In The News

Why More Defense Spending Could Slow Technology Growth

Satyajit Das February 24, 2016
Scientific research in any sector introduces innovations that deliver new products and jobs for society. The science during periods of peace may produce more innovations than the science of war, and Satyajit Das, writing for MarketWatch, points to the end of the Cold War as an example: “scientific and mathematical resources previously employed in the defense-industrial infrastructure were...

Why the Rest of the World Should Get a Vote in the Greatest Reality TV Show on Earth – The US Election

Laurie Penny February 22, 2016
So far, three of 50 states have cast votes in party primaries to determine the top candidates for the US presidential election. Laurie Penny, writing for New Statesman, laments that she cannot have a say on leadership that has so much global influence. “The world is obsessed with the US elections because the outcome of those elections will have an impact on every person on Earth. So, let the...

Opportunities, Not Oppression, to Stop Illegal Mining in the Peruvian Amazon

David J.X. Gonzalez February 18, 2016
Environmental degradation and human-rights abuses are often associated with small, illegal mining operations around the world. Peru, among the world's major gold producers, offers a case study on how local development could help solving a global problem. About 20 percent of Peru’s gold production comes from illegal and informal mines, and a crackdown on the small miners causes more problems...

Fighting the Zika Virus

Nayan Chanda February 17, 2016
Over their lifetime Aedes aegypti mosquitoes may not wander more than a few hundred meters from the source where they emerged as larva without human intervention. Still, the range for the insects is widening, and they have a presence on every continent. Mosquitoes are vectors for multiple blood-borne pathogens, including dengue and the Zika virus, and those are also spreading. The World Health...

Magistrate Orders Apple to Help FBI Hack San Bernardino Shooter’s Phone

Kim Zetter February 17, 2016
The founding fathers of the United States were fierce in protecting civil liberties, and the principles continue to be argued over technology developed more than two centuries later. A US magistrate in California has ordered Apple to provide the FBI software designed to defeat a self-destruct capability in iPhones that goes into effect once multiple incorrect passwords are tried. The county phone...

Gravity Waves From Black Holes Verify Einstein’s Prediction

Andrew Grant February 12, 2016
Gravitational waves blanket the universe with tremors, as theorized a century ago with Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and detected in 2015 by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or Advanced LIGO, with giant lasers in Louisiana and Washington states. “The fleeting burst of waves arrived on Earth long after two black holes, one about 36 times the mass...

US Can Meet Paris Climate Deal Goals Despite Court Ruling: White House

February 11, 2016
Almost 200 countries reached an historic agreement in December to reduce carbon emissions. The Obama administration imposed limits on power plants’ carbon emissions, but the US Supreme Court “took the unusual step to delay implementation of the Clean Power Plan until legal challenges to the regulation are completed,” reports Reuters. A Los Angeles Times editorial was blunt, suggesting “What'...