What can your home do for you?Smart home via shutterstock.comSmart homes, an aspect of the Internet of Things, offer the promise of improved energy efficiency and control over home security. Integrating various devices together can offer users easy programming of many devices around the home, including appliances, cameras and alarm sensors....
What's the evidence on a gap year?City Year, CC BY-NC-NDMalia Obama recently announced that she will take a gap year before attending Harvard University. Historically, American high school graduates have been less likely to take a gap year as compared to their European and Australian counterparts.
A study of “The American Freshman,” for...
Read more: Starting college? Here's why you should think about a gap year
Flock of ibis, Everglades National Park.Linda Friar, National Park Service/FlickrEverglades National Park (ENP) is our only national wetland park, and one of the largest aquascapes in the world. Perhaps more than any other U.S. national park, ENP’s treasures are hard to defend. Lying at the southern end of an immense watershed the size of...
Read more: Restoring the Everglades will benefit both humans and nature
Word last week that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel bankrolled wrestler Hulk Hogan’s invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Gawker added a wrinkle to a case already featuring colorful characters and a US$140 million jury verdict.
At a sensational and personal level, the story highlights the animus between PayPal co-founder Thiel and...
Read more: Does billionaire-funded lawsuit against Gawker create playbook for punishing press?
As it seeks to modernize its nuclear arsenal, the United States faces a big choice, one which Barack Obama failed to mention during his moving Hiroshima speech on May 27.
Should we spend a trillion dollars to replace each of our thousands of nuclear warheads with a more sophisticated substitute attached to a more lethal delivery system? Or should...
Read more: The trillion dollar question Obama left unanswered in Hiroshima
Facial expressions may be a universal language. Where does that leave people with facial paralysis?Icerko Lýdia via Wikimedia Commons, CC BYFacial expressions are important parts of how we communicate and how we develop impressions of the people around us. In “The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals,” Charles Darwin...
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his policies are set to get a boost this week after voters elected a parliament that favors reform.
While Rouhani’s reformists didn’t win a majority of seats, it appears likely that the “moderate” independents also elected will side with his faction, giving the reformists an effective...
Read more: Iran's Rouhani may now control parliament, but do his economic reforms stand a chance?
Don't neglect to unplug and be actually alone.Woman on beach via shutterstock.comBeing alone has many benefits. It grants freedom in thought and action. It boosts creativity. It offers a terrain for the imagination to roam. Solitude also enriches our connections with others by providing perspective, which enhances intimacy and fosters empathy.
To...
Wildfires are getting bigger and more costly. Can we return them to a less dangerous state by looking to the past? U.S. Department of Agriculture, CC BYTiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night…
-William Blake
There is general agreement that America’s landscapes, certainly its wildlands, are out of whack with their fires....
Read more: Recreating forests of the past isn't enough to fix our wildfire problems
What do the most disadvantaged students need for college success?Commencement image via www.shutterstock.comAcross the U.S., many soon-to-be high school graduates are excited to begin college. Over the past decades, rates of college enrollment have increased. In 1950, only 16 percent of young people had at least some college exposure. By 2012,...
Read more: Is a tuition-free policy enough to ensure college success?
