David Gelernter, a pioneering computer scientist, foresaw the modern internet but thinks computers are still too hard to use
We don’t want to ask the question: Is civilization good for you (or me)? Instead we want to ask: Is civilization good—in the long term—for planets and their capacity to support life (or at least technologically adept civilizations)? In other words, we want to frame the question of sustainability in an astrobiological setting. Author Metanexus…
Newfound pieces of human skull from “the Cave of the Monkeys” in Laos are the earliest skeletal evidence yet that humans once had an ancient, rapid migration to Asia. Anatomically modern humans first arose about 200,000 years ago in Africa. When and how our lineage then dispersed out of Africa has long proven controversial. Archaeological…
Scientists want to know if planets can form near the supermassive black hole at the core of the galaxy. If so, the black hole could fling them out into space at enormous speeds that, from our vantage point, could appear to approach the speed of light. One way to answer the question, at least as…
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is often invoked outside the realm of physics to describe how the act of observing something changes the thing being observed, or to point out that there’s a limit to how well we can ever really understand the universe. While the subtleties of the uncertainty principle are often lost on nonphysicists,…
As the climate changes over the next century, the ranges of nearly 90% of mammal species will shrink – in many cases because animals won’t be able to get to areas where the climate is going to become suitable for them, says new research. Across the Western Hemisphere, the study also found, nearly 10% of…
Legislation making its way through U.S. Congress would allow anyone to invest in the latest cool idea, with the prospect of making a profit one day. The Crowdfund Act, which passed the Senate in March, would let anyone invest up to 5% of their annual income, or $2,000, in a project or firm that is…