Ever since its unification as a nation state in 1932, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been an oil-dominated economy. Most improvements and setbacks in its economic and social indicators can be invariably…
In the 1920s and 1930s crews surveyed much of California, collecting information about vegetation. This photo was taken in 1936 by Albert Wieslander.
Marian Koshland Biosciences Library
Scientists in my native state of California were handed a gift: a trove of detailed information about the state’s forests taken during the 1920s and 1930s and digitized over the past 15 years. When we…
It’s a marital scene….
Optimal College Town Assessment
As a family and marriage researcher, I have conducted a lot of research into what makes relationships work. I tend to think about relationships in terms of couples. When I was appointed the senior administrator…
Lush rainforest above ground… spare a thought for what’s happening in the soil.
Tim Mowrer
It’s no exaggeration to say the tropics drive our planet’s carbon cycle – the constant transfer of carbon back and forth, on a global scale, between living things and the environment. Understanding the…
Why won’t Japan admit to the past?
Pichi Chuang/Reuters
In 1943, during the height of World War II, fifteen-year-old Liu Mianhuan was tied up and taken away by Imperial Japanese troops from her village in Yu County, Shanxi Province, China. She was confined…
Mixed-income developments replace Chicago’s Cabrini-Green Homes: Old Town Village West townhouses rise in front of the last remaining towers (since demolished) in this 2009 photograph.
Lawrence Vale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Shomon Shamsuddin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
For decades, public housing stood as the most architecturally visible and politically stigmatized reminder of urban poverty in many American cities. Originally built to accommodate an upwardly mobile segment…
Drones, along with satellites and advanced math, are changing the poaching game.
Thomas Snitch
In 2014, 1,215 rhinos were killed in South Africa for their horns, which end up in Asia as supposed cures for a variety of ailments. An estimated 30,000 African elephants were slaughtered last year for…
Racial discrimination may have biological impacts lasting across generations.
Orange-studio/Shutterstock
Think about the last time you left the house. Did strangers on the street acknowledge your presence with a smile or avert their glance? Chances are that the answer depended on your age, gender and, of…
A natural gas well in Bradford County, PA.
Reuters
In a surprise decision that led to consternation in the oil and gas industry and elation among fracking opponents, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in December banned fracking in the state. He attributed…
President Barack Obama, in his annual address to the country last week, stressed the importance of keeping “the dream of homeownership alive for future generations of Americans.” One of the main ways he…
French police question suspected jihadist
Christian Hartmann/Reuters
The recent events in Paris have once again cast doubts on the ability of French intelligence to provide national security. Following the attacks, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls did not hesitate to…
As President Obama celebrates India’s Republic Day on January 26, he will be visiting the largest democracy in the world and one that has more than 160 million Muslim citizens. That’s roughly half the…
From where does opposition to depictions of Muhammad arise?
Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters
After the violent attacks on Charlie Hebdo – the French satirical weekly that routinely published caricatures of Muhammad – many are wondering: are depictions of Muhammad actually forbidden in Islamic…
Understanding microbial activity in rhizosphere – the critical zone where plant roots, microbes and minerals interface – is critical to promoting plant health.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
People are increasingly aware of the link between the trillions of microbes that live within our bodies and human health. Studies have found that a healthy population of bacteria, or a microbiome, in a…
Looks healthy, but still lacks the big predatory fish… how would it rate on the index?
AF Johnson
We know that fishing has significant impacts on our oceans and the animals that live in them. Effects can range from habitat modification caused by bottom trawls, stock declines from overfishing or subtler…
Will the India meeting be as successful as the one in DC?
Larry Downing/Reuters
Ashok Sharma, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
President Barack Obama will be the first US president to visit India on Republic Day on January 26, as well as the first sitting US president to visit India twice. During his three day symbolic visit President…
Protesters in front of the Supreme Court in January 2011.
Jim Young/Reuters
Carole Joffe, University of California, San Francisco
On the first day of the new Congress in January, anti-abortion legislators in the House introduced the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The bill would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, except…
In his State of the Union address, the President’s core message was that the US has emerged strong from the twin crises caused by the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 global recession. And the challenge…
Boston has big plans for the Games, but all within budget.
Boston 2024
When the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) selected Boston – over Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC – to represent the US in its bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, many were surprised…
The Patriots ran away with the AFC Championship. What did deflated footballs have to do with it?
USA Today Sports / Reuters
News reports say that 11 of the 12 game balls used by the New England Patriots in their AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts were deflated, showing about 2 pounds per square inch (psi…
Oil drillers in North Dakota flares natural gas, but much of it – a potent greenhouse gas – escapes into the atmosphere.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Like many Americans concerned with climate change and energy security, I reacted with high hopes to the President Obama’s proposal to reduce leaks of methane gas from oil and gas drilling. But on closer…
Beyond Silicon Valley MOOC Meet-Up, Athens, Greece, June 11, 2014.
Yiorgis Yerolympos
Everyday, thousands of students around the world perch themselves in front of computer screens in homes, libraries, coffee shops, and Internet cafes to take a massive open online course (MOOC). It’s no…
In Samuel Roth’s time, there was no Constitutional protection for expression deemed subversive, obscene or indecent.
Columbia News
Jay Gertzman, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
In 1957, publisher Samuel Roth spent his 63rd birthday in federal prison. His appeal denied by the United States Supreme Court, he would end up serving every day of his five year sentence. The crime? He…
Is this how space travel will look some day? ‘Sulu, punch it!’
Shutterstock
Some climatologists argue it may be too late to reverse climate change, and it’s just a matter of time before the Earth becomes uninhabitable – if hundreds of years from now. The recent movie Interstellar…