Solar plane to take off Monday for flight around the world
Bertrand Piccard, one of the two Swiss pilots of the solar-powered plane Solar Impulse 2, lands at the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi’s small Al Bateen Airport during the third test […]
The Grexit Dilemma: What Would Happen if Greece Leaves the Euro Zone?
By SPIEGEL Staff DPA Banks across Europe, including the European Central Bank, are preparing for the possibility of Greece leaving the euro zone. With Athens and Brussels still at odds, such an eventuality seems more realistic than ever. But how disruptive would a Grexit really be? On Wednesday of this […]
Saudi Artist Ahmed Mater Sues Swiss Watchmaker Swatch For Plagiarism
Saudi Artist Ahmed Mater Sues Swiss Watchmaker Swatch For Plagiarism Coline Milliard, Wednesday, February 18, 2015 Ahmed Mater’s Magnetism (2012) is emblematic of the vibrant new art scene emerging from the Gulf. The etching print, which exists in several versions, pictures a black cubic magnet neatly encircled by steel dust—a poetic evocation of […]
Women Less Welcome Than Men in Fields Demanding Brilliance
Biosciencetechnology.com: by Cynthia Fox — Women are less welcome than men in fields—including philosophy, physics, math, and music composition—where brilliance is viewed as more important than effort, says a co-ed Princeton University/University of Illinois group in a recent Science. The team “noticed a pattern I had never heard of: that certain […]
NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others
theguardian: by Green Glenwald — Top-secret Prism program claims direct access to servers of firms including Google, Apple and Facebook • Companies deny any knowledge of program in operation since 2007 • Obama orders US to draw up overseas target list for cyber-attacks A slide depicting the top-secret PRISM program. Guardian The […]
House of Debt Economic Commentary from Atif Mian and Amir Sufi
More Evidence Supporting the House of Debt August 8, 2014 By Atif Mian and Amir Sufi Economists of all stripes are baffled by continued economic weakness in the United States. The easiest way to see the weakness is to compare where we are in terms of GDP today relative to […]
10 African startups that rocked 2014
By Loy Okezie, Special to CNN December 24, 2014 — Updated 1500 GMT (2300 HKT) | Snapscan is a mobile payments system that works using QR codes. The South Africa based startup won MTN App of the Year in 2013 and used the prize money to set up all of […]
India’s new face as Asia’s car industry hub
By Sanjoy Majumder, BBC News, Chennai The Panama-registered M V Modern Peak steams into the newly commissioned Ennore Port, just north of Chennai on India’s south-eastern coast. It is a Korean […]
Lausanne scientists step up search for alien life
Published: 30 Dec 2014 09:26 GMT+01:00 Swiss and Belgian researchers said on Monday they have devised the first tiny motion detector that could help find microscopic life forms on distant […]
Smartphone use ‘changing our brains’
Source: BBC By Michelle Roberts, Health editor, BBC News online Our brains are adapting to touchscreen smartphone technology say researchers who have carried out a study on human volunteers. The scientists […]
Superbugs to kill ‘more than cancer’ by 2050
BBC News: Drug resistant infections will kill an extra 10 million people a year worldwide – more than currently die from cancer – by 2050 unless action is taken, a study says. They are currently implicated in 700,000 deaths each year. The analysis, presented by the economist Jim O’Neill, said the […]
Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind
By Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent Stephen Hawking: “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded” Continue reading the main story in BBC Related Stories […]
Why Richard Dawkins is no scientist, the survival of the least selfish, and what ants can tell us about humans
There is a terrifying beauty in the bustling activity of an ants’ nest. The selfless sacrifice of the sterile workers to the fertility of queen and colony appears to be an act of supreme altruism. It is both commendable and disturbing. If only ants could grow to the size of […]
Reminding people of their religious belief system reduces hostility, study shows
sciencedaily.com: Few topics can prove more divisive than religion, with some insisting it promotes compassion, selflessness and generosity, and others arguing that it leads to intolerance, isolation and even violence. New research conducted at York University, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, may shed some light on religion’s […]
Pope Francis Does Believe in Demons. Do You?
Epigraph: And most of them follow nothing but conjecture. Surely, conjecture avails nothing against truth. Indeed, Allah is well aware of what they do. (Al Quran 10:37) Pope Francis Thanks […]
Science chief warns on acid oceans
The UK’s chief scientist says the oceans face a serious and growing risk from man-made carbon emissions. The oceans absorb about a third of the CO2 that’s being produced by industrial society, and this is changing the chemistry of seawater. Sir Mark Walport warns that the acidity of the oceans […]
Breakthrough device heralds future of cancer detection
1 drop of blood & 60 minutes: Early cancer detection can save millions of lives but current diagnostic methods remain costly and invasive. However, a new startup is developing a […]
Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director
By Sam Stein BETHESDA, Md. — As the federal government frantically works to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and as it responds to a second diagnosis of the disease at home, […]
Science and fundamentalism are tearing religion apart
Science is playing a steadily larger and more personal role in helping us tell the difference between what is and what ain’t. In that capacity it has undermined what many of us once expected religion to provide, inspiring an increasingly angry and violent reaction from those who feel their very […]
This Vatican Astronomer Thinks Religion and Science are Compatible
In modern society, an individual is almost forced to side between science and religion. However, some people, including the Vatican Astronomer, feel that religion and science are not only capable of coexistence, but they also are mutually supportive. They believe that fundamentalism on both sides of the debate is perpetuating […]