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Math Is Still...
The Mathematician Who Sculpted the Shape of Space Eugenio Calabi, who died on September 25, conceived of novel geometric objects that later became...
a year ago
22
a year ago
Eugenio Calabi, who died on September 25, conceived of novel geometric objects that later became fundamental to string theory. The post The Mathematician Who Sculpted the Shape of Space first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
The Symmetry That Makes Solving Math Equations Easy Learn why the quadratic formula works and why quadratics are easier to solve than cubics. ...
a year ago
41
a year ago
Learn why the quadratic formula works and why quadratics are easier to solve than cubics. The post The Symmetry That Makes Solving Math Equations Easy first appeared on Quanta Magazine
ToughSF
Thermal Decomposition of CO2 with Nuclear Heat A lot of effort must and will be put into combating climate change. We can however directly attack...
over a year ago
11
over a year ago
A lot of effort must and will be put into combating climate change. We can however directly attack the root cause of it by reducing the amount of CO2 that we have released into the atmosphere. We can enlist the help of ultra-high-temperature nuclear reactors to do this rapidly...
Explorations of an...
Black-fronted Piping-Guans at Parque Provincial Urugua-í February 8, 2023 Laura and I left the environs of Iguazú Falls and worked our way south and then...
a year ago
15
a year ago
February 8, 2023 Laura and I left the environs of Iguazú Falls and worked our way south and then east, our destination being Parque Provincial Uragua-í. This park is a little bit off of the standard birding route and is not frequently visited by foreign birders. And, because...
NeuroLogica Blog
Why Do Species Evolve to Get Bigger or Smaller Have you heard of Cope’s Rule or Foster’s Rule? American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope first...
11 months ago
28
11 months ago
Have you heard of Cope’s Rule or Foster’s Rule? American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope first noticed a trend in the fossil record that certain animal lineages tend to get bigger over evolutionary time. Most famously this was noticed in the horse lineage, beginning with small...
The Works in...
To change a norm How the war on drunk driving was won
6 months ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Scams, Frauds, and Audits | Out-Of-Pocket Lots of money to be...not lost
a year ago
Explorations of an...
Birding Near The Bolivia Border January 22, 2023 (continued) Laura and I left the humid east slope of the Andes behind and worked...
a year ago
15
a year ago
January 22, 2023 (continued) Laura and I left the humid east slope of the Andes behind and worked our way north along the paved highway through the incredible Quebrada de Humahuaca. This valley is famous for its scenery and it was easy to see why. The contrasts, textures and...
NeuroLogica Blog
Virtual Walking When I use my virtual reality gear I do practical zero virtual walking – meaning that I don’t have...
9 months ago
29
9 months ago
When I use my virtual reality gear I do practical zero virtual walking – meaning that I don’t have my avatar walk while I am not walking. I general play standing up which means I can move around the space in my office mapped by my VR software – so I am physically walking to...
Blog - Practical...
How Do Fish Ladders Work? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Building a dam imparts a...
8 months ago
74
8 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Building a dam imparts a stupendous change to the environment, and as with any change, there are winners and losers. The winners are usually us, people, through hydropower generation, protection from flooding,...
IEEE Spectrum
This Wearable Computer Made a Fashion Statement Google Glass debuted, the artist Lisa Krohn designed a prototype wearable computer that looked like...
5 months ago
64
5 months ago
Google Glass debuted, the artist Lisa Krohn designed a prototype wearable computer that looked like no other. The Cyberdesk was an experiment in augmented reality. At a time when computers were mostly beige and boxy, Krohn envisioned a pliable, high-tech garment that fused...
Asterisk
Fracking Eyeballs How an alliance between psychologists and advertisers at the turn of the 20th century taught us how...
a year ago
2
a year ago
How an alliance between psychologists and advertisers at the turn of the 20th century taught us how to measure (and monetize) human attention.
Apoorva Srinivasan
what's happened since the human genome project When the human genome project was deemed “complete” in 2003, it was met with incredible fanfare. The...
over a year ago
2
over a year ago
When the human genome project was deemed “complete” in 2003, it was met with incredible fanfare. The entire project leading up to that moment had all the drama to keep its audience enthralled. Fierce rivalry between a public and private institution, multiple countries involved,...
Asterisk
Want Growth? Kill Small Businesses The central question of development economics is simple: how can poor countries become rich? The...
5 months ago
2
5 months ago
The central question of development economics is simple: how can poor countries become rich? The answer is neither small-scale, targeted interventions nor broad generalizations about growth. Instead, we should focus on firms.
NeuroLogica Blog
Latest Starship Launch SpaceX has conducted their most successful test launch of a Starship system to date. The system they...
2 months ago
24
2 months ago
SpaceX has conducted their most successful test launch of a Starship system to date. The system they tested has three basic components – the Super Heavy first stage rocket booster, the Starship second stage (which is the actual space ship that will go places), and the...
Math Is Still...
Fish Have a Brain Microbiome. Could Humans Have One Too? The discovery that other vertebrates have healthy, microbial brains is fueling the still...
2 weeks ago
11
2 weeks ago
The discovery that other vertebrates have healthy, microbial brains is fueling the still controversial possibility that we might have them as well. The post Fish Have a Brain Microbiome. Could Humans Have One Too? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
wadertales
UK waders: “Into the Red” If you ask British birdwatchers to name the eleven wader species that are causing the most...
over a year ago
23
over a year ago
If you ask British birdwatchers to name the eleven wader species that are causing the most conservation concern in the UK, they would probably not include Dunlin. Curlew may well be top of their lists, even though the most recent population estimate is 58,500 breeding pairs, but...
Math Is Still...
‘Entropy Bagels’ and Other Complex Structures Emerge From Simple Rules Simple rules in simple settings continue to puzzle mathematicians, even as they devise intricate...
9 months ago
17
9 months ago
Simple rules in simple settings continue to puzzle mathematicians, even as they devise intricate tools to analyze them. The post ‘Entropy Bagels’ and Other Complex Structures Emerge From Simple Rules first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Roots of...
The American Information Revolution in Global Perspective In “What if they gave an Industrial Revolution and nobody came?” I reviewed The British Industrial...
a year ago
46
a year ago
In “What if they gave an Industrial Revolution and nobody came?” I reviewed The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective, by Robert Allen. In brief, Allen’s explanation for the Industrial Revolution is that Britain had high wages and cheap energy, which meant it was...
Probably...
The World Population Singularity One of the exercises in Modeling and Simulation in Python invites readers to download estimates of...
a year ago
5
a year ago
One of the exercises in Modeling and Simulation in Python invites readers to download estimates of world population from 10,000 BCE to the present, and to see if they are well modeled by any simple mathematical function. Here’s what the estimates look like (aggregated on...
Math Is Still...
Animal Mutation Rates Reveal Traits That Speed Evolution The first large-scale comparison of mutation rates gives insights into how quickly species can...
a year ago
35
a year ago
The first large-scale comparison of mutation rates gives insights into how quickly species can evolve. The post Animal Mutation Rates Reveal Traits That Speed Evolution first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
A Climate Debate Regarding Health Effects – Part I This is the first entry in an exchange between me and Scott Hastings, who requested the exchange....
a year ago
33
a year ago
This is the first entry in an exchange between me and Scott Hastings, who requested the exchange. This is his opening arguments. My response will be tomorrow’s post.   Part I: Hi Steven, first of all, I am tremendously grateful to you for taking time to engage with me on this...
Blog - Practical...
The Bizarre Paths of Groundwater Around Structures [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In 2015, an unusual incident...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In 2015, an unusual incident happened on the construction site for a sewage lift station in British Columbia, Canada. WorksafeBC, the provincial health and safety agency, posted a summary of the event on...
Math Is Still...
A New Experiment Casts Doubt on the Leading Theory of the Nucleus By measuring inflated helium nuclei, physicists have challenged our best understanding of the force...
a year ago
55
a year ago
By measuring inflated helium nuclei, physicists have challenged our best understanding of the force that binds protons and neutrons. The post A New Experiment Casts Doubt on the Leading Theory of the Nucleus first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Physicists Observe ‘Unobservable’ Quantum Phase Transition Measurement and entanglement both have a “spooky” nonlocal flavor to them. Now physicists are...
a year ago
9
a year ago
Measurement and entanglement both have a “spooky” nonlocal flavor to them. Now physicists are harnessing that nonlocality to probe the spread of quantum information and control it. The post Physicists Observe ‘Unobservable’ Quantum Phase Transition first appeared on...
NeuroLogica Blog
Serial Dependence Bias As I have discussed numerous times on this blog, our brains did not evolve to be optimal precise...
a year ago
27
a year ago
As I have discussed numerous times on this blog, our brains did not evolve to be optimal precise perceivers and processors of information. Here is an infographic showing 188 documents cognitive biases. These biases are not all bad – they are tradeoffs. Evolutionary forces care...
Math Is Still...
How 3D Changes in the Genome Turned Sharks Into Skates Changes in the 3D structure of their genome gave skates and rays their distinctive winglike fins and...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Changes in the 3D structure of their genome gave skates and rays their distinctive winglike fins and pancake flatness. The post How 3D Changes in the Genome Turned Sharks Into Skates first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Asterisk
How to Prevent the Next Pandemic Modern technology makes bioterrorism seem increasingly likely. If we can get our act together, there...
over a year ago
2
over a year ago
Modern technology makes bioterrorism seem increasingly likely. If we can get our act together, there are smart ways to prevent it.
Asterisk
Read This, Not That: The Hidden Cost of Nutrition Misinformation Our daily lives are inundated with misleading claims about nutrition. That’s not just distracting —...
a year ago
2
a year ago
Our daily lives are inundated with misleading claims about nutrition. That’s not just distracting — it’s also harming our health.
Beautiful Public...
Mapping the Sea Floor USGS research vessels equipped with cameras, sonar and scanners created a map of 125 square miles of...
a year ago
43
a year ago
USGS research vessels equipped with cameras, sonar and scanners created a map of 125 square miles of the sea floor off Cape Ann, MA.
NeuroLogica Blog
Moon Spacesuit Prototype Unveiled Good spacesuits are deceptively difficult to design, even with today’s technology. NASA is planning...
a year ago
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a year ago
Good spacesuits are deceptively difficult to design, even with today’s technology. NASA is planning to return to the moon in 2025 (if all goes well) but the spacesuit the astronauts will wear is one piece to the puzzle they have not completed yet (the other being the lunar...
Probably...
Think Python Goes to Production Think Python has moved into production, on schedule for the official publication date in July — but...
9 months ago
58
9 months ago
Think Python has moved into production, on schedule for the official publication date in July — but maybe earlier if things go well. To celebrate, I have posted the next batch of chapters on the new site, up through Chapter 12, which is about Markov text analysis and generation,...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Weird issues in value-based care | Out-Of-Pocket Thoughts on value-based care from people actually building in it
2 months ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Thinking beyond value-based care | Out-Of-Pocket Maybe there’s more to life than shared savings
3 months ago
The Works in...
The End of Combustion Vehicles The final section of Ch.2 of Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
a year ago
wadertales
Why count shorebirds? A tale from Portugal The Sado Estuary is one of Portugal’s most important wetlands – a key link in the chain of sites...
a year ago
23
a year ago
The Sado Estuary is one of Portugal’s most important wetlands – a key link in the chain of sites connecting Africa and the Arctic, on the East Atlantic Flyway. In a paper in Waterbirds, João Belo and colleagues analyse changes in numbers of waders wintering in this estuary over...
symmetry magazine
CERN opens Science Gateway About 1,400 people attended the grand opening of CERN’s new science education center.
a year ago
IEEE Spectrum
The Invention That Let Fiber Optics Span the Globe Plenty of big stories from the year 1985 had their moment in the sun and are now all but forgotten:...
a year ago
7
a year ago
Plenty of big stories from the year 1985 had their moment in the sun and are now all but forgotten: New Coke, “We Are the World,” the rise of desktop publishing. But one at-the-time obscure invention from that year has long eclipsed the frothy headlines of its time, because it...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Prescription Drug Commercials: Why are you the way you are? | Out-Of-Pocket And is direct-to-consumer pharma marketing bad? Maybe not
a year ago
ToughSF
The Lofstrom Loop: A Bridge to Space Imagine you could take a train ride to space. Tracks that slope up into the sky, higher and higher,...
a year ago
53
a year ago
Imagine you could take a train ride to space. Tracks that slope up into the sky, higher and higher, until you reach a plateau above the planet where it’s a straight line up to orbital velocity. That’s what’s possible with a Lofstrom Loop. But sending you into orbit is just one...
