Logikron

Future incandescent bulbs could be up to 40% efficient, if a newly-developed process pans out.

“Insight” is not a very popular word in psychology or biology. Popular terms – like “intelligence,” “planning,” “complexity,” or “cognitive” – have a habit of sprawling out to include everyone’s favourite interpretation, and end up with such vague meanings that each new writer has to redefine them for use.

So do primates have insight? If so, what can it tell us about the evolutionary origins of insight in humans? And what does all this mean for cognitive psychology? Richard W. Byrne presents an important new theory on primate intelligence.

Some Plants Can Count

Venus flytraps and other carnivorous plants have the ability to count, according to a new study.

The discovery adds to the growing body of evidence that certain plants possess many animal-like abilities, even though they do not have brains. In this case, it’s now known that meat-eating plants can count up to at least five.

Could You Get Hit By Falling Space Junk?

This week The New York Public Library  released more than 180,000 of its public-domain items — including maps, posters, manuscripts, sheet music, drawings, photographs, letters, ancient texts — as high-resolution downloads, available for public use!

We’ve selected a few of our favorite images from their vast collection. The folks at the library have done a great job making images searchable. Cruise through the site on your own or check out some of their pre-filtered collections.

In his final State of the Union, President Obama said that keeping Americans safe is “priority number one.” 

But he also said ISIS and other terror groups do not pose an existential threat to the United States:

“Over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands. Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence.”