The development of digital monitoring and surveillance has increased dramatically over the past decade and pervades all aspects of everyday life, to the extent that most people don’t even notice it. In the workplace, the expansion of digital communications can best be seen in the centrality of email in everyday work. Adding to this is […] … learn more→

World hydroelectric power generation has risen steadily by an average 3 percent annually over the past four decades. In 2011, at 3,500 billion kilowatt-hours, hydroelectricity accounted for roughly 16 percent of global electricity generation, almost all produced by the world’s 45,000-plus large dams. Today hydropower is generated in over 160 countries. Four countries dominate the […] … learn more→

Although humans and woolly mammoths co-existed for millennia, the shaggy giants disappeared from the globe between 4,000 and 10,000 years ago, and scientists couldn\’t explain until recently exactly how the Flintstonian behemoths went extinct. In a paper published June 12 in the journal Nature Communications, UCLA researchers and colleagues reveal that not long after the […] … learn more→

During a session at the recent NAFSA conference in Houston, Mitch Leventhal asserted that the State Dept. has superseded the authority of AIRC by prohibiting overseas advisors from “forming partnerships or working with recruitment agents”. Hunh? Mitch Leventhal is the Vice Chancellor for Global Affairs for the SUNY system and one of the founders of […] … learn more→

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)’s Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2011, and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21)’s Renewables 2012 Global Status Report were both released today. The reports highlight that 2011 was a very strong year for renewable energy despite the ongoing global economic crisis. Total global investment […] … learn more→

Climate change is widely expected to disrupt future fire patterns around the world, with some regions, such as the western United States, seeing more frequent fires within the next 30 years, according to a new analysis led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with an international team of scientists. By the […] … learn more→

Researchers at Duke University and the National Institutes of Health have found a way to calm the fears of anxious mice with a drug that alters their brain chemistry. They\’ve also found that human genetic differences related to the same brain chemistry influence how well people cope with fear and stress. It\’s an advance in […] … learn more→

The screams that rang throughout the darkened cattle car crammed with deportees, as it jolted across the icy Polish countryside five nights before Christmas, were Dr. Loch\’s only means of locating his patient. The doctor, formerly chief medical officer of a large urban hospital, now found himself clambering over piles of baggage, fellow passengers, and […] … learn more→

Ouija boards and magic tricks may sound like unconventional science, but a pioneering team of UBC psychologists are using these tools to unlock the mysteries of the human mind. “Most people think they have complete control of their minds, but they are wrong,” says Ron Rensink, an associate professor of computer science and psychology. “The […] … learn more→

A massive phytoplankton bloom has been found underneath the Arctic pack ice in the Chukchi Sea. The under-ice bloom, previously thought impossible, will require a complete rethinking of Arctic ecosystems – and is a potent indicator of global warming\’s effects on the far north. The 2011 NASA-sponsored ICESCAPE expedition that discovered the bloom was led […] … learn more→