Sidedoor: Murder Is Her Hobby
Heiress, divorcée … mother of forensic science? Frances Glessner Lee was not your average 19th-century woman. Using the skills that high-society ladies were expected to have—like sewing, crafting, and knitting—Frances…
The Problem with ‘Friendly’ Artificial Intelligence
Thus one approach to designing moral machines is to sidestep the tricky problem of robots’ inner lives, and deal instead with a view of morality that seems far more definite,…
Why net neutrality’s peril raises the stakes for future satellite broadband options
The Federal Communication Commission’s plan to start rolling back regulations on net neutrality comes as bad news for streaming video providers like Amazon and Netflix, and potentially for consumers as…
Behind the Hype of ‘Lab-Grown’ Meat
Some folks have big plans for your future. They want you—a burger-eatin’, chicken-finger-dippin’ American—to buy their burgers and nuggets grown from stem cells. One day, meat eaters and vegans might…
Urbanization Is Now One of the Most Dominant Forces of Evolution
When humans settled into larger villages and towns some 12,000 years ago along with the advance of agriculture, wildlife took advantage. Those species “preadapted” to survive in early cities, including…
Republicans accused of obstructing satellite research into climate change
The Republican majority in the US Congress has been accused of deliberately obstructing research on global warming after it emerged that a critically important technique for investigating sea-ice cover at…
Bodyhackers are all around you, they’re called women
I have two cyborg implants. One is in my hand, and it lets me unlock phones and doors by waving at them. The other is in my uterus, and it…
Neanderthals With Disabilities Survived Through Social Support
A re-analysis of a 50,000 year old Neanderthal skull shows that, in addition to enduring multiple injuries and debilitations, this male individual was also profoundly deaf. Yet he lived well…
Conspiracy Theorists Have a Fundamental Cognitive Problem, Say Scientists
The world’s a scary, unpredictable place, and that makes your brain mad. As a predictive organ, the brain is on the constant lookout for patterns that both explain the world…
Raccoons Pass Famous Aesop’s Fable Test—By Upending It
Raccoons are notoriously pesky, but are they as clever as crows? Scientists recently put the masked mammals through the Aesop's Fable test, which measures if animals can discern cause and…