Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

The idea is simple: supply people with smart meters that give real time information on electricity use and price. Armed with the new information, consumers might opt to plug in their laptop in the middle of the night instead of, say, the middle of the day. As a bonus, the system would lead to more use of renewable energy sources like the wind and sun

Scientific American math and physics editor Davide Castelvecchi revisits the Monty Hall problem so you can know whether you're better off holding on to your original pick or switching when new information presents itself. [More]

Mark Peter Davis, co-founder of Kohort, a social media start-up in New York, discusses the best way an entrepreneur can face the moment he asks this question. We entrepreneurs are told to listen to feedback, but ignore the naysayers.

How many miles will an electric car go on a gallon of gasoline? This is not a trick question.

We learned all kinds of things from our parents--manners, safety, housekeeping, how to make a cake, how to pump our legs to make ourselves go high on a swing and where to find crayfish in a creek. As they showed us how to reach these small successes in our daily life, they also taught us science knowledge--even though they may not have known a lot about psychology, physiology, chemistry, physics or animal adaptation. In learning by doing, young children get support for their later formal education: they build a set of experiences that they can recall and relate to new information in middle school science classes and beyond.

Scientists now have a better understanding of why spider silk fibers are so incredibly strong. Recent research, published by Cell Press on February 15th in Biophysical Journal, describes the architecture of silk fibers from the atomic level up and reveals new information about the molecular structure that underlies the amazing mechanical characteristics of this fascinating natural material.