The mysterious common ancestor of all life on Earth may have been more complex than before thought—a sophisticated organism with an intricate structure, scientists now suggest.
Researchers are calling it the “Goldilocks Effect”: Turns out that babies’ brains are wired to focus on “just right” experiences and information to help them learn. In a fascinating new study from the University of Rochester, 7- and 8-month-olds quickly lost interest in video animations of balls, pacifiers and colorful boxes that were too ho-hum…
Failing to reduce methane leaks from fracking largely eliminates the environmental advantage of natural gas over coal. Yet If the leaks are reduced to 1 percent, the decrease in greenhouse gases jumps to 14 percent.
Despite the fact that today’s kids have less time to play than previous generations, children’s creative play has increased, recent research finds. The study seems to oppose earlier findings that children’s creativity has dropped since the 1990s. However, it’s possible that increased creativity in play isn’t translating to creativity in other activities, Case Western University…
When discussing magnetic fields, images of the sun’s coronal loops or simulations of Earth’s magnetosphere may come to mind. But now, astronomers have observed the effects of a supersized magnetic field extending tens of thousands of light-years inside the two huge gamma-ray ‘bubbles’ that were discovered projecting from the top and bottom of the Milky…
“Moral Math” refers to the study of ideas drawn from mathematics which can positively impact moral decision-making and social behavior. This essay describes a workshop designed to introduce these ideas to interested individuals of varying degrees of mathematical and theological sophistication. Created by a retired minister and former math professor, the workshop details five sets…
Lack of understanding of environmental issues is an education problem and requires an education solution. So do we need more science education? Not necessarily, because understanding environmental issues requires some familiarity with the social sciences and humanities as well as the natural sciences; it requires a global perspective and also a sense of how the…