How much control do we have over our own lives? Are we really controlled by our genes, trapped in our own selfishness, like some modern authors want us to believe? Just how much power do we have to shape our lives and those of others?
Borrowing a move from the tobacco companies’ playbook, another massive corporation appears to have decided that if you do not like the scientific reports coming out about you, then you should just buy the labs.
Tigerfish are helping scientists to find out more about the geological history of Africa – and in the process, scientists are discovering what might turn out to be new species of this much sought-after and ferocious game fish. It seems that the number of tigerfish species has been underestimated.
Two students are following in the footsteps of a remarkable renewable energy visionary, Dr. Doug Banks, funded by his legacy in the form of scholarships.
Every living thing affects its surroundings. But humanity is now influencing every aspect of the Earth on a scale akin to the great forces of nature.
If I look back on the many moments of challenge and disturbance in my life it’s clear that a critical question at such moments has always been “How much truth am I willing to expose myself to?”
If CO2 had significant commercial value, that is, it was used extensively by industry for a large number of purposes, then fossil fuel power plant operators might be easily convinced that capturing and selling the greenhouse gas would make more sense than letting it go into the atmosphere: If there were profits in smoke stack CO2, then they wouldn’t let it go up in, well, smoke.
Hybrid cars, powered by a mixture of gas and electricity, have become a practical way to "go green" on the roads. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University are applying the term "hybrid" to power plants as well.
As the UN’s climate change conference begins in Durban, Survival calls for the ecological knowledge and insights of tribal peoples to be heeded in global decisions concerning climate change.
Dr. Masaru Emoto is a scientist from Japan who has done alot of research and publications about the characteristics of water. Among other things, his research has revealed that water physically responds to emotions.
On board the Hesperidas, docked in the Cape Town harbour, we met the first team of researchers ever circumnavigating the globe to research the impact of global change on the oceans.
The Malaspina expedition was named after the Spanish naval officer, Alajandro Malaspina, in whose footsteps, or rather waves, this initiative followed. Some 200 years ago he launched the first voyage of scientific discovery, but in his case it was for both political and biological research.
On Tuesday, 19th of October 2010, the Faculty of Sciences and representatives of Economic Sciences and Engineering, celebrated 'Green Month' on campus by planting some sixteen indigenous trees at Coetzenburg, on the slopes of the mountain. The Natural Sciences Student Committee (NSC) started the initiative in co-operation with Property Services when they decided to plant a tree at the close of their term. Ms. Shaan Pool, one of the NSC members started the initial discussions with Ms. Meg Pittaway from Property Services, who suggested an area above the Sports Institute of Stellenbosch University, where they were clearing pine trees damaged during the devastating fires that swept across Stellenbosch Mountain in 2007.
When it comes to connecting art, science, and design, there can be no better inspiration than Leonardo da Vinci.
He was the great genius of the Renaissance, who not only connected these three disciplines but fused them into a seamless whole in a unique synthesis that has not been equaled before, nor afterwards. I have studied Leonardo's synthesis for many years. I published a book, The Science of Leonardo, in 2007; and I have now written about three quarters of a second book, in which I go deeper into the various branches of his science.
Most authors who have discussed Leonardo's scientific work have looked at it through Newtonian lenses. This has often prevented them from understanding its essential nature, which is that of a science of organic forms, of qualities, that is radically different from the mechanistic science of Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. And this is precisely why Leonardo's science is so relevant today, especially for education, as we are trying to see the world as an integrated whole, making a perceptual shift from the parts to the whole, objects to relationships, quantities to qualities.
