David Gelernter, a pioneering computer scientist, foresaw the modern internet but thinks computers are still too hard to use
Human and chimp brains look anatomically similar because both evolved from the same ancestor millions of years ago. But where does the chimp brain end and the human brain begin? A new UCLA study pinpoints uniquely human patterns of gene activity in the brain that could shed light on how we evolved differently than our…
Despite government efforts to ban unapproved stem cell treatments, companies around China still offer them openly.
Climate change is set to reduce Latin America’s capacity to produce renewable energy, according to Roberto Schaeffer, a Brazilian energy planning expert. He told the Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development underway in Brazil that many forms of renewable energy are vulnerable to variations in climate, due to their dependence on water…
A toddler’s “slave footprint” – how much forced labor in the global human trafficking economy is used to produce all her “stuff” – can be calculated on a new human trafficking website. And the results can surprise parents. It turns out that many of the toys and baby products that fill American family homes are…
The world’s air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant. Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. The number isn’t quite a surprise, because it’s been rising at an accelerating…
What if it is too late to save the climate by cutting greenhouse gas emissions? What if the amount of carbon dioxide already added to the atmosphere by human activity is so great that it is going to produce big temperature changes no matter what, with big shifts in rainfall and in ocean chemistry? Options…