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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...
a year ago
53
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...
Math Is Still...
‘Species Repulsion’ Enables High Biodiversity in Tropical Trees Because tree seedlings don’t grow as well when close to their parents, more tree species can be...
a year ago
5
a year ago
Because tree seedlings don’t grow as well when close to their parents, more tree species can be packed into tropical forests. The post ‘Species Repulsion’ Enables High Biodiversity in Tropical Trees first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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...
a year ago
30
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...
Math Is Still...
The Year in Biology In a year packed with fascinating discoveries, biologists pushed the limits of synthetic life,...
a year ago
7
a year ago
In a year packed with fascinating discoveries, biologists pushed the limits of synthetic life, probed how organisms keep time, and refined theories about consciousness and emotional health. The post The Year in Biology first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Uncharted...
Should You Be Able to Experiment on Your Own Cancer? A researcher in virology and immunotherapy got bad news: Her cancer was back with a vengeance; the...
2 months ago
4
2 months ago
A researcher in virology and immunotherapy got bad news: Her cancer was back with a vengeance; the treatments weren’t working. She decided to treat it herself.
Math Is Still...
A Brief History of Tricky Mathematical Tiling The discovery earlier this year of the “hat” tile marked the culmination of hundreds of years of...
a year ago
7
a year ago
The discovery earlier this year of the “hat” tile marked the culmination of hundreds of years of work into tiles and their symmetries. The post A Brief History of Tricky Mathematical Tiling first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Many Worlds
Webb Telescope Finds No Signs of a Thick Atmosphere Around a Second TRAPPIST-1 Planet Among the most eagerly awaited results from the early observations of the James Webb Space Telescope...
a year ago
8
a year ago
Among the most eagerly awaited results from the early observations of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is whether or not the seven rocky planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system have atmospheres. The TRAPPIST-1 planets are close to us (40 light-years away), are all solid rather than...
Confessions of a...
Cottesloe Fish Habitat Protection Area Today I am teaching my first tutorial in the second year unit ‘Marine Systems‘, which will introduce...
over a year ago
57
over a year ago
Today I am teaching my first tutorial in the second year unit ‘Marine Systems‘, which will introduce students to their major project, which is centred around a field trip to the Cottelsoe Fish Habitat Protection Area (CFHPA).  I’m pretty excited to introduce a few of my new ideas...
Math Is Still...
During Pregnancy, a Fake ‘Infection’ Protects the Fetus Cells in the placenta have an unusual trick for activating gentle immune defenses and keeping them...
a year ago
6
a year ago
Cells in the placenta have an unusual trick for activating gentle immune defenses and keeping them turned on when no infection is present. It involves crafting and deploying a fake virus. The post During Pregnancy, a Fake ‘Infection’ Protects the Fetus first appeared...
Math Is Still...
The Simple Geometry That Predicts Molecular Mosaics By treating molecules as geometric tessellations, scientists devised a new way to forecast how 2D...
a year ago
26
a year ago
By treating molecules as geometric tessellations, scientists devised a new way to forecast how 2D materials might self-assemble. The post The Simple Geometry That Predicts Molecular Mosaics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Beautiful Public...
Mapping Volcano Eruptions With Drones Drones have become an essential tool to map, measure and observe the extremely dangerous...
a year ago
72
a year ago
Drones have become an essential tool to map, measure and observe the extremely dangerous environments surrounding volcanic eruptions.
NeuroLogica Blog
The Threat of Technology In my second book (shameless plug alert) – The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future – my coauthors and I...
a year ago
5
a year ago
In my second book (shameless plug alert) – The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future – my coauthors and I try to imagine both the utopian and dystopian versions of the future, brought about by technology, either individually or collectively. This topic has come up multiple times recently...
Math Is Still...
The ‘Accidental Activist’ Who Changed the Face of Mathematics Throughout her 60-year career, Lenore Blum has developed new perspectives on logic and computation...
11 months ago
15
11 months 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...
Math Is Still...
How the Brain Protects Itself From Blood-Borne Threats To buffer the brain against menaces in the blood, a dynamic, multi-tiered system of protection is...
a year ago
25
a year ago
To buffer the brain against menaces in the blood, a dynamic, multi-tiered system of protection is built into the brain’s blood vessels. The post How the Brain Protects Itself From Blood-Borne Threats first appeared on Quanta Magazine
ToughSF
Actively Cooled Armor: from Helium to Liquid Tin. We have seen designs for long ranged particle beams and powerful lasers. Could they be the end-all,...
over a year ago
5
over a year ago
We have seen designs for long ranged particle beams and powerful lasers. Could they be the end-all, be-all of space warfare? Not if we fend off their destructive power with actively cooled armor. Let's have a look at the different cooling solutions, from high pressure gas to...
symmetry magazine
Encouraging a new community Physicists advocate for getting community college students involved in research.
a year ago
nanoscale views
Materials families: Halide perovskites Looking back, I realized that I haven't written much about halide perovskites, which is quite an...
6 months ago
63
6 months ago
Looking back, I realized that I haven't written much about halide perovskites, which is quite an oversight given how much research impact they're having.  I'm not an expert, and there are multiple extensive review articles out there (e.g. here, here, here, here, here), so this...
Marine Madness
Culture Club: Time to let the cetaceans in? Up until recently, culture has been thought of as a primarily human characteristic. However, recent...
over a year ago
23
over a year ago
Up until recently, culture has been thought of as a primarily human characteristic. However, recent studies shine a light on the fact that non-human animals including Cetaceans (dolphins and whales), may also possess it. They live in tightly-knit social communities, exhibit...
Blog - Practical...
The Hidden Engineering of Wildlife Crossings [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is the Wallis Annenberg...
5 days ago
17
5 days ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing under construction over the 101 just outside Los Angeles, California. When it’s finished in a few years, it will be the largest wildlife crossing (*of its kind) on...
Blog - Practical...
Do Droughts Make Floods Worse? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Do you remember the summer of...
a year ago
86
a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Do you remember the summer of 2022 when a record drought had gripped not only a large part of the United States, but most of Europe too? Reservoirs were empty, wildfires spread, crop yields dropped, and rivers...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Transforming Healthcare Data with Tuva Health | Out-Of-Pocket The nitty, gritty, and shitty of working with health data
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How To Self-Publish A Children's Book and How Much You Can Expect To Make | Out-Of-Pocket spoiler: you will make very little lol
a year ago
ToughSF
Nuclear Conversion for Starship There has been much discussion about converting the SpaceX Starship to use nuclear propulsion. It...
over a year ago
7
over a year ago
There has been much discussion about converting the SpaceX Starship to use nuclear propulsion. It would allow for a great increase in specific impulse and a massive extension of mission capabilities. But is it actually worthwhile? The image above is modified from...
symmetry magazine
Muon g-2 doubles down with latest measurement, explores uncharted territory Fermilab's Muon g-2 experiment brings particle physics closer to a showdown between theory and...
a year ago
Math Is Still...
