Long Now
Alicia Eggert: This Moment Used To Be The Future
In _The Clock of the Long Now_, Long Now founder Stewart Brand wrote, in response to Zen poet Gary...
15th Dec 2022
In _The Clock of the Long Now_, Long Now founder Stewart Brand wrote, in response to Zen poet Gary Snyder, the following musing on the nature of time:
>THIS PRESENT
MOMENT
USED TO BE
THE UNIMAGINABLE
FUTURE
Interdisciplinary artist Alicia Eggert’s work uses neon, steel, and...
Long Now
Tim O'Reilly: Birth of the Global Mind
### The global mind is us, augmented
As a student of the classics at Harvard in the 1970s, O’Reilly...
6th Sep 2012
### The global mind is us, augmented
As a student of the classics at Harvard in the 1970s, O’Reilly was impressed by a book titled _The Discovery of the Mind: In Greek Philosophy and Literature_ , by Bruno Snell. In the four centuries between Homer and classical Athens, wrote...
wadertales
A Whimbrel’s year
There’s a lot to fit into twelve months if you’re a Whimbrel. In the last paper from his PhD, Camilo...
22nd Sep 2022
There’s a lot to fit into twelve months if you’re a Whimbrel. In the last paper from his PhD, Camilo Carneiro assesses whether Icelandic Whimbrel can always manage to complete the annual cycle of migrate-breed-fatten-migrate-moult-fatten in just 365 days. What happens if a pair...
Beautiful Public...
Design for the People: The US Web Design System and the Public Sans Typeface
The United States has an official web design system and a custom typeface that belongs to the...
2nd Jul 2024
The United States has an official web design system and a custom typeface that belongs to the people. This thoughtful public design system aims to make government websites not only look good, but to make them accessible and functional for all.
IEEE Spectrum
This 1945 TV Console Showed Two Programs at Once
As I try to write this article, my friend and I have six different screens attached to three types...
3rd Jul 2025
As I try to write this article, my friend and I have six different screens attached to three types of devices. We’re working in the same room but on our own projects—separate yet together, a comfortable companionship.
I had never really thought of the proliferation of screens as...
Eukaryote Writes...
Lichen as the common ancestor of all life on earth
The alternate "Lichen as last universal common ancestor" model, which I will refer to for...
2nd Apr 2026
The alternate "Lichen as last universal common ancestor" model, which I will refer to for convenience as “Big Lichen”, does not expect so little of mother nature.
wadertales
Curlew nest survival
The Eurasian Curlew is designated as ‘Near-Threatened’ by IUCN/BirdLife. It is Red-listed in the UK,...
4th Jan 2023
The Eurasian Curlew is designated as ‘Near-Threatened’ by IUCN/BirdLife. It is Red-listed in the UK, largely due to a rapid decline in breeding numbers. In this context, the fact that there are a few pink squares (indicating increased numbers) on the map showing breeding...
Quantum Frontiers
How I didn’t become a philosopher (but wound up presenting a named philosophy lecture anyway)
Many people ask why I became a theoretical physicist. The answer runs through philosophy—which I...
15th Apr 2024
Many people ask why I became a theoretical physicist. The answer runs through philosophy—which I thought, for years, I’d left behind in college. My formal relationship with philosophy originated with Mr. Bohrer. My high school classified him as a religion … Continue reading →
brr
Showering at the South Pole
Potable water, and not much of it.
4th Feb 2023
Potable water, and not much of it.
The Quanta Podcast
High-Temperature Superconductivity Understood at Last
A new atomic-scale experiment all but settles the origin of the strong form of superconductivity...
1st Feb 2023
A new atomic-scale experiment all but settles the origin of the strong form of superconductivity seen in cuprate crystals, confirming a 35-year-old theory. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Quasi Motion” by Kevin MacLeod.
The Quanta Podcast
The New History of the Milky Way
Over the past two years, astronomers have rewritten the story of our galaxy.
The post...
4th Mar 2021
Over the past two years, astronomers have rewritten the story of our galaxy.
The post The New History of the Milky Way first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Long Now
Brian Behlendorf: A Foundation of Trust: Building a Blockchain Future
An Open Source pioneer, [Brian Behlendorf](https://twitter.com/brianbehlendorf) now leads the effort...
7th Jun 2019
An Open Source pioneer, [Brian Behlendorf](https://twitter.com/brianbehlendorf) now leads the effort to build the infrastructure for trust as a service. In the past he helped build the foundations of the Web with [the Apache Foundation](http://www.apache.org/) and brought Open...
lcamtuf’s thing
Why I refrain from infosec punditry
If you know about my professional background, the most puzzling aspect of this Substack must be that...
16th Apr 2026
If you know about my professional background, the most puzzling aspect of this Substack must be that I don’t use it to talk about my primary field of expertise: information security.
Works in Progress...
How Amsterdam invented the fire department
In the seventeenth century, Amsterdam was likely the wealthiest city in the world. Global trade and...
1st Jul 2026
In the seventeenth century, Amsterdam was likely the wealthiest city in the world. Global trade and local industry financed its artistic masterpieces and furnished the abundant foods and household goods that Dutch painters immortalized in still lifes and domestic scenes. But...
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, October 2023
A ~monthly feature. Last month was busy for me with a lot of travel and a lot of focus on The Roots...
11th Oct 2023
A ~monthly feature. Last month was busy for me with a lot of travel and a lot of focus on The Roots of Progress as a nonprofit organization, so I haven’t had as much time as I prefer for research and writing. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Common ROI mistakes in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket
Plus some benchmark ROI numbers for you to think about
7th Jul 2025
Plus some benchmark ROI numbers for you to think about
pcloadletter
Generative AI will probably make blogs better
Generative AI will probably make blogs better.
Have you ever searched for something on Google and...
30th May 2025
Generative AI will probably make blogs better.
Have you ever searched for something on Google and found the first one, two, or three blog posts to be utter nonsense? That's because these blog posts have been optimized not for human consumption, but rather to entertain the search...
Cremieux Recueil
Your Allergies Are Probably Fake
You might be avoiding medications that don't do anything to you
4th Feb 2026
You might be avoiding medications that don't do anything to you
Long Now
Alexander Rose: Millennial Precedent
Alexander Rose, Long Now Executive Director and project manager for the Clock of the Long Now,...
6th Apr 2011
Alexander Rose, Long Now Executive Director and project manager for the Clock of the Long Now, discussed lessons learned in multi-millennial site design. Rose covers his trip to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault as well as other sites and precedents like the Mormon Genealogical...
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...
6th Oct 2022
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...
Probably...
Announcing Think Stats 3e
The third edition of Think Stats is on its way to the printer! You can preorder now from...
6th Apr 2025
The third edition of Think Stats is on its way to the printer! You can preorder now from Bookshop.org and Amazon (those are affiliate links), or if you can’t wait to get a paper copy, you can read the free, online version here. Here’s the new cover, still featuring a...
Conservation...
‘A profound loss’: Conservation world mourns Jane Goodall
1st Oct 2025
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...
1st Dec 2023
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...
Probably...
Think DSP second edition
I have started work on a second edition of Think DSP! You can see the current draft here. I started...
4th Nov 2025
I have started work on a second edition of Think DSP! You can see the current draft here. I started this project in part because of this announcement: Once in a while, a few of the Scicloj friends will meet to learn about signal processing, following the Think DSP book by Allen...
Long Now
Paul Saffo: Embracing Uncertainty: the secret to effective forecasting
### Rules of Forecasting
Reflecting on his 25 years as a forecaster, Paul Saffo pointed out that a...
12th Jan 2008
### Rules of Forecasting
Reflecting on his 25 years as a forecaster, Paul Saffo pointed out that a forecaster's job is not to predict outcomes, but to map the "cone of uncertainty" on a subject. Where are the edges of what might happen? (Uncertainty is cone-shaped because it...
Beautiful Public...
14,000 Photos of Army Uniforms and Rations from the 70s and 80s
An incredible archive of 14,000 photos of Army uniforms, military gear and rations from the 70s and...
