Last month in San Francisco, AI entrepreneur Dr. Ben Goertzel invited me to publicly debate him on the future of machine intelligence at his event, The Ten Reckonings of AGI. Goertzel is best known ...

Still sorting things out after a weekend chock full of wrestling? Us too! But sorting out is exactly what we do with this feature, so you're in the right place if you're wondering just where your ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In 1950 the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi was discussing the possibility of intelligent alien life with his colleagues. If alien ...

The cellular biology of reproduction is often depicted as an epic journey, in which millions of intrepid sperm fight to be the first to claim the ultimate prize: the chance to fertilize the egg, which ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

Yet, jellyfish tend to sleep through the night like humans, and even nap around midday. Meanwhile, their close relative, the sea anemone, takes the night shift, sleeping during daylight hours. So ...

In 1758, Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus gave humans a scientific name: Homo sapiens, which means "wise human" in Latin. Although Linnaeus grouped humans with other apes, it was English biologist ...

Skiing has a long history, and so do the planks we strap ourselves to and slide across snow. From the early days of nomadic Central Asian hunter-gatherers traveling cross-country on skis, to the long ...

The trade-off between quality and quantity is a fundamental economic dilemma. Now, a team of British, American, and Japanese researchers describes how it applies to biology, as well. They have ...