Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]
Top Categories > science
#all #programming #technology #startups #history #life #science #literature #architecture #creative #design #finance #travel #comics #AI #indiehacker #cartography Muted Categories [alt+←][alt+→]
Damn Interesting
To Hell With Facebook The earliest known version of the idiom “the straw that broke the camel’s back” was written by the...
over a year ago
28
over a year ago
The earliest known version of the idiom “the straw that broke the camel’s back” was written by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury in 1677, though it was concerned with horses and feathers: “The last Dictate of the Judgement, concerning the Good or Bad, that may...
Quanta Magazine
Teen Mathematicians Tie Knots Through a Mind-Blowing Fractal Three high schoolers and their mentor revisited a century-old theorem to prove that all knots can be...
7 months ago
50
7 months ago
Three high schoolers and their mentor revisited a century-old theorem to prove that all knots can be found in a fractal called the Menger sponge. The post Teen Mathematicians Tie Knots Through a Mind-Blowing Fractal first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Is Planned Obsolescence Real Yes – it is well-documented that in many industries the design of products incorporates a plan for...
3 months ago
27
3 months ago
Yes – it is well-documented that in many industries the design of products incorporates a plan for when the product will need to be replaced. A blatant example was in 1924 when an international meeting of lightbulb manufacturers decided to limit the lifespan of lightbulbs to...
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
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...
over a year ago
65
over a year ago
What happens when you pair CERN scientists with science fiction writers to create short stories inspired by particle physics?
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, September 2023 A quasi-monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them...
a year ago
299
a year ago
A quasi-monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in my links digests. I’ve been busy helping to choose the first cohort of our blogging fellowship, so my reading has been relatively light. All emphasis in bold in the quotes...
Breck's Blog
How to get rid of advertising
2 months ago
Quanta Magazine
‘Once in a Century’ Proof Settles Math’s Kakeya Conjecture The deceptively simple Kakeya conjecture has bedeviled mathematicians for 50 years. A new proof of...
3 months ago
44
3 months ago
The deceptively simple Kakeya conjecture has bedeviled mathematicians for 50 years. A new proof of the conjecture in three dimensions illuminates a whole crop of related problems. The post ‘Once in a Century’ Proof Settles Math’s Kakeya Conjecture first appeared on...
NeuroLogica Blog
Making Computers More Efficient An analysis in 2021 found that 10% of the world’s electricity production is used by computers,...
a year ago
22
a year ago
An analysis in 2021 found that 10% of the world’s electricity production is used by computers, including personal use, data centers, the internet and communication centers. The same analysis projected that this was likely to increase to 20% by 2025. This may have been an...
Asterisk
Is Cultivated Meat For Real? Cultivated meat faces a wall of scientific skepticism, but investors haven’t been deterred. A decade...
over a year ago
16
over a year ago
Cultivated meat faces a wall of scientific skepticism, but investors haven’t been deterred. A decade in, how close are we to seeing it on our plates?
Yale e360
How Climate Change Puts the Safety of Drinking Water at Risk Wildfires, floods, intense heat, droughts, and other extreme events fueled by climate change are...
4 months ago
2
4 months ago
Wildfires, floods, intense heat, droughts, and other extreme events fueled by climate change are threatening water systems in the U.S. and around the globe. Experts warn of the increasing threat of contamination and the need to improve infrastructure to keep drinking water...
Stephen Wolfram...
Foundations of Biological Evolution: More Results & More Surprises This is a follow-on to Why Does Biological Evolution Work? A Minimal Model for Biological Evolution...
7 months ago
101
7 months ago
This is a follow-on to Why Does Biological Evolution Work? A Minimal Model for Biological Evolution and Other Adaptive Processes [May 3, 2024]. Even More from an Extremely Simple Model A few months ago I introduced an extremely simple “adaptive cellular automaton” model that...
Light from Space
Lagoon and the Hourglass A view of the center region of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8, Sharpless 25). There's several other...
over a year ago
39
over a year ago
A view of the center region of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8, Sharpless 25). There's several other objects visible, notably the Hourglass Nebula and open star cluster NGC 6530, as well as numerous Bok globules (the small dark clouds, that will one day form new stars). Click...
Uncharted...
Deserts, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Snow, Paradises, Swamps: Why Do People Live Where They Live in the... Deserts, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Snow, Paradises, Swamps
6 months ago
Casey Handmer's blog
SLS is still a national disgrace Four years ago, unable to find a comprehensive summary of the ongoing abject failure known as the...
9 months ago
39
9 months ago
Four years ago, unable to find a comprehensive summary of the ongoing abject failure known as the NASA SLS (Space Launch System), I wrote one. If you’re unfamiliar with the topic, you should read it first.  It is hard to …
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
30
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...
The Works in...
What did Henry George think about cities? Solving the terrible urban conditions of the 1800s by abolishing cities
a year ago
Cremieux Recueil
The Ottoman Origins of Modernity Would we have the modern world without Islamic incursion into Southeastern Europe?
9 months ago
Quanta Magazine
The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA By treating DNA as a language, Brian Hie’s “ChatGPT for genomes” could pick up patterns that humans...
5 months ago
40
5 months ago
By treating DNA as a language, Brian Hie’s “ChatGPT for genomes” could pick up patterns that humans can’t see, accelerating biological design. The post The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Future Tech Possibilities It’s difficult to pick winners and losers in the future tech game. In reality you just have to see...
a year ago
37
a year ago
It’s difficult to pick winners and losers in the future tech game. In reality you just have to see what happens when you try out a new technology in the real world with actual people. Many technologies that look good on paper run into logistical problems, difficulty scaling, fall...
IEEE Spectrum
Meet Mr. Internet: Vint Cerf It was June 1973. For the past three months, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn had been working together on a...
over a year ago
18
over a year ago
It was June 1973. For the past three months, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn had been working together on a problem Kahn had been pondering for some time: how to connect ground-based military computers seamlessly to communications satellites and mobile radios. The two had been...
Quanta Magazine
Covid-19 mRNA Vaccines Win Nobel Prize for Medicine 2023 Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine...
a year ago
15
a year ago
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries leading to mRNA vaccines, such as those that protect against COVID-19. The post Covid-19 mRNA Vaccines Win Nobel Prize for Medicine 2023 first appeared on...
Quanta Magazine
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 ...
a year ago
67
a year 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
Explorations of an...
Monsoon Season In Arizona, Part 3: Hunter Canyon to Portal September 2, 2024 We awoke to another beautiful sunrise in the Huachuca Mountains. I could get used...
9 months ago
14
9 months ago
September 2, 2024 We awoke to another beautiful sunrise in the Huachuca Mountains. I could get used to this view. View from Beatty's Guest Ranch - Miller Canyon, Cochise County, Arizona This was our final morning in this region; we had plans to make the long drive eastwards...
Yale e360
Carbon Dioxide Levels Rose by a Record Amount Last Year Carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than ever before, putting hopes of limiting...
5 months ago
4
5 months ago
Carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than ever before, putting hopes of limiting warming in jeopardy. Read more on E360 →
Asterisk
Debugging Tech Journalism A huge proportion of tech journalism is characterized by scandals, sensationalism, and shoddy...
a year ago
15
a year ago
A huge proportion of tech journalism is characterized by scandals, sensationalism, and shoddy research. Can we fix it?
Probably...
Announcing Think Linear Algebra I’ve been thinking about Think Linear Algebra for more than a decade, and recently I started working...
a month ago
19
a month ago
I’ve been thinking about Think Linear Algebra for more than a decade, and recently I started working on it in earnest. If you want to get a sense of it, I’ve posted a draft chapter as a Jupyter notebook. In one way, I am glad I waited — I think it will be better, faster [to...
Yale e360
With Sea Ice Melting, Killer Whales Are Moving Into the Arctic Killer whales have begun to migrate farther into previously icy regions of the Arctic, preying on...
4 months ago
6
4 months ago
Killer whales have begun to migrate farther into previously icy regions of the Arctic, preying on narwhal, beluga, and bowhead. Scientists say their increasing numbers could shift food webs in ways that affect both endangered whale populations and subsistence Inuit hunters. Read...
Yale e360
A Win for Farmers and Tribes Brings New Hope to the Klamath In the long-contentious Klamath River watershed, an experiment that turned a barley field into a...
3 weeks ago
9
3 weeks ago
In the long-contentious Klamath River watershed, an experiment that turned a barley field into a wetland not only improved water quality. It also offered a path forward for restoring populations of two endangered fish species that are of cultural importance to Native tribes. Read...
Quantum Frontiers
Quantum Frontiers salutes an English teacher If I ever mention a crazy high-school English teacher to you, I might be referring to Mr. Lukacs....
a year ago
89
a year ago
If I ever mention a crazy high-school English teacher to you, I might be referring to Mr. Lukacs. One morning, before the first bell rang, I found him wandering among the lockers, wearing a white beard and a mischievous grin. … Continue reading →
Yale e360
In California, Hummingbird Beaks Have Been Transformed by Feeders The profusion of hummingbird feeders in California homes has not only allowed some hummingbirds to...
a month ago
2
a month ago
The profusion of hummingbird feeders in California homes has not only allowed some hummingbirds to expand their range, but has also altered the shape of their beaks. Read more on E360 →
Quantum Frontiers
Quantum automata Do you know when an engineer built the first artificial automaton—the first human-made machine that...
2 months ago
14
2 months ago
Do you know when an engineer built the first artificial automaton—the first human-made machine that operated by itself, without external control mechanisms that altered the machine’s behavior over time as the machine undertook its mission? The ancient Greek thinker Archytas …...
Asterisk
You’re Invited to a Colonoscopy! Colonoscopies are the first-line method for preventing colorectal cancer in America —and almost...
a year ago
16
a year ago
Colonoscopies are the first-line method for preventing colorectal cancer in America —and almost nowhere else. But do they work? We finally have a comprehensive trial, but it’s left gastroenterologists with more questions than answers.
Quanta Magazine
Math That Lets You Think Locally but Act Globally Knowing a little about the local connections on flight maps and other networks can reveal a lot...
a year ago
30
a year ago
Knowing a little about the local connections on flight maps and other networks can reveal a lot about a system’s global structure. The post Math That Lets You Think Locally but Act Globally first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Fake Fossils In 1931 a fossil lizard was recovered from the Italian Alps, believed to be a 280 million year old...
a year ago
44
a year ago
In 1931 a fossil lizard was recovered from the Italian Alps, believed to be a 280 million year old specimen. The fossil was also rare in that it appeared to have some preserved soft tissue. It was given the species designation Tridentinosaurus antiquus and was thought to be part...
