By 1941, pop had already taken over from classical as the musical lingua franca, the sound everybody wanted to hear. No actual teenager at the time would have needed to tell the band to play popular music at the prom rather than, say, Brahms’s Hungarian Dances. But for Martin and Blane, and for the Broadway […]

Antony Blinken, 59, is one of U.S. President Joe Biden’s closest confidants. He first worked for Biden as a Senate staffer and then rose to become deputy national security adviser and deputy secretary of state in Barack Obama’s administration. Blinken is considered a proponent of an active U.S. foreign policy and believes his country has […]

China currently releases more carbon emissions than any other country — leading many to believe it bears the greatest responsibility for climate change. However, the situation is more complex than it seems.  In 2019, China emitted 10.2 billion metric tons of CO2 — nearly twice as much as the United States (5.3 billion metric tons) […]

Innovations in biotech, energy, and space could drive the next generation of prosperity—if we let it happen. Total factor productivity (TFP)  tracks the degree to which output is not attributable to observable inputs like labor-hours, capital, or education.  From 1920 to 1970, TFP grew at about 2 percent yearly. Since then, it has grown at […]

In April, Howard University announced that it was dissolving its classics department, a move that punctuates a heated debate about whether Greco-Roman history should be taught separately or differently from the history of other ancient societies. A new wave of scholars, such as Princeton’s Dan-el Padilla Peralta, view the discipline as inextricable from the imperialist mind-set that created […]

As climate concerns increase, the world is getting behind the energy transition — even in the most unlikely quarters.  Australia itself has long been a climate laggard and a major coal exporter — but as China and other big customers plan to cut their emissions, taking their business with them, that may be changing. Dozens […]

On Monday, Tesla announced that it had spent $1.5bn of its cash reserves buying bit-coin, and would soon start accepting payment for its electric vehicles in the digital currency. It sent a frisson of excitement running through the world of cryptocurrencies. Adding to the frenzy, BNY Mellon — America’s oldest bank — on Thursday said […]

China is a country about the size of the United States, but with four times as many people – twice as many as in Europe, more than in Africa. China’s dimensions have always been difficult to grasp, but rarely has the country’s size, combined with its growing political and economic weight, become as apparent to […]

Tire and brake wear could be the next front of emissions testing, according to Emissions Analytics, an organization that conducts independent emissions tests. Emissions Analytics found that emissions of particulate matter from tire wear can be 1,000 times worse than from tailpipes. Because exhaust emissions are becoming more tightly regulated, and more electric cars are […]

DER SPIEGEL: We are apparently living in the golden age of astronomy. Genzel: Absolutely. It is unbelievable all that is going on at the moment. And it will continue. Take just exoplanets, for example. We are currently experiencing a downright explosion in knowledge. And GRAVITY, our interferometer at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile is part […]