Seed Media Group

Seed: Science is Culture

Feature

  • That Voodoo That Scientists Do

    When findings are debated online, as with a yet to be released paper that calls out the field of social neuroscience, who wins?

  • Excitement and Caution at AAAS

    Thousands gathered in Chicago for the world's largest general scientific conference, encountering new discoveries, and new funding as well.

  • A Hormone to Remember

    Oxytocin emerges as a key player in our facility for social memory.

  • Holdren Vows to Maintain the Integrity of Science in Policy Making

    President Barack Obama's nominee for director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy faces limited criticism at confirmation hearing.

  • The Awe of Natural History Collections

    Science journalist Carl Zimmer on visiting the hidden side of natural history museums, where the vast collections of scientific specimens are kept.

  • Into the Landscape of Genomic Evolution

    How the tools of genetic sequencing are changing the way we study the origins and development of life.

  • Darwin Slept Here

    A twentysomething adventurer retraces the voyage of the Beagle, recapturing an energetic young Darwin and the growing pains of a continent.

  • Adapting to a New Economy

    An evolutionary perspective on economics can explain how we got into this current mess, and how we might find our way out.

  • Be Fruitful and Multiply

    Agriculture and civilization have sped up the evolution of humanity. From this simple thesis grows an argument aimed at the heart of how we think about history.

  • Darwin and the Clergyman

    Letters between Charles Darwin and the vicar of Downe document a close friendship, and a surprising mutual interest in preserving the church.

  • Survival of the Viral

    Studying genetic "mistakes," like endogenous retroviruses, would have led us to a theory of evolution, even if Charles Darwin had not.

  • The Evolution of Life in 60 Seconds

    A video experiment in scale, condensing 4.6 billion years of history into a minute.

  • Blogging the Origin

    Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, chapter by chapter.

  • Nepal: Wireless in the Mountains

    A home WiFi kit and a solar-powered relay station transform healthcare and education for a remote village in western Nepal.

  • Kerry: US Will Have Cap & Trade by End of the Year

    At sustainability conference, global leaders wonder where the investments will come from to build a green economy.

  • Ecology of Finance

    A growing cadre of biologists argues that ecosystem analysis of the world economy might help stave off a repeat of 2008's financial catastrophe.

  • Beyond a Theory of Everything

    On the very large and very small versus the very, very complex.

  • Safeguarding Biology

    The precautionary principle traditionally summarized as "first, do no harm" should not be reduced to "first, do nothing," especially regarding technological fixes for our deteriorating biosphere and economy.

  • Science's Rightful Place

    The scientific community responds to Seed's Rightful Place initiative.

  • 2009 Will Be a Year of Panic

    From the fevered mind of Bruce Sterling and his alter-ego, Bruno Argento, a consideration of things ahead.

  • The True 21st Century Begins

    From the fevered mind of Bruce Sterling and his alter-ego, Bruno Argento, a consideration of things ahead.

  • Nepal: Save the Dolphin!

    Misguided hunting, pesticide fishing, and a network of dams threaten the future of a resident mammal in the Ganges.

  • The Holdren Factor

    Barack Obama's incoming science adviser plans to make science a factor in White House decisions.

  • Painting and the Pleistocene

    The Art Instinct author Denis Dutton on the arts as evolutionary adaptations.

  • Seeing in the Dark

    A blind man shocks researchers with what he sees.

  • Blogging the Origin

    Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, chapter by chapter.

  • After the Storm

    An exclusive and revealing post mortem with President Bush's point man on science, John Marburger.

  • The Romance of Objects

    What are the roles of objects in the development of young minds and in the creative lives of scientists?

  • Chaos Begets Chaos

    A new study supports the controversial claim that people can be morally swayed by the state of their surroundings.

  • Nepal: Laptop School

    Saving a generation of young students with creative thinking, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a little green computer.

  • Extending Darwinism

    Is there more to heredity, natural selection, and evolution than genes and DNA?

  • Kepler's Year

    An ambitious mission launching in 2009 searches for planets like our own.

  • Kathmandu: Diplomatic Waters

    Reporting from the developing world, traveling science writer Gaia Vince relays her first dispatch from the meltwaters of the Himalaya.

  • A Still Curious Case

    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button grapples with age-old fears of death and aging, physiological processes that modern science is only beginning to understand.

  • Seed Picks 2008

    The editors of Seed select the year's outstanding book releases.

  • Group Think

    A Tel Aviv University professor melds math and sociology of the Internet to predict the next big thing in music.

  • The Advisors

    A first look at President-elect Obama's science team.

  • Yeast Gone Wild

    Feral yeast shed light on one of Darwin's greatest evolutionary puzzles, by getting drunk and socializing.

  • Cold Truth

    At a recent celebration of the International Polar Year in New York, artists and scientists share work inspired by the shifting landscape of Antarctica.

  • Harun Yahya's Dark Arts

    One-on-one with the Turkish creationist who uses bad science and bizarre art to spread his vision of a troubled world.

  • Of Primates and Personhood

    Will according rights and "dignity" to nonhuman organisms halt research?

