science

Stephen Hawking, Steve Wozniak, Elon Musk, Noam Chomsky and dozens of others have signed an open letter at The Future of Life Institute urging that autonomous killer robots be banned before they’re even invented. The letter is as follows: Autonomous Weapons: an Open Letter from AI & Robotics Researchers Autonomous weapons select and engage targets […]

Climate Change

Climate Change Dunnit: The Case of the missing Woolly Mammoths

contributors

By Chris Turney and Alan Cooper | (The Conversation) | – – Imagine a world populated by woolly mammoths, giant sloths and car-sized armadillos – 50,000 years ago more than 150 types of these mysterious large-bodied mammals roamed our planet. But by 10,000 years ago, two-thirds of them had disappeared. Since the end of the […]

astronomy and outer space

Science Reveals Pluto — (Why Can’t we Trust it on Climate Change)?

contributors

NASA | (Video Press Conference and Images) | – – “NASA officials and team members of the New Horizons mission to Pluto participate in a news conference featuring release of close-up images of Pluto’s surface and moons, and initial reactions from the New Horizons science team. New Horizons is the first mission to the Kuiper […]

Climate Change

Think California’s Drought Is Bad? Try Palestine’s.

contributors

By Laith Shakir | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – While Israelis water their lawns and swim in Olympic-sized pools, Palestinians a few kilometers away are literally dying of thirst. California is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in the state’s history, prompting Governor Jerry Brown to declare a water “state […]

Climate Change

Humans Causing the Sixth Great Extinction of other Life Forms, on which we Depend

contributors

By Gerardo Ceballos | (The Conversation) | – – Vitus Bering, the famous explorer, led perhaps the most ambitious scientific expedition ever in the 1730s. Commanding 10,000 people, he was in charge of exploring the vast lands of Siberia and the unknown sea between Siberia and Alaska. In 1741, he was forced to land on […]

Culture

How the Jurassic Park Franchise changed the real world of ancient DNA Research

contributors

By Elizabeth Jones | (The Conversation) | – – The park is almost open. Two decades on and Jurassic Park has morphed into Jurassic World, the one and only dinosaur theme park. Science has apparently evolved too: the genetically-engineered dinosaurs are to take a secondary role to a new star of the show, a genetically-engineered […]

Barack Obama

Obama: Climate change deniers endanger national security

contributors

WTNH News8 | (Video) – “President Barack Obama says climate change deniers are endangering national security.” WTNH News8 “Obama: Climate change deniers endanger national security”

Africa

Global Connections: World History as Social History – a New Synthesis

Juan Cole

I and colleagues have just brought out a world history. Because of the fine and exciting writing of my co-authors, it is more than just a textbook. My readers often ask me about history books – here’s one I can recommend. By John Coatsworth, Juan Cole, Michael Hanagan, Peter C. Perdue, Charles Tilly, and Louise […]

Health

Nepal shows its vulnerability after devastating earthquake

contributors

By Simon Redfern | (The Conversation) | – For some time scientists have realised that the Kathmandu valley is one of the most dangerous places in the world, in terms of earthquake risk. And now a combination of high seismic activity at the front of the Tibetan plateau, poor building standards, and haphazard urbanisation have […]