Bulgarian archaeologists have found what they believe to be the oldest town in Europe, a salt production center called Solnitsata near the modern-day city of Provadia. Although the 6-millenium-old town held only 350 people or so, it was apparently very wealthy because it supplied salt to much of what is now the Balkans. The town…
As a writer and activist Bill McKibben has devoted his life to tackling the threat posed by man-made climate change. As Hurricane Sandy brought normal life on the East Coast to a standstill, McKibben’s Twitter feed went into overdrive — a veritable deluge of storm updates and political commentary. He just took some time out of a very busy day…
The mammoth storm that caused severe flooding, damage and fatalities to the eastern U.S. will raise pressure on Congress and the next president to address the impacts of climate change as the price tag for extreme weather disasters escalates. Hurricane Sandy devastated the east coast of the United States, claiming dozens of lives so far,…
PBS recently aired Frontline’s “Climate of Doubt,” documenting the success of the denialists in reversing U.S. political opinion on climate science. While journalists and academics have been covering this story, this was the first comprehensive television documentary about the groups and political forces driving the climate change denial effort. Scientists’ physical predictions are often accompanied…
Since the beginning of human history, humans have bickered constantly over territory, resources, and power. Now, with the possibility of a right-wing Mormon space cadet taking up residence in the White House before the year is out, the Muslim world ready to riot at the upload of a shitty YouTube video, and the advent of…
Four years ago, America was on the verge of electing the country’s first African American president—a stunning marker, for many, of the promises of progress fulfilled. This year, Barack Obama faces a Mormon challenger, and religion, not race, fuels at least some of the suspense of this close presidential contest. But religion and race in…
The Cretaceous Period of Earth history ended with a mass extinction that wiped out numerous species, most famously the dinosaurs. A new study now finds that the structure of North American ecosystems made the extinction worse than it might have been. Researchers published their findings online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The…
Katrina Lantos Swett contributes a post for On Faith’s Guest Voices: Across the globe, religion and belief continue to matter deeply in the lives of people and their cultures. From worship to prayer, births to funerals, weddings to holy days, almsgiving to thanksgiving, religion is a central source of identity, meaning, and purpose for billions…
Scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Southampton have created a technique called reflectance transformation imaging that may help crack an ancient undeciphered writing system. The aim is to decipher manuscripts written in the so-called proto-Elamite writing system used in ancient Iran from 3,200 to 3,000 B.C. British researchers say new technology…
Adversity during childhood can help someone build persistence and self-control a new study suggests, with implications for nature vs. nurture arguments. Researchers at the University of Toronto found that an interaction between biology and life experience work to alter human development. They published the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. “Biologists…