20th Nov 2024
An incredible archive of 14,000 photos of Army uniforms, military gear and rations from the 70s and 80s.
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...
17th Sep 2024
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.
Uncharted...
What Are My Politics?
And my unrefined thoughts on US politics
1st Apr 2025
And my unrefined thoughts on US politics
Long Now
Annalee Newitz: Science Needs Fiction
Science fiction does more than predict future inventions. Stories are a testbed for exploring the...
14th Jul 2020
Science fiction does more than predict future inventions. Stories are a testbed for exploring the unexpected ways people could incorporate technology into their cultures. Science journalist and novelist [Annalee Newitz](http://techsploitation.com) discusses how scientists,...
wadertales
Why count shorebirds? A tale from Portugal
The Sado Estuary is one of Portugal’s most important wetlands – a key link in the chain of sites...
14th Feb 2023
The Sado Estuary is one of Portugal’s most important wetlands – a key link in the chain of sites connecting Africa and the Arctic, on the East Atlantic Flyway. In a paper in Waterbirds, João Belo and colleagues analyse changes in numbers of waders wintering in this estuary over...
Cremieux Recueil
Just Pay Them Off
The International Longshoremen's Association is protecting people whose jobs are no longer...
2nd Oct 2024
The International Longshoremen's Association is protecting people whose jobs are no longer necessary. Stop fighting and just pay them so they go away.
Peder M. Isager
Typography Styles & Element Examples
Font Sizes A A A A A A A A 6rem
(96px) 5rem
(80px) 3rem
(48px) 2.25rem
(36px) 1.5rem
(24px)...
18th Feb 2019
Font Sizes A A A A A A A A 6rem
(96px) 5rem
(80px) 3rem
(48px) 2.25rem
(36px) 1.5rem
(24px) 1.25rem
(20px) 1rem
(16px) .875rem
(14px) Type Samples Headline Subheadline Level 1 Heading One page to rule them all...well, not really. This page displays sample typography and page...
Beautiful Public...
Utah Highway LiDAR Scans
Utah's Department of Transportation uses state-of-the-art 3-D laser scanners to capture the surfaces...
3rd Oct 2022
Utah's Department of Transportation uses state-of-the-art 3-D laser scanners to capture the surfaces and area surrounding 15,000 miles of its roads.
Damn Interesting
Devouring the Heart of Portugal
On the morning of Thursday, 04 December 1924, a tall and well-dressed Dutch trader named Karel...
3rd May 2022
On the morning of Thursday, 04 December 1924, a tall and well-dressed Dutch trader named Karel Marang strolled along Great Winchester Street in the City of London, among the bustling crowds of bankers and brokers of the business district, unaware that the parcel he carried held...
The Quanta Podcast
In Game Theory, No Clear Path to Equilibrium
John Nash’s notion of equilibrium is ubiquitous in economic theory, but a new study shows that it is...
12th Oct 2017
John Nash’s notion of equilibrium is ubiquitous in economic theory, but a new study shows that it is often impossible to reach efficiently.
The post In Game Theory, No Clear Path to Equilibrium first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, March 2023
A new monthly feature, let me know what you think.
Books
Matt Ridley, How Innovation Works (2020)....
9th Mar 2023
A new monthly feature, let me know what you think.
Books
Matt Ridley, How Innovation Works (2020). About halfway through, lots of interesting case studies, very readable.
Vaclav Smil, Creating the Twentieth Century (2005). I read the first chapter; saving the rest of it for when...
IEEE Spectrum
Chuck E. Cheese’s Animatronics Band Bows Out
That may have been the last time I entered a Chuck E. Cheese pizzeria. And yet, when I heard that...
2nd Dec 2024
That may have been the last time I entered a Chuck E. Cheese pizzeria. And yet, when I heard that the company was phasing out the animatronic bands from all but five locations by the end of this year, I felt a twinge of nostalgia. Much to my surprise, I was truly sad that the...
Explorations of an...
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 15: More From Explorama Lodge (February 20 - 21, 2024)
February 20, 2024
A Great Potoo was the first bird I heard this morning shortly after my alarm went...
1st Feb 2025
February 20, 2024
A Great Potoo was the first bird I heard this morning shortly after my alarm went off at 5:00 AM. It was going to be a good day.
At dinner the previous night Luis, Laura and I had come up with a plan for our full day at Explorama Lodge. We would begin by taking...
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...
2nd Jan 2024
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...
Long Now
David Grinspoon: Earth in Human Hands
## Cognitive planet
**Thanks to the growing human domination** of natural systems on Earth, people...
20th Sep 2017
## Cognitive planet
**Thanks to the growing human domination** of natural systems on Earth, people say we are entering an Anthropocene Epoch, Grinspoon began, but what if the term “epoch” understates the consequence of what is going on? Astrobiologists recently learned that...
Asterisk
The Perplexing Appeal of <i>The Telepathy Tapes</i>
The Telepathy Tapes claims that autistic children have the ability to read minds. Where do their...
6th Nov 2025
The Telepathy Tapes claims that autistic children have the ability to read minds. Where do their claims come from — and why do so many people believe them?
Peder M. Isager
Why experiments are considered gold standard for answering causal questions
In this blog post, I will briefly explain why experimental designs are considered so valuable by...
7th Aug 2025
In this blog post, I will briefly explain why experimental designs are considered so valuable by scientists and why we often insist that randomized experiments are necessary for answering causal questions. I will use a practical example to illustrate this point. If you’re new to...
The Quanta Podcast
What Can We Gain by Losing Infinity?
Most mathematicians take the notion of infinity for granted — it’s deeply rooted in math’s most...
5th May 2026
Most mathematicians take the notion of infinity for granted — it’s deeply rooted in math’s most fundamental assumptions. But a small group of researchers hopes to banish infinity completely. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana...
The Quanta Podcast
Do AI Models Agree On How They Encode Reality?
In the allegory of Plato’s cave, prisoners see the world only through shadows. Extending this...
3rd Feb 2026
In the allegory of Plato’s cave, prisoners see the world only through shadows. Extending this metaphor to AI, AI models are the prisoners and the shadows are streams of data. Are all models converging on a singular representation of reality? On this week’s episode of The Quanta...
The Quanta Podcast
The Brain Has a 'Low-Power Mode' That Blunts Our Senses
Neuroscientists uncovered an energy-saving mode in vision-system neurons that works at the cost of...
12th Oct 2022
Neuroscientists uncovered an energy-saving mode in vision-system neurons that works at the cost of being able to see fine-grained details. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Unanswered Questions” by Kevin MacLeod.
Uncharted...
Never Bet Against America
Why the US Is Overpowered
4th Sep 2025
Why the US Is Overpowered
Asterisk
After Work, We’ll Have Each Other
Once you realize what that means, you’ll be giving two cheers for the American work ethic.
2 weeks ago
Once you realize what that means, you’ll be giving two cheers for the American work ethic.
Long Now
Becky Chambers & Annalee Newitz: Resisting Dystopia
One of our guiding principles at Long Now is that in order to get to a future that we want to live...
15th Jun 2023
One of our guiding principles at Long Now is that in order to get to a future that we want to live in, we must first be able to imagine it.
For many, it is much easier to imagine a dystopia than a thriving civilization. Our cultural visions of the future are increasingly...
NeuroLogica Blog
Tong Test for Artificial General Intelligence
Most readers are probably familiar with the Turing Test – a concept proposed by early computing...
2nd Oct 2023
Most readers are probably familiar with the Turing Test – a concept proposed by early computing expert Alan Turing in 1950, and originally called “The Imitation Game”. The original paper is enlightening to read. Turing was not trying to answer the question “can machines think”....
Interaction Magic -...
The last design you'll ever make
Designing from cradle to grave is no longer good enough. We need to postpone that grave as long as...
7th Dec 2021
Designing from cradle to grave is no longer good enough. We need to postpone that grave as long as possible. This is how to design for a right to repair.
