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.
Paradoxical objects that underscore the mystery of the universe, black holes seem the ultimate destructive force, but may be essential to the stability of galaxies...
Even the great Thomas Gold could not convince a leading science organization to consider neutron stars
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.
07/19/16 A look at how major ideas in science are often initially resisted, and a view of the invisible cosmos. Priyamvada Natarajan
05/20/14 Max Tegmark discusses the topic of his book: the multiverse and the mathematical nature of reality.
02/08/22 Some species have an exceptional ability to adapt to extreme environmental conditions, an advantage that endowed by unique features of their DNA. Certain Antarctic marine creatures provide hope for climate change adaptations. H. WiIliam Detrich
02/10/16 The author of "Our Robots, Ourselves" discusses the limits of robot autonomy. David Mindell
04/15/15 A leading expert and author on the issue of genetically modified foods explains the corporate resistance to labeling GM foods. Sheldon Krimsky
02/29/20 It took almost a century to determine if and how continents moved (continental drift). In the 1960s irrefutable evidence showed that tectonic plates caused regular shifts of the planet’s magnetic polarity, volcanoes and earthquakes -and the drift of continents.
08/05/25 A need-to-know program about the necessity of medical research and the consequences of the government's abrupt cuts on research and agency funding. Gerald Denis
11/06/14 Viral infections that were once obscure are potentially global threats in a highly linked world. New tools are being deployed to identify and block these diseases. John Connor
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
03/06/18 Irrefutable evidence for why we should --and can-- transition to renewable energy without delay. Mara Prentiss
An international expert on the mechanisms of antibiotics resistance and a leader in creating public awareness
A researcher working at the intersection between solid Earth geophysics and climate change science to analyze glacial melting