Even 13.8 billion years after the Big Bang, we can reconstruct the first 3 minutes. About 100 years ago, we began to truly understand the nature of the Universe for the […]
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The Big Bang is our accepted origin of the Universe. But is there another possibility? Since the mid-1960s and the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background, the Big Bang has […]
It’s true that we have a thermodynamic arrow of time, and entropy always increases. But that can’t explain what we perceive. One of the enormous conceptual ideas that came along […]
The bid to buy Greenland is unlikely to become seriously considered.
"It is almost impossible to put into words the difference that Alan Turing made to society."
The top of Mauna Kea is the ideal physical site for this new, ready-to-be-built telescope. But that’s far from the only concern. For many years, astronomers have looked forward to a […]
A college degree is still a well-trodden path to relative financial success. Even so, a college degree is no longer a guarantee of a secure job, or of any job at all.
There have been a lot of public advocates from the “no dark matter” camp, getting lots of popular attention. But the Universe still needs dark matter. Here’s why. If you took […]
Could the Nobel Prize of 2011 have been awarded without cause? “Even if I stumble on to the absolute truth of any aspect of the universe, I will not realise my […]
Perhaps the limits of what we can observe aren’t just artificial; perhaps there are no limits to what’s out there at all. “Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, […]
We have electric charges and currents in electromagnetism, so why not magnetic ones, too? “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is […]
A series of mysterious white features lurk at the bottom of one of its most massive craters. Here’s what they could be, and how we’ll find out! “One of the […]
Should we get vaccinated? Fluoridate our water? Fight global warming? Believe in evolution? The Big Bang? Dark matter? Find out. “Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has […]
Bill Nye: We May Discover Life on Europa Bill Nye (The Science Guy!) describes the possibility of discovering life on Europa, arguing that we might make such a discovery in […]
In the United States, the FDA has the power to fine drug companies $10,000 a day for failing to publish clinical trials, yet most clinical trials still never see the light of day.
We have electric charges and fields, but only magnetic fields. Could there be magnetic charges in our Universe? “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is […]
You’ve got to see what happens when this man realizes he’s talking to the living legend herself. Image credit: GayCalgary Magazine, via http://www.gaycalgary.com/Magazine.aspx?id=109&article=3182. “I’m just thankful that I’m still here. […]
How the most powerful telescope ever built will owe its successes and discoveries to scientists who’ll never get the glory. “The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without […]
Two weeks ago, the happiest place on earth got a whole lot happier. Tokyo Disneyland, in a move that surprised and delighted thousands across Asia, announced their support of gay […]
A new mode of civic engagement in New York City, "participatory budgeting," may help bridge the gap between our country’s foundational principles and our tendency to let ourselves be shepherded by elected leaders. Rousseau would be proud.
–Guest post by Erin Brett, American University graduate student. Last month, in advance of April Fools Day, CBS Morning News correspondent and satirist Mo Rocca met with the cast of […]
In Monday’s GOP primary debate, Newt Gingrich earned praise from conservatives while drawing justifiable anger from many for his labeling of Barack Obama as the “food stamp president.” As the […]
Public opinion about climate change, observes the New York Times’ Andrew Revkin, can be compared to “waves in a shallow pan,” easily tipped with “a lot of sloshing but not […]
[This is Post 2 for my guest blogging stint at The Des Moines Register.] Archimedes said “Give me a lever long enough and I can move the world.” This week […]
The open-source movement’s capacity for collaborative innovation on the content and productivity side is a well-established reality, with success stories like Wikipedia, WordPress and Firefox to show for. But open-source […]
[This is a guest post from Don Watkins, responding to an earlier guest post by Doug Green. If you’re interested in being a guest blogger, drop me a note. Happy […]
Opponents of California’s Proposition 23, a measure that would block legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions, have turned to a public health focus to mobilize Latino voters. Research that I […]
Last week, I introduced a series about a Colorado ballot initiative that would amend the state’s constitution to define a person under the law as “a human being from the […]
This semester in the sophomore-level course I teach on “Communication and Society,” we spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter […]
In March, Sunlight Labs announced Design for America — a 10-week design and data visualization contest aiming to connect the creative community with the increasing amounts of public data produced […]