten about Waq al-waq, and while I’ll spare you the usual and tired excuses for my lack of posts I will direct you to the […]
A summer promotion by Sony and Amazon offering e-books at drastically reduced prices has been extended after new data, announced today, indicates a dramatic rise in e-book sales.
The Internet Archive, which has amassed 16 years’ worth of Web page data, now offers a free searchable database containing every news program produced in the last 3 years by a range of outlets.
Willpower is a limited resource easily drained by everyday activity.
A visionary developer wants to go beyond Google Translate to make the Internet available to anyone, at any time, in any language.
Brain-to-brain communication would involve not just the exchange of information, but also the transmission of emotions and feelings, “because these are also part of the fabric of our thoughts.”
The island is working with the people behind Wikipedia to provide tourists with paperless access to its culture and history.
Many of our most astute social critics, such as the Harvard progressive communitaran Michael Sandel, have warned us about recent trends that have allowed the pro-choice, “cash nexus” logic of […]
A proposal by the European Commission would allow American winemakers to use “château” on their labels, which French winemakers claim would diminish the original meaning and value of the word.