Science touches so many aspects of modern life that it's hard to keep up. Through our programs and this website, Science for the Public provides up-to-date information about scientific innovations, discoveries, and issues that are shaping modern knowledge.
Section #1 explains the AI basics: GenAI, AGI, ASI; GPT; how AI is "trained"; AI errors, AI "consciousness"; and AI hype
Section #2 explains the multiple impacts of AI: AI databases; copyright; jobs; cognition
Section 3 discusses important AI threats: AI deceptions; political AI; military AI; and AI disobedience
Section 4 describes the warnings of many AI leaders and experts: that the potential damage of AI is very real, and that governmental controls are absolutely necessary.
Stellar death explosions produce massive gas and dust clouds, and some of that detritus becomes solar systems ...
Geologists did not understand that massive meteorites could vaporize on impact
Mounting evidence suggests a link between chemicals in consumer products and breast cancer.
What's so important about an atmosphere? Find out here.
Many of the most important advances in scientific understanding were initially rejected or ignored.
In an era of global science, other nations are increasing their science budgets. Why aren't we?
The basic chemical elements of life on Earth are the most abundant elements in the universe...Are the conditions right elsewhere?
01/14/21 Mathematics is the foundation of everything in Nature: structures, dynamics, processes. Understanding that foundation changes our perception of Nature. Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan
06/18/24 WGBH Forum Network webinar. CERN’s Large Hadron Collider has made very significant discoveries (including the Higgs boson), but physicists now need to expand the probe. Tulika Bose
07/16/19 The destabilization of Earth's complex carbon cycle is associated with past mass extinctions. This mathematical model predicts a coming sixth mass extinction. Daniel Rothman
11/22/10 Einstein completely changed our understanding of the universe. Here's how. Tereasa Brainerd
09/28/10 Some mysterious, invisible stuff is holding galaxies together. Peter Fisher
04/10/18 A collaboration of ocean and space scientists that will advance our understanding of exo-worlds, such as Enceladus and Europa. Peter Girguis
11/17/15 The science of neural networks reveals the awesome complexity of normal speech production and also brings help for language disorders. Frank Guenther
02/14/17 Ancient diatom fossils provide clues to the adaptability of these vital organisms in the deep past, and can help predict plankton survival in the present climate change. Christopher Bowler
04/12/16 How ocean earthquakes generate tsunamis --and where tsunamis can occur. John Ebel
09/23/14 The scientist who led the sequencing of the Y chromosome explains its evolution, its survival, and possible relationship to conditions and diseases that affect mostly males. David Page
12/10/13 TB cells do not all respond to antibiotics. Discovering why is the key to effective treatment. Bree Aldridge
12/20/11 Desalination offers a solution to the water shortage problem... John Lienhard V
11/25/19 How the world-class Sustainable Design Lab at MIT combines architecture, engineering, physics --and creative genius-- to design the optimal urban environment. Christoph Reinhart
Important probe of traditional assumptions about cell proliferation, particularly in the case of cancer
An early voice, and a persistent one, in warnings of the impact of climate change on ocean ecology