Yale e360
London Inches Closer to Running Transit System Entirely on Renewable Power Under a new agreement, London will source enough solar power to run its light railway and tram...
a week ago
10
a week ago
Under a new agreement, London will source enough solar power to run its light railway and tram networks entirely on renewable energy. Read more on E360 →
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
17
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.
Quanta Magazine
Overexposure Distorted the Science of Mirror Neurons After a decade out of the spotlight, the brain cells once alleged to explain empathy, autism and...
a year ago
66
a year ago
After a decade out of the spotlight, the brain cells once alleged to explain empathy, autism and theory of mind are being refined and redefined. The post Overexposure Distorted the Science of Mirror Neurons first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
How To Install a Pipeline Under a Railroad [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is the Union Pacific...
a year ago
85
a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is the Union Pacific Railroad’s Austin Subdivision in central Texas. It’s a busy corridor that moves both freight and passengers north and south between Austin and San Antonio… But it’s mostly freight....
Light from Space
Vaporwave Crescent Shooting space with a monochrome camera means using various filters—when choosing narrowband filters...
over a year ago
45
over a year ago
Shooting space with a monochrome camera means using various filters—when choosing narrowband filters (those with only a few nanometers of bandpass) one can limit the sensor capturing only very specific wavelengths of light, namely the emissions of certain gasses (basically,...
Quanta Magazine
Why Mathematicians Re-Prove What They Already Know It’s been known for thousands of years that the primes go on forever, but new proofs give fresh...
over a year ago
58
over a year ago
It’s been known for thousands of years that the primes go on forever, but new proofs give fresh insights into how theorems depend on one another. The post Why Mathematicians Re-Prove What They Already Know first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
Number of Distances Separating Points Has a New Bound Mathematicians have struggled to prove Falconer’s Conjecture, a simple, but far-reaching, hypothesis...
a year ago
108
a year ago
Mathematicians have struggled to prove Falconer’s Conjecture, a simple, but far-reaching, hypothesis about the distances between points. They’re finally getting close. The post Number of Distances Separating Points Has a New Bound first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
Two Students Shoot Down a Widely Believed Math Conjecture Mathematicians thought they were on the cusp of proving a conjecture about the ancient structures...
a year ago
19
a year ago
Mathematicians thought they were on the cusp of proving a conjecture about the ancient structures known as Apollonian circles. But a summer project would lead to its downfall. The post Two Students Shoot Down a Widely Believed Math Conjecture first appeared on Quanta...
Quanta Magazine
Science, Promise and Peril in the Age of AI An exploration of how artificial intelligence is changing what it means to do science and math, and...
2 months ago
11
2 months ago
An exploration of how artificial intelligence is changing what it means to do science and math, and what it means to be a scientist. The post Science, Promise and Peril in the Age of AI first appeared on Quanta Magazine
symmetry magazine
Spacetime: All the universe’s a stage In the 1900s, Albert Einstein unified the concepts of space and time, giving us a useful new way to...
a year ago
121
a year ago
In the 1900s, Albert Einstein unified the concepts of space and time, giving us a useful new way to picture the universe.
Interaction Magic -...
3 tips for co-designing with kids Designing future sports products with a group of 11 year olds.
over a year ago
Quanta Magazine
How Smell Guides Our Inner World A better understanding of human smell is emerging as scientists interrogate its fundamental...
a week ago
8
a week ago
A better understanding of human smell is emerging as scientists interrogate its fundamental elements: the odor molecules that enter your nose and the individual neurons that translate them into perception in your brain. The post How Smell Guides Our Inner World first...
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
64
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
Reading The Mind with fMRI and AI This is pretty exciting neuroscience news – Semantic reconstruction of continuous language from...
over a year ago
67
over a year ago
This is pretty exciting neuroscience news – Semantic reconstruction of continuous language from non-invasive brain recordings. What this means is that researchers have been able to, sort of, decode the words that subjects were thinking of simply by reading their fMRI scan. They...
Yale e360
Russia's War Is Driving Up Emissions by Forcing Planes to Reroute Since war broke out in Ukraine, Western airlines have been charting longer routes to avoid flying...
4 months ago
1
4 months ago
Since war broke out in Ukraine, Western airlines have been charting longer routes to avoid flying over Russia, with a discernible impact on emissions. Read more on E360 →
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Battery News I have been following battery technology pretty closely, as this is a key technology for the...
over a year ago
84
over a year ago
I have been following battery technology pretty closely, as this is a key technology for the transition to green energy. The most obvious application is in battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The second most obvious application is in grid storage. But also there are all the...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
What Do Hospitals Care About? | Out-Of-Pocket Let’s look at three big priorities and a real hospital
4 months ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The Amazon + One Medical Post | Out-Of-Pocket I guess I should say something?
a year ago
Damn Interesting
A Trail Gone Cold Iceland is known to the rest of the world as the land of Vikings and volcanos, an island caught...
a year ago
106
a year ago
Iceland is known to the rest of the world as the land of Vikings and volcanos, an island caught between continents at the extremities of the map. Remote and comparatively inhospitable, it was settled only as long ago as the 9th century, and has seen little additional in-migration...
Asterisk
Why You’ve Never Been In A Plane Crash The United States leads the world in airline safety. That’s because of the way we assign blame when...
a year ago
18
a year ago
The United States leads the world in airline safety. That’s because of the way we assign blame when accidents do happen.
Quanta Magazine
New Elliptic Curve Breaks 18-Year-Old Record Two mathematicians have renewed a debate about the fundamental nature of some of math’s most...
8 months ago
75
8 months 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
Quanta Magazine
Mathematicians Discover Novel Way to Predict Structure in Graphs In new work on graphs’ hidden structure, mathematicians probe the limits of randomness. ...
over a year ago
51
over 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 Works in...
Gentrification as a housing problem The root cause is inflexible supply
a month ago
Quanta Magazine
Why Computer Scientists Consult Oracles Hypothetical devices that can quickly and accurately answer questions have become a powerful tool in...
6 months ago
60
6 months ago
Hypothetical devices that can quickly and accurately answer questions have become a powerful tool in computational complexity theory. The post Why Computer Scientists Consult Oracles first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Beautiful Public...
Cold War Military Slides A reporter stumbled upon a treasure trove of Department of Defense slides from the 1970s and 1980s...
4 months ago
41
4 months ago
A reporter stumbled upon a treasure trove of Department of Defense slides from the 1970s and 1980s depicting data from missile systems, Soviet capabilities and America’s nuclear arsenal.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Weird issues in value-based care | Out-Of-Pocket Thoughts on value-based care from people actually building in it
9 months ago
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2024, 1) Free covid treatment for everyone in the US, a novel orthopox virus, a really big machine, cameras...
a year ago
137
a year ago
Free covid treatment for everyone in the US, a novel orthopox virus, a really big machine, cameras used for good and evil, ant heaven now, and more.
Quanta Magazine
‘Quantum Memory’ Proves Exponentially Powerful Researchers are exploring new ways that quantum computers will be able to reveal the secrets of...
8 months ago
62
8 months ago
Researchers are exploring new ways that quantum computers will be able to reveal the secrets of complex quantum systems. The post ‘Quantum Memory’ Proves Exponentially Powerful first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Roots of...
Developing a technology with safety in mind If a technology may introduce catastrophic risks, how do you develop it? It occurred to me that the...
over a year ago
74
over a year ago
If a technology may introduce catastrophic risks, how do you develop it? It occurred to me that the Wright Brothers’ approach to inventing the airplane might make a good case study. The catastrophic risk for them, of course, was dying in a crash. This is exactly what happened...
Quanta Magazine
Hobbyist Finds Math’s Elusive ‘Einstein’ Tile The surprisingly simple tile is the first single, connected tile that can fill the entire plane in a...
over a year ago
92
over a year ago
The surprisingly simple tile is the first single, connected tile that can fill the entire plane in a pattern that never repeats — and can’t be made to fill it in a repeating way. The post Hobbyist Finds Math’s Elusive ‘Einstein’ Tile first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Roots of...
Quote quiz: “drifting into dependence” Quote quiz: who said this? (No fair looking it up). I have modified the original quotation slightly,...
over a year ago
85
over a year ago
Quote quiz: who said this? (No fair looking it up). I have modified the original quotation slightly, by making a handful of word substitutions to bring it up to date: It might be argued that the human race would never be foolish enough to hand over all power to AI. But we are...
NeuroLogica Blog
New Potential mRNA HIV Treatment First, don’t get too excited, this is a laboratory study, which means if all goes well we are about...
a month ago
14
a month ago
First, don’t get too excited, this is a laboratory study, which means if all goes well we are about a decade or more from an actual treatment. The study, however, is a nice demonstration of the potential of recent biotechnology, specifically mRNA technology and lipid...
Asterisk
A Field Guide to AI Safety AI safety is starting to go mainstream, but the researchers who’ve been immersed in it for over a...
over a year ago
14
over a year ago
AI safety is starting to go mainstream, but the researchers who’ve been immersed in it for over a decade still have strong disagreements.
IEEE Spectrum
What Is an Electronic Sackbut? If you, like me, think of musical synthesizers as an artifact of 1970s rock and disco, then you,...
a year ago
87
a year ago
If you, like me, think of musical synthesizers as an artifact of 1970s rock and disco, then you, like me, will be surprised to learn that the first electronic synthesizer predates those genres by several decades In 1945, Hugh Le Caine, a physicist at Canada’s National Research...
NeuroLogica Blog
Wood Vaulting for Carbon Sequestration I can’t resist a good science story involving technology that we can possibly use to stabilize our...
9 months ago
58
9 months ago
I can’t resist a good science story involving technology that we can possibly use to stabilize our climate in the face of anthropogenic global warming. This one is a fun story and an interesting, and potentially useful, idea. As we map out potential carbon pathways into the...
Drew Ex Machina
Rockets Falling from Orbit: The Saturn V That Launched NASA’s Skylab In recent years, the uncontrolled reentries of the spent 22-metric ton core stages of China’s new...
over a year ago
42
over a year ago
In recent years, the uncontrolled reentries of the spent 22-metric ton core stages of China’s new Long March 5B heavy lift launch vehicle, used to orbit […]
Asterisk
The Great Inflection? A Debate About AI and Explosive Growth A conversation about what happens to the economy when intelligence becomes too cheap to meter.
over a year ago
Yale e360
How Tearing Down Small Dams Is Helping Restore Northeast Rivers More than 30,000 small dams currently block river tributaries from Maine to Maryland. New...
