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Cognitive scientists don’t often get a chance to save lives. This summer James Staszewski will continue to do so. The U.S. Army originally approached Staszewski, a cognitive psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University, eight years ago to troubleshoot the training program for personnel who would be detecting land mines in war and peacekeeping zones. Trainees had fared abysmally in exercises, catching only 10 to 20 percent of mock mines. Staszewski had been researching how people acquire exceptional memory and calculation skills....

Wave Power Hinged cylinders anchored in the seafloor are pushed by waves, turning onshore turbines that create electricity (Orkney, Scotland) Underwater Turbines Turbines seated on the seafloor or estuary bed are spun by daily tides, generating electricity (New York City) Storm-Surge Gates Open gates in rivers, estuaries and canals close when storm surges are expected, to protect low-lying and subterranean infrastructure (Rotterdam; London) Smart Parking Digital parking meters tell mobile-phone and navigation apps when a space opens up, reducing traffic caused by drivers trolling for spaces (San Francisco) Congestion Pricing Charging drivers higher rates to drive in busy neighborhoods eases traffic (Stockholm; Singapore) Solar Hot Water Rooftop tanks, heated by the sun, provide domestic hot water instead of furnaces (Rizhao, China) Underground Parking Subterranean garages near commuter destinations eliminate the need for cars to surface (Paris) Underground Transportation Commuter trains, subways and primary roads run underground in massive tunnels, freeing the ground level for easy, clean bike and pedestrian traffic (Portland, Ore....

This Earth Day scientists and their advocates will march in the streets to support scientific research and protest antiscience policies. More than 500 demonstrations are planned for Saturday in communities around the world—from Washington, D.C., to Tokyo to Accra, Ghana. The event, called the March for Science, is not just a one-off effort though. Its organizers say they have plans to create a lasting movement, one that will help connect people of all political beliefs to scientists and their work—and that will also push the public to demand science-based policies from the government....

Every woman with endometriosis has an origin story, a memory of the first time she knew the pain in her pelvis could not be normal. For Emma, it goes back to the day in 10th-grade history class when she blacked out. The sensation, she says, was how a pumpkin might feel when its insides are scraped. Her gynecologist assumed she was having bad period cramps and gave her birth-control pills. They helped but not enough....

By David Morgan and Yasmeen Abutaleb WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill on Thursday to repeal major parts of Obamacare and replace it with a Republican healthcare plan, handing President Donald Trump his biggest legislative victory but setting up a tough fight in the Senate. With the 217-213 vote, Republicans obtained just enough support to push the legislation through the House, sending it to the Senate for consideration....

Journalists have largely presented the overdose crisis as a story of three interconnected and perhaps inevitable waves. First, drug companies, led by Purdue Pharma, maker of the notorious OxyContin, convinced gullible doctors to prescribe unneeded opioids. This led to hundreds of thousands of new addictions in the 1990s and 2000s. Observational research suggested that opioid prescribing was linked with increased disability and decreased productivity. And overdose deaths began to rise. The second wave in this narrative begins around 2011, when states cracked down on “pain clinics” that were really pill mills, offering doses for dollars....

NEW YORK—Further development of Alberta’s famous oil sands will be neither the climate disaster that activists fear nor the energy security panacea that proponents suggest it is, the Council on Foreign Relations concludes in a new report. The reality of the oil sands in the international energy and climate picture suggests both the United States and Canada would be wise to develop climate policy in tandem, or at least link whatever independent cap-and-trade programs for greenhouse gases each government may develop, a researcher at the New York-based think tank says....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Authority in ancient Rome was complex, and as one can expect from Rome, full of tradition, myth, and awareness of their own storied history. Perhaps the ultimate authority was imperium, the power to command the Roman army. Potestas was legal power belonging to the various roles of political offices....

Did you like this interview? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Join World History Encyclopedia as they have a chat with author Alexander Mikaberidze all about his new book Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace, published by Oxford University Press. Kutuzov: A Life in War and PeaceAlexander Mikaberidze (Copyright) Kelly: Thank you so much for joining me today, Alex....

