13.7: Cosmos And Culture : NPR

At CERN, In Search Of Nature's Building Blocks

Part of the LHC at CERN. Getty Images/iStockphoto hide caption

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At CERN, In Search Of Nature's Building Blocks

August 9, 2017 • In a world so divided by cultural and economic warfare, what happens at the European laboratory for particle physics stands out as a celebration of the best we have to offer, says Marcelo Gleiser.

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Technology Gets Under The Skin

by Alva Noë

August 4, 2017 • Last week, a Wisconsin company offered its employees the option to have a chip inserted into their bodies in an effort to help them navigate the workplace. Alva Noë asks: What's the big deal?

Animal Images In Prehistoric Rock Art: Looking Beyond Europe

This June 2008 photo shows an ancient Aboriginal rock carving in the Burrup Peninsula in the north of Western Australia. Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Animal Images In Prehistoric Rock Art: Looking Beyond Europe

by Barbara J. King

August 3, 2017 • Animals are depicted in rock art in more than 100 countries, not just in the famous "painted caves" of Europe. Barbara J. King talks to an archaeologist with a global view of human meaning-making.

S. Guisard/ESO

Why We Are Naively Optimistic About Climate Change

by Marcelo Gleiser

August 2, 2017 • Unfortunately, we are failing in the goal to make our children's world better than our own — and those who deny it won't have to see the consequences of their choices, says blogger Marcelo Gleiser.

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Who Were Your Millionth-Great-Grandparents?

by Adam Frank

August 1, 2017 • Our pre-human ancestors are back there somewhere in the deep time that makes up Earth's braided history of life and change — and we are the tip of the spear moving that life forward, says Adam Frank.

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The Subtleties In Causation Talk

by Tania Lombrozo

July 31, 2017 • Randomized controlled trials are a gold standard for good reason, but the notion of causation established here departs from the way we often use causal language, says blogger Tania Lombrozo.

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Using Numbers To Comprehend And Control Human Behavior

by Alva Noë

July 28, 2017 • Blogger Alva Noë considers the proposition of stats in baseball, reviewing a book by Keith Law that suggests irrational tradition shackles progressive thinking in the sport.

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What's New In The World Of Robot Sex?

by Barbara J. King

July 27, 2017 • Robots are getting lots of bad press lately, but there is also positive news on robot-human relating to be found, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.

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Running And Your Heart: Is There A 'Too Much?'

by Marcelo Gleiser

July 26, 2017 • While there is no question that exercise is good for you, the question now is whether there is an upper line we should not cross, says Marcelo Gleiser.

Brent N. Clarke/AP

'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Is A Nearly Perfect Movie For An Imperfect Hero

by Adam Frank

July 25, 2017 • The new Spider-Man movie comes pretty close to perfection in honoring all that the Spidey comics meant to his many fans, like this once-upon-a-time, 12-year-old, science-obsessed kid, says Adam Frank.

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How Small Inequities Lead To Big Inequalities

by Tania Lombrozo

July 24, 2017 • How do societal inequalities arise and persist? Tania Lombrozo interviews philosopher Ron Mallon about "accumulation mechanisms": the processes that explain how small biases can have big effects.

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Babies And Bankers' Hours: A Shift In U.S. Birth Patterns

by Barbara J. King

July 20, 2017 • We schedule our work and leisure dates, why not the birth dates of our babies? Anthropologist Barbara J. King looks at this trend in evolutionary perspective.

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Viewing The Great American Eclipse

by Marcelo Gleiser

July 19, 2017 • There's something deeply moving about watching the sun become progressively covered by the moon — and you have a rare chance to see this in the U.S. on Aug. 21, says astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser.

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To Defend Western Civilization, Start With Science

by Adam Frank

July 18, 2017 • We should defend Western Civilization's best achievements. Let us start with something obvious from which we all benefit: Let us defend science, says blogger Adam Frank.

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Technology Can Be A Tool, A Teacher, A Trickster

by Tania Lombrozo

July 17, 2017 • Shaping technology to some form of learning could depart pretty radically from the more familiar aim of shaping technology to the way we are now, says psychologist Tania Lombrozo.

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More Bad News For Brain-Training Games

by Alva Noë

July 14, 2017 • In a new study, neither control subjects nor those who used Lumosity games showed improvement beyond getting better at the specific games they were playing, says blogger Alva Noë.

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Clinics Aim For Fear-Free Vet Visits For Nervous Pets

by Barbara J. King

July 13, 2017 • Reducing dogs' and cats' stress levels at the vet is getting a big push in a new movement within veterinary medicine, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.

This image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained by multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile. H. Drass et al./ESO hide caption

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H. Drass et al./ESO