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Private Space Travel: A New Era Begins?
Some NASA supporters are mourning what they see as the decline of U.S. leadership in space. But they should really be celebrating the dawn of a new era. After all, we’ve been stuck in low Earth orbit for several decades now, at considerable cost. Visionary plans for genuine space exploration have gathered dust at NASA,…
I Grip the Gun and the Gun Grips Me
Is there a sense in which a gun, once put in hand, must be fired? If so, how deeply does this expectation, this foreshadowing of action, soak into its holder? How might the surrounding culture (hunting versus “tactical”) and type of gun shape these expectations? One holds a gun by its grip. Is there a…
Studying a Seemingly Immortal Species
Most people barely notice lichens, but Dr. Anne Pringle, a mycologist at Harvard, believes they may help answer one of science’s greatest questions: Is immortality biologically possible? For eight years, Dr. Pringle has been measuring, sketching and scrutinizing lichens, which belong to the genus Xanthoparmelia. She wants to know whether they deteriorate with the passage…
Belief in Evolution Boils Down to a Gut Feeling
Intuitive reasoning may help explain why some people are more accepting of evolution than others.
Study Traces Origins of Monogamous Coupling
From an evolutionary standpoint, the key players in the mating game were males with poor fighting skills and females faithful to them.
Future Wars May Be Fought by Synapses
Instead of the indiscriminate destruction of the atom bomb or napalm, the signature weapon of future wars may be precise, unprecedented control over the human brain. As global conflicts become murkier, technologies based on infiltrating brains may soon enter countries’ arsenals, neuroethicists claim in a paper published online in Synesis. Such “neuroweapons” have the capacity…