She Studies How Addiction Hijacks Learning in the Brain Erin Calipari works to understand how drugs like opioids and cocaine alter learning circuits and...
a year ago
10
a year ago
Erin Calipari works to understand how drugs like opioids and cocaine alter learning circuits and neurochemistry in one of the country's epicenters of substance use disorder and addiction. The post She Studies How Addiction Hijacks Learning in the Brain first appeared...
Chris Grossack's...
Finiteness in Sheaf Topoi The notion of “finiteness” is constructively subtle in ways that can be tricky for people new to...
4 months ago
44
4 months ago
The notion of “finiteness” is constructively subtle in ways that can be tricky for people new to the subject to understand. For a while now I’ve wanted to figure out what’s going on with the different versions of “finite” in a way that felt concrete and obvious (I mentioned...
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: A winter's tale Melting snow can make the season easier
a year ago
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, November 2023 A ~monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in...
a year ago
34
a year ago
A ~monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in my links digests. All emphasis in bold in the quotes below was added by me. Books Finished Lynn White, Medieval Technology and Social Change (1962). Last time I talked about the...
The Works in...
Growing Forests As countries develop, deforestation drops
a year ago
Beautiful Public...
Photologging Vans These sequences are from New York and Connecticut’s state photolog archives, which I obtained...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
These sequences are from New York and Connecticut’s state photolog archives, which I obtained through public records requests. Almost every state’s highway departments had highway photolog programs, some dating back as early as 1961. These sequences were captured by specially...
Explorations of an...
A Rare Hummingbird Twitch In Ecuador October 22, 2023 I recently returned from Ecuador where I had spent the previous couple of weeks....
a year ago
6
a year ago
October 22, 2023 I recently returned from Ecuador where I had spent the previous couple of weeks. The main purpose of the trip was to lead a tour for Worldwide Quest to the Galápagos archipelago, but I made some time for a little extra-curricular birding as well. If I was going...
Wanderingspace
Webb’s Jupiter So this is “false color” becuase it is infrared (like all Webb images) and made from only two...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
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...
nanoscale views
AI/ML and condensed matter + materials science Materials define the way we live.  That may sound like an exaggeration that I like to spout because...
a year ago
10
a year ago
Materials define the way we live.  That may sound like an exaggeration that I like to spout because I'm a condensed matter physicist, but it's demonstrably true.  Remember, past historians have given us terms like "Stone Age", "Bronze Age", and "Iron Age", and the "Information...
NeuroLogica Blog
Serial Dependence Bias As I have discussed numerous times on this blog, our brains did not evolve to be optimal precise...
a year ago
27
a year ago
As I have discussed numerous times on this blog, our brains did not evolve to be optimal precise perceivers and processors of information. Here is an infographic showing 188 documents cognitive biases. These biases are not all bad – they are tradeoffs. Evolutionary forces care...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
My investing theses | Out-Of-Pocket Hit up ya boi
a year ago
Quantum Frontiers
The Noncommuting-Charges World Tour (Part 1 of 4) Introduction: “Once Upon a Time”…with a twist Thermodynamics problems have surprisingly many...
10 months ago
37
10 months ago
Introduction: “Once Upon a Time”…with a twist Thermodynamics problems have surprisingly many similarities with fairy tales. For example, most of them begin with a familiar opening. In thermodynamics, the phrase “Consider an isolated box of particles” serves a similar purpose …...
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2024, Day 4 and wrap-up Because of the timing of my flight back to Houston, I really only went to one session today, in...
9 months ago
21
9 months ago
Because of the timing of my flight back to Houston, I really only went to one session today, in which my student spoke as did some collaborators.  It was a pretty interesting collection of contributed talks.   The work that's been done on spin transport in multiferroic...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Actually good 2024 healthcare predictions | Out-Of-Pocket I know, enough predictions. But these are good!
a year ago
Math Is Still...
The Tiny Physics Behind Immense Cosmic Eruptions A new theory describes how particle interactions fuel fast magnetic reconnection, the process behind...
a year ago
42
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
NeuroLogica Blog
The Neolithic Revolution What was the greatest invention of human civilization? Arguably it was agriculture, which allowed...
5 months ago
39
5 months ago
What was the greatest invention of human civilization? Arguably it was agriculture, which allowed for civilization itself. Prior to agriculture humans were some combination of hunters, gatherers, scavengers, and fishers. We lived off the land, which was a full-time job. Many...
Light from Space
Bubble Nebula and Neighborhood The constellation of Cassiopeia is full of rich gas clouds and a myriad of different Nebulas and...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
The constellation of Cassiopeia is full of rich gas clouds and a myriad of different Nebulas and Star Clusters. Click or tap to enlarge/double-tap to zoom Total exposure time: 37h 20m (134,400s) Image resolution: 4,784 × 6,840px (1.919″/px) Shot from my driveway near
Melting Asphalt
Here Be Sermons I've long turned up my nose at sermons and related forms of mass moralizing. One reason, quite...
over a year ago
5
over a year ago
I've long turned up my nose at sermons and related forms of mass moralizing. One reason, quite simply, is that they bore me. Honesty good. Violence bad. My eyes glaze over. Empathy, rah! Racism, boo! Please, don't we know this… Read more ›
Math Is Still...
What Your Brain Is Doing When You’re Not Doing Anything When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network is active. Its discovery 20 years...
10 months ago
21
10 months ago
When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network is active. Its discovery 20 years ago inspired a raft of research into networks of brain regions and how they interact with each other. The post What Your Brain Is Doing When You’re Not Doing Anything...
symmetry magazine
Is dark matter the most powerful wave in the universe? Dark matter could consist of particles so ultralight, they behave more like waves.  ...
a year ago
29
a year ago
Dark matter could consist of particles so ultralight, they behave more like waves.  Although the motions of galaxies provide evidence that dark matter exists, scientists have yet to directly detect the invisible stuff, or figure out what it could be made...
Uncharted...
Deserts, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Snow, Paradises, Swamps: Why Do People Live Where They Live in the... Deserts, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Snow, Paradises, Swamps
2 days ago
Uncharted...
How to Beat Cancer with Viruses: An Interview with Beata Halassy How viruses kill cancers, which viruses to use, how many injections, at what stage of the cancer,...
2 months ago
IEEE Spectrum
Quantum Technology’s Unsung Heroes In a world where quantum technologies are on the rise in computing, cryptography, materials,...
a year ago
8
a year ago
In a world where quantum technologies are on the rise in computing, cryptography, materials, sensors, telecom, biomed, and AI, it’s easy to forget that not so long ago the words “quantum” and “technology” rarely fit comfortably into a sentence together. A range of trailblazers...
Math Is Still...
How Our Longest Nerve Orchestrates the Mind-Body Connection Like a highway system, the vagus nerve branches profusely from your brain through your organs to...
