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Will artificial intelligence become conscious?

  • Written by Subhash Kak, Regents Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oklahoma State University
imageWhat's the link between technology and consciousness?AlexLMX/Shutterstock.com

Forget about today’s modest incremental advances in artificial intelligence, such as the increasing abilities of cars to drive themselves. Waiting in the wings might be a groundbreaking development: a machine that is aware of itself and its surroundings, and that...

Read more: Will artificial intelligence become conscious?

California fire damage to homes is less 'random' than it seems

  • Written by Faith Kearns, Academic Coordinator, California Institute for Water Resources, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
imageCan California update its building codes to minimize fire damage?AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

In the midst of the many wildfireemergencies that have faced California this year, it can often seem that the way houses burn, or don’t, is random.

The thing is, though, it’s not. Firefighters and researchers alike have a pretty solid understanding of...

Read more: California fire damage to homes is less 'random' than it seems

Who's to blame for keeping Time's #MeToo 'silence breakers' silent?

  • Written by Elizabeth C. Tippett, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Oregon
imageTime magazine recognized the #MeToo movement as its 'person' of the year.Faye Sadou/MediaPunch/IPX

Time magazine just named the #MeToo movement its “person” of the year, recognizing the women and men who raised their voices against abuses of power as the “silence breakers.”

For decades, victims of sexual harassment have...

Read more: Who's to blame for keeping Time's #MeToo 'silence breakers' silent?

Eating out might be devouring your food budget – and you probably have no idea

  • Written by Amit Sharma, Professor, Hospitality Finance, Director, Food Decisions Research Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University
imageDiners eat at Katz's Delicatessen in New York, New York.Seth Wenig/AP Photo

If you were to guess how much you spend on eating out per month, chances are you’ll miss the mark by a quite a bit.

In a recent study, I found that adults tend to underestimate how much they spend on eating out by more than twice what they’re actually spending.

Th...

Read more: Eating out might be devouring your food budget – and you probably have no idea

Why Trump's evangelical supporters welcome his move on Jerusalem

  • Written by Julie Ingersoll, Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Florida
imageWhy Jerusalem matters to evangelicals.jaime.silva, CC BY-NC-ND

President Trump’s announcement on Wednesday, Dec. 6 that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel received widespread criticism. Observers quickly recognized the decision as related not so much to national security concerns as to domestic U.S. politics and...

Read more: Why Trump's evangelical supporters welcome his move on Jerusalem

Can Atlanta's new mayor revive America's 'black mecca'?

  • Written by Maurice J. Hobson, Assistant Professor of African-American Studies, Georgia State University
imageKeisha Lance Bottoms.AP Photo/John Bazemore

The Atlanta mayoral showdown between Keisha Lance Bottoms and Mary Norwood was a political battle 30 years in the making.

Atlanta was poised to elect its first white mayor in decades. However, Bottoms, who is black, claimed a narrow victory with a few hundred votes more than her opponent. Norwood, who is...

Read more: Can Atlanta's new mayor revive America's 'black mecca'?

Hanukkah's true meaning is about Jewish survival

  • Written by Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies, College of the Holy Cross
imagewww.shutterstock.com

Beginning on the evening of Dec. 12, Jews will celebrate the eight-day festival of Hanukkah, perhaps the best-known and certainly the most visible Jewish holiday.

While critics sometimes identify Christmas as promoting the prevalence in America today of what one might refer to as Hanukkah kitsch, this assessment misses the...

Read more: Hanukkah's true meaning is about Jewish survival

DNA has gone digital – what could possibly go wrong?

  • Written by Jenna E. Gallegos, Postdoctoral Researcher in Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado State University
imageModern advances come with new liabilities.Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock.com

Biology is becoming increasingly digitized. Researchers like us use computers to analyze DNA, operate lab equipment and store genetic information. But new capabilities also mean new risks – and biologists remain largely unaware of the potential vulnerabilities that come...

Read more: DNA has gone digital – what could possibly go wrong?

