Feb 19 Will Google Make us Smarter? Internet Experts Say Yes, but With Caveats In a widely-read 2008 article in The Atlantic Monthly magazine, writer Nicholas Carr asked "Is Google Making us Stupid?" He argued that as people learn to surf the vast amounts of information available online, they are losing the ability… Continue reading
Feb 19 Personalized Genetic Test Offers New Way to Track Cancer By mapping the genetic code of malignant tumors, researchers have developed a new technique to identify and track cancer: a blood test derived from a patient's unique DNA. The finding is the latest in a growing field of… Continue reading
Feb 18 Thursday’s Headlines: U.N. Climate Chief Resigns; Dalai Lama Visits White House Two months after world leaders failed to agree on a legally binding global warming pact at the Copenhagen Climate Summit, Yvo de Boer, the top U.N. climate change official, has announced his resignation. De Boer denied to… Continue reading
Feb 17 Watch Reactor Plan Renews Debate on Nuclear Energy President Obama this week announced $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees to help build two new nuclear reactors in Georgia, but environmental groups pushed back against the form of alternative energy they called "inherently dangerous." Gwen Ifill talks to both… Continue watching
Feb 16 Haiti Quake Propels Use of Twitter as Disaster-Relief Tool By Larisa Epatko Kate Starbird, a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, studies the use of Twitter during crises. When she and the other UC researchers heard about the massive earthquake in Haiti on Jan. 12, all they could do… Continue reading
Feb 12 Olympic Snowboarding Coach on Training Challenges, Technology By Tom Bearden He bears little resemblance to Sir Walter Scott’s Rob Roy and the cocktail isn’t named after him. This Rob Roy’s day job is building affordable housing projects for senior citizens in Oregon. But that’s not all. He’s also spent the… Continue reading
Feb 10 Google Looks to Speed Up Web Google wants to make the Web faster -- much faster. In a post on its corporate blog Wednesday, the world's largest search engine announced it will build ultra high-speed broadband networks that will deliver Internet speeds more than 100… Continue reading
Feb 09 Getting Government Data Out to the Public: Data.gov Getting data out of government agencies can be difficult. It can involve FOIA requests and weeks -- sometimes months -- of waiting for a response, along with fees starting at $25. As it stands, there is a "presumption of needing… Continue reading
Feb 05 Top Republican on House Energy Committee: CO2 Is Not a Pollutant By Judy Woodruff As part of a series of conversations on President Obama’s energy agenda and the climate change legislation circulating in Congress, I spoke this week from an opponent of the House bill that would set a cap on carbon emissions. I… Continue reading
Feb 04 Winter Forecast: Art to Blanket Region By Tom LeGro When it comes to photography, a Wilson Bentley image can be described much like his favorite subject, the snowflake: Each is one of a kind. After all, the Vermont farmer was the first to ever photograph one. Continue reading