George Dyson talks with Martin Eiermann about the definition of life, human progress, and the importance of cognitive autarchy.
Mourning is not just a trait shared by humans, but scientists say it is also shared by the Western scrub jays. Researchers say the Western scrub jays summon others over to the body of a dead jay to screech over their dead brethren. University of California, Davis researchers said that the birds’ cacophonous “funerals” can…
Global comparisons of scientific output are commonplace. As non-experts, policymakers and administrators must rely on indexes of impact and recognition — counts of published papers and citations, and the prestige of source journals — to assess the impact of public spending and to allocate research funds. The gold standard is the Scientific Citation Index Expanded,…
One of the primary forces behind climate change-driven sea level rise is the Greenland Ice Sheet. Covering 80% of Greenland, it’s the world’s second-largest chunk of ice (after the Antarctic Ice Sheet) and dumps 240 billion tons of fresh water into the oceans every year, accounting for a full fifth of annual sea level rise….
Babies learn to speak months after they begin to understand language. As they are learning to talk, they babble, repeating the same syllable (“da-da-da”) or combining syllables into a string (“da-do-da-do”). But when babies babble, what are they actually doing? And why does it take them so long to begin speaking? Insights into these mysteries…
Nature looks ahead to the key findings and events that may emerge in 2013. Author Metanexus Editors
A duo of planets some 1,200 light years from earth have been spotted passing within 1.2 million miles of each other, closer than any other known pair of planets, a new study has found.