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....
One of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time still meets resistance today
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 basic chemical elements of life on Earth are the most abundant elements in the universe...Are the conditions right elsewhere?
01/07/25 Why climate scientists are very concerned about the global heat trend, how they analyze it, and what must be done. Mathew Barlow & Jeffrey Basara
09/26/23 Clouds protect the planet and play an essential role in climate dynamics. How will the rapidly heating planet affect that relationship? Daniel Cziczo
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
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
12/14/21 The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is the most advanced probe of the relationship between dark energy and the expansion of the universe. A unique project in astronomy. Arjun Dey
03/18/14 Cells make decisions that turn out to be random. Jané Kondev explains the implications of that surprising discovery.
06/01/23 Although all life depends on microbial ecosystems, there are many unknowns about the mechanisms by which these ecosystems develop and evolve in diverse environments. Otto Cordero
06/18/15 A visit to the Helmuth Lab at NEU's Marine Science Center to learn how scientists investigate effects of changing climate on coastal ecosystems. Brian Helmuth
06/16/15 A visit to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to learn how researchers investigate the dynamic relationship between oceans and climate. Amala Mahadevan
03/26/19 New approaches and technologies offer fresh insights to antibiotic resistance, and real solutions. Gautam Dantas
04/23/19 More than one in five Americans now takes a psychiatric medication. But long-term results are poor. Robert Whitaker, author of several books on this subject, discusses the problems of these meds and describes more effective initiatives.
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
A major text on the deep relationship between life and planetary environment
A leader in stem cell research, with an equal commitment to communicating science to the general public.