May 16 Watch 11:04 Inside Facebook’s race to separate news from junk By Miles O'Brien At Facebook, there are two competing goals: keep the platform free and open to a broad spectrum of ideas and opinions, while reducing the spread of misinformation. The company says it's not in the business of making editorial judgments, so… Continue watching
May 16 Watch 2:22 Yanny vs. Laurel spotlights our brains’ desire to fill in the gaps By Julia Griffin, Nsikan Akpan It's the auditory debate taking the internet by storm. The PBS NewsHour's Nsikan Akpan and Julia Griffin explain how one sound can create two different experiences. Continue watching
May 16 Analysis: Yanny, Laurel and why our brains struggle with ‘ambiguity illusions’ By Stephen L. Macknik, Scientific American On Tuesday, the "Yanny-Laurel" auditory illusion took the internet by storm. A neuroscientist explains why listening to a single sound clip can yield different perceptions. Continue reading
May 14 What Kilauea’s eruption can reveal about volcanoes on other worlds—and possibly, alien life By Fedor Kossakovski The Kilauea volcano provides a natural laboratory on Earth to study volcanoes found on other planets and moons in our solar system. Continue reading
May 10 5 things you never knew about the New Horizons mission to Pluto By Rashmi Shivni NASA New Horizons mission leader Alan Stern and astrobiologist David Grinspoon divulge the most intimate accounts of the decades of planning needed for the Pluto probe in the new book “Chasing New Horizons.”… Continue reading
May 10 WATCH LIVE: SpaceX to launch Bangabandhu-1 satellite atop Block 5, the most powerful Falcon 9 rocket to date By Nsikan Akpan On Friday, SpaceX is slated to launch Bangabandhu Satellite-1, Bangladesh’s first communications satellite. But Block 5 -- the souped-up SpaceX rocket carrying the satellite -- may be the real headliner. Continue reading
May 09 Watch 9:17 Why we love to like junk news that reaffirms our beliefs By Miles O'Brien Facebook is exquisitely designed to feed our addiction to hyper-partisan content. In this world, fringe players who are apt to be more strident end up at the top of our news feeds, burying the middle ground. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien… Continue watching
May 08 What New York’s skyline can teach kids about math and science By Larisa Epatko “By building it themselves, they’ll probably remember it for the rest of their lives," said the Salvadori Center’s executive director Kenn Jones. Continue reading
May 07 Watch 5:52 The science behind Hawaii’s bubbling lava Hawaii emergency crews continue to battle lava flow and hazardous sulfur dioxide fumes, four days after the Kilauea volcano erupted on the big island. The slow-moving lava has destroyed 35 structures so far, including at least 26 homes; no fatalities… Continue watching
May 06 Why do tumbleweeds tumble? By Gabriela Quirós, KQED Science Tumbleweeds might be the iconic props of classic Westerns. But in real life, they’re not only a noxious weed, but one that moves around. Continue reading