Long Now
Steven Johnson: Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World
## Inventing toward delight
Humanity has been inventing toward delight for a long time. Johnson...
5th Jan 2017
## Inventing toward delight
Humanity has been inventing toward delight for a long time. Johnson began with a slide of shell beads found in Morocco that indicate human interest in personal adornment going back 80,000 years. He showed 50,000-year-old bone flutes found in modern...
The Quanta Podcast
Visions of Future Physics
Nima Arkani-Hamed is championing a campaign to build the world’s largest particle collider, even as...
1st Oct 2015
Nima Arkani-Hamed is championing a campaign to build the world’s largest particle collider, even as he pursues a new vision of the laws of nature.
The post Visions of Future Physics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
IEEE Spectrum
A Brief History of the World’s First Planetarium
In 1912, Oskar von Miller, an electrical engineer and founder of the Deutsches Museum, had an idea:...
1st May 2024
In 1912, Oskar von Miller, an electrical engineer and founder of the Deutsches Museum, had an idea: Could you project an artificial starry sky onto a dome, as a way of demonstrating astronomical principles to the public?
It was such a novel concept that when von Miller approached...
The Quanta Podcast
A Math Theory for Why People Hallucinate
Psychedelic drugs can trigger characteristic hallucinations, which have long been thought to hold...
5th Jul 2019
Psychedelic drugs can trigger characteristic hallucinations, which have long been thought to hold clues about the brain’s circuitry. After nearly a century of study, a possible explanation is crystallizing.
The post A Math Theory for Why People Hallucinate first...
pcloadletter
The ChatGPT wrapper product boom is an uncanny valley hellscape
Here we go again: I'm so tired of crypto web3 LLMs.
I'm positive there are wonderful applications...
20th May 2024
Here we go again: I'm so tired of crypto web3 LLMs.
I'm positive there are wonderful applications for LLMs. The ChatGPT web UI seems great for summarizing information from various online sources (as long as you're willing to verify the things that you learn).
But a lot fo the "AI...
Peder M. Isager
Bakeoff
Formspree makes it easy to receive submissions from HTML forms on your static website. Functional...
1st Jul 2019
Formspree makes it easy to receive submissions from HTML forms on your static website. Functional Form This theme has a form-to-email feature built in, thanks to the simple Formspree integration. All you need to activate the form is a valid recipient email address saved in the...
SubAnima
Organisms Are Not Made Of Atoms
Individuality is a process.
12th Feb 2022
Individuality is a process.
wadertales
When mates behave differently
Iceland’s 40,000 Oystercatchers are an interesting mix of resident birds and migrants, providing an...
7th Aug 2022
Iceland’s 40,000 Oystercatchers are an interesting mix of resident birds and migrants, providing an ideal system in which to study the costs and benefits of the two options, and to try to work out what influences whether an individual becomes a ‘resident’ or a ‘migrant’. I’ve...
The Quanta Podcast
Why Don’t Patients Get Sick in Sync? Modelers Find Statistical Clues.
The long, variable times that some diseases incubate after infection defies simple explanation. An...
8th Nov 2018
The long, variable times that some diseases incubate after infection defies simple explanation. An idealized model of tumor growth offers a statistical solution.
The post Why Don’t Patients Get Sick in Sync? Modelers Find Statistical Clues. first appeared on Quanta...
Quantum Frontiers
The physicists of Florence
A scientist in Florence can’t avoid bumping into colleagues. When visiting the Renaissance’s...
29th Jun 2026
A scientist in Florence can’t avoid bumping into colleagues. When visiting the Renaissance’s birthplace last summer, I ran into a fellow physicist even on a Saturday morning. I was wandering around the Uffizi Gallery, a museum blessed with some of … Continue reading →
Long Now
Emily Levine & Jill Tarter: Long Conversation 4 of 19
**This is one conversation out of the 19 that took place as part of the Long Conversation.[Media...
16th Oct 2010
**This is one conversation out of the 19 that took place as part of the Long Conversation.[Media links for the other Conversations are available here.](https://longnow.org/seminars/02010/oct/16/long-conversation/)**
Long Conversation, an epic relay of one-to-one conversations...
Quantum Frontiers
Interacting collaborators reveal noninteracting fermions
By day, I work as an experimentalist on laser-cooling molecules, but I’ve never fully surrendered my...
10th Aug 2026
By day, I work as an experimentalist on laser-cooling molecules, but I’ve never fully surrendered my theoretical-physics license. I started as an undergraduate in Lincoln Carr’s group at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO. I learned from his … Continue reading →
The Quanta Podcast
How the Physics of Nothing Underlies Everything
The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of...
7th Dec 2022
The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of the vacuum. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.
The Quanta Podcast
To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love....
2nd Mar 2017
The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them.
The post To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Long Now
David Rumsey: Mapping Time
### Maps and time
David Rumsey's spectacularly illustrated lecture, "Mapping Time" is not just...
15th May 2004
### Maps and time
David Rumsey's spectacularly illustrated lecture, "Mapping Time" is not just about maps. It is the future of data and knowledge handling. People literally gasp at the things Rumsey shows can be done.
I love it when techies, artists, and historians all gasp at...
Long Now
Daniel Everett: Endangered languages, lost knowledge and the future
### Language Revolution
The Piraha tribe in the heart of the Amazon numbers only 360, spread in...
21st Mar 2009
### Language Revolution
The Piraha tribe in the heart of the Amazon numbers only 360, spread in small groups over 300 miles. An exceptionally cheerful people, they live with a focus on immediacy, empiricism, and physical rigor that has shaped their unique language, claims...
Asterisk
AI After Drug Development
Coming up with drug candidates isn’t the bottleneck on finding new treatments. Can AI help with the...
1st Jan 1970
Coming up with drug candidates isn’t the bottleneck on finding new treatments. Can AI help with the things that are?
Drew Ex Machina
Failure to Launch: The First Moon Race 1958-60
While it has been a few months since I have published a new post on the Drew Ex Machina website,...
2nd Jun 2023
While it has been a few months since I have published a new post on the Drew Ex Machina website, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t […]
Wanderingspace
ISS Looks Like a Toy
These animated gifs of The International Space Station look just like metal toys — but they are...
4th Jul 2021
These animated gifs of The International Space Station look just like metal toys — but they are real. Each frame is taken with ground based amateur telescopes and then pieced together with common image software like Adobe Photoshop.
It is incredible to me that there are people...
Long Now
Laura Cunningham: Ten Millennia of California Ecology
### Eco-continuity in California
California ecology used to be much more driven by floods and...
18th Oct 2011
### Eco-continuity in California
California ecology used to be much more driven by floods and fires, Cunningham said, showing with her paintings how the Great Valley would become a vast inland sea, like a huge vernal pool progressing each year from navigable water to intense...
Long Now
Craig Childs: Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Everending Earth
### How the world keeps ending
“This Earth is a story teller,” Childs began. “And it is not a...
30th Jul 2013
### How the world keeps ending
“This Earth is a story teller,” Childs began. “And it is not a stable place to live. It is always ending. We think of endings as sudden, but it is always a process.”
For his book _Apocalyptic Planet_ he sought out some of the world’s most...
The Roots of...
The Unlimited Horizon, part 2
Previously: The Unlimited Horizon, part 1.
Is there really that much more progress to be made in the...
27th Aug 2025
Previously: The Unlimited Horizon, part 1.
Is there really that much more progress to be made in the future? How many problems are left to solve? How much better could life really get?
After all, we are pretty comfortable today. We have electricity, clean running water, heating...
Long Now
David Keith: Patient Geoengineering
## Practical geoengineering
“Temporary, moderate, and responsive” should be the guidelines of...
18th Feb 2015
## Practical geoengineering
“Temporary, moderate, and responsive” should be the guidelines of responsible geoengineering, in David Keith’s view. For slowing global warming, and giving humanity time to bring greenhouse gas emissions down to zero (and eventually past zero with...
ToughSF
Fusion Highways in Space
A transport system that can get spacecraft to Jupiter in 10 days, but without a massive onboard...
