Myths and Facts About Superintelligent AI
Adults Artificial Intelligence Science TechnologyWe live in an era of self driving cars, autonomous drones, deep learning algorithms, computers that beat humans at chess and go, and so on. So it's natural to ask, will artificial superintelligence replace humans, take our jobs, and destroy human civilization? Or will AI just become tools like regular computers. AI researcher Max Tegmark helps explain the myths and facts about superintelligence, the impending machine takeover, etc.
Is it possible to create a perfect vacuum? - Rolf Landua and Anais Rassat
Adults Science TechnologyThe universe is bustling with matter and energy. Even in the vast, apparent emptiness of intergalactic space, there's one hydrogen atom per cubic meter. But is there such thing as a total absence of everything? Is it possible to make a completely empty space? Rolf Landua and Anais Rassat explain the science behind vacuums.
This Biomimetic Tech Could Mean Fewer Trips to the Dentist (You're Welcome)
Adults Biotechnology HealthA new material inspired by mussels may be the key to fillings and crowns that never break or fall out.
The Problem With Our Phones
Adults Addiction TechnologyThey are hugely useful of course but in many ways, we buy the advantages our phones give us at a subtly high price we don't entirely recognise. Some reflections on how to live well around phones.
The Plane of the Future
Adults Future Technology TransportationWhat's Actually the Plane of the Future looks like?
Chocolate's newest color
Adults Creativity FoodThere's milk, dark, white, and now, ruby chocolate. It's made naturally from ruby cocoa beans and tastes sour.
Where do new words come from? - Marcel Danesi
Adults Language SocietyThere are over 170,000 words currently in use in the English language. Yet every year, about a thousand new words are added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Where do they come from, and how do they make it into our everyday lives? Marcel Danesi explains how new words enter a language.
Binging with Babish: Hors D'oeuvres Sandwich from Back to School
Adults Creativity FoodRodney Dangerfield made a career on thumbing his nose at social mores, making sexual advances toward older women, and eating a giant sandwich made out of hors d'oeuvres.
How a Haitian village cooks with sunlight
Adults Creativity Food TechnologyThis sustainable initiative is helping to save Haiti's forests.
DNA Doesn't Look Like What You Think!
Adults Biology Genetics ScienceBiology textbooks are full of drawings of DNA, but none of those show what DNA actually looks like. Sure, they're good models for understanding how DNA works, but inside of real cells, it's a whole lot more interesting. Learn why we can't look directly at DNA, and find out how DNA is actually packed inside cells.
How to Process Your Emotions
Adults Human PsychologyIn order to be calm and at ease with ourselves, we need regular periods where we do something rather strange-sounding: process our emotions. Here is a guide to this essential psychological move.
You Are Not What You Earn
Adults Personal Finance Society WorkThe modern world firmly equates how much we earn with how good, noble, wise and worthy of honour we are. This is a brutal misunderstanding of how salaries are determined. We need to operate with a far more nuanced view of what the money we earn says about us.
Here's why people are afraid of clowns
Adults Mental Health PsychologyLots of people are creeped out at the site of clown, whether it's at the circus or creeping around in the woods at night. Movies like Stephen King's "It" and the new season of "American Horror Story" featuring some terrifying clowns that take prey on the fears of the viewer.
Most hurricanes that hit the US come from the same exact spot in the world
Adults Ecology Nature WorldAs Hurricane Irma bears down on the East coast, Floridians may be wondering where all the hurricanes come from, and why they all follow a similar course. In fact, Irma, Harvey, and Jose were all born on the other side of the Atlantic, off the coast of Africa, and the Sahara desert may be to blame.
Why 'love' is a useless word - and three alternatives
Adults Language RelationshipsMany of our relationship problems stem from the emptiness of our vocabulary around our affectionate emotion. We have only the minimal word 'love'. Luckily, the Ancient Greeks had a more nuanced and complicated vocabulary that we can usefully borrow from.
The life cycle of a t-shirt - Angel Chang
Adults Economy IndustryConsider the classic white t-shirt. Annually, we sell and buy 2 billion t-shirts globally, making it one of the most common garments in the world. But how and where is the average t-shirt made, and what's its environmental impact? Angel Chang traces the life cycle of a t-shirt.