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.
One of the best indicators that the universe began with a bang is the radiation it left behind...
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..
05/14/24 WGBH Forum Network Webinar. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), specifically designed to measure the universe's expansion, has now produced the largest and most precise 3D map for the expansion analysis. And the first results of the survey are amazing. Paul Martini
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
10/23/24 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and other advanced technologies are providing unprecedented data about the early universe. Astronomers are developing a new understanding of how the earliest stars and galaxies emerged. Julian Muñoz
03/08/22 The right author and the right book with the right strategy for dealing with those who reject scientific facts. Lee McIntyre
10/23/24 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and other advanced technologies are providing unprecedented data about the early universe. Astronomers are developing a new understanding of how the earliest stars and galaxies emerged. Julian Muñoz
05/10/23 Although technologies such as ChatBots are not conscious, their sophisticated communications can seem human enough to fool people. That raises concerns. Nir Eisikovits
07/10/12 In probably the most extreme environmment on Earth, organisms are thriving. Peter Girguis explains how.....
04/25/17 What an atmosphere is, what it does, how it changes --on Earth, elsewhere in our solar system and beyond. Daniel Cziczo
04/12/21 The accelerating Arctic and Antarctic glacial melts will affect sea levels and land masses in different areas of the globe --often far from the polar regions. Natalya Gomez
08/21/12 Endocrine disruptors such as BPA cause developmental problems and disease. How does this damage occur? Ana Soto and Carlos Sonnenschein
05/08/18 Truly innovative research: nano-tech devices for medicine and environment. Sameer Sonkusale
11/27/18 The anti-science mentality and policies threaten public health, environment, and safety --and also our progress in many scientific fields. What we need to do. Andrew Rosenberg
05/18/22 Just how effective is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), the much-promoted solution to the excess atmospheric CO2 from fossil fuels? June Sekera and Neva Goodwin
An excellent resource on cosmology for the general reader, co-authored by one of the greatest theoretical physicists of our time
A major geologist who connects the relationship between rocks and life