The appeal of owning your own property — and all the private goods that came with it — may have convinced nomadic humans to settle down and take up farming. So says a new study that tried to puzzle out why early farmers bothered with agriculture.
Facebook is expected to pay out $20 million in a settlement over its "Sponsored Stories" advertising service, after placing user images in personalized ads. But the settlement doesn't stop the service, and a legal expert says Facebook's option to let users opt out creates more problems.
Four in 10 teenagers admit that they text while driving. Not only is that behavior dangerous, but those same teens are more likely to skip the seat belt and drive while drinking, too.
Since 1958, researchers have been measuring the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at the Mauna Loa Observatory. The remote outpost has just reported a carbon dioxide level of 400 parts per million — the highest it has climbed in the modern age.
Treated human waste has been used on farmland for decades, but the ick factor has not entirely faded. Some environmentalists think the treatment process may not get rid of all the harmful contaminants that could be in the waste.
This is a big moment for the deaf, many of whom haven't been to the movies in a long time. The new glasses display closed captions just for the wearer, and they're headed for 6,000 theaters across the country.
Honeybees are in trouble across the U.S., but one association in Massachusetts is hoping to boost the population in its own area. The bees it currently uses have a hard time surviving the winter and battling other foes that have been killing bees nationwide. So beekeepers in Plympton decided to breed their own.
A dropped cigarette butt, a chewed-up piece of gum, a stray hair. Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg uses DNA from trash she's picked up around New York City to generate 3-D portraits of those who left it behind.
Filmmaker Josh Seftel thought starting a Web series with his mom could bring them closer together. Amazingly, it did. In My Mom on Movies, they take on the big topics in the entertainment and pop culture world.
Bitstrips is a popular website and Facebook app that has teens and others making their own cartoons. Using templates they can modify, users can tell stories or jokes online and share them with friends. And the app is catching on in several foreign markets, including Mexico and Portugal.
The mother of all diversity: nature. Her most fantastic creatures and how they’re faring now.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronauts made a rare, hastily planned spacewalk replaced a pump outside the International Space Station on Saturday in hopes of plugging a serious ammonia leak.
Scientists at Harvard University think they have found a way to possibly reverse the aging process in human organs.
Bees disappearing. Cicadas coming out. A new generation of scientists coming up. We’ll talk with super-biologist E.O. Wilson about our future and nature.
On the door of his office at Tufts University, philosophy professor Daniel Dennett displays a banner quoting the late American writer Gore Vidal. It reads, “It is not enough to succeed; others must fail.” This one sentence offers a window into what motivated Dennett to pursue philosophy in the first place — proving others wrong.
We had a reminder this week of the horror of multiple sclerosis, when a terminally ill MS sufferer in Ireland lost her court battle to end her life. We check in on the latest MS treatments.
What happens if the three biggest arteries in the leg are unexpectedly severed? Usually, the blood loss is so quick and severe that it can lead to death. And yet, transit officer Richard Donohue is expected to make a full recovery.
The FDA has approved the first treatment that gives limited sight to people blinded by the genetic condition retinitis pigmentosa. The device, called the Argus II, works like an artificial retina.
How humans think. The human brain as an analogy machine.
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