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.
Most of the mass of the universe is invisible and undetectable and is known only by its effects....
The idea of neutrinos was originally dismissed as "too remote from reality"
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
05/08/17 A description of exoplanet atmospheres and how scientists attempt to analyze these alien atmospheres. Alexandria Johnson Alexandria Johnson
08/15/19 Dark matter is believed to comprise five-sixths of the matter in the universe, but cannot be "seen." Now, technical innovations offer closer observation and maybe new physics. Tracy Slatyer
12/14/10 The cell's self-defense repair kit against hereditary, environmental, and other threats. Sushil Alimchandani
04/09/19 What caused Earth's five mass extinctions --and most important--are we headed for a sixth? Andrew Knoll
04/17/12 Calculating the impact of large-scale food production on the environment... Susanne Freidberg
02/13/18 Important factors that influence the way people think about climate change. Brian Helmuth and John Coley
06/12/12 ew understanding of the complex relationship between genes and the epigenome. Mary Gehring
10/2014 Many common toxins in the environment significantly harm the fetal brain. Philippe Grandjean
06/25/13 The cooling systems of power plants use an enormous percentage of our diminishing freshwater supply. What's the solution? John Rogers
02/04/14 Materials scientist Javier Fernandez discusses the "plastisphere" crisis and how it motivated the development of biodegradable "shrilk."
Professor Krimsky's excellent books represent a broad range of science-related issues
A leader in the effort to reveal the complex ecologies of the Himalaya region and the need to protect this region