11th Mar 2021
A transport system that can get spacecraft to Jupiter in 10 days, but without a massive onboard reactor, using antimatter fuel or riding a gigantic laser beam?
What we need instead is a Fusion Highway to connect the Solar System in unprecedented ways.
The art above is by...
wadertales
Conservation beyond boundaries
When an environmental impact assessment concludes that only a small number of shorebirds will be...
7th Apr 2023
When an environmental impact assessment concludes that only a small number of shorebirds will be affected by a new airport, because relatively small flocks are counted during field surveys, is there an assumption that the birds encountered are always the same individuals? What if...
Conservation...
Despite dire headlines, ‘it would be a mistake to write off tropical forests’
19th Feb 2024
nanoscale views
EUV lithography - a couple of quick links
Welcome to the new year!
I've written previously (see here, item #3) about the extreme ultraviolet...
2nd Jan 2026
Welcome to the new year!
I've written previously (see here, item #3) about the extreme ultraviolet lithography tools used in modern computer chip fabrication. These machines are incredible, the size of a railway car, and cost hundreds of millions of dollars each. Veritasium...
The Quanta Podcast
The Quantum Secret to Superconductivity
In a virtuoso experiment, physicists have revealed details of a “quantum critical point” that...
3rd Mar 2016
In a virtuoso experiment, physicists have revealed details of a “quantum critical point” that underlies high-temperature superconductivity.
The post The Quantum Secret to Superconductivity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
lcamtuf’s thing
How many dimensions is this?
A degree in mathematics might not save you from stacking boxes for a living.
3rd Sep 2025
A degree in mathematics might not save you from stacking boxes for a living.
The Works in...
Fertility on demand
Technology could allow women to have it all
1st May 2025
Technology could allow women to have it all
Long Now
Daniel Janzen: Third World Conservation: It's ALL Gardening
### Mega gardening
Big as life and twice as opinionated, the renowned preservation biologist Daniel...
10th Apr 2004
### Mega gardening
Big as life and twice as opinionated, the renowned preservation biologist Daniel Janzen spoke for The Long Now on Friday, April 9, 2005. His perspective on preservation may be jarring to some: "It's ALL Gardening".
Dan Janzen is most widely known for his...
brr
South Pole Topography
The relentless accumulation (and management) of snow.
27th Jan 2023
The relentless accumulation (and management) of snow.
Inverted Passion
Notes on doing science and research
I know it’s been awfully quiet here. I’ve not posted for a while. But I’ve been writing prolifically...
23rd Oct 2025
I know it’s been awfully quiet here. I’ve not posted for a while. But I’ve been writing prolifically somewhere else. Earlier this year, I started an AI lab called Lossfunk and that is what has kept me (happily) busy. We have a newsletter there called Lossfunk Letters where I...
Eukaryote Writes...
The rare, deadly virus lurking in the Southwest US, and the bigger picture
If you live in this one county in California, you might be more likely to die from Sin Nombre Virus...
14th Nov 2025
If you live in this one county in California, you might be more likely to die from Sin Nombre Virus than in a car crash.
Eukaryote Writes...
Recommendation: reports on the search for missing hiker Bill Ewasko
How to find someone who has died in the wilderness.
31st Jul 2024
How to find someone who has died in the wilderness.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Some sick wearable projects | Out-Of-Pocket
Robots, wearables for kids, and more
3rd Jun 2026
Robots, wearables for kids, and more
The Quanta Podcast
The Most Famous Paradox in Physics Nears Its End
In a landmark series of calculations, physicists have proved that black holes can shed information. ...
4th Feb 2021
In a landmark series of calculations, physicists have proved that black holes can shed information.
The post The Most Famous Paradox in Physics Nears Its End first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Damn Interesting
The Kingpin of Shanghai
Respectable heads of state rarely admit to keeping company with gangsters. But in April 1927, about...
26th Aug 2021
Respectable heads of state rarely admit to keeping company with gangsters. But in April 1927, about 15 years after the collapse of the last imperial dynasty, Chiang Kai-shek and China were at a crossroads. Chiang had followed a murky path to leadership of the Chinese Nationalist...
Cremieux Recueil
Are All the Good Men Married?
Why do married men earn so much? Is it because the good men get married, or does marriage make men...
13th Sep 2025
Why do married men earn so much? Is it because the good men get married, or does marriage make men good?
NeuroLogica Blog
How Much Do Couples Share Traits?
Do birds of a feather flock together, or do opposites attract? These are both common aphorisms,...
5th Sep 2023
Do birds of a feather flock together, or do opposites attract? These are both common aphorisms, which means that they are commonly offered as generally accepted truths, but also that they may by wrong. People like pithy phrases, so they spread prolifically, but that does not mean...
The Quanta Podcast
New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory
Researchers have mapped hundreds of semantic categories to the tiny bits of the cortex that...
11th May 2022
Researchers have mapped hundreds of semantic categories to the tiny bits of the cortex that represent them in our thoughts and perceptions. What they discovered might change our view of memory.
The post New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory first...
Uncharted...
How Can Europe Improve Its Immigration
Through getting better immigrants, rejecting coutnerproductive ones, and managing the existing ones...
2nd Jun 2026
Through getting better immigrants, rejecting coutnerproductive ones, and managing the existing ones better.
Works in Progress...
Who cares about plagiarism?
Plagiarism is unforgivable in academia but it’s not plagiarism itself that should trouble us. It’s...
21st Jan 2022
Plagiarism is unforgivable in academia but it’s not plagiarism itself that should trouble us. It’s carelessness and a lack of originality.
Explorations of an...
2024 (Part 2 of 2)
June and July
I always sound like a broken record each year when discussing June and July. I was...
1st Jan 2025
June and July
I always sound like a broken record each year when discussing June and July. I was fortunate to have a lot of field work in 2024 which kept me occupied for most of these two months. But it's one of the best jobs in the world as I spend each and every day outside,...
Casey Handmer's blog
California’s path to redemption
California is by far the richest and most powerful polity led by Progressive ideals, and it has...
2nd Mar 2025
California is by far the richest and most powerful polity led by Progressive ideals, and it has taken a beating of late. In this post, I discuss a practical roadmap by which California must reclaim its mantle as the shining city on the hill, an embodiment of the positive...
Drew Ex Machina
First Pictures: View of the Earth from NASA’s Explorer 6 – August 14, 1959
Today we take for granted that we can instantly access images of almost any part of the Earth taken...
14th Aug 2024
Today we take for granted that we can instantly access images of almost any part of the Earth taken from space using an ever growing collection […]
Andrew Fraknoi –...
128 New Moons Found Around Saturn
An international team of astronomers announced recently that they had discovered 128 new, small...
9th Apr 2025
An international team of astronomers announced recently that they had discovered 128 new, small moons orbiting the planet Saturn. That brings the total number of moons known around the ringed planet to 274, breaking all planetary records. Jupiter, the runner-up, has “only” 95...
Many Worlds
Many Worlds Archive is Available
I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column — sponsored by NASA’s NExSS...
14th Nov 2023
I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column — sponsored by NASA’s NExSS initiative and the Lunar & Planetary Institute — for almost eight years. But the run came to an end in October. Now an archive of the more than 400 columns is easily available at...
wadertales
Is inbreeding a problem for England’s Black-tailed Godwits?
The current English breeding population of limosa Black-tailed Godwits is relatively new, arising...
29th Apr 2025
The current English breeding population of limosa Black-tailed Godwits is relatively new, arising from a recolonisation in the 1950s that is presumed to have involved Dutch-hatched individuals. Given that the number of breeding birds is small and that there has been a...
wadertales
Peatland restoration – ploughing for plovers.
Commercial forestry was never a good option for the wet peatlands of northeast Scotland, with...
16th Aug 2025
Commercial forestry was never a good option for the wet peatlands of northeast Scotland, with planting financed by tax subsidies and sold on the mantra of ‘rural jobs’. The trees did not grow well and, thirty years on, more government money started to be spent to restore the same...
