Technology/Internet
Beyond Silicon: The Evolution of Biological Computing
In 1965, Gordon Moore predicted that processing power should double every eighteen months.1 Traditionally, this rapid growth has been achieved by shrinking distances between transistors and shortening the distance that information needs to pass through.1 However, the miniaturization of processors and transistors will soon reach a physical barrier.2 With this knowledge, researchers have begun searching [...]
Print journal: The Resilience of the Internet
By: Wing Chan, writing for The Science in Society Review The new year was welcomed with fireworks, celebrations and a striking unconventional public protest: a virtual demonstration. A massive demonstration without a physical presence, but instead with crowds of websites, most notably Wikipedia, Wired and Google US, restricting their content as an illustration of what might [...]
The Rise of the Cyborgs: The Incorporation of Machines into the Human Body
With rapidly evolving technology , it is inevitable that the future of humanity lies in machines. Traditionally, there has been a divide in the type of progress for humans to achieve an advanced state of being. On one hand, there are people who advocate the development of artificial intelligence technologies to imbue human cognitive abilities [...]
A Level Up: Video Games as Educational Resources
In today’s digital society, video games have emerged as an important cultural aspect. Unfortunately, educators and social policy makers alike have often pointed to video games as negative influences, citing exposure to violence and childhood obesity as reasons why video games should be avoided at all costs. However, many researchers are discovering that video games [...]
From Entertainment to Enrichment: The Growth of YouTube’s Online Scientific Content
Every week, major news sites are flooded with articles concerning recent technological advancements, changes in accepted theories, and brand new ideas from every field imaginable. To an individual who has great learning in science, reading a commentary on the Higgs boson is easily understood without the need for much outside research; however, without such a [...]
Simulism: How to Know if the Universe is a Computer Simulation
The premise stems from philosophy; are the universe and human reality real external phenomena? Mathematician Rene Descartes hypothesized the existence of a demon that presented a complete illusion of the external world to his bodily senses to hide the true world1,2. The Hindu philosopher Advaita Vedanta proposed the conscious experiences that comprise human reality are [...]
ArtScience: A Recipe for Innovation
Collaging and titrating, Picasso and Newton — what counts as art opposed to what as science, and those who are artistic versus those who are scientific, have always been easily differentiated. That is until recently, however, when David Edwards, a biomedical engineering professor at Harvard, suggests that the conventional separation of the two disciplines may [...]
Criteria for Habitable Planets and Implications for Earth
The search for extraterrestrial life has always been one of our greatest fascinations with the universe, and there is no better time to be fascinated than now. With the advent of newer technology, the search for habitable planets has recently been successful in identifying planets that could possibly harbor life, even if it may exist [...]
Leaf it to Me: Biomimicry and the Artificial Leaf
The concept of environmentalism is almost inevitably coupled to sacrifice and responsibility. In order to reduce our disruption of nature, we are provided with lists upon lists of things we should not do. We should not take long showers. We should not forget to turn the lights off before we leave a room. It’s as [...]
Our Draining Willpower in the Digital Age?
Quick, say the colors of the following words out loud: BLUE, ORANGE, GREEN, PURPLE, PINK, YELLOW. How many did you get right? And what does this have to do with willpower? Psychologists use this kind of test to measure our current level of willpower.1 The speed and accuracy of your responses reflects your level of [...]
Generation Y: The Internet’s Effects on Cognition and Education
It is difficult for young people today to imagine a time without text messaging and internet surfing. The current generation of college students in particular have literally grown up with the internet, and are often more technologically literate than their parents and professors. Studies have shown that young people’s frequent use of the internet affected [...]
Building New Foundations: Recent Advances in Tissue Engineering
Since the development of in-depth stem cell research and particularly the ability to induce pluripotency – the ability to differentiate cells into many or all cell-types – the promise of generating replacement tissues and organs for patients has been a virtual “holy grail” for the field of regenerative medicine. Many advances have been made in [...]
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