IEEE Spectrum
Why Are We Still Doing What Simon Says? In 1976, Ralph Baer and Howard Morrison, two game designers, happened to see a trade show...
a year ago
29
a year ago
In 1976, Ralph Baer and Howard Morrison, two game designers, happened to see a trade show demonstration of an Atari arcade game called Touch Me. The game’s waist-high cabinet featured four large buttons on the top, which lit up in random sequence; the player had to push the...
Explorations of an...
The End Of An Era - Reflections On Our Travels (Written on April 23, 2023) In just a few days time, Laura and I will board a jet bound for another...
a year ago
14
a year ago
(Written on April 23, 2023) In just a few days time, Laura and I will board a jet bound for another international destination. Our flight home to Toronto isn't that unique of a scenario, as we have flown on plenty of planes headed home since we began our international travels...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Discussion about Biological Sex At CSICON this year I gave talk about topics over which skeptics have and continue to disagree with...
a month ago
18
a month ago
At CSICON this year I gave talk about topics over which skeptics have and continue to disagree with each other. My core theme was that these are the topics we absolutely should be discussing with each other, especially at skeptical conferences. Nothing should be taboo or too...
Asterisk
Half A Million Kinksters Can’t Be Wrong The story of how one independent researcher conducted the largest-ever survey on fetishes, and what...
a year ago
1
a year ago
The story of how one independent researcher conducted the largest-ever survey on fetishes, and what it has to teach us about sex, pleasure, and social science methodology.
Math Is Still...
What Can Jellyfish Teach Us About Fluid Dynamics? Jellyfish and other aquatic creatures embody solutions to diverse problems in engineering, medicine...
a year ago
20
a year ago
Jellyfish and other aquatic creatures embody solutions to diverse problems in engineering, medicine and mathematics. John Dabiri, a fluid dynamics expert, talks with Steven Strogatz about what jellyfish can teach us about going with the flow. The post What Can...
Math Is Still...
What Is Machine Learning? Neural networks and other forms of machine learning ultimately learn by trial and error, one...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
Neural networks and other forms of machine learning ultimately learn by trial and error, one improvement at a time. The post What Is Machine Learning? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Asterisk
Emotional Intelligence Amplification Love in the time of chatbots.
a year ago
Confessions of a...
Shark Bay: a pristine template for marine ecosystems worldwide Here in Western Australia, we are lucky to be in the global centre of seagrass diversity.  As such,...
over a year ago
25
over a year ago
Here in Western Australia, we are lucky to be in the global centre of seagrass diversity.  As such, we have a coastline dominated by many different species of seagrasses – from large, temperate seagrasses like Posidonia australis to small, tropical species like Halodule...
NeuroLogica Blog
Converting CO2 to Carbon Nanofibers One of the dreams of a green economy where the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is stable, and not...
11 months ago
19
11 months ago
One of the dreams of a green economy where the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is stable, and not slowly increasing, is the ability to draw CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it to a solid form. Often referred to as carbon capture, some form of this is going to be necessary...
Asterisk
The “TESCREAL” Bungle The TESCREAL “bundle of ideologies” is purportedly essential to understand the race to build...
6 months ago
2
6 months ago
The TESCREAL “bundle of ideologies” is purportedly essential to understand the race to build artificial intelligence, the ethical milieu of those building it, and the philosophical underpinnings behind Silicon Valley as a whole. But does the label actually tell us anything?
Math Is Still...
The Surprisingly Simple Math Behind Puzzling Matchups If Anna beats Benji in a game and Benji beats Carl, will Anna beat Carl? The post The...
11 months ago
27
11 months ago
If Anna beats Benji in a game and Benji beats Carl, will Anna beat Carl? The post The Surprisingly Simple Math Behind Puzzling Matchups first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Fiber optics + a different approach to fab Two very brief items of interest: This article is a nice popular discussion of the history of...
3 months ago
44
3 months ago
Two very brief items of interest: This article is a nice popular discussion of the history of fiber optics and the remarkable progress it's made for telecommunications.  If you're interested in a more expansive but very accessible take on this, I highly recommend City of...
Cremieux Recueil
American Elections Are Unfair Unfortunately, unfairness is baked in
a month ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Cool Facts About Health Insurance Enrollment with Aleka Gurel | Out-Of-Pocket Tis the season
a year ago
IEEE Spectrum
Robert Kahn: The Great Interconnector In the mid-1960s, Robert Kahn began thinking about how computers with different operating systems...
8 months ago
67
8 months ago
In the mid-1960s, Robert Kahn began thinking about how computers with different operating systems could talk to each other across a network. He didn’t think much about what they would say to one another, though. He was a theoretical guy, on leave from the faculty of the...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Sleep health is getting interesting | Out-Of-Pocket The consumer and clinical worlds of sleep are colliding
a month ago
Blog - Practical...
Why Railroads Don't Need Expansion Joints [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] One of the most common...
a year ago
22
a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] One of the most common attributes folks imagine when they think of trains is the clickety-clack sound they make as they roll down the tracks. The thing is, most trains don’t make that sound anymore. Or really,...
The Works in...
Issue 09: Cheap shots and killer bots Plus: Why scientific writing is so bad, how to stop snakebites from killing 100,000 people every...
over a year ago
22
over a year ago
Plus: Why scientific writing is so bad, how to stop snakebites from killing 100,000 people every year, and what science can learn from the fight against global poverty.
NeuroLogica Blog
The Fight over Education There is an ongoing culture war, and not just in the US, over the content of childhood education,...
a year ago
92
a year ago
There is an ongoing culture war, and not just in the US, over the content of childhood education, both public and private. This seems to be flaring up recently, but is never truly gone. Republicans in the US have recently escalated this war by banning over 500 books in several...
Math Is Still...
The Quest to Decode the Mandelbrot Set, Math’s Famed Fractal For decades, a small group of mathematicians has patiently unraveled the mystery of what was once...
11 months ago
19
11 months ago
For decades, a small group of mathematicians has patiently unraveled the mystery of what was once math’s most popular picture. Their story shows how technology transforms even the most abstract mathematical landscapes. The post The Quest to Decode the Mandelbrot Set,...
Explorations of an...
Monsoon Season In Arizona, Part 5: Portal Back To Phoenix September 4, 2024 Our day began with coffee and breakfast on the deck, watching the bird feeders hum...
2 months ago
20
2 months ago
September 4, 2024 Our day began with coffee and breakfast on the deck, watching the bird feeders hum with activity. It was, sadly, our final morning in this region and we packed up and headed out. It would have been nice to have an extra night or two here, though you could say...
Blog - Practical...
How Different Spillway Gates Work [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In the heart of Minneapolis,...
a year ago
24
a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In the heart of Minneapolis, Minnesota on the Mississippi River is the picturesque Upper Saint Anthony Falls Lock and Dam, which originally made it possible to travel upstream on the river past the falls...
IEEE Spectrum
False Starts: The Story of Vehicle-to-Grid Power In 2001, a team of engineers at a then-obscure R&D company called AC Propulsion quietly began a...
a year ago
5
a year ago
In 2001, a team of engineers at a then-obscure R&D company called AC Propulsion quietly began a groundbreaking experiment. They wanted to see whether an electric vehicle could feed electricity back to the grid. The experiment seemed to prove the feasibility of the technology. The...
Math Is Still...
The Hidden Connection That Changed Number Theory Quadratic reciprocity lurks around many corners in mathematics. By proving it, number theorists...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Quadratic reciprocity lurks around many corners in mathematics. By proving it, number theorists reimagined their whole field. The post The Hidden Connection That Changed Number Theory first appeared on Quanta Magazine
symmetry magazine
Encouraging a new community Physicists advocate for getting community college students involved in research.
a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Harvesting Energy from Water Vapor I did not plan to write yet another post about energy, but this popped up and I had to write about...
a year ago
55
a year ago
I did not plan to write yet another post about energy, but this popped up and I had to write about it. UMASS researchers have produced a device that generates electricity by harvesting charge from water vapor. They write: The common feature of these materials is that they are...
IEEE Spectrum
Saving the Big Bang (Antenna) The antenna that discovered a cosmic microwave background coming from all directions in...
a year ago
6
a year ago
The antenna that discovered a cosmic microwave background coming from all directions in space—cementing the theory that the universe was created in a big bang—now stares down its own topsy-turvy future. Its owner says the hardware will be preserved, but the fate of the historical...
NeuroLogica Blog
3D Printed Rocket Launches This is one of those technology news stories where the implications of the technology is greater...
a year ago
28
a year ago
This is one of those technology news stories where the implications of the technology is greater than the thing itself. Relativity Space, a rocket company based in California, launched their first Terran-1 rocket. The launch ultimately failed when the second stage failed to...
Beautiful Public...
The Army and Navy Style Guides These fascinating Army and Navy brand style guides define the look, feel and voice of our armed...
a year ago
Sean Carroll
Thanksgiving This year we give thanks for one of the very few clues we have to the quantum nature of spacetime:...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
This year we give thanks for one of the very few clues we have to the quantum nature of spacetime: black hole entropy. (We’ve previously given thanks for the Standard Model Lagrangian, Hubble’s Law, the Spin-Statistics Theorem, conservation of momentum, effective field theory,...
Math Is Still...
Risky Giant Steps Can Solve Optimization Problems Faster New results break with decades of conventional wisdom for the gradient descent algorithm. ...
a year ago
5
a year ago
New results break with decades of conventional wisdom for the gradient descent algorithm. The post Risky Giant Steps Can Solve Optimization Problems Faster first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Alan Turing and the Power of Negative Thinking Mathematical proofs based on a technique called diagonalization can be relentlessly contrarian, but...
a year ago
105
a year ago
Mathematical proofs based on a technique called diagonalization can be relentlessly contrarian, but they help reveal the limits of algorithms. The post Alan Turing and the Power of Negative Thinking first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Probably...
Life in a Lognormal World At PyData Global 2023 I will present a talk, “Extremes, outliers, and GOATs: On life in a lognormal...
a year ago
5
a year ago
At PyData Global 2023 I will present a talk, “Extremes, outliers, and GOATs: On life in a lognormal world”. It is scheduled for Wednesday 6 December at 11 am Eastern Time. Here is the abstract: The fastest runners are much faster than we expect from a Gaussian distribution, and...
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2024, Day 3 My highlights today are a bit thin, because I was fortunate enough to spend time catching up with...
9 months ago
29
9 months ago
My highlights today are a bit thin, because I was fortunate enough to spend time catching up with collaborators and old friends, but here goes: Pedram Roushan from Google gave an interesting talk about noisy intermediate-scale quantum experiments for simulation.  He showed some...
Math Is Still...
Dark Energy May Be Weakening, Major Astrophysics Study Finds A generation of physicists has referred to the dark energy that permeates the universe as “the...
8 months ago
24
8 months ago
A generation of physicists has referred to the dark energy that permeates the universe as “the cosmological constant.” Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years. The post Dark Energy May Be...
Math Is Still...
The Lawlessness of Large Numbers Mathematicians can often figure out what happens as quantities grow infinitely large. What about...
a year ago
21
a year ago
Mathematicians can often figure out what happens as quantities grow infinitely large. What about when they are just a little big? The post The Lawlessness of Large Numbers first appeared on Quanta Magazine
brr
South Pole Water Infrastructure Fresh water from snow, at 70 below!