Casey Handmer's blog
I guess we’re doing Moon factories now
A quick note collating a list of blogs I’ve written on the topic. I’ll update it with good third...
10th Feb 2026
A quick note collating a list of blogs I’ve written on the topic. I’ll update it with good third party write ups as I become aware of them. Context: SpaceX announced a refocus on lunar development. My best explanation for this is that SpaceX wants to accelerate human occupation...
Probably...
Bayesian Decision Analysis
At PyData Global 2025 I presented a workshop on Bayesian Decision Analysis with PyMC. The video is...
9th Jan 2026
At PyData Global 2025 I presented a workshop on Bayesian Decision Analysis with PyMC. The video is available now. This workshop is based on the first session of the Applied Bayesian Modeling Workshop I teach along with my colleagues at PyMC Labs. If you would like to learn more,...
Works in Progress...
Steam networks
New York’s skyscrapers soar above a century-old steam network that still warms the city. While the...
13th Mar 2025
New York’s skyscrapers soar above a century-old steam network that still warms the city. While the rest of the world moved to hot water, Manhattanites still buy steam by the megapound.
The Quanta Podcast
AI Filters Will Always Have Holes
Ask ChatGPT how to build a bomb, and it will flatly respond that it “can’t help with that.” But...
6th Jan 2026
Ask ChatGPT how to build a bomb, and it will flatly respond that it “can’t help with that.” But users have long played a cat-and-mouse game to try to trick language models into providing forbidden information. Just as quickly as these “jailbreaks” appear, AI companies patch them...
NeuroLogica Blog
BBC Gets Into UFOs
Paranormal phenomena tend to wax and wane in the public interest. Typically a generation will become...
1st Jul 2024
Paranormal phenomena tend to wax and wane in the public interest. Typically a generation will become fascinated with a topic, but eventually the novelty will wear thin and interest will fade. But the flame will be kept alive by the hardcore believers. Wait long enough, and...
IEEE Spectrum
Cash in on the AI Boom by Renting Out Your Spare Compute
If you own an at-home server, a gaming computer, or just a laptop that doesn’t get much love, listen...
2 weeks ago
If you own an at-home server, a gaming computer, or just a laptop that doesn’t get much love, listen up. You can now put that spare computing power to use and earn some passive income in the process. AI companies are hungry for more compute to run AI inference—the process of...
Casey Handmer's blog
Career Development Guide for Job Seekers
Context October 2025: With the government shut down and NASA JPL business in apparent terminal...
3rd Oct 2025
Context October 2025: With the government shut down and NASA JPL business in apparent terminal decline, I have received numerous inbounds from former colleagues and friends asking for advice in post-NASA career development. At the same time, in my day job running Terraform...
Long Now
Alexander Rose, Brian Eno, & Stewart Brand: Long Finance: The Enduring Value Conference
### Enduring Value
In February 02010, [Brian Eno](../../../../people/board/prospect4/), [Stewart...
1st Feb 2010
### Enduring Value
In February 02010, [Brian Eno](../../../../people/board/prospect4/), [Stewart Brand](../../../../people/board/sb1/), and [Alexander Rose](../../../../people/staff/zander/) spoke at the [Long Finance...
The Roots of...
The Unlimited Horizon, part 1
Previously: The Problem-Solving Animal, part 1, part 2 and part 3.
The acceleration that we saw...
15th Jul 2025
Previously: The Problem-Solving Animal, part 1, part 2 and part 3.
The acceleration that we saw in Chapter 6 is driven by a feedback process in which growth itself improves the mechanisms of growth.
When we zoom out to look at thousands of years, this process looks smooth and...
lcamtuf’s thing
Cursed circuits #5: capacitance multiplier
Capacitor vendors don't want you to know this! Save money on capacitors by spending more on other...
5th Jul 2026
Capacitor vendors don't want you to know this! Save money on capacitors by spending more on other components
Quantum Frontiers
Memories of things past
My best friend—who’s held the title of best friend since kindergarten—calls me the keeper of her...
6th Mar 2023
My best friend—who’s held the title of best friend since kindergarten—calls me the keeper of her childhood memories. I recall which toys we played with, the first time I visited her house,1 and which beverages our classmates drank during snack … Continue reading →
The Quanta Podcast
Why Am I Left-Handed?
Why are only 10% of people left-handed? Geneticists, developmental biologists, neuroscientists, and...
4th Aug 2026
Why are only 10% of people left-handed? Geneticists, developmental biologists, neuroscientists, and evolutionary biologists have all sought explanations, resulting in an astronomical amount of research into the mystery of handedness. No one has put all the pieces together yet,...
Peder M. Isager
How to share your data online with OSF
The Open Science movement is here to stay. However, incorporating open practices like data sharing...
2nd Oct 2018
The Open Science movement is here to stay. However, incorporating open practices like data sharing into your work flow can seem like a challenging task. If you have never made data available online before, the process can feel a bit daunting. Where should I put the data? What...
Cremieux Recueil
Bad Drugs Get Pulled Fast
Safety issues usually get identified and acted on quickly
3rd Aug 2025
Safety issues usually get identified and acted on quickly
Asterisk
We Can, Must, and Will Simulate Nematode Brains
Scientists have spent over 25 years trying — and failing — to build computer simulations of the...
5th Mar 2025
Scientists have spent over 25 years trying — and failing — to build computer simulations of the smallest brain we know. Today, we finally have the tools to pull it off.
Interaction Magic -...
Light Engineering
Exploring the physics and engineering of light pipes, where optics and mechanical design meet.
4th Jun 2020
Exploring the physics and engineering of light pipes, where optics and mechanical design meet.
The Works in...
The eye of the tiger
What makes tigers different from one another?
8th Jun 2023
What makes tigers different from one another?
Long Now
Lawrence Lessig: How Money Corrupts Congress and a Plan to Stop It
### Public Funding for Public Elections
Larry Lessig gave a rousing performance for the 100th...
18th Jan 2012
### Public Funding for Public Elections
Larry Lessig gave a rousing performance for the 100th Seminar About Long-Term Thinking. In a lawyerly fashion he laid out evidence of a new type of corruption that is disrupting the American republic, and he offered a remedy for that...
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2020, 1)
Internet Harvest is a selection of the most succulent links on the internet that I’ve recently...
1st Feb 2020
Internet Harvest is a selection of the most succulent links on the internet that I’ve recently plucked from its fruitful boughs.
nanoscale views
NAS "State of Science" 2026 address
I watched the webcast of the NAS State of Science address by outgoing NAS president Dr. Marcia...
2nd Jun 2026
I watched the webcast of the NAS State of Science address by outgoing NAS president Dr. Marcia McNutt. (I did not watch the panel discussion afterward, so sorry if I missed critical pieces.) A few thoughts on this:
The intro music was a very classy baroque string quartet. ...
The Quanta Podcast
A New World’s Extraordinary Orbit Points to Planet Nine
Astronomers argue that there’s an undiscovered giant planet far beyond the orbit of Neptune. A newly...
14th Mar 2019
Astronomers argue that there’s an undiscovered giant planet far beyond the orbit of Neptune. A newly discovered rocky body has added evidence to the circumstantial case for it.
The post A New World’s Extraordinary Orbit Points to Planet Nine first appeared on Quanta...
Long Now
Geoffrey B West: Why Cities Keep on Growing, Corporations Always Die, and Life Gets Faster
### Superlinear Cities
"It's hard to kill a city," West began, "but easy to kill a company." The...
26th Jul 2011
### Superlinear Cities
"It's hard to kill a city," West began, "but easy to kill a company." The mean life of companies is 10 years. Cities routinely survive even nuclear bombs. And "cities are the crucible of civilization." They are the major source of innovation and wealth...
Beautiful Public...
FAA Aviation Maps
Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a...
29th Jan 2024
Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a higher information density than the Federal Aviation Administration’s aviation maps.
Conservation...
On island nation, ‘ancestral bond’ to crocodiles is tested
1st Jun 2026
Long Now
Suhanya Raffel: World Art Through The Asian Perspective
Coming to the fore in this century is Asian perspective on everything. A thrilling place to watch...
