Category: ideas

More than 90 percent of the U.S. population will soon live in urban areas. “If cities are the fastest growing systems on earth — and causing resource depletion, species die-off, and declining natural ecosystems of unprecedented scale — how can we manage the way that urbanization is drastically restructuring the ecology of our planet?”

High school student Hannah Blyth spent her summer discovering asteroids, falling more deeply in love with astronomy … and oh yes, finding photographic evidence of the breakup of a comet.

“Because creative ideas are also new, they seem to give rise to uncertainty or even discomfort for others who depend on the tried-and-true way of doing things. To reduce uncertainty, subconsciously rejecting a creative idea may be easier than accepting it.”

Experimental psychologists have lately been attempting to study the factors that lead to human happiness. But how can you craft a proper experiment when you have no established definition of what constitutes “happiness”? And how can that definition be established? With philosophy, suggests philosopher Gary Gutting.

“It’s not easy to acknowledge that everything we’ve learned about how to pay attention means that we’ve been missing everything else.”

“From Boston to Burbank, we buy the same nationally advertised products at the same chain stores and restaurants, happily embracing conformity as we proudly proclaim our uniqueness.” U.Va. researchers “argue [that] our willingness to move far from home leads us to crave the comfort of sameness in our immediate surroundings.”

“Hidden in the manuscripts of early British settlers are the last surviving records of many indigenous languages. Last week, the State Library of NSW launched a new project to rediscover these forgotten dialects. Of the 250 indigenous languages spoken at the time of British settlement, fewer than 20 are still in daily use.”

“At first glance, this cultivation of anger and criticism seems like a terrible idea. We assume that group collaboration requires niceties and affirmation, that we should always accentuate the positive. But maybe this is a big mistake.”

“Worried about loose-tongued friends sharing your private details with the world? Culling the least discreet members of your social network will help you feel more secure, but it’s not a perfect solution. What if your best friend is an offender?” An Arizona researcher “has a technique for working out which friends are most likely to leak private information.”

“When bombarded by noise pollution, some male birds begin to sing higher tunes, found a new study. And that tonal shift makes them less attractive to females.”