A Mexican attempt to curb bribery among traffic cops turns on the belief that women are less likely to take illicit payments from drivers. A new study suggests that this approach can work, under the right circumstances. iStockphoto.com hide caption
Society : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture Science and Society
13.7 Cosmos & Culture
Commentary On Science And SocietySociety
Shwetak Patel (foreground), a MacArthur Fellow, recognized that every device in a home has a unique signature that can be used to track energy usage. The data collected by Patel's system showed that digital video recorders were responsible for 11 percent of this home's power use, just one example of The Human Face of Big Data. © Peter Menzel 2012/from The Human Face of Big Data hide caption
"Child-robot with Biomimetic Body" (or CB2) at Osaka University in Japan in 2009, where the android was slowly developing social skills by interacting with humans and watching their facial expressions, mimicking a mother-baby relationship. Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
A voter fills out a ballot Sunday in Jersey City, New Jersey. Gov. Chris Christie ordered early-voting stations to stay open through the weekend. Andrew Burton/Getty Images hide caption
A condemned house in the Ocean Breeze area of New York City's Staten Island. Most homes in the seaside community were inundated by the ocean surge from superstorm Sandy. John Moore/Getty Images hide caption
Hurricane Sandy's huge cloud extends up to 2,000 miles based on a satellite image from Sunday. NASA GOES Project hide caption
A farmer sifts through the drought-stricken topsoil of his Logan, Kansas, land in August 2012. John Moore/Getty Images hide caption
The Earth rises behind the Apollo 11 lunar module during its return flight from the Moon's surface. The audacity of what can be done far way sometimes puts earthly challenges in perspective. Astronaut Michael Collins/NASA hide caption
An artist's rendering shows a rocket-powered descent stage lowering the one-ton Curiosity rover to the Mars surface. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption
An image provided by SeaWorld San Diego shows Kasatka in December 2004 with a calf she had given birth to just days before. Mike Aguilera/SeaWorld San Diego/Getty Images hide caption
A research program in New Zealand is meticulously measuring emissions from farm animals, one source of global warming gasses. Neil Sands/AFP/Getty Images hide caption