Celebrated neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga explains the new science behind an ancient philosophical question.
The final round of negotiations leading up to next week’s Rio+20 summit begins with countries very much at odds on key issues. The draft agreement would improve energy, water and food security in poorer countries, phase out fossil fuel subsidies and boost ocean protection. But with three days of negotiations left, only 20% has been…
The pursuit of knowledge is now a global enterprise. Scientific American and Nature have teamed up on this special report on how this trend is changing the way science is done, and how it informs the world. Author Metanexus Editors
Last week I wrote about some of the themes from my book A Tear at the Edge of Creation. Today, I want to briefly state the reasons why a so-called “Theory Of Everything” (TOE) is an impossibility. We have to do away with this idea for once and for all. First, let me say what…
Scientists in a cluttered Berkeley laboratory are working a bit of biochemical wizardry to transform ordinary seaweed into biofuels that promise a new source of energy for this oil-dependent nation. The lab’s research has already fueled a start-up company whose workers at a coastal site in southern Chile are farming nearly 200 acres of kelp…
This spring the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrated the early completion the 2015 development goal of bringing improved drinking water to an additional two billion people since 1990. The feat was a landmark in securing what the U.N. General Assembly declared in 2010 was a universal human right: “access to safe and clean water.” In…
When middleweight stars near the end of their cosmic lives, they shrug off their outer layers, shedding up to half their mass. But just how the stars manage to dispel so much material has been a mystery, though a new study may hold clues to closing the case. Astronomers have found that dust grains in…