5 months ago
2
5 months ago
More than 30,000 small dams currently block river tributaries from Maine to Maryland. New initiatives to remove them are aimed at restoring natural flows, improving habitat for aquatic life, and reopening thousands of river miles to migratory fish, from shad to American...
Quanta Magazine
New Theory Suggests Chatbots Can Understand Text Far from being “stochastic parrots,” the biggest large language models seem to learn enough skills...
a year ago
38
a year ago
Far from being “stochastic parrots,” the biggest large language models seem to learn enough skills to understand the words they’re processing. The post New Theory Suggests Chatbots Can Understand Text first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale e360
A Craze for Tiny Plants Is Driving a Poaching Crisis in South Africa South Africa’s Succulent Karoo is the most biodiverse arid region on the planet, with thousands of...
4 months ago
2
4 months ago
South Africa’s Succulent Karoo is the most biodiverse arid region on the planet, with thousands of plants found nowhere else. But to meet a demand fueled by social media, criminal networks have been poaching these colorful succulents by the millions and smuggling them...
Yale e360
Discarded U.K. Clothing Dumped in Protected Wetlands in Ghana Heaps of discarded clothing from the U.K. have been dumped in protected wetlands in Ghana, an...
3 weeks ago
2
3 weeks ago
Heaps of discarded clothing from the U.K. have been dumped in protected wetlands in Ghana, an investigation found. Read more on E360 →
Stephen Wolfram...
Who Can Understand the Proof? A Window on Formalized Mathematics Related writings: “Logic, Explainability and the Future of Understanding” (2018) » “The...
6 months ago
119
6 months ago
Related writings: “Logic, Explainability and the Future of Understanding” (2018) » “The Physicalization of Metamathematics and Its Implications for the Foundations of Mathematics” (2022) » “Computational Knowledge and the Future of Pure Mathematics” (2014) » The Simplest Axiom...
wadertales
Learning lessons from Slender-billed Curlews The 2024 Ibis paper, recommending that the Slender-billed Curlew should be classified as Extinct,...
6 months ago
69
6 months ago
The 2024 Ibis paper, recommending that the Slender-billed Curlew should be classified as Extinct, tells a sad tale. We now know that, by the time that the Slender-billed Curlew Action Plan was published in 1996, it was already too late to save the species. Resources expended...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Christian Health Insurance | Out-Of-Pocket Love thy neighbor, pay for thy neighbor
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Emerging healthcare business models and the new vendors they need | Out-Of-Pocket looking for an idea to build? look at these areas
a year ago
nanoscale views
Science slow down - not a simple question I participated in a program about 15 years ago that looked at science and technology challenges...
a week ago
10
a week ago
I participated in a program about 15 years ago that looked at science and technology challenges faced by a subset of the US government. I came away thinking that such problems fall into three broad categories. Actual science and engineering challenges, which require...
Yale e360
Russia’s War Has Destroyed Forest Twice the Size of New York City Ukraine lost roughly 600 square miles of forest in the first two years of its war with Russia, an...
4 months ago
1
4 months ago
Ukraine lost roughly 600 square miles of forest in the first two years of its war with Russia, an area of woodland twice the size of New York City. Read more on E360 →
IEEE Spectrum
This Little Mars Rover Stayed Home Sojourner sent back photos of the Martian surface during the summer of 1997. I was not alone. The...
a month ago
14
a month ago
Sojourner sent back photos of the Martian surface during the summer of 1997. I was not alone. The servers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab slowed to a crawl when they got more than 47 million hits (a record number!) from people attempting to download those early images of the Red...
Quanta Magazine
Topologists Tackle the Trouble With Poll Placement Mathematicians are using topological abstractions to find places where it’s hard to vote. ...
a year ago
55
a year ago
Mathematicians are using topological abstractions to find places where it’s hard to vote. The post Topologists Tackle the Trouble With Poll Placement first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
Physicists Puzzle Over Emergence of Strange Electron Aggregates Electrons have been seen uniting into entities with fractions of electric charge, this time without...
a year ago
111
a year ago
Electrons have been seen uniting into entities with fractions of electric charge, this time without a magnetic field coaxing them into it. The post Physicists Puzzle Over Emergence of Strange Electron Aggregates first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Uncharted...
🪐 How Will We Ride to Mars? Do we need a station on the Moon? How hard is it to get to Mars? What are the main challenges?
8 months ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The Out-Of-Pocket Game plan | Out-Of-Pocket How to build the on-boarding system for healthcare
a year ago
Yale e360
Whiplash: How Big Swings in Precipitation Fueled the L.A. Fires Climate scientist Daniel Swain says that two very wet years followed by a very dry one helped to...
5 months ago
1
5 months ago
Climate scientist Daniel Swain says that two very wet years followed by a very dry one helped to turn the Los Angeles wildfires into raging infernos. This phenomenon of “hydroclimate whiplash,” he says, is expected to occur in more and more places as the world warms. Read more...
Damn Interesting
Breaking a Bit It’s been a busy summer, and the large shortfall in donations last month has been demoralizing, so...
a year ago
97
a year ago
It’s been a busy summer, and the large shortfall in donations last month has been demoralizing, so we’re taking a week off to rest and recuperate. The curated links section will be (mostly) silent, and behind the scenes we’ll be taking a brief break from our usual researching,...
NeuroLogica Blog
AI Humor It’s been less than two years (November 2022) since ChatGPT launched. In some ways the new large...
10 months ago
48
10 months ago
It’s been less than two years (November 2022) since ChatGPT launched. In some ways the new large language model (LLM) type of artificial intelligence (AI) applications have been on the steep part of the improvement curve. And yet, they are still LLMs with the same limitations. In...
Quanta Magazine
New Codes Could Make Quantum Computing 10 Times More Efficient Quantum computing is still really, really hard. But the rise of a powerful class of error-correcting...
a year ago
38
a year ago
Quantum computing is still really, really hard. But the rise of a powerful class of error-correcting codes suggests that the task might be slightly more feasible than many feared. The post New Codes Could Make Quantum Computing 10 Times More Efficient first appeared...
NeuroLogica Blog
Woman with Catatonia for Years Wakes After Treatment The story of a woman, in a severe state of catatonia for years and “waking up” after being treated...
over a year ago
69
over a year ago
The story of a woman, in a severe state of catatonia for years and “waking up” after being treated for an autoimmune disease, is making the rounds and deserves a little bit of context. April Burrell was diagnosed with a severe form of schizophrenia resulting in catatonia, and has...
Quanta Magazine
How Base 3 Computing Beats Binary Long explored but infrequently embraced, base 3 computing may yet find a home in cybersecurity. ...
11 months ago
91
11 months ago
Long explored but infrequently embraced, base 3 computing may yet find a home in cybersecurity. The post How Base 3 Computing Beats Binary first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale e360
In Europe, Solar Power Overtakes Coal For the first time in the EU, solar supplied more power than coal did last year, a new analysis...
5 months ago
4
5 months ago
For the first time in the EU, solar supplied more power than coal did last year, a new analysis finds. Read more on E360 →
Asterisk
The EA-Progress Studies War is Here, and It’s a Constructive Dialogue! We’re hoping Marc Andreessen doesn’t read this and polarize everyone again.
a year ago
The Works in...
The eye of the tiger What makes tigers different from one another?
over a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The New (Experimental) Ways To Tackle The Mental Health Crisis | Out-Of-Pocket let's try some new stuff to scale mental health care
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
Is Mathematics Mostly Chaos or Mostly Order? Two new notions of infinity challenge a long-standing plan to define the mathematical universe. ...
2 weeks ago
13
2 weeks ago
Two new notions of infinity challenge a long-standing plan to define the mathematical universe. The post Is Mathematics Mostly Chaos or Mostly Order? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
How AI Models Are Helping to Understand — and Control — the Brain Martin Schrimpf is crafting bespoke AI models that can induce control over high-level brain...
3 weeks ago
13
3 weeks ago
Martin Schrimpf is crafting bespoke AI models that can induce control over high-level brain activity. The post How AI Models Are Helping to Understand — and Control — the Brain first appeared on Quanta Magazine
SubAnima
When Does Life Begin? What *actually* makes conception special?
over a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Wet Labs Shouldn’t Be Boring (for young scientists) | Out-Of-Pocket This is the first touchpoint for science, we should make it more enticing
3 weeks ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Elizabeth Holmes Going to Prison I first wrote about the Theranos scandal in 2016, and I guess it should not be surprising that it...
over a year ago
61
over a year ago
I first wrote about the Theranos scandal in 2016, and I guess it should not be surprising that it took 7 years to follow this story through to the end. Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the company Theranos, was  convicted of defrauding investors and sentenced to 11 years in prison....
Quanta Magazine
How America’s Fastest Swimmers Use Math to Win Gold Number theorist Ken Ono is teaching Olympians to swim more efficiently. The post How...
12 months ago
87
12 months ago
Number theorist Ken Ono is teaching Olympians to swim more efficiently. The post How America’s Fastest Swimmers Use Math to Win Gold first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Have We Achieved General AI As I predicted the controversy over whether or not we have achieved general AI will likely exist for...
7 months ago
72
7 months ago
As I predicted the controversy over whether or not we have achieved general AI will likely exist for a long time before there is a consensus that we have. The latest round of this controversy comes from Vahid Kazemi from OpenAI. He posted on X: “In my opinion we have already...
Stephen Wolfram...
Five Most Productive Years: What Happened and What’s Next So… What Happened? Today is my birthday—for the 65th time. Five years ago, on my 60th birthday, I...
10 months ago
119
10 months ago
So… What Happened? Today is my birthday—for the 65th time. Five years ago, on my 60th birthday, I did a livestream where I talked about some of my plans. So… what happened? Well, what happened was great. And in fact I’ve just had the most productive five years of my life. Nine...
Asterisk
The Depths of Wikipedians A conversation about yogurt wars, German hymns, tropical cyclones, and the people who make Wikipedia...
8 months ago
29
8 months ago
A conversation about yogurt wars, German hymns, tropical cyclones, and the people who make Wikipedia function.
IEEE Spectrum
Zen and the Art of Aibo Engineering Sony’s team made that happen. And since Aibo’s debut, the company has sold more than 170,000 of...
