In surprising numbers, people posted, viewed and searched for science-related topics last year — sharing news from space and undersea, commenting on new discoveries and uploading photos and video in a full-out embrace of the ability to communicate with thousands of others about global subjects in real time. The trend is, in some ways, self-fulfilling….
At the end of every December, ScienceNOW takes a look back at some of its favorite stories of the year. These aren’t necessarily the biggest scientific advances (see our Breakthrough of the Year). They’re simply the funniest, wackiest, and most popular items they’ve run. Enjoy.
From John Brockman at Edge.org: Over the years I’ve had the privilege to work with some of the more interesting thinkers of our time, individuals who, through their research in biology, physics, psychology, computer science, provide us with the evidence-based results that are the basis of the most reliable method of our knowledge about who…
This was the year climate change vanished from the political agenda – and then suddenly reappeared, after Hurricane Sandy shook the country. It was just a few years ago that President Barack Obama flew to Copenhagen to rescue faltering climate treaty talks amid bipartisan calls for global warming action. But in 2012, there wasn’t a…
Using 20 tablet computers dropped off in their Ethiopian village in February by a group called One Laptop Per Child, the children of Wenchi now know their ABCs and can spell. The project’s goal was to find out whether children using today’s new technology can teach themselves to read in places where no schools or…
No American should be denied a taxpayer-funded job because of what he or she believes about religion. Yet that’s exactly what is happening today under the “faith-based” initiative. It’s wrong, and it time for it to stop. The idea of awarding tax aid to religious groups to run various secular programs for people in need…
Just outside of Jerusalem, archaeologists have discovered a cache of vessels and figurines inside a 2,750-year-old temple that could provide a rare window into religious rituals of the period, the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced. The finds were uncovered at Tel Motza, an archaeological site being excavated ahead of the expansion of Highway 1, the main…
The next time you think about having sex without birth control, The Center for Biological Diversity wants to make sure that you consider how it might affect the greater world around you. Since 2009, the non-profit has handed out 450,000 condoms with endangered species awareness messages on their wrappers. How would your next passionate evening…
From Mayanmar to Lithuania, and Jerusalem to Vatican City, the faithful gathered on Christmas 2012 in churches around the world to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Click through these slides to see Christmas celebrations across the globe:
Some economists dislike Christmas. They allege that it “destroys value,” which is, in Econoland, the first and only sin. The economist Joel Waldfogel, author of Scroogenomics, goes so far as to contend that the winter holiday season is “an orgy of value destruction.” Waldfogel’s main concern is that the value of gifts to their recipients…