From a serene view of planet Earth, through the heart of the Milky Way and out to far-flung galaxies, take an armchair tour of the Universe with these dazzling images
Brace yourself for a tidal wave of Facebook campaigning before November’s U.S. presidential election. A study of 61 million Facebook users finds that using online social networks to urge people to vote has a much stronger effect on their voting behavior than spamming them with information via television ads or phone calls. The study comes…
Results indicate that “activity in a certain region is not sufficient to generate consciousness,” neuroscientist Simon van Gaal explains. Instead, he posits, different regions must exchange information before consciousness can arise. Author Metanexus Editors
In the wake of Earth’s largest meteor strike in more than a century, the world’s attention has turned skyward. The 17-meter bolide exploded in the air over the Chelyabinsk region of Russia on Feb. 15, shattering windows and injuring around 1,000 people. But had the meteor come in at a slightly different angle, the space…
What existed before the big bang? What is the nature of time? Is our universe one of many? On the big questions science cannot (yet?) answer, a new crop of philosophers are trying to provide answers. Stephen Hawking may have famously declared that “Philosophy is dead.” but philosopher of physics Tim Maudlin disagrees. Maudlin, whose…
The robotic equivalent of a Swiss army knife
Reconfigurable robot a step toward something that can become almost anything.
NASA is serious about sending astronauts back to the moon’s neighborhood and will likely unveil its ambitious plans soon now that President Barack Obama has been re-elected, experts say. The space agency has apparently been thinking about setting up a manned outpost beyond the moon’s far side, both to establish a human presence in deep…