21st Oct 2019
Coming to the fore in this century is Asian perspective on everything. A thrilling place to watch the shift is in art.
Extraordinary contemporary art from all over the world, especially Asia, has been collected for the new world-class museum in Hong Kong called M+. The massive...
Quantum Frontiers
Let gravity do its work
One day, early this spring, I found myself in a hotel elevator with three other people. The cohort...
13th May 2024
One day, early this spring, I found myself in a hotel elevator with three other people. The cohort consisted of two theoretical physicists, one computer scientist, and what appeared to be a normal person. I pressed the elevator’s 4 button, … Continue reading →
Long Now
Walter Mischel: The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control
### Thinking hot and cool
**In the 1960s, Mischel** and colleagues at Stanford launched a series of...
3rd May 2016
### Thinking hot and cool
**In the 1960s, Mischel** and colleagues at Stanford launched a series of delayed-gratification experiments with young children using a method that later came to be known as “the marshmallow test.” A researcher whom the child knew and trusted, after...
Chris Grossack's...
$\mathsf{B}\text{Diff}(\Sigma)$ Classifies $\Sigma$-bundles
I’ve been trying to learn all about topological (quantum) field theories, the
cobordism hypothesis,...
21st Dec 2024
I’ve been trying to learn all about topological (quantum) field theories, the
cobordism hypothesis, and how to use $(\infty,n)$-categories. This is all
in service of some stuff I’m doing with skein algebras (which are part of a
“$3+1$ TQFT” often named after Crane–Yetter, but...
Peder M. Isager
What is Worth Replicating? - SIPS 2020 Unconference session
Given that most research is original and we have limited resources available for replication, we...
30th Jun 2020
Given that most research is original and we have limited resources available for replication, we need guidelines for study selection in replication research. But what makes a study worth replicating? In our unconference session at SIPS this year, we had the pleasure of discussing...
Quantum Frontiers
Astrobiology meets quantum computation?
The origin of life appears to share little with quantum computation, apart from the difficulty of...
23rd Oct 2023
The origin of life appears to share little with quantum computation, apart from the difficulty of achieving it and its potential for clickbait. Yet similar notions of complexity have recently garnered attention in both fields. Each topic’s researchers expect only … Continue...
ToughSF
How to Live on Other Planets: Uranus
The weirdest of the planets.
A blue giant, resting on its side.
Could we find a home in...
22nd Aug 2019
The weirdest of the planets.
A blue giant, resting on its side.
Could we find a home in the
Uranian system?
Description
Uranus is the fourth-largest
planet and the first ‘ice giant’. It orbits between 18.3 and 20.1 AU from the
Sun, making it four times more distant than...
Long Now
Kim Carson: Inspired by Intelligence
What if AI is not here actually to replace us, but to remind us who we actually are?
That was the...
13th Jun 2025
What if AI is not here actually to replace us, but to remind us who we actually are?
That was the question at the heart of Kim Carson’s Long Now Talk. In _Inspired by Intelligence: Purpose and Creativity in the AI Era_, Carson challenged us to avoid the easy narratives of...
Long Now
Mike Kuniavsky: Our Future in Algorithm Farming
Everything will be connected to the network, even things that shouldn’t be. From automobiles to egg...
1st Mar 2018
Everything will be connected to the network, even things that shouldn’t be. From automobiles to egg timers, Kuniavsky explains all these devices will try to get our attention and prove their value. They’ll also attempt to predict the future—at least the immediate future of our...
Inverted Passion
Do you know what GDP is?
I thought I knew! But the more I introspected, the hazy my understanding got. Is GDP amount of stuff...
1st May 2025
I thought I knew! But the more I introspected, the hazy my understanding got. Is GDP amount of stuff produced or consumed? Does it include imports or exports? What does it have to do with well being? Why does it keep increasing? So, I fired up Claude and started understanding...
Long Now
Kim Stanley Robinson: Learning From Le Guin
The legacy of [Ursula K Le Guin](http://www.ursulakleguin.com/) lives beyond the page in generations...
12th Jul 2019
The legacy of [Ursula K Le Guin](http://www.ursulakleguin.com/) lives beyond the page in generations of writers who have learned from her. She used fantastic fiction to imagine ideals for the real world. Kim Stanley Robinson, her student 40 years ago and now a celebrated science...
Stephen Wolfram...
Who Can Understand the Proof? A Window on Formalized Mathematics
Related writings: “Logic, Explainability and the Future of Understanding” (2018) » “The...
9th Jan 2025
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...
The Quanta Podcast
New Life Found That Lives Off Electricity
Scientists have figured out how microbes can suck energy from rocks. Such lifeforms might be more...
7th Jul 2016
Scientists have figured out how microbes can suck energy from rocks. Such lifeforms might be more widespread than anyone anticipated.
The post New Life Found That Lives Off Electricity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Long Now
Maya Tudor: Can Nationalism be a Resource for Democracy?
A political scientist examines how foundational nationalisms affect democracy globally, using...
6th May 2019
A political scientist examines how foundational nationalisms affect democracy globally, using countries like India and Myanmar to illustrate that some kinds of nationalism can be an essential resource for protecting democracy.
Maya Tudor is a comparative political scientist...
Beautiful Public...
The footprints of every building in NYC
The landscape of NYC changes so much that the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation...
20th Jul 2026
The landscape of NYC changes so much that the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation updates a dataset of building footprint shapes weekly.
Cremieux Recueil
A Modest Proposal To Turn Canada Into a Narco State
Americans want cheap drugs and Canadians wants loads of money. I smell a deal.
30th Jul 2025
Americans want cheap drugs and Canadians wants loads of money. I smell a deal.
Asterisk
Saving Academics from Themselves
The university will survive AI. That doesn’t mean we’ll like what it turns into.
1st Jul 2026
The university will survive AI. That doesn’t mean we’ll like what it turns into.
Cremieux Recueil
The Great Permitting Downturn and Your Rent
Renting a home is more expensive because we stopped letting people build homes
2 weeks ago
Renting a home is more expensive because we stopped letting people build homes
The Works in...
Issue 17: No great stagnation in cruise ships
Plus: animals as chemical factories, how progress lost its glamour, and how Madrid built 120 miles...
5th Dec 2024
Plus: animals as chemical factories, how progress lost its glamour, and how Madrid built 120 miles of metro in twelve years.
Chris Grossack's...
Where Do Those Undergraduate Divisibility Problems Come From?
Oftentimes in your “intro to proofs” class or your first “discrete math” class
or something...
16th Jan 2025
Oftentimes in your “intro to proofs” class or your first “discrete math” class
or something similar, you’ll be shown problems of the form “prove that for
$n^6 + n^3 + 2n^2 + 2n$ is a multiple of $6$ for every $n$”… But where do
these problems come from? And have you ever...
nanoscale views
NSF, spending, and the end of the fiscal year
We are less than one month away from the end of the federal fiscal year, and traditionally there are...
a week ago
We are less than one month away from the end of the federal fiscal year, and traditionally there are internal deadlines for agencies to allocate their final spending by around September 9. Right now, the NSF is on track to issue about 4000 fewer (!!) awards in FY26 than it did...
The Quanta Podcast
Secrets of Early Animal Evolution Revealed by Chromosome 'Tectonics'
Large blocks of genes conserved through hundreds of millions of years of evolution hint at how the...
14th Apr 2022
Large blocks of genes conserved through hundreds of millions of years of evolution hint at how the first animal chromosomes came to be.
The post Secrets of Early Animal Evolution Revealed by Chromosome ‘Tectonics’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Long Now
Gavin Newsom & Stewart Brand: Cities and Time
### Sustainable Cities
Mayor Newsom began with how moved he was by hosting the UN's World...
9th Apr 2009
### Sustainable Cities
Mayor Newsom began with how moved he was by hosting the UN's World Environment Day in San Francisco in 2005. For that event, which was called "Green Cities - Plan for the Planet!", he invited 120 mayors from around the world. Days of intense discussion...
