Popular Science

If we have learned anything about education in recent years, it鈥檚 that the one-size-fits-all mentality of the basal reader just does not work. People learn differently; sexes learn differently. But the research has only gone so far in exploring from where these differences originate. Previously, studies focused only on cognition or brain function.

[ Read Full Story ]

In an unexpected move, the International Federation of Association Football, soccer鈥檚 governing body, this week pulled the plug on plans to implement a state-of-the-art scoring system. Instead of introducing the dual technologies鈥攁 sidelines camera and in-ball chip鈥攐fficials have opted for a decidedly low-tech solution for better determining whether a goal was scored: two additional linesmen.

[ Read Full Story ]

The unsettling prospects of climate change seem to be inspiring a flurry of research on the innate ability of humans to cooperate for the common good. In my last post, I described a clever game by German scientists that found that freeloading impedes cooperation among a group of individuals chipping in to prevent a global warming disaster.

[ Read Full Story ]

On this week's podcast, host Chuck Cage, gets the scoop on SXSW Interactive from Web editor Megan Miller. Marvel over the origins of the Internet! Learn how tech can change the world! Catch Jonathan Coulton's live concert! All that and more, on Cocktail Party Science.

[ Read Full Story ]

Remember Innerspace? Dennis Quaid and his submarine-like ship are shrunk to the size of a cell and accidentally injected into the hapless Martin Short. Quaid navigates the hazards of Short鈥檚 bodily functions in order to plot his escape. Twenty years on, there's something rather quaint about it. A vessel the size of a cell? With a pilot inside? Compared to today鈥檚 innovations in nanotechnology, it's akin to using a tractor trailer to find your way through a corn maze.

[ Read Full Story ]

We鈥檙e still in the honeymoon period with new fuel technologies like biodiesel. They鈥檙e clean. Renewable. No more oil-covered seabirds in the news! I can drink out of the tailpipe of my hydrogen fuelcell car! We鈥檝e been so taken with their promise that we鈥檝e neglected to think much about their inevitable downside: these fuels are manufactured, and unfettered manufacturing can be dirty.

[ Read Full Story ]

The chief marketing officer of Ericsson announced at a conference in Europe yesterday that he thinks Wi-Fi is endangered, and will be soon be replaced by mobile broadband networks. Connectivity won鈥檛 be hotspot-based, but available everywhere. He went so far as to compare cafe-style Wi-Fi to the telephone boxes of yesteryear.

[ Read Full Story ]

A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart announced yesterday that the chain will no longer sell Linux-based computers in its stores鈥攁pparently its customers far prefer the more familiar Windows operating system. In October, Wal-Mart stocked an inexpensive Everex machine, the gPC, in several hundred stores, but even with the low price tag of $199, the computer failed to keep pace.

[ Read Full Story ]

Did anyone really expect 10,000 BC to be scientifically accurate? The reviews of the critically-condemned movie are fun to peruse, but the ones focused on the science are especially entertaining. Because, well, the science (as we all should have guessed) is way, way off.

[ Read Full Story ]