Orion Jones

Brent Sherwood of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory wants the agency to take a hard look at its plans to send humans to Mars, perhaps concentrating on colonizing the Moon instead. 

A British computational scientist has built a presentation reminiscent of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, this time showing the consequences of the Earth’s population boom. 

Today’s mobile phones are yesterday’s supercomputers, which make them powerful enough to suit the needs of aerospace engineers, who want to create a future of micro-satellites. 

A new study authored by some of the nation’s leading climate scientists suggests that droughts and heat waves since 1980 were caused by anomalously high temperature fluctuations. 

Now that Curiosity has safely touched down on the Martian surface, it will get to work calibrating its scientific instruments, which will search for past signs of life on the planet. 

An open source text messaging platform developed by Unicef is coordinating humanitarian projects in several African nations, helping to distribute food aid and treat HIV more effectively. 

The rise of facial recognition technology has resulted in computers seeing faces in nature where there are none. Does this mean computers are given to the same flaws as humans?

Research shows that cross-generational gameplay can help children learn valuable lessons while simultaneously educating adults about current technology. It’s time to get our game on.

Revolutionary software fields students’ questions as they arise naturally in the studying process, filling gaps in background knowledge and producing higher exam scores as a result.

“John Quincy Adams said that the United States should be the ‘well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all . . . , the champion and vindicator only of her own.’” 

Based on data reports, the states that receive the most government funding spend the most per capita, have the highest median household income and highly populated.

Being connected to the Web gives each individual access to the sum of human knowledge, but our eagerness to rely on information networks is sapping us of the need to remember things. 

The latest US Jobs report diffuses concerns about America heading back in a recession. 

The U.S. Constitution protects a person’s right to freedom of speech everywhere except the workplace.

The US remains the world’s leading destination for FDI, accounting for 15 percent of global flows. China accounts for two percent of that flow and wants to invest more, but it raises national security and economic concerns.

Contrary to the positive thinking industry, psychologists say that too much rosy-colored thinking can backfire, making us blind to potential problems and more vulnerable to failure. 

Researchers have discovered that bilingual parents’ tendency to switch between languages can influence the emotional development of their children. The implications may extend to marriage. 

Psychologists have observed that silver medalists tend to be less content with their achievements than do bronze medalists, who are happy just to make it to the podium.

A team of British computer scientists is working to create the best computer simulation of the human brain yet. When finished, the machine will model the behavior of one billion neurons. 

An award from the John Templeton Foundation will seek to answer important scientific questions about immortality, such as how experiences of the afterlife vary across cultures.

A genome passed down to a child by the mother may contribute to a longer life span in women versus their male counterparts. 

Data from a 32 year study conducted in New Zealand examined the social academic and relationship development of participants from childhood to adulthood.

Teen pregnancy has gone down 40 percent since 1990. Researchers believe free access to IUDs will help to lower the percentage even more.

Doctors say that mild cases of depression and anxiety should be taken just as serious as the more severe cases of depression and anxiety.

New discovery in the HIV protein within its early stages of infection give doctors hope in finding an effective vaccine to ward off the virus.

There was a time when violence and hierarchy determined who was sleeping with who, but that was before women collectively decided that security was preferable to fertility. 

As urban populations continue to grow, we increasingly lead our anonymous lives in public. That results in people employing some interesting strategies to avoid interacting with strangers. 

The passing of America’s man of letters, quintessential as he was combative, has left the nation morally emptier. He once recommended Americans read two books above all others. 

First lady Michele Obama has written a new gardening book. Called “American Grown,” the book extols the virtues of sustainable local agriculture, school gardens and childhood nutrition.

If you want to adopt a new lifestyle that pays big returns, work less. Our idea that dogged labor produces the best results is relatively new and at odds with our knowledge of human performance.