The Conversation

Do you trust one local person in an emergency over hundreds of millions of dollars of government equipment? Yep. And firefighters and cops too. But perhaps not government agencies.

Marriage for love is essentially a 20th-century convention. It's still financial in most ways. You need a government license to enter a marriage contract and a financial settlement to exit. But it still has religious overtones also. The question now is; why do people get married at all? Professor Devorah Baum has answers.

Sweden, for example, claims to be a secular, modern country, yet their belief in the paranormal is the same as everywhere else. Dr. Katarzyna Herd has insights.

The Canadian capital of Ottawa was bombarded with 167 millimetres of rain in five hours earlier this summer in what the city called a one-in-200-year event. Close to 5,800 basement-flooding reports followed, and the worst of it hit the city’s west end, including the Crystal Beach neighborhood.

University admissions data show an 11% increase in applications to study maths in college. The reason is that young people see AI as being the biggest boost to the field since the calculator

A book that criticizes alternative medicine to treat conditions that have names but no criteria is controversial - because it runs up against a supplement and alternative medicine enabled by governments that believe science can't be trusted

People see climate doom claims as manipulative but inoculation improves people’s ability to discern climate doom from climate science.

A heat pump gathers warmth from the outside for the winter. It can cool your home also. The reason more people don't use them is cost; in Europe it can be 10X the price of a natural gas boiler. Here's what needs to happen for all-electric to be viable.

Wealthy elites giving out $500 solar-powered juice presses are the problem with modern virtue-signaling masquerading as philanthropy. Nathan Straus was far more beneficial.

A little over a week ago, artificial intelligence company OpenAI announced ten advances in mathematics and computer science made with their as-yet unreleased model Astra. The discoveries cover a wide range of mathematical fields, including geometry, cryptography and coding theory.

You can spend every day surrounded by other people and still feel lonely. You can also spend long periods alone without finding the experience distressing. That difference may help explain why loneliness affects health differently from social isolation.

AI love is on the rise. It can provide joy and comfort. It can dissipate loneliness. Can AI love you back?