3 months ago
37
3 months ago
Like a highway system, the vagus nerve branches profusely from your brain through your organs to marshal bodily functions, including aspects of mind such as mood, pleasure and fear. The post How Our Longest Nerve Orchestrates the Mind-Body Connection first appeared on...
Math Is Still...
Emmy Murphy Is a Mathematician Who Finds Beauty in Flexibility The prize-winning geometer feels most fulfilled when exploring the fertile ground where constraint...
a year ago
49
a year ago
The prize-winning geometer feels most fulfilled when exploring the fertile ground where constraint meets creation. The post Emmy Murphy Is a Mathematician Who Finds Beauty in Flexibility first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
The problems and opportunities of data We live in a world of "big data", and this presents a number of challenges for how we handle this at...
a year ago
54
a year ago
We live in a world of "big data", and this presents a number of challenges for how we handle this at research universities.  Until relatively recently, the domain of huge volume/huge throughput scientific data was chiefly that of the nuclear/particle physics community and then...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The New Era Of Digital Therapeutics | Out-Of-Pocket Guess it's time to start defining the term again
a year ago
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...
a week ago
17
a week 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 →
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2023, Day 3 There is vigorous discussion taking place on the Day 2 link regarding the highly controversial claim...
a year ago
13
a year ago
There is vigorous discussion taking place on the Day 2 link regarding the highly controversial claim of room temperature superconductivity.   Highlights from Wednesday are a hodgepodge because of my meanderings: The session about quantum computing hardware was well attended,...
Explorations of an...
Tour Extension to Halmahera In The North Moluccas Del and Marcie joined me for a four-day extension to the nearby island of Halmahera, located in the...
a year ago
5
a year ago
Del and Marcie joined me for a four-day extension to the nearby island of Halmahera, located in the North Moluccas. We were now on the east side of the deep-water trench informally known as Weber’s Line and the avifauna was even more in line with New Guinea and Australia....
NeuroLogica Blog
Hunter-Gatherers and Childcare What is “natural” for humans? It’s often hard to say, and in my opinion this is a highly overused...
a year ago
9
a year ago
What is “natural” for humans? It’s often hard to say, and in my opinion this is a highly overused concept. Primarily this is because humans are adaptable – we adapt to our environment, our situation, and our culture. So it is “natural” for us not to have a natural state. But this...
Wanderingspace
Uranus is not as boring as we thought “An animation of three near-infrared images of Uranus captured by the JWST Space Telescope with...
a month ago
24
a month ago
“An animation of three near-infrared images of Uranus captured by the JWST Space Telescope with assigned representative colors. During processing, I aligned the rings separately to reduce the bubbling effect caused by different inclinations, making the planet appear to rotate on...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Cool Facts About Health Insurance Enrollment with Aleka Gurel | Out-Of-Pocket Tis the season
a year ago
Probably...
Think Stats 3rd Edition I am excited to announce that I have started work on a third edition of Think Stats, to be published...
2 months ago
35
2 months ago
I am excited to announce that I have started work on a third edition of Think Stats, to be published by O’Reilly Media in 2025. At this point the content is mostly settled, and I am revising chapters to get them ready for technical review. If you want to start reading now, the...
NeuroLogica Blog
Bill Gates Backs Nuclear No one ever said that nuclear power is simple or easy. It’s a tricky and expensive technology. But...
6 months ago
61
6 months ago
No one ever said that nuclear power is simple or easy. It’s a tricky and expensive technology. But it also has tremendous potential to create large amounts of reliable green low carbon energy, and many believe that we cannot ignore this potential if we are going to tackle climate...
Willem Pennings
Balancing cube This cube manages to balance itself on a corner, and can simultaneously rotate around its axis in a...
10 months ago
17
10 months ago
This cube manages to balance itself on a corner, and can simultaneously rotate around its axis in a controlled manner. It does so using clever controls and a set of three reaction wheels. The original idea for this device comes from researchers at ETH Zürich, who demonstrate...
Math Is Still...
To Pack Spheres Tightly, Mathematicians Throw Them at Random Four mathematicians broke a 75-year-old record by finding a denser way to pack high-dimensional...
7 months ago
30
7 months ago
Four mathematicians broke a 75-year-old record by finding a denser way to pack high-dimensional spheres. The post To Pack Spheres Tightly, Mathematicians Throw Them at Random first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Nobel Prize for Attosecond Physics One attosecond (as) is 1×10−18 seconds. An attosecond is to one second what one second is to the age...
a year ago
4
a year ago
One attosecond (as) is 1×10−18 seconds. An attosecond is to one second what one second is to the age of the universe. It is an extremely tiny slice of time. This year’s Nobel Prize in physics goes to three scientists, Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier, whose...
NeuroLogica Blog
Ghosts Are Not Real It’s Halloween, so there are a lot of fluff pieces about ghosts and similar phenomena circulating in...
a year ago
4
a year ago
It’s Halloween, so there are a lot of fluff pieces about ghosts and similar phenomena circulating in the media. There are some good skeptical pieces as well, which is always nice to see. For this piece I did not want to frame the headline as a question, which I think is...
NeuroLogica Blog
Evidence and the Nanny State Part II In Part I of this post I outlined some basic considerations in deciding how much the state should...
a year ago
7
a year ago
In Part I of this post I outlined some basic considerations in deciding how much the state should impose regulations on people and institutions in order to engineer positive outcomes. In the end the best approach, it seems to me, is a balanced one, where we consider the burden of...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Healthcare Ideas That Look Good But Are Bad | Out-Of-Pocket clinical trial matching, "find a specialist", and more
8 months ago
Math Is Still...
These Cells Spark Electricity in the Brain. They’re Not Neurons. For decades, researchers have debated whether brain cells called astrocytes can signal like neurons....
a year ago
7
a year ago
For decades, researchers have debated whether brain cells called astrocytes can signal like neurons. Researchers recently published the best evidence yet that some astrocytes are part of the electrical conversation. The post These Cells Spark Electricity in the Brain....
Quantum Frontiers
Announcing the quantum-steampunk creative-writing course! Why not run a quantum-steampunk creative-writing course? Quantum steampunk, as Quantum Frontiers...
3 months ago
41
3 months ago
Why not run a quantum-steampunk creative-writing course? Quantum steampunk, as Quantum Frontiers regulars know, is the aesthetic and spirit of a growing scientific field. Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction. In it, futuristic technologies invade Victorian-era settings:...
Cremieux Recueil
Why America’s Racial Poverty Statistics Are a Lesson for Researchers What if a single government employee could tell you an entire literature was wrong?
3 months ago
Math Is Still...
The Year in Computer Science Artificial intelligence learned how to generate text and art better than ever before, while computer...
a year ago
12
a year ago
Artificial intelligence learned how to generate text and art better than ever before, while computer scientists developed algorithms that solved long-standing problems. The post The Year in Computer Science first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Molecular electronics in 2023 This past week I was fortunate to attend this meeting, the most recent in an every-few-years series...
a year ago
26
a year ago
This past week I was fortunate to attend this meeting, the most recent in an every-few-years series that brings together a group of researchers interested in electronic transport in molecular systems.  This brings together physicists and chemists, and this was the first one I've...
