How the lamprey could lead to better treatments for spinal cord injuries
Time to get scientific: At the University of Chicago, researchers have been taking a close look at the eel-like lamprey, which can fully regenerate its spinal cord even after being severed—within three months the lamprey is swimming, burrowing, and flipping around again as if nothing happened. Read More...
Scientists discover flying squirrels that glow pink in the dark
Imagine you were out in your backyard when suddenly, a hot-pink squirrel flew by. That’s exactly what happened to a biologist in Wisconsin when he flashed his flashlight at a southern flying squirrel, a small, furry creature. Typically it has a warm brown color, but in the beam of a flashlight, Read More...
What is nonduality, and how does it connect people?
Photo credit: Emily Goodman Often, we focus on ourselves as separate individuals. We concentrate on our own problems and desires and make them the center of our world. We look out for number one. It’s simple to act as individuals—our society values taking care of ourselves before others and Read More...
Q&A: Albert-László Barabási
Marco Visscher | April/May 2010 issue As the director of the Center for Complex Network Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, Hungarian physicist Albert-László Barabási researches what he calls “the hidden pattern behind everything we do.” Barabási’s Read More...
For the good of Gaia
Eco-visionary James Lovelock believes catastrophic climate change is on the way—and we should start preparing for it now. Marco Visscher | November 2009 issue He seems to lead the life of a typ_ical scientist-cum-inventor. For over thirty years, James Lovelock has quietly worked in his laboratory Read More...
The reason of faith
Religious scholar Karen Armstrong on how we lost the knack for religion—and why we need to get it back. Michael Brunton | Sept/Oct 2009 issue Modern science knows how to fix a hole in the heart. It can diagnose a hole in the ozone layer and prove the existence of black holes at the edge of the Read More...
Good morning, world. This is your wake-up call
Physicist-turned-futurist Peter Russell argues that only communal creativity can get us through current environmental and economic crises. Michael Shapiro | March 2009 issue Peter Russell, a Cambridge-trained physicist and futurist who has written about consciousness for four decades, should have Read More...
less than zero
What does silence really sound like? Step inside an anechoic chamber to find out. Marisa Taylor | July 2008 issue The sky is bright and cloudless: another perfect day in the San Francisco Bay Area. But I’m about to spend part of it inside a windowless, soundless room called an anechoic chamber Read More...
More than the facts
Science tells us how the world works, but to decide what those discoveries mean, we need moral and philosophical debate. | April 2008 issue Scientists at one of Rome’s most prestigious universities, La Sapienza, were protesting against a visit by Pope Benedict XVI early this year. The Pope was Read More...
They're all ears
New research suggests plants can hear. Is this the start of acoustic farming? Jurriaan Kamp | December 2007 issue Prince Charles was widely ridiculed 20 years ago when he declared on television that he talked to his plants. “I just come and talk to the plants, really. It’s very important to Read More...