By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth—many of them not yet recorded—may disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge.
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It’s true that Facebook and Twitter have led many away from blogging because they are so fast and easy to use, but they have also both helped to reinforce blogging in many ways.
Conservative candidates are more attractive physically than their liberal counterparts, according to a new study. This trend could benefit right-leaning candidates at the ballot box.
Squatting empty buildings is not a criminal offence. It is, in fact, an ancient right, a tradition that can be traced back over centuries of popular dissent and pragmatism.
Tattooed teachers make students more motivated and more creative, not to mention stand a better chance of getting a positive recommendation from her pupils.
Trees brighten city streets and delight nature-starved urbanites. Now scientists are learning that they also play a crucial role in the green infrastructure of America’s cities.
Over the last month, we’ve seen that social media can be a powerful tool in assisting revolutions in countries. But can those media be useful in empowering corporate revolutions?
With the emergence of new tools that can measure a person’s biological state, computer interfaces are starting to take users’ feelings into account, helping the user to focus.
Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, is struggling to maintain his authority in the country as vast swathes of territory in the east now appear to be under the control of pro-democracy protesters.
Last week I had the opportunity to moderate a world-class panel here on campus featuring AU film professor Larry Engel, science education advocate Eugenie Scott, and National Academies science education […]
Charles Spencer of American University Media services did a terrific Web story on the Google science communication fellows program I will be participating in this year. Here’s an excerpt where […]
Why do virtually all men over the age of 90 develop some amount of prostate cancer whereas heart cancer is practically unheard of?
A Georgia Representative has introduced a bill to investigate all unsupervised miscarriages as crimescenes. Don’t believe me? Here’s the relevant language from HB 1, downloadable from legislature’s website: When a […]
Submit your questions now in advance of Big Think’s interview with this controversial thinker and visionary.
More than two years after the financial crisis, unemployment remains at 9.0%. Even as corporate profits rebound, the economy is still barely adding enough jobs to keep up with the […]
I’ve been doing a little digging around the web since the protests in Wisconsin began. Maybe me eyes are deceiving me, but it looks like Governor Walker may have already […]
Earlier today, Dr. Boris Behncke posted a link to some fascinating images of the dome growing at the summit of Nevado del Huila (see below) in Colombia. The volcano started […]
An art group that stages orgies, throws cats at cashiers and has Banksy as a fan has enraged the Russian authorities to the point of violent repression and censorship of their work.
If the opponents of deep federal cuts, starting with President Obama, are trying to decide how hard to fight, they may want to err on the side of toughness. Both logic and history make this case.
Futurist and singularitarian Ray Kurzweil has applied his “law of accelerating returns” to the field of solar power in saying that he in not concerned about a future energy crisis.
Before Watson’s Jeopardy! contest was even over, I.B.M. and Nuance, a leading maker of voice-recognition software, announced plans to put the computer to work in the health-care industry.
Many of us think of ourselves as moral persons, but in the clinch, when the opportunity arises to do good or bad, how well do our predictions match up with the actions we actually take?
Why are experts so bad at making predictions? The world is a messy place with countless intervening variables and confounding factors, which our brains are not equipped to evaluate.
A new study finds that electromagnetic radiation emitted by cellphone antenna boosts brain activity. The findings may spark new concerns about the health effects of cellphone use.
A new Harvard study recommends that educators place a stronger focus on vocational education and apprenticeships, rather than aim to send every high school student to college.
Over the years, researchers have tried to explain monogamy, but in efforts to find out how people maintain relationships, some researchers look at more subtle clues—literally.
The crowds mobbing the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison are right: Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill is indeed an attack on organized government workers. And it’s about time.
The transhumanist Kyle Munkittrick has come after me for not making arguments. Mainly he seems ticked off that I speculated that the biotechnological enhancement of children might well not be so […]
Have traditional liberal institutions such as education, religion, labor, and the arts stopped challenging corporate powers and, instead, joined them? Yes, says Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hughes.
Physicists talk rapturously about an equation that could reconcile the four fundamental interactions of nature. But why should you care?