A New Earth
Our planet shows increasing signs of succumbing to the assault we and our technologies have launched. Although there’s no shortage of far-out ideas on how technology can also help fix the problem, including finding a new planet in case we break this one, the real solution lies close to home.
From the Ground Up
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first extraterrestrial steps for mankind. When the lunar module Eagle landed, its touchdown represented the decade-long collective efforts of thousands of laborers in dozens of industries.
Another Another World
Like a nighttime soap opera, the dramatic search for another earth added a new episode in April. Corresponding to the 39th anniversary of Earth Day in the United States, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) announced their discovery of a small, apparently Earth-like planet orbiting the star Gliese 581.
Earth Day Report: Green With Compassion
Barring forces beyond our control, when human relationships are good, life is good. And while we may have all kinds of important relationships, perhaps one of the most important for ensuring that life is good—or even that it’s possible at all—is the crucial interaction that occurs between humanity and the planet we inhabit.
End of the Line
Book Reviews: Thank God for Evolution; The Dominant Animal; Hot, Flat and Crowded. Not only are economic, financial and industrial downturns causing international distress, but the prescribed cure—stimulating increased manufacturing (and with it, energy use and consumption)—creates its own set of debilitating consequences for which there may be no bailout.
And Then What?
Vision interviews Paul Ehrlich, whose dire predictions about the effect of a burgeoning world population never came to pass. He may have got the dates wrong, he says, but not the gravity of the problem.
The End of the World, Continued
Almost 60 years after Robert Wise’s antinuclear original, the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still challenges us to change our impact on the global environment.
Special Report: The Stem Cell Question
As we move ever closer toward realizing the medical potential of stem cell research there will continue to be moral and ethical conflicts in both the scientific and political fraternity. Sometimes it is the smallest steps along the path that require our closest attention.
A Change in the Air: Is Humankind Now a Force of Planetary Change?
Skeptics question the ability of human activity to initiate planetary change. They wonder if building cities, removing forests and increasing the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere really matter in the big picture of life on earth.
Identity Crisis
Although at times we all wonder, “Why am I here?” and “What is the meaning of my life?” these questions of individual purpose arise from a larger crisis of identity. It is not a question of one man’s identity; it is the problem of mankind’s identity. What are we? Why are we here? What does it mean to be human?
Home Sweet Earth
Fifty years have passed since 67 countries participated in the global physical science project known as the International Geophysical Year. But despite the wealth of knowledge gained both during the IGY and since, too many of us may still take the Earth for granted.
Digging Wonderland
After about two months of Martian days on the surface, NASA’s Phoenix robotic lander is well down the road to completing several important aspects of its mission.
Sniffing Out a Cure for Parkinsons?
If new stem cells could be grown in the lab, could a patient’s cells be cloned and used to replace or repair his degenerative disease?
The Flight of the Phoenix
Phoenix settled on an arctic plain called Vastitas Borealis, comparable in latitude to central Greenland or northern Alaska. In the Martian permafrost the mission will look for evidence of organic molecules and the history of a habitable environment in the planet’s past.
A Penny for Your Thoughts
How much would you pay to know what thoughts are swimming around in someone else’s head? And if you could really know their truthfulness how much more would you pay?
Before and After Earth Day
Today, events such as Earth Day and the combined international efforts to complete and man the ISS are offshoots of the original cooperative Sputnik mission of 1957.
Special Report: The Big Bang Debate
There is not a much bigger question than “Where did the universe come from?” and the theory of origins called the “big bang” has become the dominant answer to that most fundamental question. But giving the event a name simply frames a new question: What happened before the big bang?
Revisiting the State of the Planet
Vision reports on the State of the Planet Conference at Columbia University in New York, March 27-28, 2008.
Design and Dissent
The Intelligent Design versus Evolution battle again comes to the fore with the release of the Ben Stein film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
Derivatives
Are human awareness, conscience and even consciousness itself simply a lucky mix, a repackaging of something that our biological ancestors somehow had in part?
From Nothing, to Thing, to Something
Almost 55 years have passed since the publication in Nature of Francis Crick and James Watson’s description of the structure of DNA.
Synthetic Genomics: Build It and They Will Come
The J. Craig Venter Institute announces that researchers there have succeeded in synthetically recreating the genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium.
The Big Bang: Science or Scientism?
In addition to plasma physics, Eric J. Lerner, president of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc., in New Jersey has written and done extensive research in the fields of cosmology and astrophysics. It is on the subject of cosmology that Vision contributor Dan Cloer recently interviewed him.
Crunch Time
The most confounding question that arises from the big bang theory is a simple one: if the big bang is the origin of the universe, what happened before? Doesn't an origin event, however one eventually describes it, still require a cause?
Getting Past the Big Bang, Part 2: Alternative Views
Our age is a unique and exciting one: we now possess the means of exploring many of the great questions of our place in the universe. But will we find the answers we’re looking for?
Climate Futures
Whether one believes global climate change is related to human use of fossil fuels—the anthropomorphic production of carbon dioxide—or not, the politics of climate alternation seem to be here to stay.
Getting Past the Big Bang, Part 1: Why Beginnings Matter
There is not a much bigger question than “Where did the universe come from?” and the theory of origins called the “big bang” has become the dominant answer to that most fundamental question. But giving the event a name simply frames a new question: What happened before the big bang?
An Interview With Geoffrey Burbidge
The most widely accepted model of the origin of the universe is known as the hot big bang. It seeks to describe a practically unfathomable instant in the vicinity of 15 billion years ago when the material of the universe came into being.