6 months ago
Probably...
Logarithms and Heteroskedasticity Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous...
6 months ago
59
6 months ago
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous installments are available from the Data Q&A landing page. log_heterosked Logarithms and heteroskedasticity¶ Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics forum. Is it correct to use...
nanoscale views
Faculty positions at Rice, + annual Nobel speculation Trying to spread the word: The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University in Houston,...
a year ago
6
a year ago
Trying to spread the word: The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University in Houston, Texas invites applications for two tenure-track faculty positions, one experimental and one theoretical, in the area of quantum science using atomic, molecular, or optical methods....
Many Worlds
The Moon Rush Is On. Are We on Earth Ready For That? An Indian spacecraft landed on the moon this month and a pioneering Japanese lunar  lander is...
a year ago
7
a year ago
An Indian spacecraft landed on the moon this month and a pioneering Japanese lunar  lander is awaiting an imminent launch.  A Russian craft trying to land in the same area — the southern polar region — recently crashed, as did a private effort by a joint Japanese-United Arab...
NeuroLogica Blog
Using AI for Neuroforecasting I’ve been following AI (artificial intelligence) news very closely, including all the controversies...
a year ago
27
a year ago
I’ve been following AI (artificial intelligence) news very closely, including all the controversies and concerns. I tend to fall on the side of – AI is a powerful tool, we should continue to develop it and use it responsibly. We don’t need to panic, and highly restrictive laws...
Light from Space
Elephant Trunk & IC 1396 A beautiful nebula in Cepheus. The middle bottom left of the image shows the “Elephant Trunk”,  but...
over a year ago
23
over a year ago
A beautiful nebula in Cepheus. The middle bottom left of the image shows the “Elephant Trunk”,  but the whole nebula IC 1396 shows much impressive detail. A whole layer of dark nebulas overlaps everything, looking like a giant explosion frozen in time. Total exposure time: 18h...
Probably...
Destructive Testing Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous...
7 months ago
68
7 months ago
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous installments are available from the Data Q&A landing page. sample_size Sample Size Selection¶ Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics forum. Hi Redditors, I am a civil engineer trying...
Math Is Still...
What Does Milk Do for Babies? Human nutrition begins with milk, but the wondrous biofluid does much more than feed babies. In this...
8 months ago
37
8 months ago
Human nutrition begins with milk, but the wondrous biofluid does much more than feed babies. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz speaks with molecular nutritionist Elizabeth Johnson about her research into the impact of human milk on a healthy microbiome. The...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Science of Gift Giving There is a lot of social psychology out there providing information that can inform our everyday...
a year ago
6
a year ago
There is a lot of social psychology out there providing information that can inform our everyday lives, and most people are completely unaware of the research. Richard Wiseman makes this point in his book, 59 Seconds – we actually have useful scientific information, and yet we...
Probably...
Standard deviation of a count This post is part of a new project with the working title Data Q&A: Answering the real questions...
8 months ago
51
8 months ago
This post is part of a new project with the working title Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. In each installment, I’ll take a question from Reddit’s statistics forum and answer it, using Python code to demonstrate. My answer is in a Jupyter notebook — see the...
NeuroLogica Blog
Living a Hybrid Life The cultural effects of the COVID pandemic can still be felt reverberating through society. One of...
4 months ago
38
4 months ago
The cultural effects of the COVID pandemic can still be felt reverberating through society. One of the positive effects, in my opinion, was the sudden boost to remote technology – connecting remotely for meetings and other uses through Zoom or a similar application. This...
wadertales
Counting breeding shorebirds using listening devices With more demands upon the space that is currently occupied by breeding waders, from developments...
2 weeks ago
15
2 weeks ago
With more demands upon the space that is currently occupied by breeding waders, from developments such as wind turbines and monoculture forestry, conservationists are often asked to assess the potential effects of landscape change. Do passive acoustic devices have a role to play...
Math Is Still...
Quantum Computers Cross Critical Error Threshold In a first, researchers have shown that adding more “qubits” to a quantum computer can make it more...
a week ago
16
a week ago
In a first, researchers have shown that adding more “qubits” to a quantum computer can make it more resilient. It’s an essential step on the long road to practical applications. The post Quantum Computers Cross Critical Error Threshold first appeared on Quanta...
Damn Interesting
The Kingpin of Shanghai Respectable heads of state rarely admit to keeping company with gangsters. But in April 1927, about...
over a year ago
6
over a year ago
Respectable heads of state rarely admit to keeping company with gangsters. But in April 1927, about 15 years after the collapse of the last imperial dynasty, Chiang Kai-shek and China were at a crossroads. Chiang had followed a murky path to leadership of the Chinese Nationalist...
Math Is Still...
A Century Later, New Math Smooths Out General Relativity Mathematicians prove a theorem that illuminates the geometry of universes with tiny amounts of mass....
a year ago
5
a year ago
Mathematicians prove a theorem that illuminates the geometry of universes with tiny amounts of mass. The post A Century Later, New Math Smooths Out General Relativity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Sean Carroll
New Course: The Many Hidden Worlds of Quantum Mechanics In past years I’ve done several courses for The Great Courses/Wondrium (formerly The Teaching...
a year ago
5
a year ago
In past years I’ve done several courses for The Great Courses/Wondrium (formerly The Teaching Company): Dark Matter and Dark Energy, Mysteries of Modern Physics:Time, and The Higgs Boson and Beyond. Now I’m happy to announce a new one, The Many Hidden Worlds of Quantum Mechanics....
Math Is Still...
New Elliptic Curve Breaks 18-Year-Old Record Two mathematicians have renewed a debate about the fundamental nature of some of math’s most...
a month ago
19
a month ago
Two mathematicians have renewed a debate about the fundamental nature of some of math’s most important equations. The post New Elliptic Curve Breaks 18-Year-Old Record first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Asterisk
Looking Back at the Future of Humanity Institute The rise and fall of the influential, embattled Oxford research center that brought us the concept...
a month ago
2
a month ago
The rise and fall of the influential, embattled Oxford research center that brought us the concept of existential risk.
nanoscale views
Tour de force work: Bragg, diffraction, and diamond There are some examples of scientific progress that just seem so far above and beyond the norm, it's...
a year ago
29
a year ago
There are some examples of scientific progress that just seem so far above and beyond the norm, it's almost jaw dropping in terms of the mental leap needed for the insight.  One example that I always liked to point out to first-year undergrads learning about gravity is Johannes...
pcloadletter
Write code that you can understand when you get paged at 2am The older I get, the more I dislike clever code. This is not a controversial take; it is pretty-well...
7 months ago
63
7 months ago
The older I get, the more I dislike clever code. This is not a controversial take; it is pretty-well agreed upon that clever code is bad. But I particularly like the on-call responsiblity framing: write code that you can understand when you get paged at 2am. If you have never...
Casey Handmer's blog
Why do we need a Department of Government Efficiency? President Trump’s recent sweeping electoral victory is a clear mandate for change. There is some...
2 weeks ago
4
2 weeks ago
President Trump’s recent sweeping electoral victory is a clear mandate for change. There is some urgency, and Trump has assembled the early stages of a team and coalition that can deliver it. It’s not exactly a mystery what Elon and Vivek plan for The Department of Government...
IEEE Spectrum
The Marimba Virtuoso’s Desktop Planetarium The United States was at the time approaching “peak space.” The previous year, cosmonaut Yuri...
a year ago
9
a year ago
The United States was at the time approaching “peak space.” The previous year, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human to reach outer space, and on 12 September 1962 President Kennedy would announce the United States’ intention to put a man on the moon before the...
Confessions of a...
A first step into the unknown world of academia……. At the beginning of this blog I did promise to include some writings that would at least be...
over a year ago
15
over a year ago
At the beginning of this blog I did promise to include some writings that would at least be semi-useful (hopefully!) to future students hoping to move into a career in marine science; so here it goes! From today I am beginning a year long Postgraduate Teaching Internship at UWA....
Math Is Still...
The Best Neighborhoods for Starting a Life in the Galaxy Some neighborhoods in the Milky Way may be better suited for making habitable planets than others. ...
11 months ago
17
11 months ago
Some neighborhoods in the Milky Way may be better suited for making habitable planets than others. The post The Best Neighborhoods for Starting a Life in the Galaxy first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Sean Carroll
Energy Conservation and Non-Conservation in Quantum Mechanics Conservation of energy is a somewhat sacred principle in physics, though it can be tricky in certain...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
Conservation of energy is a somewhat sacred principle in physics, though it can be tricky in certain circumstances, such as an expanding universe. Quantum mechanics is another context in which energy conservation is a subtle thing — so much so that it’s still worth writing papers...
Drew Ex Machina
NASA’s Viking Mission & The Search for Life on Mars: The Experiments For young space enthusiasts like myself growing up in the 1970s, NASA’s Viking mission to Mars was...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
For young space enthusiasts like myself growing up in the 1970s, NASA’s Viking mission to Mars was one of the more exciting and memorable. The Viking […]
Math Is Still...
Mathematicians Discover Novel Way to Predict Structure in Graphs In new work on graphs’ hidden structure, mathematicians probe the limits of randomness. ...
a year ago
25
a year ago
In new work on graphs’ hidden structure, mathematicians probe the limits of randomness. The post Mathematicians Discover Novel Way to Predict Structure in Graphs first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Roots of...
Event, Feb 29: “Towards a New Philosophy of Progress” in Boston and on Zoom On Thursday, February 29, I’ll be giving my talk “Towards a New Philosophy of Progress” to the New...
10 months ago
56
10 months ago
On Thursday, February 29, I’ll be giving my talk “Towards a New Philosophy of Progress” to the New England Legal Foundation, for their Economic Liberty Speaker Series. The talk will be held over breakfast at NELF’s offices in Boston, and will also be livestreamed over Zoom. See...
Uncharted...
Become a World-Class Communicator I’m running a 2nd cohort of my course: How to Become a World-Class Communicator, starting in two...
2 months ago
4
2 months ago
I’m running a 2nd cohort of my course: How to Become a World-Class Communicator, starting in two weeks, on November 4th!
nanoscale views
Postdoctoral opportunities at Rice I will be sending some emails shortly, but I wanted to point out postdoctoral opportunities here at...
a year ago
7
a year ago
I will be sending some emails shortly, but I wanted to point out postdoctoral opportunities here at Rice University. The Smalley-Curl Institute is having a competition for two two-year postdoctoral fellow slots.  Click on the link for the details.  The requirements for a...
Wanderingspace
Dust Storm On Mars A dust storm in Olympia Planum's north polar dune fields was triggered by a late Martian summer cold...
8 months ago
40
8 months ago
A dust storm in Olympia Planum's north polar dune fields was triggered by a late Martian summer cold front. As the northern polar cap shrinks fast, it releases cold air that sometimes moves south, like on Earth. These cold fronts strengthen in late summer and early fall due to...
Asterisk
The Highway to NIMBYism San Francisco’s history of collective decision-making helped prevent the city from being carved up...
7 months ago
2
7 months ago
San Francisco’s history of collective decision-making helped prevent the city from being carved up by highways. Today, that same legacy prevents the city from building what it desperately needs: more housing.
Melting Asphalt
Going Critical Background: This is an interactive blog post. I wanted to host it here, but don't know how to make...
over a year ago
6
over a year ago
Background: This is an interactive blog post. I wanted to host it here, but don't know how to make it play nice with WordPress. So I decided to host it on another part of the site instead. Click here for… Read more ›
NeuroLogica Blog
New Type of Black Hole Discovered ESA’s Gaia orbital telescope has recently discovered two new black holes. This, in itself, is not...
a year ago
55
a year ago
ESA’s Gaia orbital telescope has recently discovered two new black holes. This, in itself, is not surprising, as that is Gaia’s mission – to precisely map the three-dimensional position of two billion objects in our galaxy, using three separate instruments. The process is called...
Drew Ex Machina
Venera 8: The First Characterization of the Surface of Venus Recent years has seen a marked increase in the planetary community’s interest in Venus after decades...
over a year ago
22
over a year ago
Recent years has seen a marked increase in the planetary community’s interest in Venus after decades of near-neglect. Part of this renewed interest is to understand […]
nanoscale views
2024 version: Advice on choosing a graduate school It's been four years since I posted the previous version of this, so it feels like the time is right...
10 months ago
56
10 months ago
It's been four years since I posted the previous version of this, so it feels like the time is right for an update. This is written on the assumption that you have already decided, after careful consideration, that you want to get an advanced degree (in physics, though much of...
NeuroLogica Blog
It’s Not Possible – Until Suddenly It Is There are a couple of recent stories that remind me that perhaps the most powerful thing in the...
a year ago
24
a year ago
There are a couple of recent stories that remind me that perhaps the most powerful thing in the world is political will. Often politicians and motivational speakers will say something along the lines of, “We can do anything, if we put our minds to it.” While this sounds like...
ToughSF
Particle Beams in Space Science fiction is missing a realistic and grounded look at particle beams. We plan to do just that...
over a year ago
6
over a year ago
Science fiction is missing a realistic and grounded look at particle beams. We plan to do just that now.   After reading this, you might decide to give particle beams their rightful place alongside lasers as a means of transmitting power, propelling spacecraft or dealing damage...
The Roots of...
Quote quiz answer Here’s the answer to the recent quote quiz: The author was Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber. The...
a year ago
39
a year ago
Here’s the answer to the recent quote quiz: The author was Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber. The quote was taken from his manifesto, “Industrial Society and Its Future.” Here’s a slightly longer, and unaltered, quote: First let us postulate that the computer scientists succeed in...
IEEE Spectrum
Jean Sammet: An Accidental Computer Programmer Jean Sammet rarely let anything get in the way of her professional goals. As a young student, she...
a week ago
13
a week ago
Jean Sammet rarely let anything get in the way of her professional goals. As a young student, she was barred from attending prestigious all-boys schools, so she pursued her love of mathematics at the best institutions she could find that were open to girls and women. Following...
brr
McMurdo's Automated Teller Machines Cash, in Antarctica!
over a year ago
Probably...
Ears Are Weird In a previous article, I looked at 93 measurements from the ANSUR-II dataset and found that ear...
3 months ago
40
3 months ago
In a previous article, I looked at 93 measurements from the ANSUR-II dataset and found that ear protrusion is not correlated with any other measurement. In a followup article, I used principle component analysis to explore the correlation structure of the measurements, and found...
Quantum Frontiers
Now published: Building Quantum Computers Building Quantum Computers: A Practical Introduction by Shayan Majidy, Christopher Wilson, and...
2 months ago
39
2 months ago
Building Quantum Computers: A Practical Introduction by Shayan Majidy, Christopher Wilson, and Raymond Laflamme has been published by Cambridge University Press and will be released in the US on September 30. The authors invited me to write a Foreword for … Continue reading →
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Structuring the Unstructured and ScienceIO | Out-Of-Pocket how to train your model, the animated movie
a year ago
Math Is Still...
Michel Talagrand Wins Abel Prize for Work Wrangling Randomness The French mathematician spent decades developing a set of tools now widely used for taming random...
9 months ago
34
9 months ago
The French mathematician spent decades developing a set of tools now widely used for taming random processes. The post Michel Talagrand Wins Abel Prize for Work Wrangling Randomness first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
How Does Math Keep Secrets? Cryptography is the thread that connects Julius Caesar, World War II and quantum computing, and it...
4 months ago
33
4 months ago
Cryptography is the thread that connects Julius Caesar, World War II and quantum computing, and it now lies under nearly every part of modern life. In this week’s episode, computer scientist Boaz Barak and co-host Janna Levin discuss the past and future of secrecy. ...
Damn Interesting
Capital, Punished Located 350 km (217 miles) southeast of Puerto Rico, the British island of Montserrat is sometimes...
over a year ago
7
over a year ago
Located 350 km (217 miles) southeast of Puerto Rico, the British island of Montserrat is sometimes called ‘The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean’ for its verdancy and early Irish settlers. However, far from a paradise, Montserrat also boasts an unfortunate history, and not just...
Math Is Still...
How Is Flocking Like Computing? Birds flock. Locusts swarm. Fish school. From chaotic assemblies of life, order somehow emerges. In...
8 months ago
22
8 months ago
Birds flock. Locusts swarm. Fish school. From chaotic assemblies of life, order somehow emerges. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz interviews the evolutionary ecologist Iain Couzin about how and why collective behaviors arise. The post How Is Flocking Like...
Math Is Still...
Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness, Experts Declare A group of prominent biologists and philosophers announced a new consensus: There’s “a realistic...
8 months ago
61
8 months ago
A group of prominent biologists and philosophers announced a new consensus: There’s “a realistic possibility” that insects, octopuses, crustaceans, fish and other overlooked animals experience consciousness. The post Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness,...
pcloadletter
RSS is still pretty great I think a lot about information and information consumption. The way the Internet made information...
10 months ago
17
10 months ago
I think a lot about information and information consumption. The way the Internet made information readily available is phenomenal. Sadly, the signal-to-noise ratio here is pretty low. For me, consuming RSS feeds[1] offers the best way to read the kind of high-quality information...
Math Is Still...
Swirling Forces, Crushing Pressures Measured in the Proton Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of...
9 months ago
41
9 months ago
Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of energies, forces and pressures inside a subatomic particle for the first time. The post Swirling Forces, Crushing Pressures Measured in the Proton first appeared on Quanta...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Physics of Flocks Most people have watched large flocks of birds. They are fascinating, and have interested scientists...
8 months ago
38
8 months ago
Most people have watched large flocks of birds. They are fascinating, and have interested scientists for a long time. How, exactly, do so many birds maintain their cohesion as a flock? It’s obviously a dynamic process, but what are the mechanisms? When I was young I was taught...
Math Is Still...
‘Species Repulsion’ Enables High Biodiversity in Tropical Trees Because tree seedlings don’t grow as well when close to their parents, more tree species can be...
a year ago
5
a year ago
Because tree seedlings don’t grow as well when close to their parents, more tree species can be packed into tropical forests. The post ‘Species Repulsion’ Enables High Biodiversity in Tropical Trees first appeared on Quanta Magazine
IEEE Spectrum
Who Really Invented the Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery? Fifty years after the birth of the rechargeable lithium-ion battery, it’s easy to see its value....
a year ago
10
a year ago
Fifty years after the birth of the rechargeable lithium-ion battery, it’s easy to see its value. It’s used in billions of laptops, cellphones, power tools, and cars. Global sales top US $45 billion a year, on their way to more than $100 billion in the coming decade. The first...
Inverted Passion
Notes from the book “Hooked” I re-read the book Hooked by Nir Eyal and these are my notes. 1/ The key question that the book...
12 months ago
14
12 months ago
I re-read the book Hooked by Nir Eyal and these are my notes. 1/ The key question that the book answers is: how to make habit-forming products. And its answer is a model that involves four stages: a) trigger; b) action; c) variable reward; d) investment 2/ Why should products be...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Redox and The Future Of Integrations | Out-Of-Pocket Actually...what is an integration lol
a year ago
Math Is Still...
Tiny Jets on the Sun Power the Colossal Solar Wind A new analysis argues that ubiquitous eruptions in the sun’s corona explain the vast flow of charged...
a year ago
38
a year ago
A new analysis argues that ubiquitous eruptions in the sun’s corona explain the vast flow of charged particles seen streaming out through the solar system. The post Tiny Jets on the Sun Power the Colossal Solar Wind first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Inverted Passion
Usefulness grounds truth Are LLMs intelligent? Debates on this question often, but not always, devolve into debates on what...
5 months ago
59
5 months ago
Are LLMs intelligent? Debates on this question often, but not always, devolve into debates on what LLMs can or cannot do. To a limited extent, the original question is useful because it creates an opening for people to go into specific. But, beyond that initial use, the question...
NeuroLogica Blog
Energy Demand Increasing For the last two decades electricity demand in the US has been fairly flat. While it has been...
9 months ago
30
9 months ago
For the last two decades electricity demand in the US has been fairly flat. While it has been increasing overall, the increase has been very low. This has been largely attributed to the fact that as the use of electrical devices has increased, the efficiency of those devices has...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Answers: How Much Info Should A Patient Get? | Out-Of-Pocket do we need our physicians to be interpreters?
a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Germany and Nuclear Power Germany has been thrown around a lot as an example of both what to do and what not to do in terms of...
a year ago
34
a year ago
Germany has been thrown around a lot as an example of both what to do and what not to do in terms of addressing global warming by embracing green energy technology. It’s possible to look back now and review the numbers, to see what the effect was of its decision to embrace...
nanoscale views
Foams! (or, why my split pea side dish boils over every Thanksgiving) Foams can be great examples of mechanical metamaterials.   Adapted from TOC figure of this...
3 weeks ago
10
3 weeks ago
Foams can be great examples of mechanical metamaterials.   Adapted from TOC figure of this paper Consider my shaving cream.  You might imagine that the (mostly water) material would just pool as a homogeneous liquid, since water molecules have a strong attraction for one...
The Works in...
The asbestos times How asbestos saved cities, before we realized its risks
11 months ago
Stephen Wolfram...
Computing the Eclipse: Astronomy in the Wolfram Language Basic Eclipse Computation It’s taken millennia to get to the point where it’s possible to accurately...
8 months ago
31
8 months ago
Basic Eclipse Computation It’s taken millennia to get to the point where it’s possible to accurately compute eclipses. But now—as a tiny part of making “everything in the world” computable—computation about eclipses is just a built-in feature of the Wolfram Language. The core...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Provider Directories, Physician data, and Ribbon Health | Out-Of-Pocket why can't I find any important info about my doctor lol
a year ago
IEEE Spectrum
The Rise of Groupware A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the...
5 months ago
47
5 months ago
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the end of the long tail. These days, computer users take collaboration software for granted. Google Docs, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Salesforce, and so on, are such a big part of many...
nanoscale views
Reading material - orders of magnitude and difficult times Over the past couple of weeks (and more) I have found a number of things to read that I wanted to...
a year ago
53
a year ago
Over the past couple of weeks (and more) I have found a number of things to read that I wanted to pass on.  First, if you'd like a break from the seemingly continual stream of bad news in the world and enjoy good "think like a physicist"/dimensional analysis/order of magnitude...
NeuroLogica Blog
Oldest Evidence of Humans In Americas Exactly when Homo sapiens came to the Americas has not been firmly established, and new evidence has...
a year ago
4
a year ago
Exactly when Homo sapiens came to the Americas has not been firmly established, and new evidence has just thrown another curve ball into the controversy. There is evidence of a large culture of humans throughout North America from 12-13,000 years ago, called the Clovis Culture....
nanoscale views
Science and how it will be practiced in the future I just registered for an event that celebrates the 35th anniversary of a particular science and...
a year ago
25
a year ago
I just registered for an event that celebrates the 35th anniversary of a particular science and engineering program, and one question they posed was, to paraphrase, "Science has changed a lot in the last 35 years.  Please make three predictions about science in the next 35...
Math Is Still...
A Plan to Address the World’s Challenges With Math Minhyong Kim is leading a new initiative called Mathematics for Humanity that encourages...
a year ago
60
a year ago
Minhyong Kim is leading a new initiative called Mathematics for Humanity that encourages mathematicians to apply their skills to solving social problems. The post A Plan to Address the World’s Challenges With Math first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
New Theory Unites Gravity and Quantum Mechanics One of the greatest mysteries of modern science is how to unite the two overarching theories of...
a year ago
8
a year ago
One of the greatest mysteries of modern science is how to unite the two overarching theories of physics – quantum mechanics and general relativity. If physicists could somehow unite these two theories, which currently do not play well together, then we might get to a deeper “one...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How To Make Your Own Card Game | Out-Of-Pocket Want to bring a board or card game to life? Here's what you can expect in terms of costs and money...
a year ago
ToughSF
Advanced Solar Energy in Space: Part II In this post, we continue looking at high power density options for solar energy. Brayton...
over a year ago
6
over a year ago
In this post, we continue looking at high power density options for solar energy. Brayton cycle We commonly see the Brayton cycle used to convert heat into work in jet engines and the steam turbines of power plants. There are three main components: a compressor, a heat...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The Curious Case of Professional Employer Organizations | Out-Of-Pocket A tale about complexity, risk skimming, and what counts as an “employee” or “company”
3 months ago
Light from Space
Bubble Nebula and Neighborhood The constellation of Cassiopeia is full of rich gas clouds and a myriad of different Nebulas and...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
The constellation of Cassiopeia is full of rich gas clouds and a myriad of different Nebulas and Star Clusters. Click or tap to enlarge/double-tap to zoom Total exposure time: 37h 20m (134,400s) Image resolution: 4,784 × 6,840px (1.919″/px) Shot from my driveway near
Math Is Still...
Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Explain Value of Shock Therapy Electroconvulsive therapy is highly effective in treating major depressive disorder, but no one...
9 months ago
29
9 months ago
Electroconvulsive therapy is highly effective in treating major depressive disorder, but no one knows why it works. New research suggests it may restore balance between excitation and inhibition in the brain. The post Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Explain Value of...
Explorations of an...
Cañadon de Profundidad and Iguazú Falls February 4, 2023 For our second day in Misiones, Laura and I ventured over to a small park only a...
a year ago
13
a year ago
February 4, 2023 For our second day in Misiones, Laura and I ventured over to a small park only a half-hour drive from our accommodations in Posadas. Our main reason for visiting Parque Provincial Cañadón de Profundidad was to search for Creamy-bellied Gnatcatcher, of which...
Uncharted...
100,000 Gifts What happened in 2024 and what will happen in 2025
3 days ago
NeuroLogica Blog
UK Building More Nuclear The nuclear debate seems never-ending, which I guess is to be expected. Every large technology has...
a year ago
31
a year ago
The nuclear debate seems never-ending, which I guess is to be expected. Every large technology has tradeoffs. But the need to transition our energy infrastructure to carbon neutral has shifted the equation, and it is now arguable that we cannot afford to ignore the option of...
Math Is Still...
Researchers Refute a Widespread Belief About Online Algorithms Three computer scientists have disproved a long-standing conjecture about a fundamental problem...
a year ago
7
a year ago
Three computer scientists have disproved a long-standing conjecture about a fundamental problem involving imperfect information. The post Researchers Refute a Widespread Belief About Online Algorithms first appeared on Quanta Magazine
symmetry magazine
Practice makes perfect (particle detectors) Prototyping is an indispensable step in the development of particle physics experiments like DUNE...
a year ago
25
a year ago
Prototyping is an indispensable step in the development of particle physics experiments like DUNE and projects like PIP-II. When complete, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE, will be the world’s most comprehensive neutrino experiment—and...
The Roots of...
A plea for solutionism on AI safety Will AI kill us all? This question has rapidly gone mainstream. A few months ago, it wasn’t...
a year ago
34
a year ago
Will AI kill us all? This question has rapidly gone mainstream. A few months ago, it wasn’t seriously debated very far outside the rationalist community of LessWrong; now it’s reported in major media outlets including the NY Times, The Guardian, the Times of London, BBC, WIRED,...
Math Is Still...
Simple Equation Predicts the Shapes of Carbon-Capturing Wetlands To calculate the amount of carbon stored inside peatlands, researchers developed a unified theory of...
6 months ago
66
6 months ago
To calculate the amount of carbon stored inside peatlands, researchers developed a unified theory of “bog physics” applicable around the world. The post Simple Equation Predicts the Shapes of Carbon-Capturing Wetlands first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Meet the Eukaryote, the First Cell to Get Organized All modern multicellular life — all life that any of us regularly see — is made of cells with a...
a month ago
25
a month ago
All modern multicellular life — all life that any of us regularly see — is made of cells with a knack for compartmentalization. Recent discoveries are revealing how the first eukaryote got its start. The post Meet the Eukaryote, the First Cell to Get Organized first...
Asterisk
The Devil in the Details: Matthew Desmond’s Poverty by America Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America is one of the most celebrated books on the subject....
a year ago
2
a year ago
Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America is one of the most celebrated books on the subject. Unfortunately, carelessness about the ways we measure poverty undercuts its main argument.
Asterisk
Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich? The question of why some countries join the developed world while others remain in poverty has vexed...
over a year ago
2
over a year ago
The question of why some countries join the developed world while others remain in poverty has vexed economists for decades. What makes it so hard to answer?
IEEE Spectrum
Skylab: The Space Station That Fell on Australia end cap from one of Skylab’s oxygen tanks in the dirt. Cattle were drinking collected rainwater from...
a year ago
4
a year ago
end cap from one of Skylab’s oxygen tanks in the dirt. Cattle were drinking collected rainwater from the remains of a US $2.2 billion NASA investment. Skylab’s Failure and Recovery Skylab’s fate was sealed moments after lift-off when the sun shield and main solar panel were...
Math Is Still...
Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do Researchers have shown that a problem relating to the energy of a quantum system is easy for quantum...
9 months ago
30
9 months ago
Researchers have shown that a problem relating to the energy of a quantum system is easy for quantum computers but hard for classical ones. The post Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Disorganized thoughts on "Oppenheimer" I saw "Oppenheimer" today.  Spoiler warning, I suppose, though I think we all know how this story...
a year ago
7
a year ago
I saw "Oppenheimer" today.  Spoiler warning, I suppose, though I think we all know how this story ends.  Just in case you were wondering, there is no post-credit scene to set up the sequel.  (For the humor-impaired: that was a joke.) The movie was an excellent piece of...
brr
The Beer Can Connecting old and new.
a year ago
IEEE Spectrum
Inside the Three-Way Race to Create the Most Widely Used Laser The semiconductor laser, invented more than 60 years ago, is the foundation of many of today’s...
5 months ago
44
5 months ago
The semiconductor laser, invented more than 60 years ago, is the foundation of many of today’s technologies including barcode scanners, fiber-optic communications, medical imaging, and remote controls. The tiny, versatile device is now an IEEE Milestone. The possibilities of...
Wanderingspace
Venus from Earth (with Stacking) Image taken by @TheVastReaches. According to the photographer, “It takes just a few minutes to...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
Image taken by @TheVastReaches. According to the photographer, “It takes just a few minutes to collect all the frames. This started as 6 video files, 45,000 frames total. Then they are stacked and combined.”
NeuroLogica Blog
How Humans Can Adapt to Space My recent article on settling Mars has generated a lot of discussion, some of it around the basic...
11 months ago
43
11 months ago
My recent article on settling Mars has generated a lot of discussion, some of it around the basic concept of how difficult it is for humans to live anywhere but a thin envelope of air hugging the surface of the Earth. This is undoubtedly true, as I have discussed before – we...
brr
Polar Night Surreal and otherworldly.
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Some Common Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Angels | Out-Of-Pocket With some real decks and emails!
10 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Trust in Science How much does the public trust in science and scientists? Well, there’s some good news and some bad...
a year ago
6
a year ago
How much does the public trust in science and scientists? Well, there’s some good news and some bad news. Let’s start with the bad news – a recent Pew survey finds that trust in scientist has been in decline for the last few years. From its recent peak in 2019, those who answered...
Drew Ex Machina
The Largest Launch Vehicles in Service – 1957 to the Present With the successful launch of NASA’s Artemis I test flight, we now have a new holder of the title...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
With the successful launch of NASA’s Artemis I test flight, we now have a new holder of the title “the largest launch vehicle in service”: the […]
Blog - Practical...
The Wild Story of the Taum Sauk Dam Failure [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Early in the morning of...
2 months ago
39
2 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Early in the morning of December 14, 2005, pumps were nearly finished filling the upper reservoir at the Taum Sauk power station, marking the end of the daily cycle. Water rose to the top of the rockfill...
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, June 2023 A monthly feature. As usual, recent blog posts and news stories are omitted from this; you can find...
a year ago
123
a year ago
A monthly feature. As usual, recent blog posts and news stories are omitted from this; you can find them in my links digests. In all quotes below, any emphasis in bold was added by me. Books Thomas S. Ashton, The Industrial Revolution, 1760–1830 (1948). A classic in the field,...
NeuroLogica Blog
Decarbonizing Aviation and Agriculture When we talk about reducing carbon release in order to slow down and hopefully stop anthropogenic...
2 months ago
31
2 months ago
When we talk about reducing carbon release in order to slow down and hopefully stop anthropogenic global warming much of the focus is on the energy and transportation sectors. There is a good reason for this – the energy sector is responsible for 25% of greenhouse gas (GHG)...
Math Is Still...
How Genetic Surprises Complicate the Old Doctrine of DNA For over a century, biologists have had to contend with a complicated picture of genetics, which...
a year ago
4
a year ago
For over a century, biologists have had to contend with a complicated picture of genetics, which they’ve only recently begun to understand. The post How Genetic Surprises Complicate the Old Doctrine of DNA first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Andrew Fraknoi –...
A Comet Visible in Our Evening Sky A newly discovered comet is now faintly visible in our skies soon after sunset, if you have clear...
2 months ago
34
2 months ago
A newly discovered comet is now faintly visible in our skies soon after sunset, if you have clear skies and a view low toward the west-southwest horizon. See our diagram from Sky & Telescope magazine, in which the yellow numbers show you the comet’s location in the evening sky...
Math Is Still...
How a Human Smell Receptor Works Is Finally Revealed After decades of frustration, researchers have finally determined how an airborne scent molecule...
a year ago
92
a year ago
After decades of frustration, researchers have finally determined how an airborne scent molecule links to a human smell receptor. The post How a Human Smell Receptor Works Is Finally Revealed first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Many Worlds
Getting To Know Rogue Planets In our Earthling minds, planets exist in solar systems with a Sun in the middle and objects large...
a year ago
6
a year ago
In our Earthling minds, planets exist in solar systems with a Sun in the middle and objects large and small orbiting around it.   This is hardly surprising since planets are pretty much exclusively illustrated in solar systems and, until the onset of the 21st century, no other...
Explorations of an...
Los Amigos Biological Station - Part 3 My final post from Peru.... September 22, 2022 Much like the previous morning, Laura and I...
a year ago
16
a year ago
My final post from Peru.... September 22, 2022 Much like the previous morning, Laura and I arranged a packed breakfast and we hit the trails around dawn. While birds were obviously on my mind, there were still a few mammals that I was really keen to search for, too. And luck...
Quantum Frontiers
My experimental adventures in quantum thermodynamics Imagine a billiard ball bouncing around on a pool table. High-school level physics enables us to...
9 months ago
70
9 months ago
Imagine a billiard ball bouncing around on a pool table. High-school level physics enables us to predict its motion until the end of time using simple equations for energy and momentum conservation, as long as you know the initial conditions … Continue reading →
IEEE Spectrum
Assistive Tech at the End of Sight Seeing his words on the printed page is a big deal to Andrew Leland—as it is to all writers. But the...
a year ago
8
a year ago
Seeing his words on the printed page is a big deal to Andrew Leland—as it is to all writers. But the sight of his thoughts in written form is much more precious to him than to most scribes. Leland is gradually losing his vision due to a congenital condition called retinitis...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Transforming Healthcare Data with Tuva Health | Out-Of-Pocket The nitty, gritty, and shitty of working with health data
a year ago
Bartosz Ciechanowski
Mechanical Watch In the world of modern portable devices, it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the...
over a year ago
33
over a year ago
In the world of modern portable devices, it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the most convenient way to keep track of time was a mechanical watch. Unlike their quartz and smart siblings, mechanical watches can run without using any batteries or other...
Math Is Still...
The Computer Scientist Who Builds Big Pictures From Small Details To better understand machine learning algorithms, Lenka Zdeborová treats them like physical...
2 months ago
28
2 months ago
To better understand machine learning algorithms, Lenka Zdeborová treats them like physical materials. The post The Computer Scientist Who Builds Big Pictures From Small Details first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems After years of false starts, a team of computer scientists has found a way to efficiently deduce the...
7 months ago
43
7 months ago
After years of false starts, a team of computer scientists has found a way to efficiently deduce the Hamiltonian of a physical system at any constant temperature. The post Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Works in...
Britain’s interwar apartment boom A decade of Art Deco densification
9 months ago
Asterisk
The Death and Life of Prediction Markets at Google Over the past two decades, Google has hosted two different internal platforms for predictions. Why...
a month ago
2
a month ago
Over the past two decades, Google has hosted two different internal platforms for predictions. Why did the first one fail — and will the other endure?
Quantum Frontiers
Announcing the quantum-steampunk creative-writing course! Why not run a quantum-steampunk creative-writing course? Quantum steampunk, as Quantum Frontiers...
3 months ago
41
3 months ago
Why not run a quantum-steampunk creative-writing course? Quantum steampunk, as Quantum Frontiers regulars know, is the aesthetic and spirit of a growing scientific field. Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction. In it, futuristic technologies invade Victorian-era settings:...
IEEE Spectrum
Fakes: Not an Internet Thing, a Human Thing Every day, as the Internet becomes more indispensable to modern life, the drawbacks of deep...
a year ago
9
a year ago
Every day, as the Internet becomes more indispensable to modern life, the drawbacks of deep engagement with the virtual realm capture as much attention as the wide-ranging benefits. On the Internet, of course, anyone can in all too many forums pretty much say anything—regardless...
NeuroLogica Blog
SpaceX Tests Super Heavy Booster Last Thursday SpaceX successfully conducted the most significant test firing of its Heavy Booster...
a year ago
22
a year ago
Last Thursday SpaceX successfully conducted the most significant test firing of its Heavy Booster rocket to date. The rocket sports 33 Raptor 2 engines. During the test, 31 of them fired. One engine failed, and one was shut down. According to SpaceX, even with 31 engines the...
Apoorva Srinivasan
getting started with bayesian inference In my previous post, we spoke about hypothesis testing from a frequentist perspective. This is the...
over a year ago
2
over a year ago
In my previous post, we spoke about hypothesis testing from a frequentist perspective. This is the method that is commonly taught in STAT101 classes. But for many decades, some statisticians have argued for another approach to conduct statistical analysis based on bayes...
Blog - Practical...
How Would a Nuclear EMP Affect the Power Grid? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Late in the morning of April...
over a year ago
26
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Late in the morning of April 28, 1958, the USS Boxer aircraft carrier ship was about 70 miles off the coast of the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The crew of the Boxer was preparing to launch a...
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2020, 2) Internet Harvest is a selection of the most succulent links on the internet that I’ve recently...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
Internet Harvest is a selection of the most succulent links on the internet that I’ve recently plucked from its fruitful boughs. Feel free to discuss the links in the comments. Also, semi-intentionally, none of the links in this harvest are COVID-19-related. If you want some...
Drew Ex Machina
Pioneer 3: JPL’s First Moonshot Attempt With the new push by the United States and other space faring powers to renew the exploration of the...
over a year ago
18
over a year ago
With the new push by the United States and other space faring powers to renew the exploration of the Moon, miniaturized spacecraft have been made part […]
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Drone Madness: Here is the Antidote For those of us who, through the years, have been through wave after wave of uncritical and...
6 days ago
16
6 days ago
For those of us who, through the years, have been through wave after wave of uncritical and sensational UFO stories in the media, the current obsession with (and jumping to unwarranted conclusions about) mysterious drones seems all too familiar.  As before, untrained observers,...
NeuroLogica Blog
Cities on Fire Most major cities in the US experienced a major fire sometime between 1860 and 1920. Actually these...
5 months ago
44
5 months ago
Most major cities in the US experienced a major fire sometime between 1860 and 1920. Actually these fires, called conflagrations, have been occurring since colonial times and into the middle of the 20th century, but saw a peak in the late 19th and early 20th century. Many cities...
The Works in...
How to start an advance market commitment A practical guide from the founders of Frontier
6 months ago
Probably...
Multiple Regression with StatsModels This is the third is a series of excerpts from Elements of Data Science which available from...
2 weeks ago
8
2 weeks ago
This is the third is a series of excerpts from Elements of Data Science which available from Lulu.com and online booksellers. It’s from Chapter 10, which is about multiple regression. You can read the complete chapter here, or run the Jupyter notebook on Colab. In the previous...
IEEE Spectrum
The Sneaky Standard A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the...
7 months ago
83
7 months ago
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the end of the long tail. Personal computing has changed a lot in the past four decades, and one of the biggest changes, perhaps the most unheralded, comes down to compatibility. These...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Future of (Unpaid) Work If we think of the top inventions that had a positive impact on human society and our quality of...
a year ago
27
a year ago
If we think of the top inventions that had a positive impact on human society and our quality of life most lists would contain things like the printing press, the wheel, or the computer. One invention that should be on everyone’s list but is easy to overlook is – the washing...
NeuroLogica Blog
Will AI Make Work Redundant? Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming for your job. This, at least, is increasingly conventional...
a year ago
6
a year ago
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming for your job. This, at least, is increasingly conventional wisdom, but I’m not so sure. In a recent interview, Elon Musk predicted that AI would “make paid work redundant.” I encountered the same opinion watching the latest season of...
nanoscale views
Noise in a strange metal - pushing techniques into new systems Over the holiday weekend, we had a paper come out in which we report the results of measuring charge...
a year ago
30
a year ago
Over the holiday weekend, we had a paper come out in which we report the results of measuring charge shot noise (see here also) in a strange metal.   Other write-ups of the work (here and especially this nice article in Quanta here) do a good job of explaining what we saw, but I...
Math Is Still...
How AI Revolutionized Protein Science, but Didn’t End It Three years ago, Google’s AlphaFold pulled off the biggest artificial intelligence breakthrough in...
5 months ago
39
5 months ago
Three years ago, Google’s AlphaFold pulled off the biggest artificial intelligence breakthrough in science to date, accelerating molecular research and kindling deep questions about why we do science. The post How AI Revolutionized Protein Science, but Didn’t End It...
Interaction Magic -...
Podcast: Designed for life A deep dive into my career and the future of experience prototyping with Tony Ryan, CEO of Design &...
over a year ago
2
over a year ago
A deep dive into my career and the future of experience prototyping with Tony Ryan, CEO of Design & Technology Association.
Sean Carroll
Johns Hopkins As far as I remember, the first time I stepped onto a university campus was in junior high school,...
over a year ago
23
over a year ago
As far as I remember, the first time I stepped onto a university campus was in junior high school, when I visited Johns Hopkins for an awards ceremony for the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth. (I grew up in an environment that didn’t involve spending a lot of time on...
Probably...
Should divorce be more difficult? “The Christian right is coming for divorce next,” according to this recent Vox article, and “Some...
6 months ago
58
6 months ago
“The Christian right is coming for divorce next,” according to this recent Vox article, and “Some conservatives want to make it a lot harder to dissolve a marriage.” As always when I read an article like this, I want to see data — and the General Social Survey has just the data I...
Uncharted...
Why Could Lebanon Be Rich, but Is so Chaotic? Mountains, seas, and a shitty region
2 months ago
Math Is Still...
The Simple Geometry That Predicts Molecular Mosaics By treating molecules as geometric tessellations, scientists devised a new way to forecast how 2D...
a year ago
26
a year ago
By treating molecules as geometric tessellations, scientists devised a new way to forecast how 2D materials might self-assemble. The post The Simple Geometry That Predicts Molecular Mosaics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Living Under the Sea One of my favorite recent video games is Subnautica, in which you have to survive almost entirely...
a year ago
36
a year ago
One of my favorite recent video games is Subnautica, in which you have to survive almost entirely under a vast alien ocean. You have the advantage of advanced technology, but even then you are under constant threat of running out of oxygen, or having your habitat implode because...
Explorations of an...
A Quest Nature Tour To Borneo: Tabin Wildlife Reserve And Danum Valley We left the Kinabatangan River behind and transferred to our next destination, the Tabin Wildlife...
a month ago
3
a month ago
We left the Kinabatangan River behind and transferred to our next destination, the Tabin Wildlife Reserve. This is the largest swath of protected forest; an area of lowland primary and logged forest that is home to iconic species like the Bornean Pygmy Elephant, the Sun Bear and...
IEEE Spectrum
50 Years Later, This Apollo-Era Antenna Still Talks to Voyager 2 For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they...
8 months ago
67
8 months ago
For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they explore our solar system and push into the beyond. The DSS-43 radio antenna, located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, near Canberra, Australia, keeps open the line...
NeuroLogica Blog
Problems with the Institute Of Noetic Sciences I was interviewed recently for a Daily Beast article on recent research involving the Institute of...
a year ago
37
a year ago
I was interviewed recently for a Daily Beast article on recent research involving the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Overall the article is very good, and author Maddie Bender was fair and reasonable in how I was quoted. I can’t always take that as a given. No matter how...
Math Is Still...
Can Space-Time Be Saved? Curious connections between physics and math suggest to Latham Boyle that space-time may survive the...
2 months ago
16
2 months ago
Curious connections between physics and math suggest to Latham Boyle that space-time may survive the jump to the next theory of reality. The post Can Space-Time Be Saved? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Chris Grossack's...
Proving Another "Real Theorem" with Topos Theory Another day, another post that starts with “So I was on mse…”, lol. Somebody asked whether...
9 months ago
27
9 months ago
Another day, another post that starts with “So I was on mse…”, lol. Somebody asked whether maximizing over a compact set is a continuous thing to do. That is, given a continuous function $f : K \times X \to \mathbb{R}$ is the function $x \mapsto \max_{k \in K} f(k,x)$...
Math Is Still...
Perplexing the Web, One Probability Puzzle at a Time The mathematician Daniel Litt has driven social media users to distraction with a series of...
3 months ago
40
3 months ago
The mathematician Daniel Litt has driven social media users to distraction with a series of simple-seeming but counterintuitive probability puzzles. The post Perplexing the Web, One Probability Puzzle at a Time first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
To Pack Spheres Tightly, Mathematicians Throw Them at Random Four mathematicians broke a 75-year-old record by finding a denser way to pack high-dimensional...
7 months ago
30
7 months ago
Four mathematicians broke a 75-year-old record by finding a denser way to pack high-dimensional spheres. The post To Pack Spheres Tightly, Mathematicians Throw Them at Random first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Unfolding the Mysteries of Polygonal Billiards The surprisingly subtle geometry of a familiar game shows how quickly math gets complicated. ...
10 months ago
32
10 months ago
The surprisingly subtle geometry of a familiar game shows how quickly math gets complicated. The post Unfolding the Mysteries of Polygonal Billiards first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Frozen Embryos Are Not People Amid much controversy, the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children. They...
9 months ago
49
9 months ago
Amid much controversy, the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children. They did not support their decision with compelling logic, with cited precedence (their decision is literally unprecedented), with practical considerations, or with sound ethical...
NeuroLogica Blog
AI Designed Drugs On a recent SGU live streaming discussion someone in the chat asked – aren’t frivolous AI...
8 months ago
34
8 months ago
On a recent SGU live streaming discussion someone in the chat asked – aren’t frivolous AI applications just toys without any useful output? The question was meant to downplay recent advances in generative AI. I pointed out that the question is a bit circular – aren’t frivolous...
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: A tale of two particles Not all radioactivity is risky or harmful
over a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Titan Disaster and Risk vs Benefit There has been a lot of discussion regarding the recent disaster of the Titan submersible. Was the...
a year ago
23
a year ago
There has been a lot of discussion regarding the recent disaster of the Titan submersible. Was the risk justified? Who should be responsible for the safety issues? Who should be on the hook for the millions of dollars the rescue effort took? And why did this tragedy garner more...
Asterisk
Shutting the California Prison System’s Revolving Door Between 2009 and 2014, California passed a series of laws to reduce the population in its prison...
5 months ago
2
5 months ago
Between 2009 and 2014, California passed a series of laws to reduce the population in its prison system, which for years had operated over capacity. Determining whether those laws worked was not a straightforward task.
Math Is Still...
‘The Rest of the World Disappears’: Claire Voisin on Mathematical Creativity The recipient of the 2024 Crafoord Prize in Mathematics discusses math as art, math as language, and...
9 months ago
20
9 months ago
The recipient of the 2024 Crafoord Prize in Mathematics discusses math as art, math as language, and math as abstract thought. The post ‘The Rest of the World Disappears’: Claire Voisin on Mathematical Creativity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
pcloadletter
The ChatGPT wrapper product boom is an uncanny valley hellscape Here we go again: I'm so tired of crypto web3 LLMs. I'm positive there are wonderful applications...
7 months ago
80
7 months ago
Here we go again: I'm so tired of crypto web3 LLMs. I'm positive there are wonderful applications for LLMs. The ChatGPT web UI seems great for summarizing information from various online sources (as long as you're willing to verify the things that you learn). But a lot fo the "AI...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Threat of Technology In my second book (shameless plug alert) – The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future – my coauthors and I...
a year ago
6
a year ago
In my second book (shameless plug alert) – The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future – my coauthors and I try to imagine both the utopian and dystopian versions of the future, brought about by technology, either individually or collectively. This topic has come up multiple times recently...
The Works in...
Making architecture easy Architecture is inherently public, which means buildings should be agreeable, not unpopular works of...
a month ago
Quantum Frontiers
Caltech’s Ginsburg Center Editor’s Note: On 10 August 2023, Caltech celebrated the groundbreaking for the Dr. Allen and...
a year ago
23
a year ago
Editor’s Note: On 10 August 2023, Caltech celebrated the groundbreaking for the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Center for Quantum Precision Measurement, which will open in 2025. At a lunch following the ceremony, John Preskill made these remarks. Hello everyone. … Continue...
Math Is Still...
Clashing Cosmic Numbers Challenge Our Best Theory of the Universe As measurements of distant stars and galaxies become more precise, cosmologists are struggling to...
11 months ago
22
11 months ago
As measurements of distant stars and galaxies become more precise, cosmologists are struggling to make sense of sparring values. The post Clashing Cosmic Numbers Challenge Our Best Theory of the Universe first appeared on Quanta Magazine
IEEE Spectrum
Lewis H. Latimer: A Life of Lightbulb Moments James Weldon Johnson’s hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” adopted by African Americans as the...
a year ago
5
a year ago
James Weldon Johnson’s hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” adopted by African Americans as the unofficial “Negro National Anthem,” includes the line, “We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,” which sums up how Black Americans have found ways to thrive under...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How to analyze public healthcare datasets (even if you're non-technical) | Out-Of-Pocket Plus: using ChatGPT to analyze datasets?
a year ago
wadertales
Will head-starting work for Curlew? 83 captive-reared Curlew were released successfully in 2019, over 130 in 2021 and a similar number...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
83 captive-reared Curlew were released successfully in 2019, over 130 in 2021 and a similar number in 2022 but this does not mean that head-starting is a solution to England’s Curlew problems. We don’t yet know the proportion of youngsters that survive the difficult ‘teenage...
Wanderingspace
We don’t post enough Mars Scenic Views I mean… we don’t post enough in general.
over a year ago
nanoscale views
What is a metal-insulator transition? The recent excitement about the alleged high temperature superconductor "LK99" has introduced some...
a year ago
10
a year ago
The recent excitement about the alleged high temperature superconductor "LK99" has introduced some in the public to the idea of a metal-insulator or insulator-metal transition (MIT/IMT).  For example, one strong candidate explanation for the sharp drop in resistance as a function...
NeuroLogica Blog
Fossil Fuels – Reduce Demand or Supply? This is a bit of a false choice – we can do both, or neither – but it is an important question and a...
a year ago
3
a year ago
This is a bit of a false choice – we can do both, or neither – but it is an important question and a somewhat of a dilemma. Is the optimal path to reductions and eventual elimination of fossil fuel burning through reduced demand or supply? There are some interesting tradeoffs...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The New Era Of Digital Therapeutics | Out-Of-Pocket Guess it's time to start defining the term again
a year ago
symmetry magazine
Collaboration builds fantastical stories from nuggets of truth What happens when you pair CERN scientists with science fiction writers to create short stories...
a year ago
symmetry magazine
A cosmological headache For over a century, scientists have wondered what is counteracting the force of gravity in the...
a year ago
38
a year ago
For over a century, scientists have wondered what is counteracting the force of gravity in the universe.
Math Is Still...
With Fifth Busy Beaver, Researchers Approach Computation’s Limits After decades of uncertainty, a motley team of programmers has proved precisely how complicated...
5 months ago
54
5 months ago
After decades of uncertainty, a motley team of programmers has proved precisely how complicated simple computer programs can get. The post With Fifth Busy Beaver, Researchers Approach Computation’s Limits first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Eukaryote Writes...
Web-surfing tips for strange times Meditations on what's bad about the internet lately and how to use it anyhow.
6 months ago
nanoscale views
The problems and opportunities of data We live in a world of "big data", and this presents a number of challenges for how we handle this at...
a year ago
54
a year ago
We live in a world of "big data", and this presents a number of challenges for how we handle this at research universities.  Until relatively recently, the domain of huge volume/huge throughput scientific data was chiefly that of the nuclear/particle physics community and then...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Why don’t healthcare companies say what they do? | Out-Of-Pocket And some tips to figure out what a company does
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Malpractice, Expert Witnesses, and Lawsuits with Dr. Eric Funk | Out-Of-Pocket Suits and White Coats
a year ago
Asterisk
Methods Section
a year ago
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: A winter's tale Melting snow can make the season easier
a year ago
Blog - Practical...
How French Drains Work [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In February of 2017, one of...
4 months ago
50
4 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In February of 2017, one of the largest spillways in the world, the one at Oroville Dam in northern California, was severely damaged during releases from heavy rain. You might remember this. I made a video...
nanoscale views
Condensed matter on the public stage, and not in a good way This week, condensed matter physics has been getting far more broad public attention than usual, and...
a year ago
4
a year ago
This week, condensed matter physics has been getting far more broad public attention than usual, and while in the abstract I like our discipline getting noticed, this is definitely not how I’d have preferred it to happen. First, more fun re Ranga Dias.  Fresh off renewed...
Math Is Still...
Computer Scientists Prove That Heat Destroys Quantum Entanglement While devising a new quantum algorithm, four researchers accidentally established a hard limit on...
3 months ago
32
3 months ago
While devising a new quantum algorithm, four researchers accidentally established a hard limit on entanglement. The post Computer Scientists Prove That Heat Destroys Quantum Entanglement first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: Representation and human history Do shrunken heads belong in a museum?
over a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How To Self-Publish A Children's Book and How Much You Can Expect To Make | Out-Of-Pocket spoiler: you will make very little lol
a year ago
Explorations of an...
The Quest For The Rufous-throated Dipper The east slope of the Andes is one of my favourite places in the world to explore. As I've mentioned...
a year ago
13
a year ago
The east slope of the Andes is one of my favourite places in the world to explore. As I've mentioned before on this blog, this is due to several factors, but prime among them is that this slope receives a high level of rainfall. Turn on the taps, and you turn on the biodiversity....
Marine Madness
Culture Club: Time to let the cetaceans in? Up until recently, culture has been thought of as a primarily human characteristic. However, recent...
over a year ago
23
over a year ago
Up until recently, culture has been thought of as a primarily human characteristic. However, recent studies shine a light on the fact that non-human animals including Cetaceans (dolphins and whales), may also possess it. They live in tightly-knit social communities, exhibit...
Damn Interesting
A Taste of Italy In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian...
over a year ago
4
over a year ago
In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian domination (a holdover from the Holy Roman Empire) and the other for unification. At the time, Europe’s boot was a curious conglomeration of separate states, not all of which got along....
nanoscale views
Power and computing The Wall Street Journal last week had an article (sorry about the paywall) titled "There’s Not...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
The Wall Street Journal last week had an article (sorry about the paywall) titled "There’s Not Enough Power for America’s High-Tech Ambitions", about how there is enormous demand for more data centers (think Amazon Web Services and the like), and electricity production can't...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Video Games x Healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket Video games should be our models for engagement
a year ago
Casey Handmer's blog
Anti-aging tech fixes demographic collapse With the latest studies on GLP-1 drugs showing not just a drop in all-cause mortality but also an...
3 months ago
4
3 months ago
With the latest studies on GLP-1 drugs showing not just a drop in all-cause mortality but also an apparent slowing of aging, I thought I’d write a quick note on how I think this technology, if it replicates, can drastically improve our lives. It’s hard to believe I’m writing...
Math Is Still...
What Is Quantum Teleportation? Teleporting people through space is still science fiction. But quantum teleportation is dramatically...
9 months ago
29
9 months ago
Teleporting people through space is still science fiction. But quantum teleportation is dramatically different and entirely real. In this episode, Janna Levin interviews the theoretical physicist John Preskill about teleporting bits and the promise of quantum technology. ...
wadertales
A Whimbrel’s year There’s a lot to fit into twelve months if you’re a Whimbrel. In the last paper from his PhD, Camilo...
over a year ago
25
over a year ago
There’s a lot to fit into twelve months if you’re a Whimbrel. In the last paper from his PhD, Camilo Carneiro assesses whether Icelandic Whimbrel can always manage to complete the annual cycle of migrate-breed-fatten-migrate-moult-fatten in just 365 days. What happens if a pair...
The Works in...
The Power of the Earth On the future of geothermal energy
10 months ago
Chris Grossack's...
Talk - Where Are The Open Sets? I was invited to give a talk at HoTTEST 2022, and was more than happy to accept! Ever since I was...
over a year ago
10
over a year ago
I was invited to give a talk at HoTTEST 2022, and was more than happy to accept! Ever since I was first learning HoTT I was curious how we could be sure that theorems in HoTT give us corresponding theorems in “classical” homotopy theory. Earlier this summer I spent a lot of...
Math Is Still...
The AI Tools Making Images Look Better Researchers have discovered ways around a fundamental trade-off between accuracy and beauty in...
a year ago
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a year ago
Researchers have discovered ways around a fundamental trade-off between accuracy and beauty in digital images. The post The AI Tools Making Images Look Better first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Eukaryote Writes...
Carl Sagan, nuking the moon, and not nuking the moon Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the moon.” The truth is that given a lot of power, a nuclear weapon, and a lot of extremely specific circumstances, we too might find ourselves thinking “I should nuke the moon.”
IEEE Spectrum
The Lisa Was Apple’s Best Failure Happy 40th Birthday to Lisa! The Apple Lisa computer, that is. In celebration of this milestone, the...
a year ago
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a year ago
Happy 40th Birthday to Lisa! The Apple Lisa computer, that is. In celebration of this milestone, the Computer History Museum has received permission from Apple to release the source code to the Lisa, including its system and applications software. You can access the Lisa source...
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2024 - coming soon This week I'm going to be at the APS March Meeting in Minneapolis.  As I've done in past years, I...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
This week I'm going to be at the APS March Meeting in Minneapolis.  As I've done in past years, I will try to write up some highlights of talks that I am able to see, though it may be hit-or-miss.  If readers have suggestions for sessions or talks that they think will be...
ToughSF
Lasers, Mirrors and Star Pyramids Lasers can hit targets at extreme ranges, at the fastest speed possible. They are ideal weapons for...
over a year ago
6
over a year ago
Lasers can hit targets at extreme ranges, at the fastest speed possible. They are ideal weapons for space warfare.  However, everyone knows that lasers bounce off mirrors... does this make lasers useless? The post is inspired by the discussion that arose from the conclusions...
NeuroLogica Blog
Finding Small Primordial Black Holes Astrophysicists come up with a lot of whacky ideas, some of which actually turn out to be possibly...
2 weeks ago
17
2 weeks ago
Astrophysicists come up with a lot of whacky ideas, some of which actually turn out to be possibly true (like the Big Bang, black holes, accelerating cosmic expansion, dark matter). Of course, all of these conclusions are provisional, but some are now backed by compelling...
Math Is Still...
What Could Explain the Gallium Anomaly? Physicists have ruled out a mundane explanation for the strange findings of an old Soviet...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
Physicists have ruled out a mundane explanation for the strange findings of an old Soviet experiment, leaving open the possibility that the results point to a new fundamental particle. The post What Could Explain the Gallium Anomaly? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
IEEE Spectrum
When IBM Built a War Room for Executives Computer History Museum’s collection has a biography of sorts—a life before CHM, a tale about how it...
a week ago
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a week ago
Computer History Museum’s collection has a biography of sorts—a life before CHM, a tale about how it came to us, and a life within the museum. The chapters of that biography include the uses made of it, and the historical and interpretive stories it can be made to tell. This then...
ToughSF
Piracy in Space is Possible Part II: Armed Merchants and Pirate Patrols There's more to piracy than just attacking a target and running away afterwards.  Put yourself in...
over a year ago
6
over a year ago
There's more to piracy than just attacking a target and running away afterwards.  Put yourself in the shoes of a pirate, a merchant or the authorities. What would you do? Fighting back Pirates intercepting, attacking and ransoming a merchant crew should be...
Explorations of an...
Heading East Across The Chaco I’ve written about the Chaco region before – that vast dry, scrubby area south of the Amazon which...
a year ago
17
a year ago
I’ve written about the Chaco region before – that vast dry, scrubby area south of the Amazon which happens to cover much of central and northern Argentina. Laura and I had skirted the edge of the Chaco earlier in the trip, including near Laguna Salinas Grande and in the Salta...
Light from Space
The Helping Hand of LDN 1355 LDN 1355 is a dark nebula in Cassiopeia, vaguely in the shape of an outstreched human hand—the dark...
over a year ago
22
over a year ago
LDN 1355 is a dark nebula in Cassiopeia, vaguely in the shape of an outstreched human hand—the dark dust obscuring the reflection nebula behind it. Total exposure time: 58h 50' (211,800s) Image resolution: 5,216 × 3,909px (1.924″/px) Shot from my driveway
Probably...
Why are you so slow? Recently a shoe store in France ran a promotion called “Rob It to Get It”, which invited customers...
a year ago
9
a year ago
Recently a shoe store in France ran a promotion called “Rob It to Get It”, which invited customers to try to steal something by grabbing it and running out of the store. But there was a catch — the “security guard” was a professional sprinter, Méba Mickael Zeze. As you would...
Math Is Still...
In New Paradox, Black Holes Appear to Evade Heat Death The puzzling behavior of black hole interiors has led researchers to propose a new physical law: the...
a year ago
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a year ago
The puzzling behavior of black hole interiors has led researchers to propose a new physical law: the second law of quantum complexity. The post In New Paradox, Black Holes Appear to Evade Heat Death first appeared on Quanta Magazine
IEEE Spectrum
Franklin’s Franklins Were Freakishly Un-Fakeable To make something hard to fake, you can use exotic materials or clever tricks. Benjamin Franklin, a...
a year ago
8
a year ago
To make something hard to fake, you can use exotic materials or clever tricks. Benjamin Franklin, a printer by vocation, a scientist by avocation, leaned on cleverness, developing measures that are still in use. Those black arts have now yielded to the latest analytical...
Uncharted...
GeoHistory News | Q3 2024 Longshoremen strike, Mexico – Spain conflict, how Islam propelled Europe more than Protestantism,...
2 months ago
3
2 months ago
Longshoremen strike, Mexico – Spain conflict, how Islam propelled Europe more than Protestantism, and more
Asterisk
China’s Policy Failures China’s experimental policy regime catalyzed the country’s economic ascent. Today, the system seems...
10 months ago
2
10 months ago
China’s experimental policy regime catalyzed the country’s economic ascent. Today, the system seems incapable of providing effective governance.
Math Is Still...
Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier Researchers have shown how to find the simplest description of a data set faster than by simply ...
8 months ago
42
8 months ago
Researchers have shown how to find the simplest description of a data set faster than by simply checking every possibility. The post Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
Is the World Really Running Out of Sand? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] If you have to know the answer...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] If you have to know the answer right away, it’s no; or at least, my goal with this video is to convince you that the world is not running out of sand. But if it were that simple, I wouldn’t be here (right?) and...
Willem Pennings
ClockSquared Mini, a word clock wristwatch About a year ago, I had some time to spare over the summer and decided to challenge myself with a...
over a year ago
5
over a year ago
About a year ago, I had some time to spare over the summer and decided to challenge myself with a project that I call “Clocksquared Mini”. It is Clocksquared, but in a tiny wristwatch package. This gives rise to a major challenge, as everything has to be shrunk down approximately...
nanoscale views
What is a glass? I want to write about a recently published paper, but to do so on an accessible level, I should...
a year ago
82
a year ago
I want to write about a recently published paper, but to do so on an accessible level, I should really lay some ground work first. At the primary school level, typically people are taught that there are three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.  (Plasma may be introduced...
Blog - Practical...
How the Hawaiian Power Grid Works [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In January of 2024, right on...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In January of 2024, right on the heels of a serious drought across the state, a major storm slammed into the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Kauai. Severe winds caused damage to buildings, and heavy rain flooded...
Damn Interesting
From Where the Sun Now Stands An American Indian man on horseback stood outlined against a steely sky past midday on 05 October...
a year ago
5
a year ago
An American Indian man on horseback stood outlined against a steely sky past midday on 05 October 1877. Winter was already settling into the prairies of what would soon become the state of Montana. Five white men stood in the swaying grass on the other side of the field,...
NeuroLogica Blog
Concrete Battery I know it’s only been a couple of weeks since I wrote about cement, but now I need to write about...
6 months ago
56
6 months ago
I know it’s only been a couple of weeks since I wrote about cement, but now I need to write about concrete, or potential version of concrete that is able to function as a battery. If we can get the technology to work this could an extremely useful item for a future of green...
Explorations of an...
Borneo: Quest For The Bulwer's Pheasant The Bulwer's Pheasant was one of the first birds to grab hold of my attention when I first flipped...
3 weeks ago
4
3 weeks ago
The Bulwer's Pheasant was one of the first birds to grab hold of my attention when I first flipped through the pages of my Borneo field guide many years ago. This pheasant of Bornean hill forest is nearly unbelievable-looking (the male, that is). He has a deep maroon chest and a...
Probably...
The mean of a Likert scale? Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous...
7 months ago
50
7 months ago
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous installments are available from the Data Q&A landing page. likert_mean Likert scale analysis¶ Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics forum. I have collected data regarding how...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Greener Li-Ion Battery It is increasingly obvious that battery technology is one of the keys to transitioning our...
6 months ago
63
6 months ago
It is increasingly obvious that battery technology is one of the keys to transitioning our civilization away from burning fossil fuels. Batteries facilitate the use of cheap, green, but intermittent energy sources. They also allow for the electrification of technology sectors...
Sean Carroll
Proposed Closure of the Dianoia Institute at Australian Catholic University Just a few years ago, Australian Catholic University (ACU) established a new Dianoia Institute of...
a year ago
27
a year ago
Just a few years ago, Australian Catholic University (ACU) established a new Dianoia Institute of Philosophy. They recruited a number of researchers and made something of a splash, leading to a noticeable leap in ACU’s rankings in philosophy — all the way to second among Catholic...
Math Is Still...
The S-Matrix Is the Oracle Physicists Turn To in Times of Crisis Particle physicists in search of the next theory of reality are consulting a mathematical structure...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Particle physicists in search of the next theory of reality are consulting a mathematical structure that they know will never fail: a table of possibilities known as the S-matrix. The post The S-Matrix Is the Oracle Physicists Turn To in Times of Crisis first appeared...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Exoplanet Radius Gap As of this writing, there are 5,573 confirmed exoplanets in 4,146 planetary systems. That is enough...
10 months ago
20
10 months ago
As of this writing, there are 5,573 confirmed exoplanets in 4,146 planetary systems. That is enough exoplanets, planets around stars other than our own sun, that we can do some statistics to describe what’s out there. One curious pattern that has emerged is a relative gap in the...
The Works in...
Links in Progress: rising incomes do not always mean fewer births And how having a baby can make you believe in the future
2 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
The Threat of Technology In my second book (shameless plug alert) – The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future – my coauthors and I...
a year ago
5
a year ago
In my second book (shameless plug alert) – The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future – my coauthors and I try to imagine both the utopian and dystopian versions of the future, brought about by technology, either individually or collectively. This topic has come up multiple times recently...
Explorations of an...
Uruguay Part 2: The Saffron-cowled Blackbird Search February 26, 2023 Laura and I left the hacienda behind and and headed southeast towards the coast....
a year ago
23
a year ago
February 26, 2023 Laura and I left the hacienda behind and and headed southeast towards the coast. Our route was a meandering one and we took our time on the potholed roads. The countryside was birdy and we didn't mind the relaxed pace.  We had booked an AirBnB property in the...
Beautiful Public...
The United States Frequency Allocation Chart This crazy, beautiful chart illustrates the incredible complexity of managing one of our nation’s...
a year ago
25
a year ago
This crazy, beautiful chart illustrates the incredible complexity of managing one of our nation’s most crucial – and invisible – national assets: the radio spectrum.
nanoscale views
The Nobels, physics and chemistry As you undoubtedly know, the 2023 Nobel in physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc...
a year ago
38
a year ago
As you undoubtedly know, the 2023 Nobel in physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L'Huillier, for the development of techniques associated with attosecond-scale optical pulses.  Here is the more popular write-up about this (including a good handwave...
The Roots of...
What is progress? In one sense, the concept of progress is simple, straightforward, and uncontroversial. In another...
9 months ago
66
9 months ago
In one sense, the concept of progress is simple, straightforward, and uncontroversial. In another sense, it contains an entire worldview. The most basic meaning of “progress” is simply advancement along a path, or more generally from one state to another that is considered more...
ToughSF
Actively Cooled Armor: from Helium to Liquid Tin. We have seen designs for long ranged particle beams and powerful lasers. Could they be the end-all,...
over a year ago
5
over a year ago
We have seen designs for long ranged particle beams and powerful lasers. Could they be the end-all, be-all of space warfare? Not if we fend off their destructive power with actively cooled armor. Let's have a look at the different cooling solutions, from high pressure gas to...
NeuroLogica Blog
Evidence and the Nanny State One side benefit of our federalist system is that the US essentially has 50 experiments in...
a year ago
20
a year ago
One side benefit of our federalist system is that the US essentially has 50 experiments in democracy. States hold a lot of power, which provides an opportunity to compare the effects of different public policies. There are lots of other variables at play, such as economics, rural...
NeuroLogica Blog
Managing Plastic Waste The world produces 350-400 million metric tons of plastic waste. Less than 10% of this waste is...
a month ago
20
a month ago
The world produces 350-400 million metric tons of plastic waste. Less than 10% of this waste is recycled, while 25% is mismanaged or littered. About 1.7 million tons ends up in the ocean. This is not sustainable, but whose responsibility is it to deal with this issue? The debate...
The Works in...
The duplication crisis: the other replication crisis How bad publishing incentives hinder long-term thinking in computational biology research
3 months ago