7 months ago
74
7 months ago
Sony’s team made that happen. And since Aibo’s debut, the company has sold more than 170,000 of the cute little quadrupeds—a huge number considering their price of several thousand dollars each. From the start, Aibo could express a range of simulated emotions and learn through...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
More 2022 predictions | Out-Of-Pocket A curation of your 2022 predictions
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
How Pools of Genetic Diversity Affect a Species’ Fate A new, deeper understanding of how the breeding structure of species affects their genetic diversity...
over a year ago
57
over a year ago
A new, deeper understanding of how the breeding structure of species affects their genetic diversity is giving conservationists better tools for saving animals. The post How Pools of Genetic Diversity Affect a Species’ Fate first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Preserving Food About 30-40% of the produce we grow ends up wasted. This is a massive inefficiency in the food...
a month ago
16
a month ago
About 30-40% of the produce we grow ends up wasted. This is a massive inefficiency in the food system. It occurs at every level, from the farm to the end user, and for a variety of reasons. This translates to enough food worldwide to feed 1.6 billion people. We also have to...
Yale e360
Global Economy More Vulnerable to Warming Than Previously Thought A new study finds warming could inflict far more damage to the global economy than previously...
3 months ago
Quanta Magazine
The ‘Accidental Activist’ Who Changed the Face of Mathematics Throughout her 60-year career, Lenore Blum has developed new perspectives on logic and computation...
a year ago
33
a year ago
Throughout her 60-year career, Lenore Blum has developed new perspectives on logic and computation while championing women in mathematics and computer science. Now consciousness is on her mind. The post The ‘Accidental Activist’ Who Changed the Face of Mathematics...
Cremieux Recueil
Storks Take Orders From the State Pronatal benefits and economic booms lead to greater numbers of births
2 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
What Happened to the Atmosphere on Mars Of every world known to humans outside the Earth, Mars is likely the most habitable. We have not...
9 months ago
77
9 months ago
Of every world known to humans outside the Earth, Mars is likely the most habitable. We have not found any genuinely Earth-like exoplanets. They are almost sure to exist, but we just haven’t found any yet. The closest so far is Kepler 452-b, which is a super Earth, specifically...
Yale e360
Trees That Have Never Known Plentiful Rainfall Better Prepared for Drought A new study finds that trees that have lived through many wet years struggle to cope with dry...
5 months ago
Breck's Blog
Deceptive Intelligence verse Genuine Intelligence
2 months ago
Yale e360
Despite Biotech Efforts to Revive Species, Extinction Is Still Forever In the last decade, laboratory initiatives to recreate long-extinct species have stirred...
6 months ago
2
6 months ago
In the last decade, laboratory initiatives to recreate long-extinct species have stirred controversy. Now, scientists increasingly agree "de-extinction" is not possible, but breeding living animals with genes similar to those lost species can be a useful conservation tool. Read...
Quanta Magazine
Why Insect Memories May Not Survive Metamorphosis The reshuffling of neurons during fruit fly metamorphosis suggests that larval memories don’t...
a year ago
25
a year ago
The reshuffling of neurons during fruit fly metamorphosis suggests that larval memories don’t persist in adults. The post Why Insect Memories May Not Survive Metamorphosis first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Clinical Pharmacists, Generative AI, and InpharmD | Out-Of-Pocket Going under the hood of a generative AI product
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
Can Thermodynamics Go Quantum? The Industrial Revolution brought us the laws of thermodynamics, and new ideas about work, energy...
10 months ago
63
10 months ago
The Industrial Revolution brought us the laws of thermodynamics, and new ideas about work, energy and efficiency. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz speaks with theoretical physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern about what these concepts might mean in the age of quantum mechanics....
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Musings on CVS, two-way negotiation, and venture studios | Out-Of-Pocket + we're hosting another dinner! and courses ending!
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
Improving Deep Learning With a Little Help From Physics Rose Yu has a plan for how to make AI better, faster and smarter — and it’s already yielding...
2 months ago
33
2 months ago
Rose Yu has a plan for how to make AI better, faster and smarter — and it’s already yielding results. The post Improving Deep Learning With a Little Help From Physics 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
44
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...
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...
7 months ago
68
7 months 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...
Eukaryote Writes...
A love letter to civilian OSINT What is civilian OSINT, and could it be used altruistically?
over a year ago
Yale e360
In Europe, Solar Power Overtakes Coal For the first time in the EU, solar supplied more power than coal did last year, a new analysis...
5 months ago
1
5 months ago
For the first time in the EU, solar supplied more power than coal did last year, a new analysis finds. Read more on E360 →
Eukaryote Writes...
I got dysentery so you don’t have to On turning 30 in a human challenge trial ward.
8 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Should Japan Release Radioactive Water Into The Pacific? Japan is planning on releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear accident into...
a year ago
23
a year ago
Japan is planning on releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear accident into the ocean. They claim this will be completely safe, but there are protests going on in both Japan and South Korea, and China has just placed a ban on seafood from Japan. In a perfect...
Yale e360
London Inches Closer to Running Transit System Entirely on Renewable Power Under a new agreement, London will source enough solar power to run its light railway and tram...
a week ago
2
a week ago
Under a new agreement, London will source enough solar power to run its light railway and tram networks entirely on renewable energy. Read more on E360 →
Tikalon Blog by Dev...
Quantum Year 2025 Children decide early in life to become scientists when they find that topics such as the...
11 months ago
20
11 months ago
Children decide early in life to become scientists when they find that topics such as the Pythagorean theorem and the hydrological cycle are more interesting and more important than knowing which state is noted for corn. My childhood was notable for witnessing the launch of the...
Quantum Frontiers
Announcing the quantum-steampunk creative-writing course! Why not run a quantum-steampunk creative-writing course? Quantum steampunk, as Quantum Frontiers...
9 months ago
82
9 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:...
Quanta Magazine
The Tiny Physics Behind Immense Cosmic Eruptions A new theory describes how particle interactions fuel fast magnetic reconnection, the process behind...
over a year ago
58
over a year ago
A new theory describes how particle interactions fuel fast magnetic reconnection, the process behind solar flares and other astrophysical jets. The post The Tiny Physics Behind Immense Cosmic Eruptions first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale e360
The ‘Green’ Aviation Fuel That Would Increase Carbon Emissions The U.S. agriculture lobby has long promoted ethanol for cars. If President Trump’s “Big Beautiful...
a month ago
15
a month ago
The U.S. agriculture lobby has long promoted ethanol for cars. If President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” becomes law, the industry would be given tax credits for producing crop-based fuel for planes, too, despite evidence it would spur deforestation and increase emissions. Read...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Healthcare in India | Out-Of-Pocket From the eyes of someone on the ground
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Secret Research Techniques | Out-Of-Pocket A magician always reveals his tricks for the purposes of engagement
a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Do We Have Free Will? Let’s dive head first into one of the internet’s most contentious questions – do we have true free...
a year ago
23
a year ago
Let’s dive head first into one of the internet’s most contentious questions – do we have true free will? This comes up not infrequently whenever I write here about neuroscience, most recently when I wrote about hunger circuitry, because the notion of the brain as a physical...
Beautiful Public...
NASA Ames Research Center Archives In the heart of Silicon Valley, NASA Ames Research Center has the world's largest wind tunnel, and a...
a month ago
21
a month ago
In the heart of Silicon Valley, NASA Ames Research Center has the world's largest wind tunnel, and a rich history of space and aeronautics innovation captured in a fascinating visual archive.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Medical Tourism: A Tarpit Idea | Out-Of-Pocket trust me, you're not the first to look into this
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Six Healthcare Startup Ideas | Out-Of-Pocket In collaboration with The Generalist
a year ago
Yale e360
Chimps Found Treating Each Other's Wounds Chimpanzees in Uganda were found treating the injuries of other, unrelated chimps, including those...
a month ago
4
a month ago
Chimpanzees in Uganda were found treating the injuries of other, unrelated chimps, including those caught in hunting snares.  Read more on E360 →
NeuroLogica Blog
The AI Conundrum What the true impact of artificial intelligence (AI) is and soon will be remains a point of...
a month ago
18
a month ago
What the true impact of artificial intelligence (AI) is and soon will be remains a point of contention. Even among scientifically literate skeptics people tend to fall into decidedly different narratives. Also, when being interviewed I can almost guarantee now that I will be...
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
41
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 […]
IEEE Spectrum
The Data Reveals Top Patent Portfolios Eight years is a long time in the world of patents. When we last published what we then called the...
a month ago
9
a month ago
Eight years is a long time in the world of patents. When we last published what we then called the Patent Power Scorecard, in 2017, it was a different technological and social landscape—Google had just filed a patent application on the transformer architecture, a momentous...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Galaxy Without Dark Matter Dark matter is one of the greatest current scientific mysteries. It’s a fascinating story playing...
a year ago
25
a year ago
Dark matter is one of the greatest current scientific mysteries. It’s a fascinating story playing out in real time, although over years, so you have to be patient. Future generations might be able to binge the dark matter show, but not us. We have to wait for each episode to...
Drew Ex Machina
Recollections of NASA’s Apollo 11 Mission Like a lot of kids who grew up during the ‘60s and ‘70s, I had a fascination with spaceflight. This...
11 months ago
84
11 months ago
Like a lot of kids who grew up during the ‘60s and ‘70s, I had a fascination with spaceflight. This interest started honestly enough back around […]
Quanta Magazine
Epic Effort to Ground Physics in Math Opens Up the Secrets of Time By mathematically proving how individual molecules create the complex motion of fluids, three...
4 weeks ago
19
4 weeks ago
By mathematically proving how individual molecules create the complex motion of fluids, three mathematicians have illuminated why time can’t flow in reverse. The post Epic Effort to Ground Physics in Math Opens Up the Secrets of Time first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale e360
Heat and Fire Making Pollution Worse Across Much of the U.S. By several measures, air pollution is getting worse in the U.S., a trend due in large part to more...
2 months ago
8
2 months ago
By several measures, air pollution is getting worse in the U.S., a trend due in large part to more severe heat and wildfires, according to a new report. Read more on E360 →
The Works in...
The world of tomorrow When the future arrived, it felt… ordinary. What happened to the glamour of tomorrow?
a month ago
The Roots of...
