Physicists have demonstrated a system in which light is used to control the motion of an object that is large enough to be seen with the naked eye at the level where quantum mechanics governs its behavior. The movement of objects is ultimately governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, which predict some intriguing phenomena:…
Across the country, activists with ties to the Tea Party are railing against all sorts of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy. They brand government action for things like expanding public transportation routes and preserving open space as part of a United Nations-led conspiracy to deny property rights and herd citizens…
Trace elements in stars may influence the evolution of habitable zones around them where life as we know it might dwell. Stars are made nearly entirely from hydrogen and helium gas. Still, traces of heavier elements — which astronomers call metals, even if they are not what one normally think of as metals — can…
There are many tribes at Davos: business leaders (who pay for the rest), journalists, politicians, representatives of NGOs, bankers (I thought they all looked a bit defensive), faith leaders, and my own tribe, the academics. I left the conference full of admiration. Was I seduced by the glitter? Every second person seemed to be the…
The armed forces, according to recent research, played a major role in turning football from an elitist college sport into an American pastime. In the early 20th century, military institutions also helped popularize and develop regulations for the sport. And today, military influences linger in the language used to describe football strategy. As you watch,…
Business ethics may trump social ethics, but individuals are struggling in the light of revelations of suicides and inhumane labor conditions among some workers in China who make many Apple products.
Abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts, according to scientists at the University of Cambridge, who found the same differences in the brains of addicts and their non-addicted brothers and sisters. The study, published in the journal Science, suggested addiction is in part a “disorder of the brain”….
A devastating hurricane has made it possible to test a rarely observed effect of evolution in the wild for the first time. Scientists transported forest lizards to a group of Caribbean islands stripped bare of vegetation by Hurricane Frances in 2004. They collected pairs of brown anole lizards from a large forested island near Great…
There’s no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy. The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle,…
Alzheimer’s disease seems to spread like an infection from brain cell to brain cell, two new studies in mice have found. But instead of viruses or bacteria, what is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau. The surprising finding answers a longstanding question and has immediate implications for developing treatments, researchers said. And…