The man known to a generation of Americans as “The Science Guy” is condemning efforts by some Christian groups to cast doubts on evolution and lawmakers who want to bring the Bible into science classrooms. Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer and star of the popular 1990s TV show “Bill Nye The Science Guy,” has waded…
We like to believe that more information allows us to make more informed decisions, to be more knowledgeable. That’s wrong: knowledge does not grow with information access.
Recognizing the foundational role of purpose in the unfolding of evolution helps us see that the purpose of evolution is increasingly up to us.
Say “pseudoscience,” and immediately a bunch of doctrines leap to mind: astrology, phrenology, eugenics, ufology, and so on. Do they have anything in common? Some posit unknown forces of nature, others don’t. Some are advocated by outsiders to the scientific community, while others have been backed by the elite. And the status of each can…
An international team of physicists has pushed the boundaries on ultra-precise measurement by harnessing quantum light waves in a new way. It is one thing to be able to measure spectacularly small distances using “squeezed” light, but it is now possible to do this even while the target is moving around. An Australian-Japanese research collaboration…
From time to time, the sun projects billion-ton clouds of charged particles from its scorching surface, surrounded by a solar atmosphere scientists dub corona, into space. Sometimes, these blasts hit the Earth’s magnetic field with a high potential for wrecking havoc to satellites and communications, and in extreme cases massive electrical power surges. It’s become…
Human brains follow the same basic molecular pattern despite different individual personalities, a 3D map of where our genes are expressed suggests. The map draws on more than 100 million gene expression measurements found in three human brains cut into 900 pieces. Researchers from the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle and Edinburgh University…
A fossilized forest that flourished more than 2.5 million years ago could return to life thanks to a warming planet, scientists say. The paleo-scene won’t sprout up overnight, of course, said Alexandre Guertin-Pasquier of the University of Montreal, who will present his research at the Canadian Paleontology Conference in Toronto. Rather, he said, climate forecasts…
Homo sapiens appeared 180,000 years ago, but for the next hundred thousand years stuck to a comparatively small area centered around a number of central African lakes. After this time, though, the species moved out from central Africa and across the continent in what has been called the great expansion – ultimately ending up in…
Scientists are one step closer to understanding how to erase painful fear memories by successfully erasing them in a small group of people, according to a study published in the journal Science. The intervention requires no drug, acting through behavioral intervention alone. The new report follows a series of studies in which researchers have made…