From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

The Military’s 'Reciprocal Relationship' with Video Games Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Gleebooks What forces are driving the rapid technological developments that continue to shape our world? According to author Peter Nowak it is a very un-holy trinity; the war, porn and fast ...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

Lord Martin Rees on Humanity’s Unique Place in the Cosmos Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Melbourne University It's famously called the Final Frontier, and thanks to rapidly developing technology we now know more about the outer reaches of our galaxy than ever. But that leaves unknown...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

Megafaunal Extinction: Did Humans Overhunt the Mammoths? California Academy of Sciences - African Hall Stanford biology professor Elizabeth Hadly’s research in the far reaches of the globe from India to Patagonia to Southeast Asia addresses the issues of what determines and maintains vertebrate (...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

As Temps Rise, Species Shrink and Genetic Diversity Wanes California Academy of Sciences - African Hall Stanford biology professor Elizabeth Hadly’s research in the far reaches of the globe from India to Patagonia to Southeast Asia addresses the issues of what determines and maintains vertebrate...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

Clay Shirky: Are Lolcats a Sign of Human Progress? WIRED - The Morgan Library and Museum Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age featuring Clay Shirky, Author; Adjunct Professor, Interactive Telecommunications Program - NYU.Disruption happens. A technology breakthrough. A...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

LIFE: Clean Energy from Water The Long Now Foundation - Cowell Theatre Finally achieving fusion energy may be closer than everyone thinks. For decades the dream has been to employ the reaction that powers stars to generate high-volume electricity without the drawbacks of fission reactors — ...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

Beyond Energy: Using Fusion to Understand the Universe The Long Now Foundation - Cowell Theatre Finally achieving fusion energy may be closer than everyone thinks. For decades the dream has been to employ the reaction that powers stars to generate high-volume electricity without the drawbacks of ...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

The Hamburger That Paralyzed Stephanie Smith Commonwealth Club - The Commonwealth Club of California Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Michael Moss shares his insights gained while uncovering some of the food industry’s best kept secrets.Moss just won the Pulitzer Prize for his inves...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

Who Cheats More: Bankers or Politicians? Booksmith - Booksmith You hear him frequently on public radio — now meet the incomparable Dan Ariely when he introduces his new book The Upside of Irrationality!The 2008 economic crisis taught us that irrationality is an influential player in financi...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

Evolution of the Shrug: Darwin’s Principle of Antithesis The New York Public Library. Adam Gopnik, author of Angels and Ages, A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln and Modern Life and Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate and many other works, discuss a fundamental question: How far can Darwin t...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

How Copyright and Patent Laws Stymie Scientific Progress Open Science Summit - International House at UC Berkeley Victoria Stodden, Jason Hoyt, Cameron Neylon and Peter Murray-Rust answer questions from the audience during the opening session of the 2010 Open Science Summit.The objectives of the...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

Adam Gopnik: Was Darwin Racist? The New York Public Library - New York Public Library Adam Gopnik, author of Angels & Ages, A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln and Modern Life and Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate and many other works, discuss a fundamental question: How far can Darwin tak...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

Mary Roach on the Art of Peeing in Outer Space Commonwealth Club - Lafayette Library and Learning Center Community Hall Building She took us into the world of cadavers and examined the anatomy, physiology and psychology behind sex. Now, Mary Roach discovers the surreality and weirdness of space....

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

The Ideal Happy to Sad Ratio? 3:1, Says Dr. Happy Australian Broadcasting Corporation - UTS Business School Professor Timothy Sharp is founder of The Happiness Institute. Sharp believes the key obstacle to happiness, for most people, is "the tyranny of when..." the addictive but destructive beli...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

How Big Is Our Universe? And Other Cosmic Quandaries The Long Now Foundation - Chabot Space & Science Center President of the Royal Society, England’s Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees brings a lifetime of cosmological inquiry to a crucial question: What if human success on Earth determines lif...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

Brookhaven Lab’s Latest Research on Quark-Gluon Plasma California Academy of Sciences - California Academy of Sciences Explore the mysteries of quantum mechanics, black holes, strings, branes, supersymmetry, and extra dimensions.In this engaging and concise introduction to the main ideas in stri...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

People Power: Open Sourcing Home Energy Efficiency Tech swissnex San Francisco. Are you smarter than a refrigerator? Smart grid, smart car, smart home energy management. The energy dialogue revolves around "smart" buzzwords. But can technology really lure us into reducing our energy consumption?...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

How to Talk About End-of-Life Care with a Dying Patient The New Yorker - SVA Theatre 1 Atul Gawande is a practicing surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. Previously, he served as a senior ...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Wed, Dec 29 2010 3:06 AM

James Surowiecki: The Luck of Having 'A Good Face' The New Yorker - SVA Theatre 2 James Surowiecki has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2000 and writes the magazine’s Financial Page. His book, "The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wi...

From: 5min.com on AOL on Tue, Dec 28 2010 2:59 PM

Jeremy Rifkin, founder and President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, teases out the ways energy and communication come together across history to create consciousness.