The Anthropocene does not represent the failure of environmentalism. It is the stage on which a new, more positive and forward-looking environmentalism can be built.
A mammoth effort has produced a complete computational model of the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium, opening the door for biological computer-aided design.
Oxford paleontologist Martin Brasier asserts that his fossilized cells are the remains of primitive anaerobic bacteria that lived 3.4 billion years ago. Paleobiologist J.W. “Bill” Schopf’s samples, he believes, are just ancient, patterned rock, with no fossils at all. Settling the debate matters a great deal. At its heart is one of the biggest questions…
What is the lifetime of our communicative civilization? Will our civilization make it through the 21st century intact? Is there a “Great Filter” of self-destruction that limits the life expectancy of intelligent life in the universe?
The capacity to notice the distress of others, and to be moved by it, can be a critical component of what is called prosocial behavior, actions that benefit others: individuals, groups or society as a whole. Psychologists, neurobiologists and even economists are increasingly interested in the overarching question of how and why we become our…
Dating features on the Moon and Mars is guesswork. Scott Anderson is building a tool to change that.
Bits of food stuck between the teeth of a two-million-year-old South African hominid show that, unlike almost all other known human ancestors, it ate tree bark and other hard foods. Australopithecus sediba’s diet was dramatically different to that of its African cousins, which tended to eat grasses and sedges. “It is an important finding, because…