Science News

Scientific American editor-in-chief Mariette DiChristina and psychology researcher Robert Epstein, a contributing editor to Scientific American MIND magazine, talk about falling in love and staying that way. And science communicator Dennis Meredith discusses his book Explaining Research, and the importance for scientists of reaching the public. Web sites related to this episode include www.explainingresearch.com  

[ The transcript of this episode will be available soon. ]

The spy shot the cop with the revolver. [More]

A friend once told me how, as a child visiting a zoo, his eyes focused  on one of the many monkeys in an enclosed exhibit. The monkey, in turn, began looking back. They remained locked in this visual embrace, until my friend turned away--to be startled when the monkey came flying at him right into the protective plexiglas. Only then did he notice the sign warning against staring at the monkeys, which take it as a sign of a challenge.   [More]

By Matt Ford

Archaeologists are used to gathering data by scratching in the dirt. [More]

When Sand City, Calif., officially opens the spigot to the state's first full-scale seawater desalination facility Wednesday, residents throughout the city will begin tapping into the Pacific Ocean as a source of drinking water. The city's goal is to provide a seamless transition so that consumers do not recognize any difference in quality or taste compared with the reservoir water that used to provide their potable water. [More]

NEW YORK -- Climate scientists need to become more savvy when communicating facts and findings to the public, an expert panel urged yesterday.

Scientists argued a new approach is needed to reverse an eroding confidence in climate science among the general public -- made worse by the " Climategate " scandal involving leaked e-mails among scientists at a U.K. university. They also said they were seeking a more effective retort to conspiracy theorists who argue that thousands of scientists contributing to the field are lying.

By Declan Butler

The push to open up scientific knowledge to all looks set to go into overdrive. [More]

OSLO (Reuters) - U.S. climate scientist James Hansen won a $100,000 environmental prize Wednesday for decades of work trying to alert politicians to what he called an unsolved emergency of global warming.

Hansen, born in 1941, will visit Oslo in June to collect the Sophie Prize, set up in 1997 by Norwegian Jostein Gaarder, the author of the 1991 best-selling novel and teenagers' guide to philosophy "Sophie's World."

In recent posts, I’ve knocked neuroframing , neuroweapons and neurobics . Next up: neuro-lit-crit. [More]