Highlights from The Industrial Revolution, by T. S. Ashton The Industrial Revolution, 1760-1830, by Thomas S. Ashton, is classic in the field, published in...
a year ago
39
a year ago
The Industrial Revolution, 1760-1830, by Thomas S. Ashton, is classic in the field, published in 1948. Here are some of my highlights from it. (Emphasis in bold added by me.) The role of chance What was the role of chance in the inventions of the Industrial Revolution? It is true...
nanoscale views
US science situation updates and what's on deck Many things have been happening in and around US science.  This is a non-exhaustive list of recent...
2 months ago
24
2 months ago
Many things have been happening in and around US science.  This is a non-exhaustive list of recent developments and links: There have been very large scale personnel cuts across HHS, FDA, CDC, NIH - see here.  This includes groups like the people who monitor lead in drinking...
Damn Interesting
The Ancient Order of Bali In the 1970s, the Indonesian island of Bali went through a period of rapid change. Along the...
over a year ago
26
over a year ago
In the 1970s, the Indonesian island of Bali went through a period of rapid change. Along the stunning beaches on the southern side of the island, tourism boomed. Parking lots were put up, together with swinging hot spots and hotels of various colours. Hip young travellers from...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Role of Plausibility in Science I have been writing blog posts and engaging in science communication long enough that I have a...
over a year ago
77
over a year ago
I have been writing blog posts and engaging in science communication long enough that I have a pretty good sense how much engagement I am going to get from a particular topic. Some topics are simply more divisive than others (although there is an unpredictable element from social...
Probably...
Multiple Regression with StatsModels This is the third is a series of excerpts from Elements of Data Science which available from...
7 months ago
12
7 months 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...
NeuroLogica Blog
Virtual Reality for Mice Scientists have developed virtual reality goggles for mice. Why would they do this? For research....
a year ago
29
a year ago
Scientists have developed virtual reality goggles for mice. Why would they do this? For research. The fact that it’s also adorable is just a side effect. One type of neuroscience research is to expose mice in a laboratory setting to specific tasks or stimuli while recording their...
Yale e360
AI Model Can Predict When Lightning Will Spark Wildfires Researchers have developed an AI model that can predict with 90 percent accuracy when and where...
3 months ago
9
3 months ago
Researchers have developed an AI model that can predict with 90 percent accuracy when and where lightning will ignite wildfires. Read more on E360 →
Out-of-Pocket Blog
More 2023 predictions | Out-Of-Pocket should just start 2024 predictions I guess
a year ago
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
27
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 ›
IEEE Spectrum
The Meeting of the Minds That Launched AI The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, held from 18 June through 17...
over a year ago
26
over a year ago
The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, held from 18 June through 17 August of 1956, is widely considered the event that kicked off AI as a research discipline. Organized by John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Claude Shannon, and Nathaniel Rochester, it...
Casey Handmer's blog
We can Terraform the American West Why is there almost nothing on the left hand side of the USA? Water scarcity! We’re missing 300...
8 months ago
43
8 months ago
Why is there almost nothing on the left hand side of the USA? Water scarcity! We’re missing 300 million Americans. We’re missing  30 global cities west of 100 degrees longitude. We should do something about it! The western US is a parched opportunity to create millions of acres...
IEEE Spectrum
The Tremendous VR and CG Systems—of the 1960s Ivan Sutherland has blazed a truly unique trail through computing over the past six decades. One of...
over a year ago
27
over a year ago
Ivan Sutherland has blazed a truly unique trail through computing over the past six decades. One of the most influential figures in the story of computing, he helped to open new pathways for others to explore and dramatically extend: interactive computer graphics, virtual...
Asterisk
Through a Glass Darkly Nobody predicted the AI revolution, except for the 352 experts who were asked to predict it.
over a year ago
17
over a year ago
Nobody predicted the AI revolution, except for the 352 experts who were asked to predict it.
NeuroLogica Blog
A Greener Li-Ion Battery It is increasingly obvious that battery technology is one of the keys to transitioning our...
a year ago
101
a year 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...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming Mar. 13-14 There will be a total eclipse of the Moon visible in the Americas the night of March 13-14 The post...
4 months ago
37
4 months ago
There will be a total eclipse of the Moon visible in the Americas the night of March 13-14 The post Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming Mar. 13-14 appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Explorations of an...
Monsoon Season In Arizona, Part 2: The Huachucas September 1, 2024 For the first and only time in the trip I managed a much-needed seven hours of...
9 months ago
13
9 months ago
September 1, 2024 For the first and only time in the trip I managed a much-needed seven hours of sleep. Unfortunately, some of the others were woken up earlier than they would have liked. The owner of Beatty's Guest Ranch (he lives in a different building on the property) owns a...
Explorations of an...
Monsoon Season In Arizona, Part 4: The Chiricahuas September 3, 2024 It was another beautiful day in paradise, and all of us were up early to watch the...
9 months ago
15
9 months ago
September 3, 2024 It was another beautiful day in paradise, and all of us were up early to watch the sun rise over the desert. The active bird feeders gave us something to study while we drank our coffee and ate our egg sandwiches that Nikki had crafted for us.  Black-throated...
Tikalon Blog by Dev...
Tikalon Blog Archive Tikalon Blog is now in archive mode. Here's a directory of links to easily printed and saved...
9 months ago
34
9 months ago
Tikalon Blog is now in archive mode. Here's a directory of links to easily printed and saved articles. If you're willing to wait a while for the download, a zip file of all the blog articles can be found at the link below. Note, however, that these articles are copyrighted and...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The New Price Transparency Laws And Turquoise Health | Out-Of-Pocket Are we actually moving to a healthcare shopping experience?
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
The Researcher Who Explores Computation by Conjuring New Worlds Russell Impagliazzo studies hard problems, the limits of cryptography, the nature of randomness and...
a year ago
44
a year ago
Russell Impagliazzo studies hard problems, the limits of cryptography, the nature of randomness and more. The post The Researcher Who Explores Computation by Conjuring New Worlds first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Uncharted...
The Latest on Healthcare Research Cancer research, AI in healthcare, aging research, and much more
8 months ago
Wanderingspace
OSIRIS-REX Leaves Bennu The OSIRIS-REX mission in on a two year trajectory back to Earth after capturing fragments of the...
over a year ago
33
over a year ago
The OSIRIS-REX mission in on a two year trajectory back to Earth after capturing fragments of the near Earth asteroid Bennu after successfully executing a sample touchdown last fall. [LINK] The sampling of of the asteroid’s surface is shown above.
Quanta Magazine
Sparse Networks Come to the Aid of Big Physics A novel type of neural network is helping physicists with the daunting challenge of data analysis. ...
over a year ago
53
over a year ago
A novel type of neural network is helping physicists with the daunting challenge of data analysis. The post Sparse Networks Come to the Aid of Big Physics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quantum Frontiers
To thermalize, or not to thermalize, that is the question. If Hamlet had been a system of noncommuting charges, his famous soliloquy may have gone like this…...
a year ago
92
a year ago
If Hamlet had been a system of noncommuting charges, his famous soliloquy may have gone like this… To thermalize, or not to thermalize, that is the question:Whether ’tis more natural for the system to sufferThe large entanglement of thermalizing dynamics,Or … Continue reading →
Quanta Magazine
Merging Fields, Mathematicians Go the Distance On Old Problem Mathematicians have illuminated what sets of points can look like if the distances between them are...
a year ago
94
a year ago
Mathematicians have illuminated what sets of points can look like if the distances between them are all whole numbers. The post Merging Fields, Mathematicians Go the Distance On Old Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Asterisk
The Puzzle of Non-Proliferation Today, only nine countries have nuclear weapons. That outcome was hardly inevitable, and the story...
over a year ago
17
over a year ago
Today, only nine countries have nuclear weapons. That outcome was hardly inevitable, and the story of how we arrived there holds important lessons for AI.
Uncharted...
Ten New US Cities: New Lakes Creating new lakes is a unique way to make amazing new cities. Where can we do that?
5 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
How To Keep AIs From Lying We had a fascinating discussion on this week’s SGU that I wanted to bring here – the subject of...
3 months ago
34
3 months ago
We had a fascinating discussion on this week’s SGU that I wanted to bring here – the subject of artificial intelligence programs (AI), specifically large language models (LLMs), lying. The starting point for the discussion was this study, which looked at punishing LLMs as a...
Yale e360
Scientists Look to Changing Tree Color to Predict Volcanic Eruptions NASA scientists believe it may be possible to predict when a volcano will erupt by using satellites...
a month ago
5
a month ago
NASA scientists believe it may be possible to predict when a volcano will erupt by using satellites to track changes in the color of surrounding trees. Read more on E360 →
Yale e360
In This Storied Egyptian City, Rising Seas are Causing Buildings to Crumble As waters rise along the Egyptian coast, hundreds of buildings in the historic port city of...
4 months ago
1
4 months ago
As waters rise along the Egyptian coast, hundreds of buildings in the historic port city of Alexandria have collapsed. Read more on E360 →
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
17
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...
Yale e360
Why U.S. Geothermal May Advance, Despite Political Headwinds The Trump administration is outwardly hostile to clean energy sourced from solar and wind. But...
a week ago
2
a week ago
The Trump administration is outwardly hostile to clean energy sourced from solar and wind. But thanks to close ties to the fossil fuel industry and new technological breakthroughs, U.S. geothermal power may survive the GOP assaults on support for renewables and even thrive. Read...
Yale e360
The Year in Energy in Four Charts The global energy sector defied expectations this year, in ways both good and bad for the climate....
6 months ago
5
6 months ago
The global energy sector defied expectations this year, in ways both good and bad for the climate. Four charts highlight key trends in the transition to clean energy. Read more on E360 →
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
19
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...
Quantum Frontiers
Beyond NISQ: The Megaquop Machine On December 11, I gave a keynote address at the Q2B 2024 Conference in Silicon Valley. This is a...
6 months ago
86
6 months ago
On December 11, I gave a keynote address at the Q2B 2024 Conference in Silicon Valley. This is a transcript of my remarks. The slides I presented are here. NISQ and beyond I’m honored to be back at Q2B for … Continue reading →
Cremieux Recueil
American Elections Are Unfair Unfortunately, unfairness is baked in
8 months ago
Blog - Practical...
HEAVY CONSTRUCTION of a Sewage Pump Station - Ep 1 Check out our new series! This is the first episode of a five-part pilot series to gauge your...
a year ago
30
a year ago
Check out our new series! This is the first episode of a five-part pilot series to gauge your interest in "How It's Made"-esque heavy construction videos. Drop a comment or send me an email to let me know what you think! Watch on YouTube above or ad-free on Nebula here.
Quanta Magazine
The Colorful Problem That Has Long Frustrated Mathematicians The four-color problem is simple to explain, but its complex proof continues to be both celebrated...
over a year ago
77
over a year ago
The four-color problem is simple to explain, but its complex proof continues to be both celebrated and despised. The post The Colorful Problem That Has Long Frustrated Mathematicians first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Are Small Modular Reactors Finally Coming? Small nuclear reactors have been around since the 1950s. They mostly have been used in military...
4 months ago
34
4 months ago
Small nuclear reactors have been around since the 1950s. They mostly have been used in military ships, like aircraft carriers and submarines. They have the specific advantage that such ships could remain at sea for long periods of time without needing to refuel. But small modular...
symmetry magazine
Seeing the full picture with line-intensity mapping Astronomers are championing a relatively new technique as a method to understand the structure of...
a year ago
26
a year ago
Astronomers are championing a relatively new technique as a method to understand the structure of the early universe in three dimensions.
The Works in...
Animals as chemical factories The price of purple
a month ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Viz.ai and why workflow > tech | Out-Of-Pocket Also ?? about AI business models
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
A Close-Up View Reveals the ‘Melting’ Point of an Infinite Graph Just as ice melts to water, graphs undergo phase transitions. Two mathematicians showed that they...
a year ago
30
a year ago
Just as ice melts to water, graphs undergo phase transitions. Two mathematicians showed that they can pinpoint such transitions by examining only local structure. The post A Close-Up View Reveals the ‘Melting’ Point of an Infinite Graph first appeared on Quanta...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Machine Vision, Robots, and Endoscopes with Matt Schwartz | Out-Of-Pocket When GI met AI
a year ago
Yale e360
Lightning Strikes the Arctic: What Will It Mean for the Far North? A warmer world is expected to bring more thunderstorms, especially at higher latitudes. Scientists...
3 weeks ago
4
3 weeks ago
A warmer world is expected to bring more thunderstorms, especially at higher latitudes. Scientists are now reporting a dramatic surge in lightning in the Far North and are scrambling to parse how this could affect wildfires, the chemistry of the atmosphere, and Arctic...
Chris Grossack's...
An Empty Product of Nonempty Sets A few days ago I saw a cute question on mse asking about a particularly non-intuitive failing of...
a month ago
13
a month ago
A few days ago I saw a cute question on mse asking about a particularly non-intuitive failing of the axiom of choice. I remember when I was an undergrad talking to a friend of mine about various statements equivalent to choice, and being particularly hung up on the same...
NeuroLogica Blog
How We Determine What to Believe as True Psychologists have been studying a very basic cognitive function that appears to be of increasing...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Psychologists have been studying a very basic cognitive function that appears to be of increasing importance – how do we choose what to believe as true or false? We live in a world awash in information, and access to essentially the world’s store of knowledge is now a trivial...
Quanta Magazine
How Metabolism Can Shape Cells’ Destinies A growing body of work suggests that cell metabolism — the chemical reactions that provide energy...
3 months ago
28
3 months ago
A growing body of work suggests that cell metabolism — the chemical reactions that provide energy and building materials — plays a vital, overlooked role in the first steps of life. The post How Metabolism Can Shape Cells’ Destinies first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
What Really Happened at the New Harbor Bridge Project? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In July of 2022, the Texas...
over a year ago
61
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In July of 2022, the Texas Department of Transportation issued an emergency suspension of work on the half-finished Harbor Bridge project in Corpus Christi, citing serious design flaws that could cause the main...
NeuroLogica Blog
Apologizing for Uri Geller A recent New York Times article tries to rehabilitate the reputation of Uri Geller, famed...
over a year ago
54
over a year ago
A recent New York Times article tries to rehabilitate the reputation of Uri Geller, famed spoon-bending magician, by simply telling a one-sided narrative. From my perspective as a skeptic, this was a terrible article that missed the real issue, glossed over glaring defects in...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How to measure ROI in healthcare (the right way) | Out-Of-Pocket The good, better, and best way to do it (+ a calculator)
a week ago
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2020, 1) Internet Harvest is a selection of the most succulent links on the internet that I’ve recently...
over a year ago
53
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.
nanoscale views
Indirect costs + potential unintended consequences It's been another exciting week where I feel compelled to write about the practice of...
5 months ago
21
5 months ago
It's been another exciting week where I feel compelled to write about the practice of university-based research in the US.  I've written about "indirect costs" before, but it's been a while.  I will try to get readers caught up on the basics of the university research ecosystem...
The Works in...
The Cocktail Revolution How bad drinks became good, and good drinks became great
a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Cutting to the Bone One potentially positive outcome from the COVID pandemic is that it was a wakeup call – if there was...
3 months ago
27
3 months ago
One potentially positive outcome from the COVID pandemic is that it was a wakeup call – if there was any doubt previously about the fact that we all live in one giant interconnected world, it should not have survived the recent pandemic. This is particularly true when it comes to...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Thirty Madison and Condition-Specific Care | Out-Of-Pocket I wanted to use this as an opportunity to talk a little bit about scalable telemedicine + specialist...
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
GPT-3 x Healthcare: Democratizing AI | Out-Of-Pocket ICD-10 vs. GPT-3, who will win?
a year ago
Yale e360
In California, Hummingbird Beaks Have Been Transformed by Feeders The profusion of hummingbird feeders in California homes has not only allowed some hummingbirds to...
a month ago
1
a month ago
The profusion of hummingbird feeders in California homes has not only allowed some hummingbirds to expand their range, but has also altered the shape of their beaks. Read more on E360 →
Beautiful Public...
Visualizing Ship Movements with AIS Data Explore the beautiful, intricate paths of ships over a year—tracked from America's busiest ports to...
9 months ago
101
9 months ago
Explore the beautiful, intricate paths of ships over a year—tracked from America's busiest ports to the open ocean via AIS marine tracking data.
Quanta Magazine
How Hans Bethe Stumbled Upon Perfect Quantum Theories Quantum calculations amount to sophisticated estimates. But in 1931, Hans Bethe intuited precisely...
4 months ago
51
4 months ago
Quantum calculations amount to sophisticated estimates. But in 1931, Hans Bethe intuited precisely how a chain of particles would behave — an insight that had far-reaching consequences. The post How Hans Bethe Stumbled Upon Perfect Quantum Theories first appeared on...
Asterisk
Prediction Markets Have an Elections Problem Weeks after it was clear that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, you could still make pennies on...
a year ago
18
a year ago
Weeks after it was clear that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, you could still make pennies on the dollar betting Joe Biden would win. Why doesn’t smart money drive out dumb money in election markets?
Yale e360
Head of African Bank Warns of 'Carbon Grabs' by Foreign Firms Akinwumi Adesina, outgoing president of the African Development Bank, is warning that foreign firms...
3 months ago
1
3 months ago
Akinwumi Adesina, outgoing president of the African Development Bank, is warning that foreign firms are underpaying for carbon credits from African forests. Read more on E360 →
The Works in...
How New Zealand invented inflation targeting The political gamble that made modern central banking
2 weeks ago
NeuroLogica Blog
AI Companions – Good or Bad? Often times the answer to a binary question is “yes”. Is artificial intelligence (AI) a powerful and...
11 months ago
79
11 months ago
Often times the answer to a binary question is “yes”. Is artificial intelligence (AI) a powerful and quickly advancing tool or is it overhyped? Yes. Are opiates useful medicines or dangerous drugs? Yes. Is Elon Musk a technological visionary or an eccentric opportunist? This is...
Yale e360
Saving U.S. Climate and Environmental Data Before It Goes Away Some 2,000 records went missing from government data sets after the Trump administration took office...
4 months ago
2
4 months ago
Some 2,000 records went missing from government data sets after the Trump administration took office in January. Canadian geographer Eric Nost talks about the work he and colleagues are doing to archive data related to climate and the environment while it is still...
Asterisk
How to Make a Great Government Website Do lots of user research, travel to every county in California, iterate constantly, and troubleshoot...
a year ago
16
a year ago
Do lots of user research, travel to every county in California, iterate constantly, and troubleshoot on Reddit. And maybe take Political Economy of Industrial Societies 100.
symmetry magazine
CERN opens Science Gateway About 1,400 people attended the grand opening of CERN’s new science education center.
a year 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
NeuroLogica Blog
Should You Get a Heat Pump? Starting around 1550 and lasting through the 1600s, England had an energy crisis. They were running...
over a year ago
74
over a year ago
Starting around 1550 and lasting through the 1600s, England had an energy crisis. They were running out of wood, which was the main source of fuel for residential and commercial heating. England also needed a lot of wood for their massive navy – it took about 2,000 trees to build...
Quantum Frontiers
My favorite rocket scientist Whenever someone protests, “I’m not a rocket scientist,” I think of my friend Jamie Rankin. Jamie is...
a year ago
95
a year ago
Whenever someone protests, “I’m not a rocket scientist,” I think of my friend Jamie Rankin. Jamie is a researcher at Princeton University, and she showed me her lab this June. When I first met Jamie, she was testing instruments to … Continue reading →
Quanta Magazine
Mathematicians Find Hidden Structure in a Common Type of Space In 50 years of searching, mathematicians found only one example of a “subspace design” in a vector...
over a year ago
105
over a year ago
In 50 years of searching, mathematicians found only one example of a “subspace design” in a vector space. A new proof reveals that there are infinitely more out there. The post Mathematicians Find Hidden Structure in a Common Type of Space first appeared on Quanta...
NeuroLogica Blog
UFOs – Has the Narrative Shifted In an interview for Newsweek, Michio Kaku was asked about UFOs. Here’s his response: Well, first of...
over a year ago
79
over a year ago
In an interview for Newsweek, Michio Kaku was asked about UFOs. Here’s his response: Well, first of all, I think that there’s been a game changer. In the old days, the burden of proof was on the true believers to prove that what they saw last night was a flying saucer of some...
NeuroLogica Blog
Hybrid Biopolymer Transistors – Implications for Brain Machine Interface There are several technologies which seem likely to be transformative in the coming decades. Genetic...
a year ago
39
a year ago
There are several technologies which seem likely to be transformative in the coming decades. Genetic bioengineering gives us the ability to control the basic machinery of life, including ourselves. Artificial intelligence is a suite of active, learning, information tools....
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Thoughts on Aging If either of the two presumptive nominees for the major political parties in the US are elected in...
a year ago
88
a year ago
If either of the two presumptive nominees for the major political parties in the US are elected in November they will be the oldest person ever to be inaugerated as president. What implications does this have? As a neurologist who sees patients every workday of various ages,...
Quantum Frontiers
Always appropriate I met boatloads of physicists as a master’s student at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical...
11 months ago
70
11 months ago
I met boatloads of physicists as a master’s student at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada. Researchers pass through Perimeter like diplomats through my current neighborhood—the Washington, DC area—except that Perimeter’s visitors speak math...
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...
over a year ago
19
over 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...
Quanta Magazine
How Can AI Researchers Save Energy? By Going Backward. Reversible programs run backward as easily as they run forward, saving energy in theory. After...
a month ago
17
a month ago
Reversible programs run backward as easily as they run forward, saving energy in theory. After decades of research, they may soon power AI. The post How Can AI Researchers Save Energy? By Going Backward. first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
How a NASA Probe Solved a Scorching Solar Mystery The outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere are a blistering million degrees hotter than its surface....
a year ago
86
a year ago
The outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere are a blistering million degrees hotter than its surface. The hidden culprit? Magnetic activity. The post How a NASA Probe Solved a Scorching Solar Mystery first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Seeing through tissue and Kramers-Kronig There is a paper in Science this week that is just a great piece of work.  The authors find that by...
10 months ago
11
10 months ago
There is a paper in Science this week that is just a great piece of work.  The authors find that by dyeing living tissue with a particular biocompatible dye molecule, they can make that tissue effectively transparent, so you can see through it.  The paper includes images (and...
The Works in...
The duplication crisis: the other replication crisis How bad publishing incentives hinder long-term thinking in computational biology research
9 months ago
Sean Carroll
Thanksgiving This year we give thanks for Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. (We’ve previously given thanks for the...
over a year ago
49
over a year ago
This year we give thanks for Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. (We’ve previously given thanks for the Standard Model Lagrangian, Hubble’s Law, the Spin-Statistics Theorem, conservation of momentum, effective field theory, the error bar, gauge symmetry, Landauer’s Principle, the...
nanoscale views
March Meeting 2025, Day 4 and wrap-up I saw a couple of interesting talks this morning before heading out: Alessandro Chiesa of Parma...
3 months ago
25
3 months ago
I saw a couple of interesting talks this morning before heading out: Alessandro Chiesa of Parma spoke about using spin-containing molecules potentially as qubits, and about chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) in electron transfer.  Regarding the former, here is a review. ...
Quanta Magazine
How to Tame the Endless Infinities Hiding in the Heart of Particle Physics In the math of particle physics, every calculation should result in infinity. The set of techniques...
over a year ago
153
over a year ago
In the math of particle physics, every calculation should result in infinity. The set of techniques known as “resurgence” points toward an escape. The post How to Tame the Endless Infinities Hiding in the Heart of Particle Physics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Solution Aversion Fallacy I like to think deeply about informal logical fallacies. I write about them a lot, and even have an...
a year ago
63
a year ago
I like to think deeply about informal logical fallacies. I write about them a lot, and even have an occasional segment of the SGU dedicated to them. They are a great way to crystalize our thinking about the many ways in which logic can go wrong. Formal logic deals with arguments...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Some crypto x healthcare ideas | Out-Of-Pocket Decentralized EMRs, Insurance DAOs, and Drug Picking Models
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
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...
over a year ago
56
over 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
Yale e360
As War Halts, the Environmental Devastation in Gaza Runs Deep The war in Gaza has taken a heavy toll on the environment, with water supplies contaminated, raw...
5 months ago
2
5 months ago
The war in Gaza has taken a heavy toll on the environment, with water supplies contaminated, raw sewage pouring into the Mediterranean, once-fertile soils ruined, and the land stripped of trees. Experts say the extent of the damage needs to be tallied to help plan for a...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Introducing The OOP Talent Collective | Out-Of-Pocket if you're hiring, this will help you find the best candidates
a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Deep South – A Neuromorphic Supercomputer Australian researchers at the International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems (ICNS) at Western Sydney...
a year ago
30
a year ago
Australian researchers at the International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems (ICNS) at Western Sydney University have announced they are building what they are calling Deep South (based on IBM’s Deep Blue). This will be the world’s largest neuromorphic supercomputer, with 228...
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
15
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...
Beautiful Public...
All of the 8,291 License Plates in America States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations,...
a year ago
68
a year ago
States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations, professions, sports teams, causes and other groups.
Asterisk
Oops
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Match Day and the Unmatched | Out-Of-Pocket an underutilized workforce?
a year ago
The Works in...
The Maintenance Race was just the beginning A new book from Stewart Brand, serialized on Works in Progress
over a year ago
Wanderingspace
Morning and Night on Mars Yeah. Um… Wow. Nice Job NASA. I’ll just copy/paste how The Planetary Society explained it: “NASA's...
over a year ago
42
over a year ago
Yeah. Um… Wow. Nice Job NASA. I’ll just copy/paste how The Planetary Society explained it: “NASA's Curiosity team made this artistic interpretation of the rover's view from high up Mt. Sharp by combining pictures taken at different times of day and adding colors to bring out the...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
AI in healthcare - defensibility, capabilities, and cost reduction | Out-Of-Pocket
a year ago
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...
over a year ago
40
over 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...
nanoscale views
What is multiferroicity? (A post summarizing recent US science-related events will be coming later.  For now, here is my...
2 months ago
28
2 months ago
(A post summarizing recent US science-related events will be coming later.  For now, here is my promised post about multiferroics, inspired in part by a recent visit to Rice by Yoshi Tokura.) Electrons carry spins and therefore magnetic moments (that is, they can act in some ways...
Yale e360
Volunteers in England Plant Thousands of Trees to Restore Celtic Rainforest Volunteers have planted more than 2,500 native trees on pasture in southwest England, part of a...
5 months ago
5
5 months ago
Volunteers have planted more than 2,500 native trees on pasture in southwest England, part of a larger effort to recreate the temperate rainforest that once dominated much of the British Isles. Read more on E360 →
nanoscale views
Pushing back on US science cuts: Now is a critical time Every week has brought more news about actions that, either as a collateral effect or a deliberate...
a month ago
13
a month ago
Every week has brought more news about actions that, either as a collateral effect or a deliberate goal, will deeply damage science and engineering research in the US.  Put aside for a moment the tremendously important issue of student visas (where there seems to be a policy of...
Asterisk
Michael Lewis’s Blind Side In Going Infinite, the famed chronicler of American finance proves he’s more interested in myths...
a year ago
20
a year ago
In Going Infinite, the famed chronicler of American finance proves he’s more interested in myths than morals — or even math.
NeuroLogica Blog
UFOs and the Pandemic Did UFO reporting increase during the pandemic? A group of researchers set out to answer that...
over a year ago
36
over a year ago
Did UFO reporting increase during the pandemic? A group of researchers set out to answer that question, and recently published their results. Their hypothesis was two-fold, including the notion that people had more free time during the shutdown and perhaps spent more time out...
NeuroLogica Blog
Living a Hybrid Life The cultural effects of the COVID pandemic can still be felt reverberating through society. One of...
11 months ago
64
11 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...
Quantum Frontiers
Now published: Building Quantum Computers Building Quantum Computers: A Practical Introduction by Shayan Majidy, Christopher Wilson, and...
9 months ago
79
9 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 →
NeuroLogica Blog
Big Ring Challenges Cosmological Principle University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) PhD student Alexia Lopez, who two years ago discovered a...
a year ago
48
a year ago
University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) PhD student Alexia Lopez, who two years ago discovered a giant arc of galaxy clusters in the distant universe, has now discovered a Big Ring. This (if real) is one of the largest structures in the observable universe at 1.3 billion light...
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
Drew Ex Machina
Tropical Weather Analytics and Phantom Space Partner on Hurricane Hunter Satellite Constellation Tropical Weather Analytics, Inc. (TWA), with a revolutionary 3D measurement capability for improved...
a year ago
54
a year ago
Tropical Weather Analytics, Inc. (TWA), with a revolutionary 3D measurement capability for improved hurricane forecasting and weather intelligence, is announcing a strategic partnership with Phantom Space […]
Yale e360
Despite Biotech Efforts to Revive Species, Extinction Is Still Forever In the last decade, laboratory initiatives to recreate long-extinct species have stirred...
6 months ago
9
6 months ago
In the last decade, laboratory initiatives to recreate long-extinct species have stirred controversy. Now, scientists increasingly agree "de-extinction" is not possible, but breeding living animals with genes similar to those lost species can be a useful conservation tool. Read...
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
34
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
Eclipse 2024 I am currently in Dallas Texas waiting to see, hopefully, the 2024 total solar eclipse. This would...
a year ago
91
a year ago
I am currently in Dallas Texas waiting to see, hopefully, the 2024 total solar eclipse. This would be my first total eclipse, and everything I have heard indicates that it is an incredible experience. Unfortunately, the weather calls for some clouds, although forecasts have been...
NeuroLogica Blog
Game Transfer Phenomenon Have you ever been into a video game that you played for hours a day for a while? Did you ever...
2 months ago
28
2 months ago
Have you ever been into a video game that you played for hours a day for a while? Did you ever experience elements of game play bleeding over into the real world? If you have, then you have experienced what psychologists call “game transfer phenomenon” or GTP.  This can be...
Quanta Magazine
Will Better Superconductors Transform the World? Scientists are pursuing materials that can conduct electricity with perfect efficiency under ambient...
a year ago
99
a year ago
Scientists are pursuing materials that can conduct electricity with perfect efficiency under ambient conditions. In this episode, the physicist Siddharth Shanker Saxena tells co-host Janna Levin about what makes this hunt so difficult and consequential. The post Will...
NeuroLogica Blog
Hybrid Bionic Hand If you think about the human hand as a work of engineering, it is absolutely incredible. The level...
3 months ago
25
3 months ago
If you think about the human hand as a work of engineering, it is absolutely incredible. The level of fine motor control is extreme. It is responsive and precise. It has robust sensory feedback. It combines both rigid and soft components, so that it is able to grip and lift heavy...
Yale e360
Cheap Chinese Solar Panels Sparking a Renewable Boom in the Global South Facing trade barriers in the U.S. and other wealthy nations, Chinese solar firms are exporting cheap...
4 months ago
1
4 months ago
Facing trade barriers in the U.S. and other wealthy nations, Chinese solar firms are exporting cheap panels to poorer countries, fueling a surge in solar installations in parts of the developing world. Read more on E360 →
IEEE Spectrum
Tragedy Spurred the First Effective Land-Mine Detector Land mines have been around in one form or another for more than a thousand years. By now, you’d...
6 months ago
62
6 months ago
Land mines have been around in one form or another for more than a thousand years. By now, you’d think a simple and safe way of locating and removing the devices would’ve been engineered. But that’s not the case. In fact, up until World War II, the most common method for finding...
Yale e360
With the Great Mussel Die-Off, Scientists Scramble for Answers One of the most endangered animals in the world, freshwater mussels are threatened by pollution,...
3 months ago
5
3 months ago
One of the most endangered animals in the world, freshwater mussels are threatened by pollution, climate change, habitat loss, and invasive species. But in the epicenter of their diversity — the Southeastern U.S. — the root cause of a catastrophic die-off remains a mystery.  Read...
Quantum Frontiers
Finding Ed Jaynes’s ghost You might have heard of the conundrum “What do you give the man who has everything?” I discovered a...
6 months ago
80
6 months ago
You might have heard of the conundrum “What do you give the man who has everything?” I discovered a variation on it last October: how do you celebrate the man who studied (nearly) everything? Physicist Edwin Thompson Jaynes impacted disciplines from quantum information theory to...
Quanta Magazine
The Ocean Teems With Networks of Interconnected Bacteria Nanotube bridge networks grow between the most abundant photosynthetic bacteria in the oceans,...
6 months ago
74
6 months ago
Nanotube bridge networks grow between the most abundant photosynthetic bacteria in the oceans, suggesting that the world is far more interconnected than anyone realized. The post The Ocean Teems With Networks of Interconnected Bacteria first appeared on Quanta...
Asterisk
They May as Well Grow on Trees The Future of Genetically Engineered Livestock
over a year ago
The Works in...
The evolution of psychiatry How to separate order from disorder
2 months ago
Chris Grossack's...
Life in Johnstone's Topological Topos 2 -- Topological Algebras In the first post, we introduced Johnstone’s topological topos $\mathcal{T}$ and talked about what...
a year ago
68
a year ago
In the first post, we introduced Johnstone’s topological topos $\mathcal{T}$ and talked about what its objects look like. We showed how the interpretation of type theory in $\mathcal{T}$ gives us an “intrinsic topology” on any type we construct. We also alluded to the fact...
NeuroLogica Blog
ChatGPT Performs At University Level We are still sorting out the strengths and weaknesses of the new crop of artificial intelligence...
a year ago
25
a year ago
We are still sorting out the strengths and weaknesses of the new crop of artificial intelligence (AI) applications, the poster-child of which is ChatGPT. This is a so-called large language model application using a “generative pre-trained transformer”. Essentially these types of...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Part 2: How To Build Patient Communities | Out-Of-Pocket And my investments in Most Days + Little Otter
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Decentralizing Journals and Peer Review DAOs | Out-Of-Pocket the evolution of legitimacy in scientific publishing
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
Mollusk Eyes Reveal How Future Evolution Depends on the Past The visual systems of an obscure group of mollusks provide a rare natural example of path-dependent...
a year ago
57
a year ago
The visual systems of an obscure group of mollusks provide a rare natural example of path-dependent evolution, in which a critical fork in the creatures’ past determined their evolutionary futures. The post Mollusk Eyes Reveal How Future Evolution Depends on the Past...
Beautiful Public...
Wild Horses The Bureau of Land Management wants to pay you $1,000 to adopt a wild horse. But the program has...
a year ago
123
a year ago
The Bureau of Land Management wants to pay you $1,000 to adopt a wild horse. But the program has been criticized by animal rights advocates and subject to scrutiny by Congress.
Yale e360
To Breed Heat-Proof Cows, Nigerian Farmers Source Brazilian Bull Genes As the planet warms, Nigerian farmers are looking to breed cattle that can take the heat, importing...
5 months ago
4
5 months ago
As the planet warms, Nigerian farmers are looking to breed cattle that can take the heat, importing semen from a Brazilian breed suited to balmy tropical weather. Read more on E360 →
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...
over a year ago
170
over 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,...
Yale e360
In Uganda, Deadly Landslides Force an Agricultural Reckoning As growing populations denude its slopes and heavy rain intensifies, Mount Elgon has become...
2 days ago
2
2 days ago
As growing populations denude its slopes and heavy rain intensifies, Mount Elgon has become increasingly vulnerable to landslides. In response, Ugandan farmers are planting native trees and changing the crops they plant in efforts to build resilience against future...
Wanderingspace
Colorized View of Perseverance Landing An artificially colorized view of Jezero Crater, showing the bird’s eye view of Perseverance...
over a year ago
43
over a year ago
An artificially colorized view of Jezero Crater, showing the bird’s eye view of Perseverance screaming towards Mars’s surface. The above image was enhanced by Kevin Gill into full color, taking images captured by Perseverance’s Lander Vision System Camera just after the heat...
Quanta Magazine
How Is Cell Death Essential to Life? Cells in our bodies are constantly dying — and these countless tiny deaths are essential to human...
7 months ago
63
7 months ago
Cells in our bodies are constantly dying — and these countless tiny deaths are essential to human health and multicellular life itself. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz speaks with cellular biologist Shai Shaham about what makes a cell “alive” and the latest developments...
NeuroLogica Blog
New Asteroid Probably Won’t Hit Earth NASA recently discovered a 50 meter wide asteroid whose orbit will come close to Earth. They...
over a year ago
43
over a year ago
NASA recently discovered a 50 meter wide asteroid whose orbit will come close to Earth. They estimate a close approach in 2046, which will likely bring the asteroid within 1.1 million miles of the Earth, about four times the distance of the moon. However, there is always...
The Works in...
Youtube Rules A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
a year ago
The Works in...
Unending World A foretaste of Ch. 11 of Stewart Brand’s Maintenance on Books in Progress
8 months ago
The Works in...
Apply for Invisible College 2025 Our residential seminar for 18–22 year olds was such a success that we are running it again
3 months ago
Quanta Magazine
Evolution: Fast or Slow? Lizards Help Resolve a Paradox. Why does natural selection appear to happen slowly on long timescales and quickly on short ones? A...
a year ago
85
a year ago
Why does natural selection appear to happen slowly on long timescales and quickly on short ones? A multigenerational study of four lizard species addresses biology’s “paradox of stasis.” The post Evolution: Fast or Slow? Lizards Help Resolve a Paradox. first appeared...
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...
a year ago
114
a year 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...
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...
a year ago
105
a year 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...
Blog - Practical...
What Really Happened with the Substation Attack in North Carolina? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] At around 7PM on the balmy...
over a year ago
57
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] At around 7PM on the balmy evening of Saturday, December 3, 2022, nearly every electric customer in Moore County, North Carolina was simultaneously plunged into darkness. Amid the confusion, the power utility...
Asterisk
Intelligence Testing Everyone agrees that AIs are getting smarter — but it’s surprisingly difficult to measure by how...
a year ago
17
a year ago
Everyone agrees that AIs are getting smarter — but it’s surprisingly difficult to measure by how much.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How should physicians get paid? | Out-Of-Pocket Should money and care be separate?
a year ago
Yale e360
China Allows New Coal Plants, but With More Limited Role China will allow the construction of new coal power plants through at least 2027 but with...
2 months ago
4
2 months ago
China will allow the construction of new coal power plants through at least 2027 but with restrictions aimed at limiting emissions and boosting renewables, according to a newly released action plan. Read more on E360 →
Yale e360
Despite Ukraine War, Europe Imported Even More Russian Gas Last Year The EU is getting further from its goal of weaning off Russian fossil fuels by 2027. Imports of...
3 months ago
7
3 months ago
The EU is getting further from its goal of weaning off Russian fossil fuels by 2027. Imports of Russian gas rose by 18 percent last year, a new analysis finds. Read more on E360 →
symmetry magazine
Imagining the future of gravitational-wave research To understand why scientists are excited about detecting a new background, just look to the history...
a year ago
58
a year ago
To understand why scientists are excited about detecting a new background, just look to the history of studies of the CMB.
Uncharted...
Rise Up, Europe! The Five Beliefs That Cripple a Continent
3 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
What Policies Affect Climate Change? What is the potential for climate change policy to affect climate change? I often discuss, here and...
a year ago
29
a year ago
What is the potential for climate change policy to affect climate change? I often discuss, here and on the SGU, the science of climate change, and specifically focus on what we can do about it, mostly by reducing our CO2 emissions. Often I get push back explicitly promoting the...
IEEE Spectrum
The Lost Story of Alan Turing’s Secret “Delilah” Project It was 8 May 1945, Victory in Europe Day. With the German military’s unconditional surrender, the...
5 months ago
41
5 months ago
It was 8 May 1945, Victory in Europe Day. With the German military’s unconditional surrender, the European part of World War II came to an end. Alan Turing and his assistant Donald Bayley celebrated victory in their quiet English way, by taking a long walk together. They had been...
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
19
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
Plan To Build First Commercial Fusion Reactor How close are we to having fusion reactors actually sending electric power to the grid? This is a...
6 months ago
74
6 months ago
How close are we to having fusion reactors actually sending electric power to the grid? This is a huge and complicated question, and one with massive implications for our civilization. I think we are still at the point where we cannot count on fusion reactors coming online...
Wanderingspace
The First Ever Real-Time Video from Another Planet When you watch this video, if you find yourself thinking of the Apollo moon landings— here is why:...
over a year ago
35
over a year ago
When you watch this video, if you find yourself thinking of the Apollo moon landings— here is why: this is the first real-time video taken from another world since 1972, and this is the first ever taken on another planet. Most “video” you see from other planetary missions are...
symmetry magazine
A collaboration pairs Fermilab with fashion students Fashion students at the College of DuPage successfully designed gear to protect Fermilab’s SPOT...
over a year ago
41
over a year ago
Fashion students at the College of DuPage successfully designed gear to protect Fermilab’s SPOT robot from radioactive dust. In a recent demonstration for Engineers Week in Chicago, an engineering physicist took the stage accompanied by an unusual guest: a...
The Works in...
Why skyscrapers are so short How to overcome physical, economic and regulatory barriers and build taller
2 months ago