The fear of death. That’s how a friend of mine who works in television described the essential ingredient of hit reality shows like Ice Road Truckers. That’s why people watch. […]
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The great American poet Wallace Stevens, author of “The Emperor of Ice-Cream” and many other famous works, was also a longtime insurance executive. While researching him for my previous post, I decided […]
Forget about Mars: British scientists have begun drilling through a two-mile-thick sheet of ice to reach a lake that hasn’t seen sunlight in at least 100,000 years.
Irrational tendencies mark human existence. Some can be of service to you, such as the phenomenon of honoring what economists call “sunk costs.”
Since its launch earlier this month, the Web site Rinkwatch has experienced an influx of data from volunteers in Canada and the United States.
A newly published paper reveals that the rate at which temperatures are rising was greatly underestimated, and the results parallel those recently found in Greenland and other northern polar regions.
Not only do they tell you to slow down — by means of changing colors — they can even communicate with your friends via a text message if you won’t pay attention.
You know how sometimes when you put your foot in your mouth and say something really stupid, you try to recover but only stammer out something even dumber and […]
There’s a popular myth in the American yoga community that Indian vegetarianism began as a spiritual response to humanity’s place in the cosmos. The concept of ahimsa, or non-violence, is […]
Approximately 20 bears are living on an iceberg off the Canadian coast, challenging assumptions about where the animals normally spend their summers.
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.
In response to my recent post, “The Bright Side of Globalization,” my friend and colleague Jean Houston sent me an excerpt from her book Jump Time entitled, “Wok and Roll in […]
Hurricane Sandy’s the hurricane from hell. It broke all records. It was the storm of the century. It is the hurricane we will tell our grandkids about.But can it happen […]
A company has completed a prototype of a robot designed specifically to look for lunar ice, a potentially rich source of water and other materials for use during other lunar expeditions.
A few years ago, at mile 20 of my second marathon, I promised myself I would never again run a 26.2 mile race. I had trained impeccably, ran my first […]
Fed up with the banking system, one small business owner decided to start his own bank that pays out interest in his store’s goods.
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.
Earlier this month, the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, removed a small oak tree from its sculpture garden—a story of little to no note, right? But just as the mighty […]
Eben Alexander, author of the bestseller Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, is only the latest in a long line of historical figures who has argued for […]
A bizarre ‘planisphere palindrome’ version of the Earth
To celebrate her Jubilee year, the Queen had a large chunk of Antarctica named after her; possibly upsetting the Argentinians and Chileans.
Physicist Lawrence Krauss finds creation stories depressing – not because they’re implausible, but because they extinguish curiosity and limit human agency.
Thanks to NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists now have proof that snow clouds, and maybe snow itself, exist on the Red Planet.
Part 1 and Part 2 of this essay appeared earlier this week. Thomas Hardy I never cared for Life: Life cared for me, And hence I owed it some fidelity… […]
On Sunday at 7pm EST PBS Nova is airing a special on the science of mega-storm Sandy. For readers who work and teach at universities, I encourage you to watch the […]
A chuck of ice 46 square miles in area has broken off the Petermann Glacier, according to the Canadian Ice Service. Scientists warn that rising ocean temperature could do further damage.
Google’s offer to provide Kansas City neighborhoods with super-fast Internet failed to fully penetrate poorer areas of the city. In response, citizens are getting the word out by foot and even by ice cream truck.
Cake is good. Chocolate cake is better. Chocolate cake with creamy chocolate frosting is even better. Chocolate cake with creamy chocolate frosting and walnuts is great, but getting rich. Chocolate […]
Technology run amok – a classic scenario of many apocalyptic science fiction movies in recent years – has finally been replaced by another, even scarier plotline – Mother Nature run […]
We have a background assumption that we are living in a technologically-accelerating civilization. Peter Thiel has a different view of where we are headed, and he says we need to fight hard to improve our future prospects.