Science & Society

After Years Of Abusing The Limits Of Free Speech, Abu Hamza Gets Life In Prison

Abu Hamza addressing worshippers in London under police observation. Stefan Rousseau/PA By Matthew Francis, Lancaster University Abu Hamza has been sentenced to life in a US prison, after being found guilty of 11 charges of terrorism and kidnapping. The r ...

Article - The Conversation - Jan 10 2015 - 4:00pm

We Are All Charlie Hebdo- Except We Are Not

Solidarity with France and Charlie Hebdo in Taipei Pichi Chuang/Reuters By Lucas Hollister, Dartmouth College In his 1998 novel, The Elementary Particles, Michel Houellebecq argued that Charlie Hebdo played a pivotal role in the redefinition of social val ...

Article - The Conversation - Jan 11 2015 - 12:46pm

AirAsia QZ8501 No Explosion

AirAsia QZ8501- No Explosion Air Asia flight 8501 did not explode: it burst open on impact with the water. Many English language news outlets are reporting that the plane "exploded".  It appears that there has been a gross failure in translation ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Jan 12 2015 - 2:13pm

Genius – White, Middle Class, Heterosexual Men Overrepresented?

Why do discussions of creative genius so often happen about white male writers such as Jonathan Franzen? AAP Image/Harper Collins By Natalie Kon-yu, Victoria University ...

Article - The Conversation - Jan 12 2015 - 6:16pm

Vitamin-Enirched GMOs Are Not Just Healthier, They Can Be Profitable

How can a product which can be made for free be profitable? It happens all of the time. Words are free, for example, yet the Wall Street Journal sells good ones to its customers. Science 2.0 was built on open source tools but lots of consulting companies d ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 13 2015 - 11:27am

50 Percent Of Fatal Crashes With Young Victims Involved Pot Or Alcohol- Study

US states as different as California, West Virginia and Hawaii share one thing in common- half of automobile fatalities involving young drivers, ages 16 to 25 years, involved pot or alcohol. And those results were from years before the cultural push to mak ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 13 2015 - 12:49pm

AirAsia 8501- Both Black Boxes With NTSC

AirAsia 8501- Both Black Boxes With NTSC Data Analysis Begins Soon It has now been confirmed officially that the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) has been recovered.  It was delivered to the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) in a case containing ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Jan 13 2015 - 1:22pm

What Explains The Differing Media Coverage Of Charlie Hebdo And The Baga Massacre?

One was about 17 Westerners being killed and one was about 2,000 Africans. Guess which got most of the media attention? Kano, Nigeria Stringer/Reuters. By Ethan Zuckerman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Consider two tragic events that took place la ...

Article - The Conversation - Jan 14 2015 - 8:30am

Now That Prices Have Dropped, Hiking Gasoline Taxes Is Back On The Table

Prices of gas are approaching $2 a gallon. Does that make it a good time to raise the gas tax? Kevin Lamarque/Reuters By Wallace Tyner, Purdue University ...

Article - The Conversation - Jan 13 2015 - 10:30pm

Want To Be In STEM? Here Are The 10 Best Metro Areas

If you want a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, you have probably been cautioned that academia, awash in Federal money promoting STEM careers, can maybe employ 15 percent of the PhDs in science they graduate. The private sector still acc ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Jan 14 2015 - 3:21pm