The Genius of Leonardo
Leonardo da Vinci is known for the "Mona Lisa" and other art masterpieces. But the Renaissance man also invented fluid dynamics and, perhaps, the scientific method. Fritjof Capra, author of the best-selling, The Tao of Physics writes about Leonardo's investigations of the natural world in his new book, The Science of Leonardo. Capra claims that Leonardo applied the empirical method a century befor... posted on May 24 2009, 3,200 reads

4 Students, A Camera & A Balloon
Teenagers armed with only an inexpensive camera and latex balloon have managed to take stunning pictures of space from 20-miles above Earth. Proving that you don't need Google's billions or the BBC weather center's resources, the four Spanish students managed to send a camera-operated weather balloon into the stratosphere. Taking atmospheric readings and photographs 20 miles above the ground, the ... posted on Mar 20 2009, 4,693 reads

Why Stress is Not Always Bad
Is stress always bad? It can be, but it can be good for you, too. Certainly, much can be done to unlearn stressful behaviors and gain both perspective and balance. But according to this Newsweek article, people (including scientists) fail to see the full picture. The other view is that the stress response -- the body's hormonal reaction to danger, uncertainty or change -- evolved to help us surviv... posted on Mar 15 2009, 4,583 reads

What Makes Us Happy?
In the last few years, psychologists and researchers have been digging up hard data on a question previously left to philosophers: What makes us happy? Researchers like the father-son team Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Stanford psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post have studied people all over the world to find out how things like money, attitude, culture, memory, health,... posted on Dec 08 2008, 23,338 reads

What Changed Your Mind?
What happens when leading figures are asked what has changed their minds about some of the biggest issues? The poll of Nobel laureates, scientists, futurists and creative thinkers is published by John Brockman, the New York-based literary agent and publisher of The Edge website. This year he posed the question: "What have you changed your mind about? Why?" Here are some of the thought-provoking an... posted on Aug 27 2008, 5,337 reads

A Reflection on Science and Wonder
When we look at the wealth of opportunities hovering on the horizon of science -- genomic sequencing, personalized medicine, nanoscience, quantum computing, space technology -- we realize how crucial it is. But the reason science really matters runs deeper still. Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner tha... posted on Aug 24 2008, 3,673 reads

MIT Summit: Designs For A Better World
For three weeks this summer, masons and mechanics, farmers and welders, scientists and a pastor threw themselves into creating low-tech solutions to big problems that persist across the globe. Converging here at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, these 61 inventors from 20 countries divided into multilingual teams, each drafting and tinkering with their own device that will hopefully make ... posted on Aug 22 2008, 2,922 reads

The Mathematics of Altruism
A simple mathematic formula is starting to explain the counter-intuitive prevalence of altruism in society. Why humans cooperate even when they don't receive anything in exchange is a question that has puzzled academics for centuries, especially since in evolution the basis for the "survival of the fittest" is, after all, selfishness. But in an article just published in the journal Nature, three P... posted on Jul 20 2008, 3,968 reads

The New Nobel Prizes for Science
As a boy, Fred Kavli watched the aurora borealis from his family's farm. Surrounded by the mountains and fjords of rural Norway, Kavli often contemplated the mysteries of the natural world. Even after becoming a successful entrepreneur, Kavli never stopped considering the unknown. Today, after making millions from his research into complex electronic sensors, Kavli is funding a broad range of cutt... posted on Jul 08 2008, 3,790 reads

Virutally Waterless Washing Machine
British inventors have designed a washing machine that takes eco-friendliness to a new level: it uses just a single cup of water to wash a load of clothes. Instead of water, the Xeros machine uses special plastic chips in each wash, and when that single cup of water is heated, these chips absorb the dirt -- including tricky stuff like coffee and lipstick. Though it's still in prototyping, the inve... posted on Jun 17 2008, 4,146 reads