Math Is Still...
A Century Later, New Math Smooths Out General Relativity Mathematicians prove a theorem that illuminates the geometry of universes with tiny amounts of mass....
a year ago
5
a year ago
Mathematicians prove a theorem that illuminates the geometry of universes with tiny amounts of mass. The post A Century Later, New Math Smooths Out General Relativity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Musings on CVS, two-way negotiation, and dynamic pricing | Out-Of-Pocket + we're hosting another dinner! and courses ending!
8 months ago
symmetry magazine
How to put together an international physics experiment To build the DUNE neutrino experiment and its associated accelerator upgrade, experts invent...
a year ago
28
a year ago
To build the DUNE neutrino experiment and its associated accelerator upgrade, experts invent customized ways to transport fragile, expensive and highly specialized components. On a late-September day, in the high-bay building of Daresbury Laboratory in the...
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...
a year ago
51
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...
Asterisk
The Highway to NIMBYism San Francisco’s history of collective decision-making helped prevent the city from being carved up...
7 months ago
2
7 months ago
San Francisco’s history of collective decision-making helped prevent the city from being carved up by highways. Today, that same legacy prevents the city from building what it desperately needs: more housing.
IEEE Spectrum
Smalltalk Blew Steve Jobs’s Mind Late in 1979, Steve Jobs and other colleagues from Apple visited the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center...
a year ago
6
a year ago
Late in 1979, Steve Jobs and other colleagues from Apple visited the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). There they were introduced to the experimental Alto computer and the Smalltalk language and computing environment, developed by Alan Kay’s Learning Research Group....
brr
Polar Night Surreal and otherworldly.
a year ago
Bartosz Ciechanowski
Sound Invisible and relentless, sound is seemingly just there, traveling through our surroundings to carry...
over a year ago
27
over a year ago
Invisible and relentless, sound is seemingly just there, traveling through our surroundings to carry beautiful music or annoying noises. In this article I’ll explain what sound is, how it’s created and propagated. Throughout this presentation you will be hearing different sounds,...
Asterisk
Rat Traps Does the rationalist blogosphere need to update?
a month ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Spotting Misinformation There is an interesting disconnect in our culture recently. About 90% of people claim that they...
7 months ago
73
7 months ago
There is an interesting disconnect in our culture recently. About 90% of people claim that they verify information they encounter in the news and on social media, and 96% of Americans say that we need to limit the spread of misinformation online. And yet, the spread of...
Math Is Still...
How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science The timing of the total eclipse on April 8, 2024, will be known to within a second, thousands of...
8 months ago
34
8 months ago
The timing of the total eclipse on April 8, 2024, will be known to within a second, thousands of years after fearful humans first started trying to anticipate these cosmic events. The post How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science first...
Casey Handmer's blog
Part 6 Guns Under The Table Part of the Mars Trilogy Technical Commentary Series. Contains spoilers for this chapter and earlier...
a week ago
6
a week ago
Part of the Mars Trilogy Technical Commentary Series. Contains spoilers for this chapter and earlier chapters. Google Mars .kml. Literary commentary podcast. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since the last update of this – in that time I read my children all of Green Mars...
Math Is Still...
Math Proof Draws New Boundaries Around Black Hole Formation For a half century, mathematicians have tried to define the exact circumstances under which a black...
a year ago
5
a year ago
For a half century, mathematicians have tried to define the exact circumstances under which a black hole is destined to exist. A new proof shows how a cube can help answer the question. The post Math Proof Draws New Boundaries Around Black Hole Formation first...
Blog - Practical...
Why Rivers Move [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is a map of the...
a year ago
52
a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is a map of the Mississippi River drafted by legendary geologist Harold Fisk. It’s part of a fairly unassuming geological report that he wrote in 1944 for Army Corps of Engineers, but the maps he produced...
Asterisk
America Doesn’t Know Tofu China has spent millennia exploring the culinary possibilities of soybean curds. The West has barely...
a year ago
2
a year ago
China has spent millennia exploring the culinary possibilities of soybean curds. The West has barely scratched the surface.
Damn Interesting
Journey to the Invisible Planet In the late 17th century, natural philosopher Isaac Newton was deeply uneasy with a new scientific...
a year ago
9
a year ago
In the late 17th century, natural philosopher Isaac Newton was deeply uneasy with a new scientific theory that was gaining currency in Europe: universal gravitation. In correspondence with a scientific contemporary, Newton complained that it was “an absurdity” to suppose that...
Beautiful Public...
The Style Guide for America’s Highways: The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices Driving across America, you will encounter a wide variety of cultures, landscapes, people and...
a year ago
29
a year ago
Driving across America, you will encounter a wide variety of cultures, landscapes, people and animals. But the one consistent thing that will stay the same from Maine to California are the signs you pass on the highway. That is because America’s roads and highways have a big, fat...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Drone Madness: Here is the Antidote For those of us who, through the years, have been through wave after wave of uncritical and...
6 days ago
16
6 days ago
For those of us who, through the years, have been through wave after wave of uncritical and sensational UFO stories in the media, the current obsession with (and jumping to unwarranted conclusions about) mysterious drones seems all too familiar.  As before, untrained observers,...
Explorations of an...
2023 Part 2: Early March through April (Brazil) March On March 4, Laura and I landed in São Paulo. It was our first time in Brazil. Even though we...
12 months ago
10
12 months ago
March On March 4, Laura and I landed in São Paulo. It was our first time in Brazil. Even though we had planned to spend much of the next two months exploring Brazil, the country is so large that we could only see a small portion of it. We restricted our route to only include...
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: The stats gap Students understand just enough statistics to get by
a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Betavoltaic Batteries In 1964 Isaac Asimov, asked to imagine the world 50 years in the future, wrote: “The appliances of...
11 months ago
16
11 months ago
In 1964 Isaac Asimov, asked to imagine the world 50 years in the future, wrote: “The appliances of 2014 will have no electric cords, of course, for they will be powered by long- lived batteries running on radioisotopes. The isotopes will not be expensive for they will be by-...
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
8
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...
nanoscale views
Some interesting recent papers - lots to ponder As we bid apparent farewell to LK99, it's important to note that several other pretty exciting...
a year ago
9
a year ago
As we bid apparent farewell to LK99, it's important to note that several other pretty exciting things have been happening in the condensed matter/nano world.  Here are a few papers that look intriguing (caveat emptor:  I have not had a chance to read these in any real depth, so...
Probably...
Hazard and Survival Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics forum. If I have a tumor that I’ve been told has a...
3 weeks ago
19
3 weeks ago
Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics forum. If I have a tumor that I’ve been told has a malignancy rate of 2% per year, does that compound? So after 5 years there’s a 10% chance it will turn malignant? This turns out to be an interesting question, because the answer...
