Observations
Becoming Cyborg
A new film explores the dawning age of technologically augmented humanity
Blogs
Roots of Unity
The Perfection of Imperfection
The mathematical near-miss is "an exact representation of an almost-right answer"
Laelaps
Long Live the Fuzzy T. rex
Despite recent headlines, there's still good reason to think T. rex was fluffy
Recent Posts
Select TopicWill the U.S. solve the climate change problem?
Either the ingenuity unleashed by the United States own special mix of free markets and government regulation will solve the climate change crisis or the rest of the world, having witnessed an American government content to stick its head in the sand, will forcibly compel the country into a green future.
A memo to the next president
"Sustainable development is the key to peace," Columbia University Earth Institute economist, Jeff Sachs, argued in a "memo" to the next president, who will take office next January.
Beware the military-industrial complex and climate change
President Eisenhower, himself a former general, famously warned about the military-industrial complex and its potential hold on the U.S. in the late 1950s.
Why the search for oil will never stop
Even though oil has been behind much of the violence and environmental degradation of the past century, the search for black gold continues. And even if oil is responsible--with its fellow fossil fuels, primarily coal--for the climate change crisis, every last drop of the stuff looks set to be burned.
War recedes, but turns crueler
The world is getting to be a more peaceful place. In the last 10 years, conflicts in Angola, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, Kosovo, East Timor, Liberia, to name just a few have been resolved, notes Jan Egeland, former emergency relief coordinator at the U.N.
Do the impoverished need industry?
There is a neglected aspect to efforts to eliminate poverty: industry. At least according to economist Erik Reinert of Tallinn Technical University in Estonia, who argues that the best way to feed more people is to make sure that more of them have industrial, non-agricultural jobs.
Kofi Annan: the peacemaker and his green revolution
Kofi Annan"”fresh from bringing peace to Kenya and as Columbia University president Lee Bollinger introduced him possibly the "true first global citizen""”spoke about the crisis facing not just that East African country but all of sub-Saharan Africa.
What is the state of the planet and the people on it?
NASA That's a question a host of speakers from across the globe aim to explore over the next two days at Columbia University. The Earth Institute's biennial conference gets underway today and we can expect updates from: Kofi Annan on the progress of a "green revolution" (read modern agricultural technologies like fertilizer) in Africa, a technique that has seen some success in Malawi, as well as John McArthur who co-heads the Earth Institute's own Millennium Villages Project.
The Power of Power Naps
_____________________
Tired? Take A Nap
Jessica Payne and Matthew Walker
Harvard University and University of California at Berkeley
Sleep is such a fundamental biological drive that it's shared by practically every species, from fruit flies to humans.
Polar bears will destroy the American way of life
The real threat isn't a changing climate upsetting the foundation of human civilization. The real threat is polar bears: At least that's the real threat according to many attendees at the recent Heartland Institute conference on global warming.
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Everything you always wanted to know about raising science-literate kids
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Adventures in the good science of rock-breaking.
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Amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals - living and extinct
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The Artful Amoeba
A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
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Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
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