Science and Technology

Life on Mars?: The ExoMars is about to begin searching for the surest sign of life — the gas it leaves behind

Oct 17, 2016 | Science and Technology

Published: Salon (October 17, 2016) After successfully pulling off a crucial technical maneuver, the ExoMars spacecraft is now two days away from making history. The primary objective of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission is to determine if enough methane and other gases exist on the Martian surface to prove that life exists — or used to exist — on the Red Planet. To complete the first...

Hyperlate: Elon Musk and Tesla delay their next big product launch

Oct 17, 2016 | Science and Technology

Published: Salon (October 17, 2016) It seems that followers of Elon Musk will have to wait another two days before his latest product unveiling. In a tweet sent out on Sunday afternoon, Musk announced that Tesla needs until Wednesday to refine its upcoming launch. This was going to be part of a pair of product launches that Musk had promised last week, one for today and the other for Friday,...

Sick Bern: Bernie Sanders’ tweet cost Ariad Pharmaceuticals $387 million

Oct 17, 2016 | Class Issues, Economic Policy, Health Care Reform, Science and Technology

Published: Salon (October 17, 2016) With a single tweet, Sen. Bernie Sanders has cost Ariad Pharmaceuticals $387 million. The article retweeted by Sanders was from Stat, a publication that specializes in covering health and medical news. It reported that, since the beginning of the year, Ariad has raised the price of its Iclusig chronic myeloid leukemia treatment by 27 percent. The drug now has...

Halt and catch fire: Samsung scraps the Galaxy Note 7… because it spontaneously combusts

Oct 11, 2016 | Science and Technology

Published: Salon (October 11, 2016) Less than two months after Samsung launched its highly anticipated Galaxy Note 7, and less than one month after issuing a recall, it has now been announced that the new smartphone is being scrapped altogether. The reason, it seems, is that consumers aren’t too fond of having their smartphones catch on fire. That happens more often than you might think. In...

Jill Stein and Donald Trump are both linked to a dangerous anti-vaccine myth that just won’t die

Aug 3, 2016 | Asperger's Syndrome, Conspiracy Theories, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), mic, Science and Technology

Published: Quartz (August 3, 2016) Green Party candidate Jill Stein likes to present herself as a pro-science, more idealistic alternative to Hillary Clinton. Stein has so far managed to stay out of the media maelstrom, but a series of troubling comments are making headlines for all the wrong reasons. One of Stein’s most problematic opinions resurfaced this week when her campaign deleted a tweet...

Do We Each Experience Time Differently?

Jul 30, 2016 | mic, Science and Technology

Published: The Good Men Project (July 30, 2016) “It appears therefore more natural to think of physical reality as a four dimensional existence, instead of, as hitherto, the evolution of a three dimensional existence.” This is a quote from Albert Einstein, who offered it to explain how the past and future both co-exist in the present moment. When Einstein made this observation, he was referring...

How Donald Trump would destroy America (and possibly the world)

May 19, 2016 | Climate Change and Other Environmental Issues, Economic Policy, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Foreign Policy, mic, Science and Technology, Terrorism, World Affairs

Published: The Good Men Project (May 19, 2016) America is in a "boy who cried wolf" situation right now. We've grown so accustomed to comparing our presidents with tyrants, or insisting that a candidate's ascent to power will result in calamity, that even those of us who see an actual wolf in our midst aren't being taken seriously. The people voting for Donald Trump are well aware of our...

How will we preserve our digital future?

Apr 24, 2016 | mic, Science and Technology

Published: The Daily Dot (April 24, 2016) Some of my fondest childhood memories were set in libraries. I still recall wandering through stacks of books, my eyes glancing from title to title in the hope that they would land on some previously-undiscovered treasure. Sometimes I would take a step into the past by setting up a roll of microfilm and letting it whir through the scanner until it landed...

Does hashtag activism work?

Mar 24, 2016 | Conservativism, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Extremism, Internet Culture, Liberalism, mic, Political Ideologies, Science and Technology

Published: The Daily Dot (March 24, 2016) There was an interesting debate at the University of Pennsylvania this week. TheFoundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, hosted a panel discussion on the effectiveness of hashtag activism. The debate featured Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Zellie Imani, an educator whose...

How the next president could transform Internet freedom

Mar 7, 2016 | Civil Liberties, Elections - Presidential (2016), Internet Culture, Science and Technology

Published: The Daily Dot (March 7, 2016) When it comes to Internet freedom, it is entirely possible that the 2016 presidential election will be remembered as one of the most consequential events in the history of cyberspace. This may seem like a bold conclusion, but when you consider the competing attitudes on Internet issues not only between Democrats and Republicans but within the major...

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