Wanderingspace
Webb’s Jupiter
So this is “false color” becuase it is infrared (like all Webb images) and made from only two...
23rd Aug 2022
So this is “false color” becuase it is infrared (like all Webb images) and made from only two filters orange and cyan. However, the detail is incredible. That dot is tiny Amalthea at the left and— yes… that is Jupiter’s elusive ring. According to researcher Thierry Fouchet, “This...
Eukaryote Writes...
Fiber arts, mysterious dodecahedrons, and waiting on “Eureka!”
Why didn't we invent knitting before 1000 CE?
4th Aug 2022
Why didn't we invent knitting before 1000 CE?
lcamtuf’s thing
Weekend projects: Chicken Squisher 3000
If it clucks like a duck...
14th Oct 2025
If it clucks like a duck...
Yale E360
India Says Its Grasslands Are 'Wastelands.' Medieval Folklore Suggests Otherwise
The sprawling grasslands of western India are, in the popular imagination, the remains of woodlands...
2nd Feb 2026
The sprawling grasslands of western India are, in the popular imagination, the remains of woodlands that were leveled under British rule — areas to be reforested, rather than conserved. But a recent analysis of stories, songs, and poems from centuries past reveals that western...
nanoscale views
Taking stock: some federal science news
Some general science news:
The New York Times ran an interactive article this week that shows what...
6th Dec 2025
Some general science news:
The New York Times ran an interactive article this week that shows what we all know. This past year was a very bizarre funding environment. The article focuses on NIH and NSF, but the major points are generalizable. The combination of circumstances...
The Quanta Podcast
Cryptography That Is Provably Secure
Researchers have just released hacker-proof cryptographic code — programs with the same level of...
6th Feb 2020
Researchers have just released hacker-proof cryptographic code — programs with the same level of invincibility as a mathematical proof.
The post Cryptography That Is Provably Secure first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
What is the Aharonov-Bohm effect?
After seeing this latest extremely good video from Veritasium, and looking back through my posts, I...
1st Feb 2026
After seeing this latest extremely good video from Veritasium, and looking back through my posts, I realized that while I've referenced it indirectly, I've never explicitly talked about the Aharonov-Bohm effect. The video is excellent, and that wikipedia page is pretty good, but...
Drew Ex Machina
Memories of Project RAMOS (Russian American Observation Satellites) 1991 – 2004
During the course of my professional career, one of the more important projects I had the pleasure...
29th Sep 2023
During the course of my professional career, one of the more important projects I had the pleasure to work on was the joint US/Russian Federation (RF) […]
Peder M. Isager
Why does correlation not equal causation?
In this blog post I will explain why it makes sense to think about causal explanations when we see...
24th Nov 2023
In this blog post I will explain why it makes sense to think about causal explanations when we see correlation, why correlation does not always imply causation, and which alternative causal models to consider when you are trying to figure out why two variables in your data are...
Long Now
Cory Doctorow: The Coming Century of War Against Your Computer
### Who governs digital trust?
Doctorow framed the question this way: "Computers are everywhere....
1st Aug 2012
### Who governs digital trust?
Doctorow framed the question this way: "Computers are everywhere. They are now something we put our whole bodies into---airplanes, cars---and something we put into our bodies---pacemakers, cochlear implants. They HAVE to be trustworthy."
Sometimes...
NeuroLogica Blog
Detecting Online Predatory Journals
The World Wide Web has proven to be a transformative communication technology (we are using it right...
2nd Sep 2025
The World Wide Web has proven to be a transformative communication technology (we are using it right now). At the same time there have been some rather negative unforeseen consequences. Significantly lowering the threshold for establishing a communications outlet has democratized...
Quanta Magazine
Scientists Re-Create the Microbial Dance That Sparked Complex Life
Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent...
2nd Jan 2025
Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the first time, biologists made it happen in the lab.
The post Scientists Re-Create the Microbial Dance That Sparked Complex Life first appeared...
Melting Asphalt
A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning
I've never been plagued by the big existential questions. You know, like What's my purpose? or What...
11th Jul 2016
I've never been plagued by the big existential questions. You know, like What's my purpose? or What does it all mean? Growing up I was a very science-minded kid — still am — and from an early age I learned…
Read more ›
Eukaryote Writes...
Speciesquest 2026
A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
31st Dec 2025
A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
Quanta Magazine
‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback
You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the...
2nd Sep 2025
You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the same?
The post ‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Sean Carroll
331 | Solo: Fine-Tuning, God, and the Multiverse
Certain features of our universe seem unnatural to us. These include "constants of nature" such as...
6th Oct 2025
Certain features of our universe seem unnatural to us. These include "constants of nature" such as the cosmological constant and […]
Probably...
Young Adults Are Not Very Happy
Since 1972, the General Social Survey has asked respondents: “Taken all together, how would you say...
19th Mar 2026
Since 1972, the General Social Survey has asked respondents: “Taken all together, how would you say things are these days—would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?” The following figure shows how the responses have changed over time and between birth...
Asterisk
You’re Invited to a Colonoscopy!
Colonoscopies are the first-line method for preventing colorectal cancer in America —and almost...
1st Oct 2023
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.
Casey Handmer's blog
Terraform Talent Development
Originally posted at the Terraform Blog on November 17, 2025. Terraform Industries is the vehicle by...
24th Nov 2025
Originally posted at the Terraform Blog on November 17, 2025. Terraform Industries is the vehicle by which I build the people that build the team I need to build the future I am determined to build. One of the unexpected privileges of founding an ambitious, future-oriented...
The Works in...
How Poor Maintenance Loses Wars - 2022, Ukraine Maintains
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
2nd Nov 2023
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
Beautiful Public...
1,000 Photos of Dolphin Fins
Scars, scratches and wounds abound in these photos as encounters with unknown creatures and boat...
10th Apr 2023
Scars, scratches and wounds abound in these photos as encounters with unknown creatures and boat propellers leave their marks, imprinting a story of close escapes and cheating death.
NeuroLogica Blog
Do Apes Have a Theory of Mind
Designing research studies to determine what is going on inside the minds of animals is extremely...
4th Feb 2025
Designing research studies to determine what is going on inside the minds of animals is extremely challenging. The literature is littered with past studies that failed to properly control for all variables and thereby overinterpreted the results. The challenge is that we cannot...
Long Now
Jennifer Pahlka: Fixing Government: Bottom Up and Outside In
## Toward agile government
Pahlka quoted: “Efficiency in government is a matter of social justice.”...
2nd Feb 2017
## Toward agile government
Pahlka quoted: “Efficiency in government is a matter of social justice.” (Mayor John Norquist) It is at the often maddening interface with government that the inefficiency and injustice play out. Two examples (both now fixed)… At the Veterans Affairs...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Time Toxicity - A Real-World Example | Out-Of-Pocket
Being sick is already annoying, now I gotta spend time on the phone???
3rd Jan 2024
Being sick is already annoying, now I gotta spend time on the phone???
NeuroLogica Blog
Cognitive Legos
We have all likely had the experience that when we learn a task it becomes easier to learn a...
1st Dec 2025
We have all likely had the experience that when we learn a task it becomes easier to learn a distinct but related task. Learning to cook one dish makes it easier to learn other dishes. Learning how to repair a radio helps you learn to repair other electronics. Even more...
Long Now
Michael West: The Prospects of Human Life Extension
### Ever longer life
Our germline cells (eggs and sperm) are already immortal. What if the rest of...
13th Nov 2004
### Ever longer life
Our germline cells (eggs and sperm) are already immortal. What if the rest of the cells of our body could acquire the same ability? Tissue by tissue, one degenerative disease after another, it could gradually happen in the course of one or two human...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How To (Properly) Text Patients | Out-Of-Pocket
Do’s and don’ts + tactical tips from an actual doctor
10th Apr 2024
Do’s and don’ts + tactical tips from an actual doctor
Probably...
What’s a Chartist?
Recently I heard the word “chartist” for the first time in my life (that I recall). And then later...
