Column
- Physics
Laser pioneer reflects on making Einstein’s idea real
Science News reporter Ron Cowen's Q&A with Nobel laureate and laser-technology pioneer Charles Townes.
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Jumping to conclusions can make for good decisions
Gary Klein, a psychologist and chief scientist at Applied Research Associates in Fairborn, Ohio, has for the past 25 years studied how people make real-life, critical decisions under extreme time pressure. In his 2009 book Streetlights and Shadows: Searching for the Keys to Adaptive Decision Making (MIT Press), Klein discusses 10 surprising ways effective thinkers […]
- Math
Million-dollar math prize awarded, but not necessarily accepted
The reclusive mathematician who proved the Poincaré conjecture may or may not claim his prize.
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How the Internet will change the world — even more
Recently, 895 Web experts and users were asked by the Pew Research Center and the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University in North Carolina to assess predictions about technology and its effects on society in the year 2020. Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project in Washington, D.C., discussed the […]
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Contemplating future plans for particle colliders
Caltech physicist Barry Barish is the director of the global design effort for the International Linear Collider, which is currently in the planning stages. If built, the ILC would smash together electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons, at nearly the speed of light. The ILC would complement the Large Hadron Collider, a European proton collider […]
- Math
The mutual inspiration of art and mathematics
Economics, origami and other fields trigger new and original creations.
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New NOAA climate office would meet growing needs
As the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s 2009 report indicates, climate-related impacts are already evident and expected to increase. Signs of change abound. Sea level rise. Longer growing seasons. Increases in heavy downpours. Droughts. Extended ice-free seasons and more. JANE LUBCHENCO “NOAA will be better prepared to continue its internationally recognized role in the development […]
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Assessing the state of U.S. science and engineering
Every two years, the National Science Board reports to the president and Congress about the state of the science landscape. This year’s Science and Engineering Indicators report was presented to the White House on January 15. The chairman of the board’s Science and Engineering Indicators committee, physicist Louis Lanzerotti of the New Jersey Institute of […]
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Making informed decisions about mammograms
In November, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a nongovernmental advisory panel of health experts, recommended that routine mammography for breast cancer screening start at age 50, not 40. It met with a chorus of objections. Lisa Schwartz, a general internist at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Lebanon, N.H., investigates […]
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Energy, safety and nuclear capabilities intertwined
On January 1, Charles D. Ferguson became president of the Federation of American Scientists, a nongovernmental organization founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists to promote humanitarian uses of science and technology. Ferguson worked at FAS 10 years ago as director of its nuclear policy project, and he returns after working from 2004 to 2009 […]
- Math
Teaching a computer to spot a bogus Bruegel
Mathematicians apply a technique from vision research to find fake art.
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Powering the national labs as engines of discovery
In May 2009, University of Chicago physicist Eric D. Isaacs took the helm of the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. Earlier in his career, Isaacs spent 13 years at Bell Laboratories, where he directed semiconductor and materials physics research. Recently, Science News senior editor Janet Raloff spoke with Isaacs about ways to […]
