SmartPlanet: Design of Cities Matters — Cuts Emissions!

Building walkable cities cuts emissions more than fuel taxes, study says New Urbanists have advocated walkable cities and shorter commutes for years. But does investing in this approach — what behavioral economists call “smart growth” — simply look good on paper, or does it produce tangible results? It does, according to a new study published …

SmartPlanet: Why algorithms need humans to predict the weather

Why algorithms need humans to predict the weather Mari Silbey | September 11, 2012 History is rich with intellectuals who have revered theories of determinism; ideas that suggest if we could only know every facet of a situation, every molecule of the landscape, we could predict and even shape future political, economic, and cultural outcomes. …

SmartPlanet: Q&A with Shai Reshef, President, University of the People

Q&A: Shai Reshef, president, University of the People Christina Hernandez Sherwood | September 10, 2012 College tuition is rising faster than most people can keep up, especially those in developing countries. Enter the University of the People, touted as the first tuition-free, online university. With only a one-time application fee and a $100 fee for …

SmartPlanet: Reinventing Education via edX and MOOC [Massive Open Online Courses]

     Q&A: Anant Agarwal, edX’s president and first professor In May, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced their joint plan to “explore the frontiers of digital education” by offering free online courses to learners around the world. As a result, their new online learning platform edX entered the burgeoning world of MOOCs …

SmartPlanet: Internet Mimics How Ants Communicate

The “anternet” discovered! How ants mimic Internet protocol In a sign that nature still has an awful lot to teach us, a Stanford biologist and computer scientist have discovered that harvester ants hunt for food the same way Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) operates to determine and manage network congestion. That’s right. The foundation of the …

SmartPlanet: Chronicling Latin America’s deforestation, leaf by leaf

Chronicling Latin America’s deforestation, leaf by leaf By Ian Mount | August 24, 2012, 3:00 AM PDT BUENOS AIRES–There may be nothing more depressing than watching a deforestation map in real time, knowing that each time a green pixel turns red, the corresponding square of earth has been denuded of trees. That must make the folks …

SmartPlanet: Urban beekeeping keeps cities healthy

Urban beekeeping keeps cities healthy   “We need bees for the future of our cities and urban living,” Noah Wilson-Rich said at TEDxBoston.  Wilson-Rich completed his Ph.D. in honeybee health in 2005. In 2006, honeybees started disappearing.  “We don’t even find dead bodies, and it’s bizarre. Researchers still do not know what’s causing it,” says …