Is ancient DNA research revealing new truths or falling into old Traps?

Robots - like people - use ‘imagination’ to learn concepts. The paper sounds promising.

Foundations Built for a General Theory of Neural Networks. Neural networks can be as unpredictable as they are powerful. Mathematicians are beginning to reveal how a neural network’s form will  influence its function.

Nicolas Carr reviews The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff.

Millions of people around the world rely on water from retreating glaciers.

Poons v. Koons: The Art of The Price of Everything.

John Kay on the concept of the corporation.

Emerging evidence suggests that the brain encodes abstract knowledge in the same way that it represents positions in space. Speculative, but interesting.

The microbiome and the brain. Bacteria in the gut may influence the brain and behavior, perhaps even playing a role in dementia, autism and other disorders.

Robot reveals how ancient reptile ancestor moved. Scientists use a combination of x-ray video, computer modelling and robotics to reanimate 280-million-year-old fossil.

The New York Times takes a closer look at the recent polar vortex's cold winds. Good graphics.

Interview with philosopher Frederick Eberhardt about causality.