Articles from 11/2010
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On Closing the Culture Gap
Climate change, biodiversity loss, nuclear conflict—all are caused by human activity. We need a way to reorganize and refocus the sciences and humanities with a “Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior.”
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Wealth of Nations
Shared natural resources underpin the global economy, but our current economic system does not acknowledge their worth. Can a major new effort to assess the costs of biodiversity loss force a paradigm shift in what we value?
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On Competitive Collaboration
Hundreds of multinational collaborators, thousands of scientists, and a $10 billion particle accelerator at CERN have produced a new working model for science—and for globalization.
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On the Next Internet
Grid computing began as a data-management solution for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Now, it stands to redefine collaborative problem-solving in science and beyond.
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All-Natural, All-Toxic
Scientists are beginning to understand the surprising evolutionary mechanisms that allow poisonous creatures to evolve and flourish.
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On a Global Foresight Commons
Secrets have long been the governing paradigm in national security and government intelligence. But the scientific challenges we face today demand a new ethic of openness.
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On Nonproliferation
For world leaders, nuclear terrorism is an overriding common risk that can be confronted only with a common strategy: a global alliance.
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A Letter from the Editor
Solutions to interconnected and complex challenges require more than new ideas. They require a new starting point. A reframing of the questions. A categorical affront to the null hypothesis. A global reset.
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The Second-Place Sex
Why chess may be an ideal laboratory for investigating gender gaps in science and beyond.
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Redefining “Mental Illness”
As consensus emerges on the physical basis of mental illness, the mental-health community is fracturing over what, exactly, constitutes “mental illness” in the first place.
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Agriculture in the Wild
Humans aren’t the only creatures that grow their own food. Leaf-cutter ants, trees, and even protists do it too.
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Good Placebos Gone Bad
Placebos are supposed to be inert controls, designed to prove a drug’s efficacy. Consequently, placebo composition is rarely documented in drug trials. Is this dangerous?
Now on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
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Ideas
I Tried Almost Everything Else
John Rinn, snowboarder, skateboarder, and “genomic origamist,” on why we should dumpster-dive in our genomes and the inspiration of a middle-distance runner.
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Ideas
Going, Going, Gone
The second most common element in the universe is increasingly rare on Earth—except, for now, in America.
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Ideas
Earth-like Planets Aren’t Rare
Renowned planetary scientist James Kasting on the odds of finding another Earth-like planet and the power of science fiction.
