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....
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. ....
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
03/06/12 From astrology to astronomy, from superstition to empirical investigation....... Toby Lester
08/19/14 A visionary approach to teaching, learning --and discovering-- mathematics. Sanjoy Mahajan
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
04/22/16 The excess CO2 in Earth's atmosphere will remain for hundreds of years. An atmospheric scientist explains the need to reduce that excess as we shift to renewable energy. Daniel Cziczo
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
01/30/18 A comprehensive approach to public health: the body, the environment, the culture, the conditions. Sandro Galea
03/26/19 New approaches and technologies offer fresh insights to antibiotic resistance, and real solutions. Gautam Dantas
08/02/22 A unique innovation based on photosynthesis, the bionic leaf can potentially produce energy and fuel inexpensively --and in a localized manner. Daniel Nocera
05/07/19 How effective are offshore wind farms in nations that have developed them, and why has the US been especially slow to adapt such an important energy resource? Andrew Myers
Biologist and Environmental Planner; co-author with David R. Montgomery of two excellent books on soil health, regeneration --and the relationship to healthy food.
An astrobiologist investigates the possible role of ultra-violet radiation in the emergence of life on exoplanets around M dwarf stars