Phil Plait: How to defend Earth from asteroids

hat's six miles wide and can end civilization in an instant? An asteroid - and there are lots of them out there.

The US Stop Online Piracy Act: A primer

Computerworld reports: "The Stop Online Piracy Act, the subject of a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Wednesday, has generated heated debate since lawmakers introduced it on Oct. 26.

The bill, called SOPA, would allow the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to seek court orders requiring online advertising networks, payment processors and other organizations to stop payments to websites and Web-based services accused of copyright infringement." (Read the rest of the article)

Advantages of Thorium Reactors

Motherboard TV has created a documentary called The Thorium Dream, that discusses some the great advantages of Thorium based nuclear reactors. The video points out that Thorium is considered more abundant, safer, has less waste, and can't be utilized as weapons grade material vs uranium.

The problem in the US is that our systems for creating nuclear material are built around uranium because it can be used for both generating power and weapons.

(watch the video here)

The Thorium Dream (Trailer)

Adrien Treuille: Crowdsourcing science

Can gaming cure disease? By creating games like EteRNA for protein folding and nano-engineering, Adrien Treuille and his colleagues are outsourcing research, each week scoring and then actually synthesizing top players' work. By studying players' strategies, scientists can improve their computer modeling while also creating new ways to fight disease.

Alexander Tsiaras: Conception to birth -- visualized

Image-maker Alexander Tsiaras shares a powerful medical visualization, showing human development from conception to birth and beyond.

How Much Does The Internet Weigh?

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

Simon Sinek presents a simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers -- and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

Anna Mracek Dietrich: A plane you can drive

A flying car -- it's an iconic image of the future. But after 100 years of flight and automotive engineering, no one has really cracked the problem. Pilot Anna Mracek Dietrich and her team flipped the question, asking: Why not build a plane that you can drive?