Is there a way to see past the barrier the Universe puts up before it became transparent to light? Image credit: Mark Kamionkowski, of gravitational waves. “From earliest times, humans — explorers […]
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What the first signs of life beyond our Solar System will look like. Image credit: Tanga et al., 2012. “Language… has created the word ‘loneliness’ to express the pain of […]
The corporation is a monster in the same sense that the creatures in Pokemon are monsters. They are used by people for different purposes but ultimately they are trained creatures.
A new survey confirms that the lay public trusts science and scientists, but that scientists and the public have different views on specific issues. Unfortunately, the survey tells us how people feel, but not why, which we have to understand if we’re going to try and narrow the perception gap between what the public believes and what the bulk of the scientific evidence indicates, a gap that cause all kinds of harm.
Sam Harris: The Self is an Illusion Sam Harris describes the properties of consciousness and how mindfulness practices of all stripes can be used to transcend one’s ego. Ray Kurzweil: […]
And how, if we manage to harness it on Earth, it could be the most accurate probe in all of scientific history. “We… are what happens when a primordial mixture […]
Six years ago, in a mock presidential election held in my daughter’s pre-K class, Barack Obama was the clear winner. Of the 18 children, 16 voted for Obama. (“Superman” and […]
A hybrid potato that can reduce food waste and eliminate a suspected carcinogen in cooked potato products would seem to be an environmentalist’s dream. But the hybrid was created using biotechnology to blend potato genes from different varieties, so opponents of genetically modified food are fighting to keep this potentially beneficial product from ever reaching consumers.
The four major American sports leagues like to boast that women make up about 40-45% of their fanbases. Yet when it comes to participating in sports conversation on Twitter, women form a minuscule percentage of followers.
There’s plenty of gas, dust, planets and rocky bodies out there. Could some combination of them explain dark matter? Image credit: Chris Blake and Sam Moorfield, via http://www.sdss3.org/surveys/boss.php. “When a […]
The authors of a recent Harvard Business Review article explored the snowball effect that causes poor decisions to cascade into full-blown behavioral norms.
The greatest international internet meme war dates back to 2005. Many brave pixels were wounded. “I didn’t know any successful actors in Kenya, so I felt like I could get […]
The densest, most massive objects in the Universe will live an awfully long time, but not forever. Here’s what happens to them. Image credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA illustration by Lynette Cook. […]
Companies fear, and GMO opponents hope, that labels on food will scare consumers away. But more and more research indicates that isn’t what happens.
And what it might — and might not — give us useful insights into. Image credit: Karen46 of http://www.freeimages.com/profile/karen46. “The anthropic principle – the idea that our universe has the properties it does because […]
British rock group Klaxons have announced that the world’s first 3D-printed tour will kick off in October. The band claims everything used on stage will have been created by way of 3D printing, though a quick viewing of their promo video reveals the announcement to be a joke.
We’ve learned more about comets than ever before thanks to it. But we would’ve learned a lot more, if not for one unfounded fear. “Every dreamer knows that it is […]
Photographer Ansel Adams, whose beautiful black and white landscapes full of mountains still grace both museum and office walls, called fellow photographer William Mortensen “the anti-Christ” for what he did […]
When you work, do you often use a computer? If the answer is yes, then the specific answer is: you use a classical computer. That is what your machine is […]
It might not sound impressive, but the physics behind it — and the power of its applications — are literally world-changing. Image credit: Orphek LEDs, via http://orphek.com/about/aquarium-led-lighting/. “Everyone must leave something behind when he […]
Framing influences our choices every day. Why are we willing to pay $10 for a glass of wine at a fancy restaurant when we could buy a bottle of the […]
It’s easy to forget that college athletes who sustain concussions are often kept out of the classroom as well as off the field. The effects of any sort of traumatic brain injury can pose critical and lasting risks to a student’s academic career.
A huge percentage of our Universe is blocked by the plane of our own Milky Way. Here’s how we’re finally seeing what’s there! “I am undecided whether or not the […]
From 1974 through 1981, Haruki Murakami ran a jazz club in Tokyo, Japan, and wondered what direction his life would run. After long soul searching, his life ran in the […]
Want a good lesson on how not to make thoughtful healthy decisions about risk? Take a lesson from what Health Canada just did. It is a classic example of how […]
Letting data and evidence, not fears or ideology, guide you is harder than you’d imagine. Image credit: European XFEL, via http://www.xfel.eu/research/benefits/. “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of […]
Kant’s proposal may seem implausible, but it’s good advice: give up the search.
Beantown beat out Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and the San Francisco Bay Area bids. Local debate has already begun as to whether trying to host the Olympics is even worth it.
The Great Orion Nebula is so great, it needed a second Messier object all to itself! “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others […]
Increasingly, the Internet reflects our vision of the offline world where people naturally gravitate toward groups who already share our opinion on social and political matters.