Quantum Frontiers
Colliding the familiar and the anti-familiar at CERN toise me at CERN was a box of chocolates. CERN is a multinational particle-physics collaboration....
11 months ago
61
11 months ago
toise me at CERN was a box of chocolates. CERN is a multinational particle-physics collaboration. Based in Geneva, CERN is famous for having “the world’s largest and most powerful accelerator,” according to its website. So a physicist will take for … Continue reading →
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Start your healthcare company outside of the US | Out-Of-Pocket Gotta start somewhere...else?
10 months ago
Asterisk
Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich? The question of why some countries join the developed world while others remain in poverty has vexed...
over a year ago
2
over a year ago
The question of why some countries join the developed world while others remain in poverty has vexed economists for decades. What makes it so hard to answer?
nanoscale views
Bob Curl - it is possible to be successful and also a good person I went to a memorial service today at Rice for my late colleague Bob Curl, who died this past...
over a year ago
26
over a year ago
I went to a memorial service today at Rice for my late colleague Bob Curl, who died this past summer, and it was a really nice event.  I met Bob almost immediately upon my arrival at Rice back in 2000 (though I’d heard about him from my thesis advisor, who’d met him at the Nobel...
nanoscale views
Things I learned at the Packard Foundation meeting Early in my career, I was incredibly fortunate to be awarded a David and Lucille Packard Foundation...
a year ago
36
a year ago
Early in my career, I was incredibly fortunate to be awarded a David and Lucille Packard Foundation fellowship, and this week I attended the meeting in honor of the 35th anniversary of the fellowship program.  Packard fellowships are amazing, with awardees spanning the sciences...
Quantum Frontiers
My experimental adventures in quantum thermodynamics Imagine a billiard ball bouncing around on a pool table. High-school level physics enables us to...
9 months ago
70
9 months ago
Imagine a billiard ball bouncing around on a pool table. High-school level physics enables us to predict its motion until the end of time using simple equations for energy and momentum conservation, as long as you know the initial conditions … Continue reading →
The Roots of...
Quote quiz answer Here’s the answer to the recent quote quiz: The author was Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber. The...
a year ago
39
a year ago
Here’s the answer to the recent quote quiz: The author was Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber. The quote was taken from his manifesto, “Industrial Society and Its Future.” Here’s a slightly longer, and unaltered, quote: First let us postulate that the computer scientists succeed in...
nanoscale views
Scientific travel Particularly in these post-pandemic, climate-change-addled, zoom-enabled times, I appreciate the...
a year ago
31
a year ago
Particularly in these post-pandemic, climate-change-addled, zoom-enabled times, I appreciate the argument that it's always worth asking, "Is this trip really necessary?"  We are in the age of remote work and zoom seminars that are attended by people from all over the world.  Is...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Machine Vision, Robots, and Endoscopes with Matt Schwartz | Out-Of-Pocket When GI met AI
a year ago
Math Is Still...
How Does Math Keep Secrets? Cryptography is the thread that connects Julius Caesar, World War II and quantum computing, and it...
4 months ago
33
4 months ago
Cryptography is the thread that connects Julius Caesar, World War II and quantum computing, and it now lies under nearly every part of modern life. In this week’s episode, computer scientist Boaz Barak and co-host Janna Levin discuss the past and future of secrecy. ...
Math Is Still...
Mathematicians Prove Hawking Wrong About the Most Extreme Black Holes For decades, extremal black holes were considered mathematically impossible. A new proof reveals...
4 months ago
39
4 months ago
For decades, extremal black holes were considered mathematically impossible. A new proof reveals otherwise. The post Mathematicians Prove Hawking Wrong About the Most Extreme Black Holes first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
The Experimental Cosmologist Hunting for the First Sunrise To catch even a whiff of the universe’s earliest epochs — an age of darkness, and one of new light —...
a year ago
8
a year ago
To catch even a whiff of the universe’s earliest epochs — an age of darkness, and one of new light — Cynthia Chiang builds her own equipment. Then she deploys it at the ends of the Earth. The post The Experimental Cosmologist Hunting for the First Sunrise first...
Wanderingspace
JUPITER FROM JUNO An unusual perspective, captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft in 2018.
a year ago
Asterisk
Beyond Staple Grains The Green Revolution saved a billion lives, but it left a legacy of homogenous diets and distorted...
a year ago
2
a year ago
The Green Revolution saved a billion lives, but it left a legacy of homogenous diets and distorted agricultural markets. What impact has this had on global health — and how can we move forward?
Math Is Still...
Across a Continent, Trees Sync Their Fruiting to the Sun European beech trees more than 1,500 kilometers apart all drop their fruit at the same time in a...
6 months ago
43
6 months ago
European beech trees more than 1,500 kilometers apart all drop their fruit at the same time in a grand synchronization event now linked to the summer solstice. The post Across a Continent, Trees Sync Their Fruiting to the Sun first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Electronic structure and a couple of fun links Real life has been very busy recently.  Posting will hopefully pick up soon.   One brief item. ...
8 months ago
67
8 months ago
Real life has been very busy recently.  Posting will hopefully pick up soon.   One brief item.  Earlier this week, Rice hosted Gabi Kotliar for a distinguished lecture, and he gave a very nice, pedagogical talk about different approaches to electronic structure calculations. ...
Drew Ex Machina
You Can’t Fail Unless You Try: NASA’s Pioneer P-3 Lunar Orbiter Space enthusiasts of a certain age, like myself, grew up learning about the trio of NASA’s unmanned...
3 weeks ago
20
3 weeks ago
Space enthusiasts of a certain age, like myself, grew up learning about the trio of NASA’s unmanned programs which provided scientists and engineers with vital information […]
Wanderingspace
Triton Image from Voyager Colored Nice update to an old Voyager image with colors added based on actual colors captured in other...
over a year ago
18
over a year ago
Nice update to an old Voyager image with colors added based on actual colors captured in other images. See original post here by Jason Major.
Wanderingspace
COMET 67P/CG ANIMATED FROM ROSETTA STILLS COMET #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO INTERNATIONAL #ROSETTA MISSION Date 18 jul 2015 Distance to...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
COMET #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO INTERNATIONAL #ROSETTA MISSION Date 18 jul 2015 Distance to Target 182 km Orange+Blue filtershttps://t.co/ZuYVehJOLx ESA/Rosetta/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/J. Roger pic.twitter.com/Fg8rNmjbNy — landru79 (@landru79) June 13, 2022 Hit...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Secret Research Techniques | Out-Of-Pocket A magician always reveals his tricks for the purposes of engagement
a year ago
Drew Ex Machina
Epsilon Indi’s Super Jovian Exoplanet – Background & New Observations by JWST On July 24, 2024, an international team of scientists, headed by Dr. Elisabeth Matthews of the Max...
4 months ago
43
4 months ago
On July 24, 2024, an international team of scientists, headed by Dr. Elisabeth Matthews of the Max Plank Institute for Astronomy, announced that they had used […]
NeuroLogica Blog
AI and User Manuals About half of Americans, when asked, report that they don’t read the user manual for new technical...