19th Nov 2024
Recently I heard the word “chartist” for the first time in my life (that I recall). And then later the same day, I heard it again. So that raises two questions: To answer the second question first, it’s someone who supported chartism, which was “a working-class movement for...
The Quanta Podcast
Foundations Built for a General Theory of Neural Networks
Neural networks can be as unpredictable as they are powerful. Now mathematicians are beginning to...
5th Dec 2019
Neural networks can be as unpredictable as they are powerful. Now mathematicians are beginning to reveal how a neural network’s form will influence its function.
The post Foundations Built for a General Theory of Neural Networks first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Answers: How Much Info Should A Patient Get? | Out-Of-Pocket
do we need our physicians to be interpreters?
9th Aug 2023
do we need our physicians to be interpreters?
Quanta Magazine
How the Higgs Field (Actually) Gives Mass to Elementary Particles
In this article adapted from his new book, "Waves in an Impossible Sea," physicist Matt Strassler...
3rd Sep 2024
In this article adapted from his new book, "Waves in an Impossible Sea," physicist Matt Strassler explains that the origin of mass in the universe has a lot to do with music.
The post How the Higgs Field (Actually) Gives Mass to Elementary Particles first appeared on...
Works in Progress...
Just bury your trash
What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?
2 weeks ago
What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?
Apoorva Srinivasan
what's happened since the human genome project
When the human genome project was deemed “complete” in 2003, it was met with incredible fanfare. The...
17th May 2022
When the human genome project was deemed “complete” in 2003, it was met with incredible fanfare. The entire project leading up to that moment had all the drama to keep its audience enthralled. Fierce rivalry between a public and private institution, multiple countries involved,...
The Quanta Podcast
The Brain Processes Speech in Parallel With Other Sounds
Scientists thought that the brain’s hearing centers might just process speech along with other...
6th Jan 2022
Scientists thought that the brain’s hearing centers might just process speech along with other sounds. But new work suggests that speech gets some special treatment very early on.
The post The Brain Processes Speech in Parallel With Other Sounds first appeared on...
Long Now
: Cities & Time
### A world made of cities
Cities are the human organizations with the greatest longevity but also...
9th Apr 2005
### A world made of cities
Cities are the human organizations with the greatest longevity but also the fastest rate of change. Just now the world is going massively and unstoppably urban (governments everywhere are trying to stop it, with zero success). In a globalized world,...
Beautiful Public...
The USGS Cooperative National Geologic Map
A new, colorful map from the USGS synthesizes decades of state and federal geologic surveys to...
1st Dec 2025
A new, colorful map from the USGS synthesizes decades of state and federal geologic surveys to create the most detailed visualization of the geology of the contiguous United States to date.
Inverted Passion
Don’t compete
The Internet is full of people winning all the time. Someone is traveling to exotic locations,...
22nd Mar 2025
The Internet is full of people winning all the time. Someone is traveling to exotic locations, someone else is raising funds, and another person is winning awards. Essentially, everyone around you is succeeding while you do spend your days as the nature intended – sleeping,...
Stephen Wolfram...
What Can We Learn about Engineering and Innovation from Half a Century of the Game of Life Cellular...
Metaengineering and Laws of Innovation Things are invented. Things are discovered. And somehow...
18th Mar 2025
Metaengineering and Laws of Innovation Things are invented. Things are discovered. And somehow there’s an arc of progress that’s formed. But are there what amount to “laws of innovation” that govern that arc of progress? There are some exponential and other laws that purport to...
Conservation...
News spotlight: Sea creatures could harbor the next generation of medications, but are they at risk?
2nd Apr 2025
Long Now
Martin Rees: Life's Future in the Cosmos
### Cosmic Life
The pace of astronomic discovery, said the Astronomer Royal, keeps increasing with...
3rd Aug 2010
### Cosmic Life
The pace of astronomic discovery, said the Astronomer Royal, keeps increasing with the constant improvement in our sensing technology. The recent discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe (dark energy) revolutionized cosmology, and with the launch...
IEEE Spectrum
A Cold War Kit for Surviving a Nuclear Attack
On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. Over the next year...
1st Aug 2025
On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. Over the next year and a half, U.S. President Harry S. Truman resurrected the Office of Civilian Defense (which had been abolished at the end of World War II) and signed into law the Federal Civil...
Quanta Magazine
Tracing the Hidden Hand of Magnetism in the Galaxy
Susan Clark is helping to unravel the mysterious workings of the Milky Way’s magnetic field, a...
1st Jul 2024
Susan Clark is helping to unravel the mysterious workings of the Milky Way’s magnetic field, a critical missing piece of the galactic puzzle.
The post Tracing the Hidden Hand of Magnetism in the Galaxy first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Nanotyrannus Controversy Solved
One of the things I like about following paleontology news is that new evidence can just be...
3rd Nov 2025
One of the things I like about following paleontology news is that new evidence can just be discovered, and sometimes these new pieces to the puzzle can significantly change what we think about past life. One such controversy I have been following for a while is whether or not...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Caves on Mars
Recently, in social media posts, Dr. Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute discussed the intriguing caves...
24th Nov 2024
Recently, in social media posts, Dr. Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute discussed the intriguing caves on the side of the giant martian volcano called Arsia Mons as interesting places for future exploration and even human residences. As it happens, my very first published...
Uncharted...
6 Questions You Asked Yourself about Solar
How fast will it take over, how fast are costs shrinking, why is it so cheap, what industries will...
2nd Nov 2024
How fast will it take over, how fast are costs shrinking, why is it so cheap, what industries will it birth, how much surface will it take up, where will it appear first?
NeuroLogica Blog
City Planning and CO2 Emissions
In Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel he imagines a future in which most of humanity lives in...
1st Jun 2026
In Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel he imagines a future in which most of humanity lives in gigantic cities, extending many levels underground. This leaves the majority of the Earth’s surface for industrial farming, necessary to feed all those densely populated cities. If you...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Weird issues in value-based care | Out-Of-Pocket
Thoughts on value-based care from people actually building in it
1st Oct 2024
Thoughts on value-based care from people actually building in it
Explorations of an...
Monsoon Season In Arizona, Part 1: Introduction, Phoenix to Miller Canyon
Earlier this summer, Laura and I were trying to determine where we would visit for a couple of mini...
22nd Sep 2024
Earlier this summer, Laura and I were trying to determine where we would visit for a couple of mini vacations. Due to the variations in her work schedule, Laura had two blocks of time - a five-day chunk in early August, and six days in early September - and we wanted to make the...
Long Now
James Carse: Religious War In Light of the Infinite Game
### Finite and infinite games
Countless readers have been hooked by the opening line of James P....
15th Jan 2005
### Finite and infinite games
Countless readers have been hooked by the opening line of James P. Carse's [_Finite and Infinite Games_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345341848/qid=1105811409/lono0a-20) -- "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be...
Long Now
Susan Freinkel: Eternal Plastic
### Making plastic even better
Plastic is so new, Freinkel began, that among all the objects...
23rd May 2012
### Making plastic even better
Plastic is so new, Freinkel began, that among all the objects preserved in the sunken _Titanic_ , none are synthetic plastic, because there was hardly any available in 1912. Natural plastic, however, was a familiar material. Amber was popular....
Chris Grossack's...
A truly incredible fact about the number 37
So I was on math stackexchange the other day, and I saw a cute post
looking for a book which lists,...
8th Nov 2023
So I was on math stackexchange the other day, and I saw a cute post
looking for a book which lists, for many many integers, facts that Ramanujan
could have told Hardy if he’d taken a cab other than 1729. A few days ago
OP answered their own question, saying that the book in...
Wanderingspace
Dust Storm On Mars
A dust storm in Olympia Planum's north polar dune fields was triggered by a late Martian summer cold...
8th Apr 2024
A dust storm in Olympia Planum's north polar dune fields was triggered by a late Martian summer cold front. As the northern polar cap shrinks fast, it releases cold air that sometimes moves south, like on Earth. These cold fronts strengthen in late summer and early fall due to...
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