The Higgs boson, the pope, and the curious interaction between organized religion and big science.
According to Aristotelian philosophy, earth was eternal, a world without history and with no end. Only with the advent of religions based on the promise of a final salvation – supposedly after the end of time – it became of great interest for philosophers and scholars to calculate the age and understand the possible lifespan…
A group of researchers led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has discovered the first scientific evidence of genetic blending between Europeans and Asians in the remains of ancient Scythian warriors living over 2,000 years ago in the Altai region of Mongolia. Contrary to what was believed until now, the results published in PLoS ONE…
Some economists dislike Christmas. They allege that it “destroys value,” which is, in Econoland, the first and only sin. The economist Joel Waldfogel, author of Scroogenomics, goes so far as to contend that the winter holiday season is “an orgy of value destruction.” Waldfogel’s main concern is that the value of gifts to their recipients…
Even a multimillion-dollar donation does not ensure a spot in heaven. Or at least that’s what most religions believe. But a $5-million academic grant, to be centered at UC Riverside, may go a long way toward gaining insights into the possibility of an afterlife and delving into what science and culture say about immortality. The…
From the discovery of the Higgs boson to the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, 2012 was an eventful year in science. Nature’s end of year round-up reviews the highs and lows in research and science policy. Author Metanexus Editors
From SciAm guest blogger Kyle Hill: The Earth is flat. A full moon leads to more crime. Humans were created less than 10,000 years ago. If you made your way through even the most general of science educations, the above statements should strike you as suspect. Having a Copernican worldview challenged by such a statement,…