After winter storm ‘Nemo’ dropped two feet of snow on us a couple weeks ago, it took the City of Boston two days to plow one of the roads leading to my home. The other was still buried beneath a thick, icy blanket for another day. The term “global warming” has been sitting on our ...
“If we want to use research to inspire action by cities and have that research be inspired by what cities currently do to affect their vulnerabilities, it really means we must work closely together with decision making communities and stakeholder groups,” said Northeastern professor Matthias Ruth, who holds joint appointments with the School of Public ...
If you’ve driven on the highway, you’ve seen it: The traffic jam appears out of nowhere and disappears just as mysteriously. We blame the cars around us for their poor driving skills, and slam on our own breaks. During an AAAS annual meeting session hosted by Northeastern professor Albert-László Barabási, Northwestern professor Dirk Helbing showed ...
Until yesterday, I hadn’t thought too much about the term “political science.” I probably first heard it in high school or college, when I accepted it as an item of potential academic study that I would not pursue and went on with my life (I consider politics to be the single most abstract and frustrating ...
The sclogosphere went nuts yesterday with love-related science posts. Here are few that caught my eye: The physics of sunsets only makes them more romantic, argues Ethan Siegel on ScienceBlogs. Apparently continuing fractions are romantic, too. A couple years ago, researchers came up with a mathematical model to predict the success of relationships.Others say that oxytocin is ...
Several Northeastern scientists are presenting at the AAAS meeting this weekend trying in part to connect with policy makers and science writers. “The hope is to have a tangible impact on the global challenges that the University’s use-inspired approach to science attempts to affect,” said Tim Leshan, vice president for government relations. But how can ...
Today kicked off my the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Today’s agenda included several sessions on communicating science to the public. The first addressed the growing concern that science journalism is going down the tubes in the age of the internet, but I think we all walked away believing ...
If you’re an iNSolution regular, and I know there are at least a couple of you out there, you may have noticed a new item on the banner up there at the top of the screen. If not, take a look, I’ll wait. Did you find it? Tucked in the right hand corner you’ll see ...
From the depths of storm Nemo, here’s this week’s science highlights: The biggest news this week, as far as the sclogosphere was concerned, may have been the announcement that bones beneath a Leicster, England parking lot belonged to King Richard III. The news came only in a press conference, leaving many questions unanswered. The researchers ...
Sequestration, the mandatory federal budget cuts scheduled to take effect on March 1, could have a devastating impact on all federal research funding. It’s a big deal and it could mean big setbacks for science. (Check out this post for a primer.)If congress can’t come up with a feasible budget before the first, the cuts will have serious ...
By now you’ve probably heard of the Boeing 787 Dreamliners and the problems they had in their first weeks in the air. Basically, the Dreamliner is an extremely fuel-efficient airliner. It was the first to use composite materials to reduce weight and the first to use “large format” lithium-ion batteries. Due to fuel leaks and ...
Last year Northeastern’s Affective Science Institute hosted one of the most wonderful events I’ve been to in a while. In conjunction with the Boston Museum of Science and WBUR’s Here and Now, Northeastern brought in three nationally recognized researchers to discuss whether or not money can actually make us happy. I wrote about it for ...