Celebrated neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga explains the new science behind an ancient philosophical question.
Just in time for the Christmas holiday, Vatican Radio announced that Pope Benedict XVI will be launching a new digital ministry (of sorts) through a Twitter feed with the handle @Pontifex. With the encouragement of Twitter director of social innovation, Claire Diaz Ortiz, Il Papa will extend this engagement into digital space, broadcasting 140-character messages…
The United States ranks just 31st globally in student achievement in math. Annually, fewer than 60,000 American college graduates earn degrees in the top five engineering majors — a number woefully insufficient to fill industry needs and fuel innovation. It’s imperative that educators inspire the next generation of students — not simply to staff the…
As hydraulic fracturing unlocks new gas reserves, researchers struggle to understand its health implications.
Crop diseases could be detected earlier and more easily if a new method that stamps a leaf with a colour-changing biosensor is successful. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $100,000 to Hideaki Tsutsui of the University of California, Riverside, to develop the early warning system for crop diseases. Tsutsui’s idea is to print biosensors…
Astronomers in Germany have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm to help them chart and explain the structure and dynamics of the universe around us with unprecedented accuracy. The team, led by Francisco Kitaura of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, report their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Scientists…
The thieving habits of rodents have emerged as an unlikely salvation of tropical forests, research suggests. Massive mammals known as gomphotheres once ranged the Americas, distributing big tree seeds as they roamed. But they are extinct, and it has not been clear what is spreading seeds now. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,…