EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Do Humans Really Need Other Species? Key Takeaways: People definitely cannot survive without other species. Humans need other species to produce food First, without other species people would have nothing to eat. Diverse species, from tiny microbes to huge vultures and sharks, break down dead organisms into chemicals that can be used to grow more food. For example, the gut microbiome […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE What Are Wormholes? Key Takeaways: Imagine two towns on two opposite sides of a mountain. People from these towns would probably have to travel all the way around the mountain to visit one another. While scientists have no evidence that wormholes actually exist in our world, they’re good tools to help astrophysicists like methink about space and time. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE Understanding The Nature Of Consciousness Key Takeaways: Google’s latest A.I. chatbot, LaMDA, has just argued that it, too, is conscious and sentient. It has expressed feelings of empathy for “other humans” and has, among other things, expressed a specific fear of being turned off. The Ghost in the Machine, or LaMDA, is exploring what it means to be conscious. Rene […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Incredible Alien Revelations From 2022 U.S. Congress Hearing On UFOs Key Takeaways: The United States Congress recently held a hearing into US government information pertaining to “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAPs). The vast volume of the universe makes it very difficult to achieve interstellar travel, receive signals, or communicate with any potential far-off lifeforms (at least according to the laws of physics as we know them). […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Mystery Of The Speed Of Light Key Takeaways: The speed of light is an assumption, not a certainty. The best we have been able to do, even with our most sophisticated modern technology, is measure the roundtrip speed of light and assume that the speed is the same in both directions. Since measurements of the roundtrip speed of light are always […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY Why Philosophy Is The Ideal Travel Companion Key Takeaways: In 2019, there were 1.4 billion international tourist arrivalsglobally – and, given that the planet only holds 7.7 billion humans, this figure alone suggests that a lot of us are travelling. A character in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness describes how “inviting” the “blank spaces on the earth” seem and tells us about […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK A New Industrial Revolution? Key Takeaways: What if globally designed products could radically change how we work, produce and consume? Several examples across continents show the way we are producing and consuming goods could be improved by relying on globally shared digital resources, such as design, knowledge and software. At a local level, the challenge is to develop economic […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Solving The Fermi Paradox I often wonder if the majority of us choose to believe in life on other worlds because of scientific reasons, or sentimental ones. There are, of course, plenty of encouraging numbers about the many Earth-like exoplanets and the many radiating stars around which habitats might form. The odds seem to be in the favor of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK ENTREPRENEURSHIP The Implications Of Theranos Theranos was, from the outset, too good to be true: Elizabeth Holmes met every stereotype of the time, a Stanford dropout who set up healthcare technology company Theranos in the early noughties and was able to attract powerful and influential investors, media advisors, and constantly announce major deals. The only problem was that the fundamental premise on which the company was built, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY The Digital Tipping Point Has anyone else noticed that we reached a tipping point a while ago? That few of us now retain the mental fortitude to endure even five seconds of boredom, without reaching for our phones to pacify ennui? It is now utterly epidemic. Everywhere you look without exception—on an elevator, in a subway, while driving or walking, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How To Tell If Conspiracy Theory Is False Key Takeaway: Conspiracy theories are prevalent and can involve various factors. People believe false conspiracy theories for various reasons, such as the existence of real conspiracies. However, unfounded conspiracy theories often lack evidence and substitute elements that should be red flags for skeptics. To vet a claim, one should seek out evidence, test the allegation, […] Written by H. Colleen Sinclair May 10, 2024May 10, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Surprising Discoveries About The Origin Of Life Key Takeaway: Recent research has focused on replicating the chemical reactions that constitute life as we know it in conditions plausible for early Earth around 4 billion years ago. However, the rise of experimental work has led to many contradictory theories. Some scientists believe that life emerged in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, where the conditions provided […] Written by Louise Gillet de Chalonge May 9, 2024May 9, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
NASA’s Search For Life On Mars Key Takeaway: NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rover missions are investigating the planet’s evidence for life, known as its “biosignatures,” in unprecedented detail. The rovers are acting as extraterrestrial detectives, hunting for clues that life may have existed eons ago, including evidence of long-gone liquid surface water, life-sustaining minerals, and organic molecules. The Mars of today […] Written by Amy Williams April 30, 2024April 30, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Smartphones & The Source Of Our Anxiety Key Takeaway: Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, calls for action to limit teenagers’ smartphone access and address the mental health crisis caused by the widespread use of smartphones. Haidt cites the “great rewiring” period from 2010 to 2015 as a time when adolescents’ neural systems were primed for anxiety and depression by daily smartphone […] Written by Hugh Breakey April 29, 2024April 29, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Should TikTok Be Banned? Key Takeaway: President Biden signed a US$95 billion foreign aid bill in April 2024, allowing TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app. If the law stands, TikTok will be blocked from any US app store or web-hosting service, affecting over 170 million US users, including 62% of Americans aged 18 to 29. Critics argue […] Written by Sarah Florini April 26, 2024April 26, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Being Thoughtful In The Age Of A.I. Key Takeaway: Concerns about AI’s potential roguehood and potential harm to privacy and dignity are a significant concern. AI’s algorithms, programmed by humans, are also biased and discriminatory. However, a psychologist’s research suggests that AI is a threat to making people less disciplined and skilled in making thoughtful decisions. Making thoughtful decisions involves understanding the […] Written by Joe Arvai April 24, 2024April 24, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Are Single People Happier? The Science Of Being Single Key Takeaway: A study published in the Journal of Personality suggests that long-term single people can be secure and thriving, possibly due to their attachment style. The research found that 78% of singles were insecure, with 22% being secure. Secure singles are comfortable with intimacy and closeness in relationships, while anxious singles worry about rejection […] Written by Yuthika Girme April 23, 2024April 23, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked