Unicef photo of the year 2011

The Unicef photo of the year award has been held annually by Unicef Germany and GEO magazine since 2000. The award is given to photographers whose work captures the personalities and living conditions of children around the world in an outstanding manner.

Year In Review: Mega Tech Brands Raise Megabuck

The year 2011 was tumultuous for stocks. The eurozone crisis and a U.S. credit downgrade kept investors nervous, but one industry held steady, even faring better than in previous years: technology.

The Star Sower

The star sower monument in Kaunas, Lithuania. In the daytime this monument doesn’t make any sense, but when night comes down to the city….

Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world

AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters’ worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.

The Incredible 3D Street Paintings Of Kurt Wenner

Wenner’s specialty is the centuries-old practice of street painting. But what sets him apart from other artists who cover swaths of public space with their work is that Wenner’s work is 3D. It appears to drop deep beneath the ground into another world–one often filled with characters from Greek mythology or a fairytale.

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

Photographers have captured images of people dressed as jolly old Saint Nick in the United Kingdom, Japan, India, Australia, the United States, and other countries throughout the world. People everywhere are observing the season of giving not only by donning red and white apparel but by participating in charitable events, passing out gifts, listening to Christmas wishes, and simply having fun.

10 Things Job Applicants Should Know

While there clearly are not enough jobs to go around, some people are getting hired. Every day, every hour, thousands of people are selected from thousands more who are ready, willing and able to work. The question is, why is it that some people get hired and some don’t?

Why Men Die Young

Like most doctors, I’m painfully aware that women live longer than men–five years longer, on average. I used to accept the disparity, assuming it was part of our collective genetic inheritance, more nature than nurture. But a new study published in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health suggests that men’s behavior may also be to blame.

IBM’s Five Predictions for the Next Five Years

Biometric passwords? Mind-reading headsets? Junk mail you’ll look forward to? As with all predictions, the answer is “maybe”.

Can Men and Women Be Friends?

Male-female friendship can be tricky, but both benefit from cross-sex buddyhood.

The $200 Trillion World: Who Owns All the Wealth?

The wealth of the world — from all the global stock markets, insurance funds, and families — comes out to about $200 trillion, according to the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report on investors in developing nations. Who owns all that?

How the Potato Changed the World

Brought to Europe from the New World by Spanish explorers, the lowly potato gave rise to modern industrial agriculture.

From Spear Hunting to Space Travel

Scott Benson’s animated music video for Rendezvous’s head-bobbing track “The Murf” packs the entire evolution of our little species into three and a half minutes. From our first attempts at crushing each other with rocks to future intergalactic exploration, it’s a gorgeous meditation on who we are and where we’re going.

How Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android Left BlackBerry in the Dust

Research in Motion reported disappointing third-quarter results Thursday after the close of the stock market.

Would You Kill One Person to Save Five?

Imagine you are a train-yard operator who sees an out-of-control boxcar running down a track that five workers are repairing. The workers won’t have time to get out of the way unless you flip a switch to change the car to another track. But another worker is on the second track. You have just seconds to make a decision: let the five workers die — or kill the one. What do you do?

How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?

Sleep is one of the richest topics in science today: why we need it, why it can be hard to get, and how that affects everything from our athletic performance to our income.

Computers versus Brains

Computers are good at storage and speed, but brains maintain the efficiency lead.

Midnight Sun , Iceland (Time lapse video)

Midnight Sun: A natural phenomenon occurring in the summer months north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle where the sun never fully sets and remains visible 24 hours a day. 

Six Social Media Trends for 2012

What can we expect in 2012 in a world that seems to grow ever connected by the hour? Here are six predictions to ponder, in no particular order:

Arabic is the fastest growing language on Twitter

According to a study by Paris-based agency Semiocast, out of approximately 180 million tweets posted on a daily basis in October 2011, 2.2 million of them were posted in Arabic.

Best photos of 2011

Thirty really impressive photos of this year.

2021: The New Europe

Welcome to Europe, 2021. Ten years have elapsed since the great crisis of 2010-11, which claimed the scalps of no fewer than 10 governments, including Spain and France. Some things have stayed the same, but a lot has changed.

