Information
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Starting Over
April 22, 2011
If you only had a single statement to pass on to others summarizing the most vital lesson to be drawn from your work, what would it be? Seed asked eleven scientists this question. These are their answers.
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On Biotechnology Without Borders
March 03, 2011
Biologists have become engineers of the living world. By making their bioengineered solutions to global problems openly available, we can transform the developing world.
biotechnology, commons, development, engineering, global reset, information
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Mapping Science
January 24, 2011
Mapmaking has a new challenge far more involved than depicting the traits of the physical world. As revealed in a stunning new collection, the Atlas of Science, the task at hand is at once ambitious and amorphous: to map the world of scientific knowledge, the collective wisdom that humans have accumulated over time — and continue to generate at an ever-increasing pace.
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Calling All Mapmakers
January 13, 2011
complexity, data, geography, information, scale, visualization
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Numbers Don’t Lie, But People Do
September 24, 2010
The author of a new book on misleading math examines the Republican blueprint for governing the United States, and comes to one conclusion: Wherever there’s politics, there’s proofiness.
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Vintage Music and Biotech Seeds
April 27, 2010
In this week’s Findings Log, we take a look at new research on genetically engineered crops, the benefits of brain training, and turning sound into sheet music.
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Pay to Play
January 22, 2010
With the New York Times announcing that it will start charging for its website, an examination of why scientific and journalistic publishing seem to be headed in opposite directions.
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The Outer Limits
December 15, 2009
For half a century computer performance has roughly doubled every two years, but the laws of physics place insurmountable barriers on how long this growth can occur.
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Search Me
December 11, 2009
Amid a roll-out of a number of new features, Google’s biggest change went largely unnoticed, even though it could further fragment our shared pool of knowledge.
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Lo and Behold: the Internet
October 29, 2009
On the 40th anniversary of the first internet connection, a look back on how a flash of insight and a 20-minute meeting got it all started.
communication, information, innovation, networks, technology
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A Writing Revolution
October 20, 2009
Nearly universal literacy is a defining characteristic of today’s modern civilization; nearly universal authorship will shape tomorrow's.
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Technology in the Trash
August 06, 2009
In the Trash Track project, garbage becomes a window through which we are able to see our once invisible and energy-intensive removal chain, prompting us to consider the impact of our waste.
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Seed State of Science: Intellectual Property
July 29, 2009
How can scientific progress occur when everyone owns a tiny piece of the pie—and charges for the privilege of studying it?
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Immortal Information
June 15, 2009
A new nanoscale storage device could preserve all the digital information you want, for as long as you want—and longer.
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Art Exhibit Links Darwin to Degas
June 06, 2009
A new exhibition reveals the extent of Darwin’s impact on 19th-century artists, from Monet to Rheinhold, and how art, in turn, shaped Darwin.
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Why We’re Not Obsolete
May 12, 2009
As scientific data accumulates, volume can overwhelm understanding. A new Cornell computer program is using the technological advances that created this data-understanding problem to help solve it.
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Week in Review: May 1
May 01, 2009
Swine flu looms large, a study finds prayer has no effect on medical treatment, Obama speaks at the National Academy of Sciences, neuroscientists plan to beef up Wikipedia, and a Republican senator switches to the Democratic Party.
diplomacy, disease, ethics, information, pandemics, politics
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The Tricorder Arrives
May 01, 2009
Cell phones will soon be able to sense our environment and its pollutants. This new power may change the way we move through the world, but can it motivate us to change it?
data, information, innovation, networks, systems, technology
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Week in Review: April 24
April 26, 2009
Fire bombings over animal research, Jim Carrey and the anti-vaccine movement, fossil of walking seal discovered, senator proposes science envoys, and transcription mapped.
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Climate Change in High Definition
April 22, 2009
Earth the movie opens today in the US, 7 years since the Planet Earth franchise first started production. Has the footage become a chronicle of an already vanished world?
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Found in Translation
March 24, 2009
The process of creating a nuclear-security glossary matters as much as the finished product.
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Garrett Lisi’s Exceptional Approach to Everything
November 17, 2008
How a physicist published and vetted his revolutionary work signals the potential future of an open, transparent peer review process.
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The Damnedest Lies
October 30, 2008
The success of fivethirtyeight.com is a credit not only to statistical prowess but also to keen intuition about social habits.
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Say Hello to sci-Phone
July 16, 2008
The top 10 science applications for the iPhone.
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“So”
April 24, 2008
What a tiny word reveals about the scientific endeavor and those who practice it.
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.