Exposure to wildfire smoke: 5 questions answered

  • Written by Richard E. Peltier, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst
imageFlames and smoke shroud State Route 33 as a wildfire burns in Ventura, California, Dec. 5, 2017. Daniel Dreifuss via AP

Editor’s note: Wildfires once again are raging in California – this time in the Los Angeles area, where five fires are currently burning. The fast-moving Thomas fire alone has burned more than 65,000 acres in three...

Read more: Exposure to wildfire smoke: 5 questions answered

The GOP tax plan, state and local taxes deductions – and you

  • Written by Capri Cafaro, Executive in Residence, American University
imageThe Capitol is lit up at dawn on Nov. 30, 2017 as Senate Republicans work to pass their sweeping tax bill.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

While Washington is claiming victory, states are crying foul.

Late last week, the U.S. Senate passed its version of the tax reform package that cleared the House a few weeks earlier. Within the hundreds of pages of...

Read more: The GOP tax plan, state and local taxes deductions – and you

More Articles ...

  1. What better forensic science can reveal about the JFK assassination
  2. CVS merger with Aetna: Health care cure or curse?
  3. Why aren't Hollywood films more diverse? The international box office might be to blame
  4. How the tax package could sap the flow of charitable giving
  5. Literature has long been sounding the alarm about sexual violence in Hollywood
  6. How a group of California nuns challenged the Catholic Church
  7. Venezuela's elections are just a new way for Maduro to cling to power
  8. Bajo Maduro, las elecciones venezolanas son otra forma de mantener el poder
  9. The obscure federal agency that soon could raise your electric bill: 5 questions answered on FERC
  10. President Trump's national monument rollback is illegal and likely to be reversed in court
  11. The constitutional right to education is long overdue
  12. Why the president's anti-Muslim tweets could increase tensions
  13. A new collaborative approach to investigate what happens in the brain when it makes a decision
  14. How the tax bill opens wide a big back door to overhaul health care
  15. Turning hurricanes into music: Can listening to storms help us understand them better?
  16. Two little-known ways GOP tax bill would make chasm between rich and poor even wider
  17. Taking a second look at the learn-to-code craze
  18. Should lying to the FBI be a crime?
  19. When should you unfriend someone on Facebook?
  20. Why psychiatrists should not be involved in presidential politics
  21. Historic tax overhaul nears finish line: 5 essential reads
  22. The new tax bill will make Americans less healthy – and that's bad for the economy
  23. The latest threat to peace in Colombia: Congress
  24. The GOP doesn't care if you like their tax plan. Here's why
  25. The GOP doesn't care if you like its tax plan. Here's why
  26. Tax bill's attack on higher education undermines America's economic vitality
  27. Is the British monarchy actually adapting to changing social norms?
  28. Teaching machines to teach themselves
  29. Could the ERA pass in the #Metoo era?
  30. Why society should talk about forced sex in intimate relationships, too
  31. Stop criticizing bizarrely shaped voting districts. They might not be gerrymandered after all
  32. Who are the Baha'is and why are they so persecuted?
  33. Charles Manson and the perversion of the American dream
  34. In growing algae for biofuels, it matters who used the water last
  35. Why Silicon Valley wants you to text and drive
  36. Atomic age began 75 years ago with the first controlled nuclear chain reaction
  37. Got a boss who denies reality? A behavioral scientist's guide to tactful truth telling
  38. Kurdistan earthquake: politics creates roadblocks to relief
  39. Kurdistan earthquake: Politics create roadblocks to relief
  40. A tax increase that's proven to save lives
  41. As students near graduation, career and technical education provides a boost
  42. Living and aging well with HIV: New strategies and new research
  43. Rosie the Riveters discovered a wartime California dream
  44. Has Trump's presidency triggered the movement against sexual harassment?
  45. Taxpayers want more fairness. GOP plan to 'reform' the tax code doesn't deliver
  46. When envisioning the future of TV, think of a shopping mall
  47. Fewer crops are feeding more people worldwide – and that's not good
  48. An ethical guide to responsible giving
  49. The messy reality of religious liberty in America
  50. Philip Morris hides data in plain sight on dangers of new heat-not-burn product