When you think you see a face in the clouds or in the moon, you may wonder why it never seems to be upside down. It turns out the answer to this seemingly minor detail is that your brain has been wired not to. Using tests of visual perception and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), […] … learn more→

Ecovillages are green communities on the cutting edge of sustainable human development.  But what exactly is an ecovillage?  Defining the term is challenging because, like “sustainability”, ”ecovillage” is used in many contexts with different meanings. Robert Gilman offered perhaps the classic definition in 1991 when he wrote “an ecovillage is a human-scale, full-featured settlement in […] … learn more→

An analysis of who can influence dominant global institutions and examination of corporate centralization. In the past decade, the world has seen the kind of power that private, international, unaccountable institutions wield. The effects of globalization since the 1970\’s have revealed highly centralized structures of power, from financial conglomerates to pharmaceutical monopolies and international enterprises. […] … learn more→

The Last Supper of Jesus Christ was on the Wednesday, and not the Thursday, before his death, according to a new study which claims to have solved “the thorniest problem in the New Testament”. … learn more→

Researchers at James Cook University are beginning to unravel the larval life of a common Great Barrier Reef sponge, paving the way for sustainable ways to stock public aquariums. The work has established how larvae of the sponge Coscinoderma mathewsi find their way to coral reefs where they then spend their adult lives. The project […] … learn more→

For many people, Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite technology is little more than a high-tech version of a traditional paper map. Used in automobile navigation systems and smart phones, GPS helps folks find their way around a new neighborhood or locate a nearby restaurant. But GPS is doing much, much more for researchers at the […] … learn more→

Use of the Bible in American schools has been challenged as a violation of the First Amendment for decades; others have challenged the teaching of it as literature when they believed that it should be taught only as a sacred text- the “word of God” as they interpret it. Even the mere presence of the […] … learn more→

The Ph.D. in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences is an interdepartmental degree program at Washington State University sponsored by the Natural Resource Sciences Department and the Program in Environmental Science and Regional Planning. … learn more→

With contaminated water from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear complex continuing to pour into the Pacific, scientists are concerned about how that radioactivity might affect marine life. Although the ocean’s capacity to dilute radiation is huge, signs are that nuclear isotopes are already moving up the local food chain. Over the past half-century, the world has […] … learn more→

In late 2009, Otago University art historian Associate Professor Mark Stocker was innocently asked for advice on a historic bronze statuette of the celebrated founder of Canterbury, John Robert Godley, which was for sale in a London antique shop. The London art dealer had offered the statuette, sitting in a shop window in Covent Garden, […] … learn more→