Cyber security — and broadband access — is on President Obama's mind
Since the Sony hack, cyber security has been on the minds of Americans like never before — including President Barack Obama. The president recently unveiled several stop-gap initiatives to curb the...
View ArticleStreaking to the South Pole
First off, the temperature plunges to 100 degrees below zero. And there are five months of darkness.But now that he's out, Phil Broughton says there's never a day in his life that he does not think...
View ArticleGreenpeace names activists behind a failed stunt at Peru climate talks
It was a publicity stunt gone wrong. Now environmental organization Greenpeace is naming the activists responsible.The group has provided Peruvian authorities with the names of the four activists...
View ArticleRelations with Russia chill, and nuclear security cooperation gets put on ice
It may seem ironic, but nuclear weapons provided one of the few consistent bright spots in US-Russia relations over the past two decades. But now the two countries' cooperation on nuclear security may...
View ArticleScientists think they may have found a way to rewire your brain to like...
Let’s face it: Junk food can be addictive and hard to kick, but what if you could retrain your brain to crave healthier options?With a process called cognitive restructuring, it may be possible to turn...
View ArticleIs the notion of 'innate genius' widening science's gender gap?
Academic fields that value ‘'innate brilliance’' more highly than qualities like hard work and persistence have fewer women than men, a new study shows, suggesting that this mindset could play a part...
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A Canadian photographer captures images of a whale 'poopnado'
Call it the calm before the storm.Canadian underwater photographer Keri Wilk was diving off the coast of Dominica last March when a sperm whale approached him and his fellow divers.Photographing a...
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It's a day of wild winter weather for PRI's The World
It's a winter wonderland in Boston, but that just means a more interesting commute for the team at PRI's The World.Large parts of the northeastern United States are being battered by blizzards and near...
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Here comes an energy efficiency revolution
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is always a giant carnival of the latest gizmos. There are massive pavilions packed with stuff like hi-def displays, personal robots and wearable devices,...
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Canadians vote for a national bird, and the loon is in the lead
Canada is home to more than 450 species of birds, and not one of them has ever been chosen as a national symbol. But don’t despair, amateur ornithologists: There’s a plan to change that.The Royal...
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A US-Russian pair is trying to smash the 'holy grail' of ballooning records
Right now, there's a giant, helium-filled balloon soaring high over the Pacific Ocean.Troy Bradley of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Leonid Tiukhtyaev, from Moscow, are at the helm. The international...
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A fossil flexes its muscle in Newfoundland, but it can't keep thieves away
One summer day in 2008, Jack Matthews and Alex Liu took their supervisor from the University of Oxford on a tour of their fossil finds on Newfoundland’s Bonavista Peninsula, on the eastern edge of...
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A rising tide lifts Iceland — literally
What happens when sea levels rise? Things — lots of things — sink. Unless you're in Iceland.A team of geoscientists has detected evidence that Iceland is literally rising along with sea levels.How is...
View ArticleOne woman's plan to take your creativity back from your phone — by making you...
When Manoush Zomorodi was eight years old, she walked around her house gathering up all the houseplants. She arranged them in rows, gave them all name tags and then performed a concert for their...
View ArticleCoral off the coast of Cuba is flourishing — a rare glimmer of hope for this...
All over the world, coral reefs are dying at an alarming rate. But off Cuba, they are flourishing.Why?The answer, according to David Guggenheim, a marine scientist and president of Ocean Doctor, a...
View ArticleScientists have engineered a bacteria with a genetic 'kill switch'
Genetic engineers have designed strains ofE. coli bacteria that can survive only in the presence of a synthetic amino acid that does not exist in the natural environment — meaning that if these...
View ArticleHow pro-Assad hackers pretending to be women tricked Syrian rebels
There are so many different armies fighting each other in Syria that it's tough to know who is fighting whom and for what reason. That gets multiplied when the battle goes online.What we do know is the...
View ArticleRiding the bus through Japan's forbidden nuclear zone
It's the radiation counter on the dashboard that distinguishes the Tatsuta-to-Haranomachi route from any other Japanese bus ride.The new service, which ran for the first time on Saturday, is the first...
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Are we witnessing the death of 'uh'? Um, maybe — and not just in English
According to experts, “uh” and “um” are somewhat different beasts. “It does seem to be the case that ‘um’ generally signals a longer or more important pause than ‘uh,'" says Mark Liberman, a linguist...
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The flood of the half-century — and you probably haven't heard about it
Even for a country used to flooding, this has been something beyond pretty much anyone's experience.Roughly 175,000 people displaced, widespread destruction of staple crops like maize, and a looming...
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