4 months ago
44
4 months ago
About half of Americans, when asked, report that they don’t read the user manual for new technical devices they acquire. Although I suspect that many people are like me – I read them sometimes, and then only partly. If there is a “quick user guide” I will often look at that....
Wanderingspace
Hope for Mars Nothing really. Just a gorgeous image of Mars from the UAE Hope mission.
over a year ago
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...
a year ago
4
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
Rats! What killed off the dodo? Humans first arrived at Mauritius island in the late 1500s. They found on...
6 months ago
64
6 months ago
What killed off the dodo? Humans first arrived at Mauritius island in the late 1500s. They found on this island fat flightless birds who nested on the ground and were a convenient way to restock their ship’s food supply. Within 80 years the dodo went extinct. But hunting was not...
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, June 2023 A monthly feature. As usual, recent blog posts and news stories are omitted from this; you can find...
a year ago
123
a year ago
A monthly feature. As usual, recent blog posts and news stories are omitted from this; you can find them in my links digests. In all quotes below, any emphasis in bold was added by me. Books Thomas S. Ashton, The Industrial Revolution, 1760–1830 (1948). A classic in the field,...
Melting Asphalt
Outbreak Harry Stevens at The Washington Post recently published a very elegant simulation of how a disease...
over a year ago
6
over a year ago
Harry Stevens at The Washington Post recently published a very elegant simulation of how a disease like COVID-19 spreads. If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking it out. Today I want to follow up with something I've been working… Read more ›
NeuroLogica Blog
Virtual Reality for Mice Scientists have developed virtual reality goggles for mice. Why would they do this? For research....
a year ago
10
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...
Uncharted...
Where Geniuses Hide Today Where are today’s Michelangelos?
2 weeks ago
Asterisk
How to Prevent the Next Pandemic Modern technology makes bioterrorism seem increasingly likely. If we can get our act together, there...
over a year ago
2
over a year ago
Modern technology makes bioterrorism seem increasingly likely. If we can get our act together, there are smart ways to prevent it.
The Works in...
The entrepreneurial state How state competition – through war – can drive institutional progress
11 months ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
New Health Plans Need New Operating Systems with Flume Health | Out-Of-Pocket this claim is automatic, programmatic, hypnotic, funky fresh
a year ago
The Works in...
Issue 12: Houston, we have a solution Plus: How Mexico built its state, the causes of the Baby Boom, and the 141-year quest for a malaria...
a year ago
Blog - Practical...
HEAVY CONSTRUCTION of a Sewage Pump Station - Ep 4 This is the fourth episode of a five-part pilot series to gauge your interest in "How It's...
a year ago
30
a year ago
This is the fourth 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.
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,...
10 months ago
51
10 months 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...
Math Is Still...
Michel Talagrand Wins Abel Prize for Work Wrangling Randomness The French mathematician spent decades developing a set of tools now widely used for taming random...
9 months ago
34
9 months ago
The French mathematician spent decades developing a set of tools now widely used for taming random processes. The post Michel Talagrand Wins Abel Prize for Work Wrangling Randomness first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Asterisk
Aperitif
a year ago
Asterisk
Golden States
8 months ago
nanoscale views
Items for discussion, including google's latest quantum computing result As we head toward the end of the calendar year, a few items: Google published a new result in...
a week ago
20
a week ago
As we head toward the end of the calendar year, a few items: Google published a new result in Nature a few days ago.  This made a big news splash, including this accompanying press piece from google themselves, this nice article in Quanta, and the always thoughtful blog post by...
Math Is Still...
Researchers Refute a Widespread Belief About Online Algorithms Three computer scientists have disproved a long-standing conjecture about a fundamental problem...
a year ago
7
a year ago
Three computer scientists have disproved a long-standing conjecture about a fundamental problem involving imperfect information. The post Researchers Refute a Widespread Belief About Online Algorithms first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Electric ‘Ripples’ in the Resting Brain Tag Memories for Storage New experiments reveal how the brain chooses which memories to save and add credence to advice about...
7 months ago
70
7 months ago
New experiments reveal how the brain chooses which memories to save and add credence to advice about the importance of rest. The post Electric ‘Ripples’ in the Resting Brain Tag Memories for Storage first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Pierre de Fermat’s Link to a High School Student’s Prime Math Proof How Fermat’s less famous ‘little theorem’ got mathematicians young and old to play with prime-like...
a year ago
18
a year ago
How Fermat’s less famous ‘little theorem’ got mathematicians young and old to play with prime-like Carmichael numbers. The post Pierre de Fermat’s Link to a High School Student’s Prime Math Proof first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
The New Quest to Control Evolution Modern scientists aren’t content with predicting how life evolves. They want to shape it. ...
a year ago
23
a year ago
Modern scientists aren’t content with predicting how life evolves. They want to shape it. The post The New Quest to Control Evolution first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Cultural Blindness One of the core tenets of scientific skepticism is what I call neuropsychological humility – the...
a year ago
10
a year ago
One of the core tenets of scientific skepticism is what I call neuropsychological humility – the recognition that while the human brain is a powerful information processing machine, it also has many frailties. One of those frailties is perception – we do not perceive the world in...
NeuroLogica Blog
3D Printed Rocket Launches This is one of those technology news stories where the implications of the technology is greater...
a year ago
28
a year ago
This is one of those technology news stories where the implications of the technology is greater than the thing itself. Relativity Space, a rocket company based in California, launched their first Terran-1 rocket. The launch ultimately failed when the second stage failed to...
Math Is Still...
How Math Has Changed the Shape of Gerrymandering New tools make it possible to detect hidden manipulation of maps. The post How Math Has...
a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Oldest Evidence of Humans In Americas Exactly when Homo sapiens came to the Americas has not been firmly established, and new evidence has...
a year ago
4
a year ago
Exactly when Homo sapiens came to the Americas has not been firmly established, and new evidence has just thrown another curve ball into the controversy. There is evidence of a large culture of humans throughout North America from 12-13,000 years ago, called the Clovis Culture....
Math Is Still...
Is It Real or Imagined? How Your Brain Tells the Difference. New experiments show that the brain distinguishes between perceived and imagined mental images by...
a year ago
249
a year ago
New experiments show that the brain distinguishes between perceived and imagined mental images by checking whether they cross a “reality threshold.” The post Is It Real or Imagined? How Your Brain Tells the Difference. first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Beautiful Public...
Here’s All the Rocks We Hauled Back From the Moon The 12 human beings who walked on the Moon collected, catalogued and returned 842 pounds of lunar...
a year ago
54
a year ago
The 12 human beings who walked on the Moon collected, catalogued and returned 842 pounds of lunar rock and soil. Each sample has been meticulously documented in NASA's Lunar Sample Catalog.
Blog - Practical...
