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.
Huge regions of apparent nothingness throughout the universe are full of surprises....
Evidence for destruction of the ozone hole was rejected for decades
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 fine line between animate and inanimate, and between quasi-life and life. ....
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
07/16/19 The destabilization of Earth's complex carbon cycle is associated with past mass extinctions. This mathematical model predicts a coming sixth mass extinction. Daniel Rothman
09/18/12 As these mathematicians explain, with numerous examples, the deepest truths of Nature are mathematical. Tom Mrowka and Gigliola Staffilani
01/19/2016 Deep cosmic surveys hope to explain the mysterious accelerating expansion of the universe. Licia Verde
07/10/12 In probably the most extreme environmment on Earth, organisms are thriving. Peter Girguis explains how.....
03/18/14 Cells make decisions that turn out to be random. Jané Kondev explains the implications of that surprising discovery.
06/11/24 WGBH Forum Network webinar. Industrial agriculture (“Big Ag”) is a major contributor to global warming, environmental destruction, and disruption of good farming traditions. There is a better way to feed the world without destroying the planet. Tim Wise
04/25/17 Some ways to show how marine organisms actually experience climate change. Brian Helmuth
03/24/15 An ingenious solution to the crisis of ineffective antibiotics is making headlines. Kim Lewis
06/15/10 The real dangers of psychotropic drugs that are routinely prescribed for children. Robert Whitaker
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
05/21/15 Conversion to wind and solar power is entirely possible now in the U.S. Mara Prentiss
A leading robotics engineer and historian explains the role of robots in research and other fields today
A current (2020) Ph.D. student whose multidisciplinary approach to protecting Earth's wildlife and environment will produce real results.