  • The Biohacking Hobbyist

    Why does all biology happen in academic or industrial labs? Mac Cowell, cofounder of DIYbio, seeks to change that.

  • iGEM 2008: Novice Bioengineers Get Their Freak On

    A recent iGEM judge reflects on spontaneous dance parties and the future of molecular machines.

  • Bigger Faster Better

    Craig Venter, the man who sequenced the human genome, explains in a Seed exclusive what's holding science back and how he intends to fix it.

  • The Scientist in 2008

    Steven Shapin explores who the scientists of today are, where they work, and what motivates them.

  • The US Versus God Particles

    The Atom Smashers splits open the US's problematic relationship with scientific research through a group of physicists under threat of competition from the LHC.

  • Garrett Lisi's Exceptional Approach to Everything

    How a physicist published and vetted his revolutionary work signals the potential future of an open, transparent peer review process.

  • Reviewing Peer-Review

    ScienceBloggers discuss the advantages of open science and debate the necessity of the current peer-review system.

  • Robert Tjian

    The recently appointed president of HHMI on the importance of creativity and innovation for the future of funding science.

  • The Damnedest Lies

    The success of fivethirtyeight.com is a credit not only to statistical prowess but also to keen intuition about social habits.

  • Agnostic Machinery

    Bill Maher hoped to use science to paint religion as a neurological disorder, but the researchers in his film Religulous hold a more complex picture of why we have faith.

  • The Double Negative

    How can evolution explain both the appeal and recent failings of negative campaigning?

  • The Mason's Apprentice

    Our closest single-celled relatives reveal the origins of the stuff that holds us together.

  • The Statistical Universe

    We look up to an expanse of sky that is billions of light-years in size, but the universe may be far larger than what we are able to see.

  • No Resting on Laurels

    The Olympics, China's world debut, have ended. Now what?

  • How We Evolve

    A growing number of scientists argue that human culture itself has become the foremost agent of biological change.

  • In Defense of Difference

    Scientists offer new insight into what to protect of the world's rapidly vanishing languages, cultures, and species.

  • The Trouble with Biodiversity

    Life is more varied near the equator. But making sense of that has confounded biologists for 200 years.

  • What Future for NASA?

    America's space agency faces uncertain future on its 50th anniversary.

  • Turning a Blind Eye

    An image said to reveal an "unknown" tribe instead exposes a history of our ignorance and greed.

  • Of Mice and Models

    New research shows that neurons across species are not created equal. What does this mean for animal research?

  • Mechanical Generation

    The unveiling of a 3-D printer that was built to build itself is hailed as a step toward "Darwinian Marxism."

  • Beauty and the Brain

    Neuroaesthetics promises to reinvigorate science's search for a theory of beauty.

  • Large and in Charge

    Particles are accelerated to unprecedented speeds at CERN's Large Hadron Collider with ultimate hopes of uncovering the universe's darkest secrets.

  • The Creation Simulation

    Why does a blockbuster video game that embraces biological evolution resemble intelligent design?

  • Flu

    Video games are reshaping how we perform and promote science.

  • Green Revolution 2.0

    As the global food system reaches its natural limits, it's time to rethink genetic engineering.

  • Inheriting Confucius

    A new genealogy of Confucius widens its scope to women and minorities--but excludes genetic data.

  • A New State of Mind

    New research is linking dopamine to complex social phenomena and changing neuroscience in the process.

  • Revolutionary Minds

    Five young thinkers who aren't just crossing disciplinary boundaries; they're shattering them.

  • Kevin Zelnio

    On the allure of the ocean's novelty.

  • A Place for Science

    On the trail of the haunts, homes, and posts of knowledge, from the laboratory to the field.

  • Say Hello to sci-Phone

    The top 10 science applications for the iPhone.

  • The Shape of Music

    How do harmony and melody combine to make music?

  • The Transcript: Tom Wolfe + Michael Gazzaniga

    The father of cognitive neuroscience and the original New Journalist discuss status, free will, the human condition, and The Interpreter.

  • Hunting Paper Tigers

    China's netizens and scientists demand accountability.

  • Cultural Evolution

    Does human culture evolve via natural selection, as our genes do?

  • The Reality Tests

    A team of physicists in Vienna has devised experiments that may answer one of the enduring riddles of science: Do we create the world just by looking at it?

  • Random Acts of Evolution

    The idea of humankind as a paragon of design is called into question by the puffer fish genome - the smallest, tidiest vertebrate genome of all.

  • A Proliferation of Mistakes?

    Experts begin to rethink US efforts to keep nukes in friendly hands.

  • Distant Mirrors

    To find life on other worlds requires thinking about how other life would find us.

  • Carnivores Like Us

    Humanity's rapidly increasing appetite for meat is fast becoming a matter of global consequence. Paul Roberts on the science, and morality, of our planet's modern palate.

  • China’s Environmental Blacklist

    Shining the light on international companies that haven’t heard China’s gone green

  • Cultural Innovation

    How China is trying to change 2,000 years of Confucian thinking.

  • Global Science Park

    The Chinese are rolling out science as a tool for foreign policy.