Endeavour's Wild Journey Through the Streets of Los Angeles [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In May of 1992, the Space...
over a year ago
28
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In May of 1992, the Space Shuttle Endeavour launched to low earth orbit on its very first flight. That first mission was a big one: the crew captured a wayward communications satellite stuck in the wrong orbit,...
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, July–August 2023 A quasi-monthly feature (I skipped it last month, so this is a double portion). This is a longish...
a year ago
6
a year ago
A quasi-monthly feature (I skipped it last month, so this is a double portion). This is a longish post covering many topics; feel free to skim and skip around. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in my links digests. These updates are less...
Blog - Practical...
How Different Spillway Gates Work [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In the heart of Minneapolis,...
a year ago
24
a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In the heart of Minneapolis, Minnesota on the Mississippi River is the picturesque Upper Saint Anthony Falls Lock and Dam, which originally made it possible to travel upstream on the river past the falls...
Inverted Passion
A primer on dopamine 1/ I recently made notes on the book “Hooked” but wasn’t satisfied by the depth of explanation in...
11 months ago
44
11 months ago
1/ I recently made notes on the book “Hooked” but wasn’t satisfied by the depth of explanation in it. 2/ I wanted to get down into neuroscience of habit-forming products and that inevitably lead me to the (in)famous neurotransmitter dopamine. 3/ Before we dive into what dopamine...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How MainStreet gets you government $ | Out-Of-Pocket Get government tax credits for your health startup
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Placebos Are Getting Stronger | Out-Of-Pocket Should we incorporate them into clinical practice?
a year ago
Casey Handmer's blog
Potentially undervalued companies I am routinely solicited for my technical opinion on new and interesting technologies and companies...
3 months ago
4
3 months ago
I am routinely solicited for my technical opinion on new and interesting technologies and companies developing them. 90% of the time, my answer is “I don’t know” but it continues to concern me that aspects of technical feasibility are evidently not legible to financial types (and...
Math Is Still...
Quantum Complexity Shows How to Escape Hawking’s Black Hole Paradox Inside of a black hole, the two theoretical pillars of 20th-century physics appear to clash. Now a...
a year ago
5
a year ago
Inside of a black hole, the two theoretical pillars of 20th-century physics appear to clash. Now a group of young physicists think they have resolved the conflict by appealing to the central pillar of the new century — the physics of quantum information. The post...
NeuroLogica Blog
Carbon Fiber Structural Battery I have written previously about the concept of structural batteries, such as this recent post on a...
3 months ago
22
3 months ago
I have written previously about the concept of structural batteries, such as this recent post on a concrete battery. The basic idea is a battery made out of material that is strong enough that it can bare a load. Essentially we’re asking the material to do two things at once – be...
Explorations of an...
El Valle Encantado (The Enchanted Valley), And A Bump In The Road January 19, 2023 It is not always easy to find trails worth exploring in the Andes, and the reason...
a year ago
14
a year ago
January 19, 2023 It is not always easy to find trails worth exploring in the Andes, and the reason for this is simple. The extreme topographical changes in the mountains, combined with frequent rainfall and thick vegetation do not lend themselves to the construction and regular...
Wanderingspace
Goodbye Ingenuity Mission completed. Ingenuity is left alone on Mars after damage to one of its blades renders it...
10 months ago
45
10 months ago
Mission completed. Ingenuity is left alone on Mars after damage to one of its blades renders it inoperable..
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...
2 months ago
24
2 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...
nanoscale views
Power and computing The Wall Street Journal last week had an article (sorry about the paywall) titled "There’s Not...
7 months ago
73
7 months ago
The Wall Street Journal last week had an article (sorry about the paywall) titled "There’s Not Enough Power for America’s High-Tech Ambitions", about how there is enormous demand for more data centers (think Amazon Web Services and the like), and electricity production can't...
Math Is Still...
Primitive Asgard Cells Show Life on the Brink of Complexity As researchers race to cultivate more of the intriguing cells from the deep seafloor, the few cells...
a year ago
55
a year ago
As researchers race to cultivate more of the intriguing cells from the deep seafloor, the few cells now growing in labs are giving us our best glimpses of the forerunners of all complex life. The post Primitive Asgard Cells Show Life on the Brink of Complexity first...
Math Is Still...
Overexposure Distorted the Science of Mirror Neurons After a decade out of the spotlight, the brain cells once alleged to explain empathy, autism and...
8 months ago
26
8 months 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
nanoscale views
Condensed matter’s rough start I’m teaching undergrad solid-state for the first time, and it has served as a reminder of how...
a year ago
24
a year ago
I’m teaching undergrad solid-state for the first time, and it has served as a reminder of how condensed matter physics got off the ground.  I suspect that one reason CM historically had not received a lot of respect in the early years (e.g. Pauli declaring that solid-state...
Math Is Still...
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...
a year ago
42
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
nanoscale views
The Nobels, physics and chemistry As you undoubtedly know, the 2023 Nobel in physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc...
a year ago
38
a year ago
As you undoubtedly know, the 2023 Nobel in physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L'Huillier, for the development of techniques associated with attosecond-scale optical pulses.  Here is the more popular write-up about this (including a good handwave...
Beautiful Public...
FAA Aviation Maps Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a...
10 months ago
64
10 months ago
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.
The Roots of...
The epistemic virtue of scope matching Something a little bit different today. I’ll tie it in to progress, I promise. I keep noticing a...
a year ago
23
a year ago
Something a little bit different today. I’ll tie it in to progress, I promise. I keep noticing a particular epistemic pitfall (not exactly a “fallacy”), and a corresponding epistemic virtue that avoids it. I want to call this out and give it a name. The virtue is: identifying the...
IEEE Spectrum
A Brief History of the Office Cubicle Robert Propst, a designer at the Herman Miller furniture company. Four years earlier, he had...
a year ago
51
a year ago
Robert Propst, a designer at the Herman Miller furniture company. Four years earlier, he had proposed a radical alternative to the office bullpen: the Action Office. He envisioned it as a holistic and integrated system designed to increase worker efficiency while providing an...
Asterisk
The Puzzle of Non-Proliferation Today, only nine countries have nuclear weapons. That outcome was hardly inevitable, and the story...
a year ago
2
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.
Math Is Still...
Big Advance on Simple-Sounding Math Problem Was a Century in the Making A new proof about prime numbers illuminates the subtle relationship between addition and...
2 months ago
32
2 months ago
A new proof about prime numbers illuminates the subtle relationship between addition and multiplication — and raises hopes for progress on the famous abc conjecture. The post Big Advance on Simple-Sounding Math Problem Was a Century in the Making first appeared on...
NeuroLogica Blog
Being Trans Is Not A Mental Illness On the current episode of the SGU, because it is pride month, we expressed our general support for...
a year ago
53
a year ago
On the current episode of the SGU, because it is pride month, we expressed our general support for the LGBTQ community. I also opined about how important it is to respect individual liberty, the freedom to simply live your authentic life as you choose, and how ironic it is that...
Math Is Still...
