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.
Stars formed in clusters in the huge clouds that became the early galaxies...
What is so obvious to us was not understood until Ben Franklin's famous 1752 demonstration.
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 discovery of organisms thriving in extreme temperatures and conditions deep undersea, deep in the Earth, deep in the ice suggests that life, once it emerges, is extraordinarily resilient..
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
03/19/24 A prominent biologist explains the crucial importance of biodiversity for life on Earth, and how the sixth mass extinction fractures that stability. Michael Reed.
01/13/15 How culture influences science and why we should be aware of that relationship. David Kaiser
10/25/17 Finally, an explanation of how voting districts can be unfairly sliced and diced. Justin Solomon
07/09/13 the unique "antifreeze" blood and skeletal mutations of the Antarctic Icefishes provide insights into both climate change adaptations and human disease. H. William Detrich, III
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
07/18/23 The actual nutritional value of our food depends on the quality of soil in which it is grown. Healthy soil, healthy people, healthy planet. David R. Montgomery & Anne Biklé
02/19/17 Sea-level patterns over 2000 years and the situation now. Andrew Kemp
10/03/23 A distinguished pioneer in stem cell research for oral conditions, wound healing and diabetes explains the issues and the advances in this field, and the importance of science communication for the public. Jonathan Garlick
11/15/11 Important insights into the brain from research on anesthesia, coma and sleep. Emery N. Brown
10/11/22 Geothermal energy is an ideal source of renewable energy, but it can be hard to access. Here's a plan. Paul Woskov
12/05/23 GBH Forum Network webinar (noon). By 2050, some 75 percent of the world population will live in cities. Future urban design will emphasize not only innovative architecture and engineering, but optimal environmental and social aspects of city dwelling also. The urban future might also include settlements beyond Earth. Justin Hollander
A splendid discussion of the initial resistance to --and ultimate acceptance of—many fundamental concepts of modern astrophysics/astronomy
An astrophysicist who specializes in developing complex simulations to test hypotheses of the early universe