Warning Label: Big Pharma meets Big History
Why should Big Pharma invest in Big History? My answer is in the form of a warning label I imagined attached to all pharmaceutical products.
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Robot Makers Spread Global Gospel of Automation
The robot equipment industry has one word for the alarmist articles and television news programs that predict a robot is about to steal your job: Fiddlesticks! Well, that wasn’t actually the word used at the Automate 2013 trade show held recently in Chicago, but the sentiment was the same. During one presentation, Henrik I. Christensen,…
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Science Stakes: Britain’s Crowded Public-Science Scene Must Evolve
Since 1799, the Royal Institution of Great Britain has occupied a grand building in London’s Mayfair, surrounded today by luxury shops and private art galleries. For many years, the building was a central part of British science. Michael Faraday dazzled crowds there in the nineteenth century with pyrotechnic displays of chemistry. In many respects, its…
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Stiglitz: Inequality Is Holding Back the Recovery
The re-election of President Obama was like a Rorschach test, subject to many interpretations. In this election, each side debated issues that deeply worry me: the long malaise into which the economy seems to be settling, and the growing divide between the 1 percent and the rest — an inequality not only of outcomes but…
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Mathematicians Aim to Take Publishers Out of Publishing
Mathematicians plan to launch a series of free open-access journals that will host their peer-reviewed articles on the preprint server arXiv. The project was publicly revealed in a blog post by Tim Gowers, a Fields Medal winner and mathematician at the University of Cambridge, UK. The initiative, called the Episciences Project, hopes to show that…
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7 of the 10 Most Air-Polluted Cities Are in China
Air pollution in China is at an all-time high. The Asian Development Bank together with Tsinghua University recently released the “National Environmental Analysis,” has reported that among the world’s ten most air polluted cities, 7 are in China. They are Taiyuan, Beijing, Urumqi, Lanzhou, Chongqing, Jinan and Shijiazhuang. The NY Times recently reported that the…
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Beijing’s Pollution, Seen From Space in Before and After Photos
The stifling pollution in Beijing is being called “airpocalypse” by some. According to an air monitoring station located at the U.S. Embassy there, particulate pollution was literally off the charts — with readings well into the 700s on a 0-500 scale. To see how the pollution over much of China increased from Jan. 3 to…
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Pollution Highlights the Price China Is Paying for Rapid Development
Beijing has developed into an impressive modern city over the past two decades. But a tourist visiting the Chinese capital over the past four days would have difficulty seeing many of its ancient and modern landmarks because of the horrendous pollution hanging over the city. An editorial in The China Daily warned the country had…
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Rising Mercury Emissions Increase Risk to Humans
Developing nations are facing growing health and environmental risks from increased exposure to mercury, according to a UN report. It says a growth in small-scale mining and coal burning are the main reasons for the rise in emissions. As a result of rapid industrialization, South-East Asia is the largest regional emitter and accounts for almost…
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Workers Willing to Make Less to Work for Sustainable Companies
A company’s sustainability efforts are becoming so desirable for employees that some are now willing to give up part of their salary to work for one, new research shows. More than 15% of employees in the U.S., U.K. and Germany have taken a pay cut to work for a sustainable company, a study by consulting…