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

In the September issue of Scientific American , Harvard University economist Edward Glaeser describes how education and entrepreneurship can make or break cities.

Oil money has conjured up a pricey experiment in sustainability in a patch of desert between downtown Abu Dhabi and its airport. There, the city of Masdar ("the source") is rising. It is meant to signal a shift away from fossil fuels by hosting a variety of ecofriendly approaches, such as a system of subterranean electric cars--Personalized Rapid Transit--that whisk visitors and residents from point to point.

Peering deep into the sun's churning plasma, solar physicists have discovered a way to forecast the emergence of sunspots before they reach the solar surface.

At the SciFoo conference last weekend, brain scientist and illusionmeister Steve Macknik elevated a basic principle of energy conservation--turn off the lights when you don’t need them--to a whole new level. [More]

By Geoff Brumfiel of Nature magazine Today IBM unveiled a new "cognitive computing" microchip that, according to the company, emulates some of the brain's abilities. [More]

The Cities are the topic of the month here at Scientific American (and at least this week on the blogs), so I should chime in on an aspect of urban ecology that I am comfortable discussing – the effects of increased light at night on animals. [More]

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Plants and animals are responding up to three times faster to climate change than previously estimated, as wildlife shifts to cooler altitudes and latitudes, researchers said on Thursday. Scientists have reported this decade on individual species that moved toward the poles or uphill as their traditional habitats shifted due to global warming, but this study analyzed data on over 2,000 species to get a more comprehensive picture

By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. emissions of the main greenhouse gas rebounded nearly 4 percent last year as factories ran harder while the economy recovered and as consumers boost air conditioning during the hot summer, the government said on Thursday

By Pascal Fletcher MIAMI (Reuters) - A human fecal bacterium kills coral, new research shows, and U.S.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government said it was investigating reports of an oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana, and BP Plc said its offshore wells were not the culprit. The U.S

Top 10 Most Polluted Air [More]

Propeller wind turbines are the most common way of using one of the most abundant energy sources on Earth to generate electricity. The tall three-bladed fans are the ubiquitous symbol of wind energy, but they aren't the only design on the market.

At last, the field of genomics has something to offer Cheech and Chong. DNA sequencing hit a new high last night with the midnight release of the Cannabis sativa genome.

Robots often serve as first responders during mine collapses. A robot can fit into tight spaces, it’s not slowed by noxious fumes and it's expendable if there's another cave-in

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fast-melting Arctic sea ice appears to be pushing walruses to haul themselves out onto land, and many are moving around the area where oil leases have been sold, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. [More]