The Generous Marriage

From tribesmen to billionaire philanthropists, the social value of generosity is already well known. But new research suggests it also matters much more intimately than we imagined, even down to our most personal relationships.

New laws of robotics to be explored at upcoming confab

The pace of innovation in robotics in recent years has been stunning, with robots performing many tasks requiring some degree of human intelligence, from assembly to driving cars to flying aircraft. Robots are also interacting with humans on an increasingly sophisticated level.

An Excellent Visual Comparison of Earthquake Strength

This animation compares the relative “sizes” of recent and historical earthquakes. Each circle’s area indicates relative energy release, color indicates tsunami potential, and labels indicate each earthquake’s moment magnitude (according to USGS/NEIC), location, and the year they happened.

Drops of water

Amazing water drops photography by the  German Markus Reugels.

Why You Should Have Your Kids Tested for High Cholesterol Levels

Cardiovascular disease only seems to begin in mid to late adulthood, when blood tests announce the buildup of lipids, or fats, in the blood. But the truth is it starts much earlier. Even children can have abnormally high cholesterol levels.

A Visual Guide to the War For Web Domination

Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft are in a messy, no-holds-barred struggle for control of the Internet. Want a handy way to imagine it? Picture a Bingo board.

A New Worry for Soccer Parents: Heading the Ball

What happens inside the skull of a soccer player who repeatedly heads a soccer ball? That question motivated a provocative new study of the brains of experienced players that has prompted discussion and debate in the soccer community, and some anxiety among those of us with soccer-playing offspring.

Everyday Objects in Romantic Scenarios

The artist Terry Border of Bent Objects fame, explores the secret life of everyday objects. His collection ‘Bent Object of My Affection: The Twists and Turns of Love’ consists of 60 bent-wire vignettes in which household objects explore the romantic and the risqué.

Composition of Current Habitable Worlds in the Universe

The following image shows a composition of all the current potential habitable exoplanets candidates in the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog. The exoplanets are ranked by similarity to Earth from best to worst.

The Elusive Big Idea

THE July/August issue of The Atlantic trumpets the “14 Biggest Ideas of the Year.” Take a deep breath. The ideas include “The Players Own the Game” (No. 12), “Wall Street: Same as it Ever Was” (No. 6), “Nothing Stays Secret” (No. 2), and the very biggest idea of the year, “The Rise of the Middle Class — Just Not Ours,” which refers to growing economies in Brazil, Russia, India and China. Now exhale. It may strike you that none of these ideas seem particularly breathtaking. In fact, none of them are ideas.

The Beginning of the End for Facebook?

My friends at comScore shared with me that, in September 2011 in the U.S., the average number of minutes that each Facebook user spent on the site was 410. Last year, that month’s average was 287, signaling a 42% increase. Also during September 2011, Facebook commanded 14.7% of total U.S. consumer Internet-usage minutes, the most of any website. Given that the site is still on a growth trend, how could I be crazy enough to ask if it’s the beginning of the end for Facebook? Let’s explore.

Top 10: Financial Crises

The rise of capitalism as the predominant economic system around the world has seen many (although certainly not all) people benefit from increased living standards and greater prosperity. But occasionally, it is a system that goes wrong. And when it does go wrong, it can be spectacular.

The rise of the new information gatekeepers

The promise of the Internet age is one of unparalleled access to information of all kinds, but it has also seen the rise of some powerful gatekeepers that control our access to that information: gatekeepers like Google, Facebook, Apple and even Twitter. These new information overlords have been in the news recently because oftheir control (or perceived control) over certain information, and the reaction from users has reinforced the tension between the freedom these companies provide and the hoops through which we have to go in order to achieve it. How does that alter the way we see the world around us?

Worth-watching videos

Fast Food’s Dirty Little Secret: It’s the Middle Class Buying Burgers

The assumption has always been that the drive-through is a place where people go to feed their families on a budget, but that’s not the case.

How Exercise Benefits the Brain

To learn more about how exercise affects the brain, scientists in Ireland recently asked a group of sedentary male college students to take part in a memory test followed by strenuous exercise.

Digital Narcotics May Be the Future of Drugs

Technologists will become the next drug dealers, administering narcotics through brain stimulation, according to Rohit Talwar, the founder of Fast Future Research, speaking at Intelligence Squared’s If conference.