Today marks 50 years since Alexei Leonov of the former Soviet Union floated beyond the bounds of his Voskhod 2 space capsule in the world’s first spacewalk. During his 10-minute extravehicular activity (EVA), Leonov changed the way humans exist in the universe. No longer were we bound to the ground of our home planet, or even the manmade grounds of our space vehicles—we could be in the universe on our own, with only the thin protection of a spacesuit between our skin and the raw expanse of the cosmos....

Every era has its essential consumer products—witness the ubiquity of cell phones and iPods today. In the first half of the 20th century, what gave some gifts their “gotta-have-it” allure is, in retrospect, rather alarming: radioactivity. Naturally occurring “ionizing” radiation surrounds us, of course, whether it is welling up from the rocks beneath our feet or showering on us from space. But higher exposures to radioactive particles and energy can lead to illness, cancers and even death....

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth. It might also represent the most prolific cradle for new types of animals on the planet, according to new research published in the January 8 edition of Science. “In the oceans, new species and genera tend to originate in the tropics and in the shallows near shore,” says paleobiologist Carl Simpson of Humboldt University in Berlin, one of the researchers on the new paper....

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. One of the biggest issues surrounding flooding after natural disasters is mold, a problem that can stay with a structure long after floodwaters have receded. Considering that over 17 percent of homes already have some physical condition that contributes to leaks and that mold grows in temperatures between 40 degrees Fahrenheit and 100°F, there is no wonder that we see mold and mildew problems after a disaster that brings flooding in homes and buildings....

Wait, have I been here before? Have we stood in this exact spot as you said these same words to me at some point in the past? Haven’t I seen this very cat pass by this very hallway already? Sometimes, as we experience a new event or place, we get that creepy feeling that it’s not the first time. We call that sensation déjà vu, a French phrase that means “already seen....

This flu season is a particularly severe one, and it’s not over yet—health officials say flu activity will likely remain elevated for at least several more weeks. But if you already caught the flu, are you in the clear for the rest of the season? Unfortunately, no. Experts say it is possible to catch the flu twice in one season. That’s because there are multiple strains of flu viruses circulating at any one time, said Dr....

Thirty years ago Charles F. Baes, Jr., a chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, wrote that the earth was undergoing a great “uncontrolled experiment,” one that would soon reveal the global consequences of rising greenhouse gas concentrations. Today scientists know that deforestation, land use and the burning of fossil fuels are warming our planet. We are less certain, however, about how climate change will alter forests and grasslands, as well as the goods and services these ecosystems provide society....

Most cultural institutions and research laboratories still rely on magnetic tape to archive their collections. Hitachi recently announced that it has developed a medium that can outlast not only this old-school format but also CDs, DVDs, hard drives and MP3s. The electronics giant partnered with Kyoto University’s Kiyotaka Miura to develop “semiperpetual” slivers of quartz glass that Hitachi says can preserve information for hundreds of millions of years with virtually no degradation....

People with depression process emotional information more negatively than healthy people. They show increased sensitivity to sad faces, for instance, or a weaker response to happy faces. What has been missing is a biological explanation for these biases. Now a study reveals a mechanism: an unusual balance of chemicals in a brain area crucial for the feeling of disappointment. A team led by Roberto Malinow of the University of California, San Diego, studied the lateral habenula, a evolutionarily ancient region deep in the brain [see diagram on bottom]....

Spotting a Fake Smile At least one good thing comes from a breakup: a better fake-smile detector. Social psychologist Michael Bernstein and his colleagues at Miami University found that people who felt rejected were better at discriminating between fake and real smiles. Researchers believe that a true grin indicates real emotions, such as cooperation, because some of the muscles we use—the ones around the eyes—are not under our conscious control. Our ancestors needed to be accepted in a group to survive, Bernstein says, so an outsider would not want to waste energy by acting on a fake reaction—or to miss a real opportunity to be included....

Seeds on Ice: Svalbard and the Global Seed Vault by Cary Fowler. Photography by Mari Tefre. Prospecta Press, 2016 ($45) To feed the world’s growing population, global food production must soar by 50 percent by the middle of this century. That goal will be impossible if we do not protect and capitalize on the genetic diversity of the planet’s crops. Enter the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a repository of roughly half a million types of seeds buried inside the Arctic ice of the eponymous Norwegian islands....