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Today: Giant blobs of science “journalism” found on the interweb!

Sorry about the dearth of posts. It has been a busy week here in Davis and I’ve been a little distracted by the upcoming election. Combined with the relative lack of volcano […]

Not surprisingly, Carl Safina’s Feb. 10 essay at the NY Times calling for an end to Darwin worship generated a fair amount of criticism.Safina’s suggestion to frame information in terms […]

Economic troubles and what to do about them are not unlike climate change or biomedical research. Both economic policy and science policy can be deeply complex and uncertain and can […]

In one of the strongest declarations I’ve seen from a major newspaper editorial board, the San Jose Mercury News calls on Congress in 2007 to enact major legislation to deal […]

According to a recent press release: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, will complete the exploration phase of its mission on Sept. 16, after a number of successes that transformed […]

One day, quantum computers may replace the standard silicon chips found in all computers around the world. In fact, by 2020 to 2025, transistors will be so small and will […]

Research suggests that not only are male and female brains different, but that they exist on a spectrum with autism and psychosis at either end.

When Frank Welsh wrote his outstanding one-volume history of Hong Kong, he titled it “A Borrowed Place.” In I Like Hong Kong… Art and Deterritorialization, Frank Vigneron, an Associate Professor […]

Another oil rig has blown up in the Gulf of Mexico. The Vermilion 380 is owned by Mariner Energy which was recently purchased by by Apache Energy, according to Think […]

Part 1 of the Q&A from Dr. Boris Behncke of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania.

The announcement of this award is an important step towards greater recognition of the need for public engagement on the part of scientists and their institutions. AAAS should be commended […]

n This recently unclassified, formerly top secret document released by the Russian State Archives illustrates (quite literally) the lengths the Soviets wanted to go to in order to win the Cold War: not […]

On last week’s announcement that CNN is shifting the focus and form of its science coverage, I am going to be posting what is a very different interpretation than the […]

Todd Purdum has a feature in Vanity Fair this month that is so rich with insight, color, and analysis regarding the communication challenges facing the Obama administration that I immediately […]

Introducing the Eruptions Word of the Day – and we’ll start with a favorite of mine: dacite.

It is a phrase more often heard in London than Washington, but which has driven British defence policy since the end of the Suez crisis in 1956. It is that […]

When President George W. Bush came to office in 2001, the U.S. was sending $1.4 billion a year to Africa in humanitarian and development aid, including programs intended to foster […]

“Plato imagined philosopher-kings guarding his utopia. Here in Aspen, we have Bill Gates.” The Atlantic says Gates’ unique solutions to global problems were on display at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

So why is the current earthquake swarm at Yellowstone not likely to lead to an eruption? Well, mostly because we’ve had so many other swarms that don’t lead to eruption, and this one shows no signs of it being any different.

Given that drugs like Ritalin and Adderall raise productivity indiscriminately, shouldn’t everyone be using them? Dr. Harold Koplewicz, one of the nation’s leading child psychiatrists, thinks ADHD—like the drugs that are used to treat it—is “highly misunderstood.”

Michael Stone is an expert on evil. A forensic psychiatrist and professor at Columbia, Stone has cataloged and classified evil acts into a 22-point scale for his show on the […]

It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth). Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay. Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.

nn n It seems impossible to find an online map showing all of the European Union’s so-called Euroregions. Why doesn’t the EU showcase these transnational regions, conceived to promote economic […]

Science used to be fascinating to the general public … where did we go wrong and how do we fix it?

Part One of Two I often receive e-mails from my fans who state that my ability to popularize science and technology is reminiscent of the late Carl Sagan; This got […]

As neuroimaging labs use scanners to reveal more and more details about how the brain works, their findings are increasingly affecting the legal system.

By studying the neural networks in the brain, scientists have constructed computer-based models that mirror the brain’s complex biological networks. 

I went to a wake earlier this week for the grandmother of a very close friend of mine. I had only seen his grandmother a few times in all the […]

Everyone has grown up hearing fantasy stories about the “fountain of youth.” We are still far from finding the fabled Fountain, but today the real question is quickly becoming “Would […]