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.
The kind of matter made of atoms accounts for a tiny fraction of the mass of the universe...
Each particle has a opposite form, its anti-particle, a discovery that has had wide-ranging effects
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?
Partly in order to understand its amazing complexity, and partly in order to advance medical therapies. So, how do you create a viable cell?
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
09/17/24 How migratory creatures navigate so accurately to their seasonal destinations, sometimes thousands of miles away, is still often a mystery. What do scientists know, and what are they still trying to discover? Charles Walcott
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.
01/04/21 The human body requires a gravity environment. So how do aerospace engineers plan for the colonization of space? Developing artificial gravity is a major objective. Ana Diaz Artiles
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
10/19/10 How photosynthesis --and life-- emerged in Earth's ancient chemical environment. Tanja Bosak and Alexander Petroff
01/20/15 The decimation of honeybee colonies is also a public health warning about pesticides. Chensheng (Alex) Lu
06/21/18 Harvard's Law School Environmental Clinic shows us how we can use the law to save our environment. Wendy B. Jacobs
09/28/20 Ocean currents transport heat and cold around the globe, affecting weather and climate, and delivering nutrients to marine life. How does the accelerating climate change impact this vital system? Amy Bower
09/13/22 The increasing rate of obesity is a public health issue. Nutritionists analyze the cause and the solution. Susan Roberts
02/22/21 The dual role of socioeconomic background and a family of (BET) proteins in the disproportionate occurrence of certain cancers. Gerald V. Denis
03/29/22 An innovation attracting great interest: an abundant, inexpensive clay might be used to remove the greenhouse gas methane from the atmosphere. Desiree Plata
02/09/24 GBH Forum Network webinar (noon ET) The extreme level of atmospheric CO2 is well beyond a “capture and storage/sequestration” solution, yet the hype persists that some clever extraction innovation will resolve the problem. Charles Harvey
A very engaging discussion of the human genome project by one of the researchers involved
A particle physicist involved in both the search for new particles (Large Hadron Collider, CERN) and the design of particle detectors.