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Large-scale emergencies, such as bombings and plane crashes, trigger a sharp spike in the number of phone calls and text messages sent by eyewitnesses in the vicinity of the disaster, according to a research study by network scientists at Northeastern University.

Technology for making an "artificial leaf" holds the potential for opening an era of "fast-food energy," in which people generate their own electricity at home with low-cost equipment perfect for the 3 billion people living in developing countries and even home-owners in the United States. That's among the prospects emerging from research on a new genre of "electrofuels" described in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News, the American Chemical Society's weekly newsmagazine.

International climate negotiators were at odds Tuesday on how to raise billions of dollars to help poor countries cope with global warming. A major shipping group is willing to help, endorsing a proposal for a carbon tax on vessels carrying the world's trade.

A new study from Forrester proves that the majority of Americans are a bunch of lazy re-tweeters. Ninety-three percent of online consumers in emerging markets of China, India, Mexico and Brazil use social media tools at least once-a-month. U.S. and European consumers are far more likely to use social media as a spectator-like sport, joining it and then just watching it fly by. In the U.S., 68% of social media users are joiners, which means they maintain a profile on a social networking site and visit social networks. Only 73% are spectators, or users who mostly just read blogs, online forums, customer ratings/reviews and tweets, listen to podcasts and watch videos. This number is strikingly similar in Europe (EU-7 countries, to be specific), with 69% of users classified as spectators and 50% as joiners.

The world in which we live would hardly be recognised by someone who lived and died half a century ago and who may have caught a glimpse of the television generation. The children born in the 90′s have only known a world where the Internet was a natural part of  their day to day lives. We now live in a society that verges on a digital tipping point that wraps and integrates our lives with the Web and it is no longer considered a luxury but a necessity in our modern lifestyle. So what is driving us to this digital dawn that is transporting us from the industrial past of the last 200 years and the TV industrial complex that emerged 50 years ago and embracing us in an information age that challenges our paradigms?

If you thought 2010 was disruptive, wait until 2011. This year we saw major game-changers emerge -- the iPad, a flurry of mobile apps, the rise of social commerce, C-Suite fixation on enterprise social-media -- and more. This coming year we'll see even more dramatic change. Keep your eyes on the following

European leaders resolved Friday to revisit safety at nuclear reactors as emergency workers in Japan suffered radiation burns and rising global fears of food contamination hit home.

More than half the world's population live in cities, many of which are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. But cities are also emerging as the innovative "first responders" in dealing with climate change, says a major new report led by researchers at Columbia University and the City University of New York (CUNY) and published by Cambridge University Press.

A new study has found that an emerging tool for combating climate change may cause less harm to some soil animals than initial studies suggested.

Natural gas is important in many sectors of the economy: for generating electricity, as a heat source for industry and buildings, and in chemical feedstock. Given the abundance of natural gas available through large global resources and the recent emergence of substantial unconventional supplies in the United States, worldwide usage of the fuel is likely to continue to grow considerably and contribute to significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come, according to a comprehensive, multidisciplinary study carried out over the last three years by MIT researchers.

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers have found that climate change may lead to more asthma-related health problems in children, and more emergency room (ER) visits in the next decade.

Perhaps lost in the recent debates related to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan is that natural disasters and not nuclear energy should be the focus, says Oak Ridge National Laboratory's John Sorensen, an emergency preparedness expert.

A full hour before the formal announcement of Bin-Laden's death, Keith Urbahn posted his speculation on the emergency presidential address. Little did he know that this Tweet would trigger an avalanche of reactions, Retweets and conversations that would beat mainstream media as well as the White House announcement. Keith Urbahn wasn't the first to speculate Bin Laden's death, but he was the one who gained the most trust from the network. Why did this happen?

The obscure technology used in heated automobile seats, gadgets that charge iPhones from the heat of a campfire, and other devices is undergoing a renaissance and could well emerge as a new "green" substitute for traditional sources of energy and play other key roles in addressing some of society's most pressing sustainability issues. That's the conclusion of an article on the technology - termed thermoelectrics - in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) the American Chemical Society's weekly newsmagazine.

From the 1st through the 6th of February 2011, we were shooting, editing and screening an immediated autodocumentary video at the Transmediale digital art and culture festival in the House of World Cultures in Berlin. Along with events like Ars Electronica and Future Everything, Transmediale is one of the most significant media art events in Europe. We were honored to be included in the Open Zone, a space which will be open to the public, described in the festival programme as "a social experiment with different social territories that are occupied by artists and media activists". We are calling this project The Future of Art. Our goal was a short video which explores questions about the future of art, both in regard to its aesthetics, production, finance, curation, distribution and collection. In addition to conducting interviews at the festival, we were reaching out to several artists in advance of the festival over Skype. Our intention with the Skype interviewees is to extend the discourse beyond the geophysical limits of the festival by including artists who we wish could be here with us in Berlin in February.