Cosmic Views
A successful space shuttle mission such as the recent Endeavor journey is a triumph of human ingenuity and inventiveness over the harsh elements of extraterrestrial travel.
Genetically Modified Foods—Are They Safe?
International debate continues on the primary question: Are GMO foods "Safe?"
Matters of the Heart
Since ancient times the heart has been considered to be at the center of human life.
Cells of Mice and Men
Stem cell research using mouse cells is increasing our knowledge of human growth and development.
Tales From the Stem Cell Crypt
While research and ethical debate on human embryonic stem cells will continue, much more is occurring on the rings surrounding this bull’s-eye issue, including research in both drug development and adult stem cells.
Are We in Need of a Neuromorality?
As neuroscience develops tests for particular psychological traits and medical predispositions in individuals, ethicists wonder what moral framework will govern such information.
Neurogenesis: Changing Your Mind
Until recently it was generally thought that we are incapable of producing new brain cells after early childhood. The reversal of that idea has profound social implications.
Trendlines: October 27, 2006
Richard Dawkins and the God Delusion
Vision was invited to attend the kickoff lecture for Richard Dawkins's U.S. tour to promote his new book, The God Delusion. Can Dawkins be measured by his own yardstick?
Trendlines: April 24, 2006
What's the State of the Planet?
At the end of March, Vision was invited to attend the State of the Planet conference at Columbia University in New York. In recognition of Earth Day ceremonies in the United States, we offer the following report from the conference.
Preparing for the Next Pandemic
Experts predict that the avian flu virus will likely mutate and cause a human pandemic. How might that happen, and what can we do?
Trendlines: March 3, 2006
The Dawning of Cell-Based Medicine
In the next few decades scientists say we will witness an explosion of new discoveries and advancements from the medical community that will present difficult ethical challenges. Vision reports from the Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 13th Annual Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference, San Francisco.
Relativity Check
One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein published five groundbreaking physics papers. What have we learned since then? What haven't we learned?
Trendlines: January 31, 2006
Looking Uphill
Last week the U.S. observed the 20th anniversary of the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger. It was a reminder that for NASA there is no room for error. What can we learn on a personal level from the deep introspection that the U.S. Space program is going through?
This Unstable Earth
With the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster still haunting Southeast Asia, Vision looks at other potential trobule spots on the earth's fragile surface.
Seeds of Discord
Increasing numbers of DNA-based patents are being applied for on a daily basis. Vision examines some of the implications of the battle over who owns life.
Life on the Fly
Can fly fishermen teach us a lesson on life?
The Simple Complexities of Life
Modern science may be coming face-to-face with the very circumstance that Darwin said would cause his famous theory to break down.
Special Report: Rewiring the Brain
Recent discoveries in neuroscience are providing exciting insights into the nature of beign human.
Troubled Waters
Oil isn't the only resource that helps shape the peace and regulate the balance of power in the Middle East.
50 Years of DNA
Information revealed through the decoding of DNA 50 years ago has been astounding, but there is still much to be learned. Is science up to the challenge?
New Chip Off the Old Block
An amazing technology promises freedom from our genetic predispositions.
Equivocal Evidence
Vision looks at some of the failings of evolutionary theory.
Six Dominant Ideas, Part Two: A Dark Fellow From Trier
Karl Marx may have influenced modern history more than any other intellectual, but what influenced his theories?
The Amazing Technicolor Agriculture Revolution
Book Review: Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply by Vandana Shiva; The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer by Victor Davis Hanson; The New Agrarianism: Land, Culture, and the Community of Life by Eric T. Freyfogle (editor).
Evolution: Science's Center of the Universe
Most in the scientific community consider evolution a fact. But is it good science—or bad philosophy?
For Creationists to Consider
The Bible nowhere states when the earth was created, other than saying, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
The Splice of Life; Sex in the 21st Century
Will biotechnology change our views on sex and procreation?
Chernobyl: The Fallout Continues
The world's most infamous nuclear power plant is finally closed. But that doesn't mean we can put the whole radioactive mess behind us.
Nuclear Dummies
Thanks to the MAD doctrine, the Cold War left its mark on two regions of the former Soviet Union.
Artificial Intelligence: A Virtual Reality?
Book Review: When Things Start to Think by Neil Gershenfeld; Wired Life by Charles Jonscher; The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil.
Advancing Toward the Moral Brink
Modern science is nudging us ever closer to a moral precipice. But can science serve as the arbiter of moral and ethical standards?
2000: A Space Odyssey?
Three astronauts are slated to board the International Space Station this fall. Will the ISS play a role in the human conquest of space? Or is there another route to the ends of the universe?
Genes, Genome and Genesis
Surprisingly, what geneticists are seeking to discover by probing the mysteries of life was revealed long ago.
A Second Genesis
Book Review: Remaking Eden by by Lee M. Silver; The Biotech Century by Jeremy Rifkin; Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley.
Emerging From the Mire
Book Review: Earth Odyssey by Mark Hertsgaard; The Carbon War: Dispatches From the End of the Oil Century by Jeremy Leggett; Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins.
By Our Own Hand
What effect do our actions have on the environment and on the future?
A Point of Convergence
In revising its position on the origin of the universe, science has unwittingly come to agreement with the Bible.
Journey to the Center of Jules Verne
While most novelists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries warned society of the dangers of unchecked technological advances, Jules Verne excited his readers with romantic tales of fantastic adventures made possible by wonderful new machines. But what did he really think about man's progress and advancements? A recent discovery offers insight into this question.
Intelligent Designs
Book Review: Darwin's Black Box—The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Michael J. Behe; Nature's Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe by Michael J. Denton; The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance Through Small Probabilities by William Dembski.
|