Paper Reviewed: Balch, J.K., Bradley, B.A., Abatzoglou, J.T., Nagy, R.C., Fusco, E.J. and Mahood, A.L. 2017. Human-started wildfires expand the fire niche across the United States. Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Science114: 2946-2951.

The humanoid robot, created by Hanson robotics, is the main attraction at a UN-hosted conference in Geneva this week on how artificial intelligence can be used to benefit humanity.

Paper Reviewed
Reef, R., Spencer, T., Möller, I., Lovelock, C.E., Christie, E.K., McIvor, A.L., Evans, B.R. and Tempest, J.A. 2017. The effects of elevated CO2 and eutrophication on surface elevation gain in a European salt marsh. Global Change Biology 23: 881-890.

Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn that could host life, may have tipped over long ago.

Researchers from the University of Zurich have simulated the formation of our entire universe with a large supercomputer. A gigantic catalog of about 25 billion virtual galaxies has been generated from 2 trillion digital particles.

Microsoft has confirmed recent reports that it has acquired Israeli cybersecurity startup Hexadite.

The United States will revive the long-dormant National Space Council, a group meant to coordinate space policy among government agencies and departments. Vice-president Mike Pence, who will chair the council, announced its reinstatement on 7 June at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

It is remarkable how often we hear the claim that “the solar industry now employs twice as many Americans as coal”. And, more often than not, as a cause of celebration.

Practically everyone who likes space and has lots of money is trying to get to Mars in the near future. But before anyone reaches the Red Planet, there are plenty of concerns to mull over, most notably that our bodies were not built to live in a barren litter box with a thin atmosphere.

Researchers in London found compounds extracted from marijuana combined with chemotherapy treatment helps target and kill cancer cells.

NASA says Antarctica is losing ice, and it proves global warming.

Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet: Land Ice

NASA also says that Antarctica is gaining ice.

An astrophysicist at the University of Oklahoma says several Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system are Earth-like in other ways.

Ninety-nine million years ago, birds and dinosaurs ruled the earth. But what did those early birds look like? That’s been hard to prove—until now. Thanks to an amazing fossil find, a bird encased in Cretaceous-era amber from Malaysia is giving researchers a new look at a mysterious species of birds that existed during the time of the dinosaurs.

What if I told you that the Department of Defense and the CIA spent four decades researching extrasensory perception and psychokinesis — i.e., bending spoons with your mind?

Our solar system is teeming with simple carbon-based molecules, the basic building blocks of life. If the conditions are right, these simple molecules can go on to form more complex, biologically interesting molecules, such as amino acids and proteins.

Filed under the category “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up,” the headlines today highlight California’s “Endless Winter.”