Science

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• Scientists bio-hacked E. coli to create synthetic life

  Escherichia coli, nobody's favorite dinner guest, just had the distinction of becoming the first living organism to have its entire DNA code successfully replaced with a synthetic genome. We've played with nature's creations before, but this is the first time we've completely reprogrammed ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Yale researchers spot a biomarker that could help to predict suicide

  Researchers at Yale University believe they’ve found a marker within the brain that could help to prevent suicide. The marker, known as mGlurR5, is a glutamate receptor found throughout all regions of the brain, and is known to play a role in a number of functions like sleep ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Grand theft consciousness: How quantum algorithms will backdoor human-level AI

  The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, as the legend goes, was invented when two oblivious young people walking around eating boring snacks accidentally crashed into each other on a city street. Grab one while you read about an even better mash-up: the one between machine learning and quantum ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Nuking asteroids could save the Earth — but we need to make it legal first

  The schlocky 1998 Bruce Willis movie Armageddon was the highest grossing film of that year. The blockbuster saw a master oil driller (Willis) and an unlikely crew of misfits place a nuclear bomb inside a giant asteroid heading for Earth, blow it up – and save humanity. Armageddon ...

  • The Conversation

• The Y chromosome is disappearing – so what will happen to men?

  The Y chromosome may be a symbol of masculinity, but it is becoming increasingly clear that it is anything but strong and enduring. Although it carries the “master switch” gene, SRY, that determines whether an embryo will develop as male (XY) or female (XX), it contains very few ...

  • The Conversation

• Oops! Scientists accidentally create new material that makes batteries charge much faster

  Some of the most famous scientific discoveries happened by accident. From Teflon and the microwave oven to penicillin, scientists ...

  • The Conversation

• This cool gas technology could kill 99.9% of deadly germs in the air

  You can live without food for three weeks and without water for up to three days. But you can’t live without air for more ...

  • The Conversation

• Study: Biodegradable bags aren’t as biodegradable as you first thought

  The idea of a “biodegradable” plastic suggests a material that would degrade to little or nothing over a period of time, ...

  • The Conversation

• Here’s how the Earth got so wet, according to scientists

  Water is essential for life on Earth and is one of our most precious natural resources. But considering how our planet formed, ...

  • The Conversation

• Elon says Tesla will field 1M fully autonomous robo-taxis by 2020 – AI experts call BS

  Elon Musk, the PT Barnum of tech, is currently getting a ration of ridicule from some of the world's foremost leading AI ...

  • Tristan Greene

• See you earlier: Physicists sent a (simulated) particle back in time

  An international team of physicists looking for loopholes in the laws of physics recently simulated a brute-force method ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Antimatter breakthrough indicates the universe is hiding something

  Scientists from Italy and Switzerland recently performed an experiment demonstrating that antimatter, like matter, has the ...

  • Tristan Greene