Ninth Dedekind Number Found by Two Independent Groups The numbers count a variety of seemingly unrelated mathematical structures. The post...
a year ago
Interaction Magic -...
3 tips for co-designing with kids Designing future sports products with a group of 11 year olds.
a year ago
Light from Space
The Helping Hand of LDN 1355 LDN 1355 is a dark nebula in Cassiopeia, vaguely in the shape of an outstreched human hand—the dark...
over a year ago
22
over a year ago
LDN 1355 is a dark nebula in Cassiopeia, vaguely in the shape of an outstreched human hand—the dark dust obscuring the reflection nebula behind it. Total exposure time: 58h 50' (211,800s) Image resolution: 5,216 × 3,909px (1.924″/px) Shot from my driveway
Math Is Still...
Will AI Ever Have Common Sense? Common sense has been viewed as one of the hardest challenges in AI. That said, ChatGPT4 has...
5 months ago
50
5 months ago
Common sense has been viewed as one of the hardest challenges in AI. That said, ChatGPT4 has acquired what some believe is an impressive sense of humanity. How is this possible? Listen to this week’s “The Joy of Why” with co-host Steven Strogatz. The post Will AI Ever...
Math Is Still...
The Most Important Machine That Was Never Built When he invented Turing machines in 1936, Alan Turing also invented modern computing. ...
a year ago
53
a year ago
When he invented Turing machines in 1936, Alan Turing also invented modern computing. The post The Most Important Machine That Was Never Built first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Perplexing the Web, One Probability Puzzle at a Time The mathematician Daniel Litt has driven social media users to distraction with a series of...
3 months ago
40
3 months ago
The mathematician Daniel Litt has driven social media users to distraction with a series of simple-seeming but counterintuitive probability puzzles. The post Perplexing the Web, One Probability Puzzle at a Time first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
How Do Fish Ladders Work? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Building a dam imparts a...
8 months ago
74
8 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Building a dam imparts a stupendous change to the environment, and as with any change, there are winners and losers. The winners are usually us, people, through hydropower generation, protection from flooding,...
Beautiful Public...
The Mirror Fusion Test Facility A decade-long effort to build a machine to unlock the promise of nuclear fusion fell victim to...
a year ago
56
a year ago
A decade-long effort to build a machine to unlock the promise of nuclear fusion fell victim to budget constraints and competing science, and was shut down the day it was dedicated. It was never turned on.
Asterisk
Is Wine Fake? Wine commands wealth, prestige, and attention from aficionados. How much of what they admire is in...
over a year ago
2
over a year ago
Wine commands wealth, prestige, and attention from aficionados. How much of what they admire is in their heads?
NeuroLogica Blog
Hunger Circuitry One of the organizing principles that govern living organisms is homeostasis. This is a key feature...
a year ago
5
a year ago
One of the organizing principles that govern living organisms is homeostasis. This is a key feature of being alive – maintaining homeostatic equilibrium both internally and externally. Homeostatic systems usually involve multiple feedback loops that maintain some physiological...
NeuroLogica Blog
Coal vs Natural Gas In the last 18 years, since 2005, the US has decreased our CO2 emissions due to electricity...
a year ago
39
a year ago
In the last 18 years, since 2005, the US has decreased our CO2 emissions due to electricity generation by 32%, 819 million metric tons of CO2 per year. Thirty percent of this decline can be attributed to renewable energy generation. But 65% is attributed to essentially replacing...
Explorations of an...
Borneo 2024: Introduction And Pre-Tour Birding About a month ago, I returned to Sabah in east Malaysia for my fourth tour of duty as a guide for...
a month ago
12
a month ago
About a month ago, I returned to Sabah in east Malaysia for my fourth tour of duty as a guide for Quest Nature Tours. I've always said that Borneo is one of my favourite tours that I run and even after three previous trips I was looking forward to returning. One of the main...
nanoscale views
Experimental techniques: bridge measurements When we teach undergraduates about materials and measuring electrical resistance, we tend to gloss...
4 months ago
45
4 months ago
When we teach undergraduates about materials and measuring electrical resistance, we tend to gloss over the fact that there are specialized techniques for this - it's more than just hooking up a battery and an ammeter.  If you want to get high precision results, such as measuring...
Quantum Frontiers
The Book of Mark Mark Srednicki doesn’t look like a high priest. He’s a professor of physics at the University of...
a year ago
24
a year ago
Mark Srednicki doesn’t look like a high priest. He’s a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB); and you’ll sooner find him in khakis than in sacred vestments. Humor suits his round face better than channeling … Continue reading →
brr
Mud Murdo The beautiful ambiance of a McMurdo summer.
over a year ago
nanoscale views
What is turbulence? (And why are helicopters never quiet?) Fluid mechanics is very often left out of the undergraduate physics curriculum.  This is a shame, as...
6 months ago
60
6 months ago
Fluid mechanics is very often left out of the undergraduate physics curriculum.  This is a shame, as it's very interesting and directly relevant to many broad topics (atmospheric science, climate, plasma physics, parts of astrophysics).  Fluid mechanics is a great example of how...
Probably...
Political Alignment, Affiliation, and Attitudes Is there a growing gender gap in the U.S? Alignment A recent article in the Financial Times suggests...
10 months ago
36
10 months ago
Is there a growing gender gap in the U.S? Alignment A recent article in the Financial Times suggests that among young people there is a growing gender gap in political alignment on a spectrum from liberal to conservative. In last week’s post, I tried to replicate this result...
Probably...
The Gender Gap in Political Beliefs Is Small In previous articles (here, here, and here) I’ve looked at evidence of a gender gap in political...
10 months ago
36
10 months ago
In previous articles (here, here, and here) I’ve looked at evidence of a gender gap in political alignment (liberal or conservative), party affiliation (Democrat or Republican), and policy preferences. Using data from the GSS, I found that women are more likely to say they are...
NeuroLogica Blog
New Generation of Electric Robots Boston Dynamics (now owned by Hyundai) has revealed its electric version of its Atlas robot. These...
8 months ago
57
8 months ago
Boston Dynamics (now owned by Hyundai) has revealed its electric version of its Atlas robot. These robot videos always look impressive, but at the very least we know that we are seeing the best take. We don’t know how many times the robot failed to get the one great video. There...
Sean Carroll
The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion Just in case there are any blog readers out there who haven’t heard from other channels: I have a...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
Just in case there are any blog readers out there who haven’t heard from other channels: I have a new book out! The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion is Volume One of a planned three-volume series. It grew out of the videos that I did in 2020, trying to offer...
Math Is Still...
How Is Cell Death Essential to Life? Cells in our bodies are constantly dying — and these countless tiny deaths are essential to human...
2 weeks ago
11
2 weeks 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...
IEEE Spectrum
How Tech Automated the January 6 Investigations Josh Coker’s Facebook page doesn’t show any MAGA memes or Trump quotes. He wasn’t live-streaming on...
11 months ago
9
11 months ago
Josh Coker’s Facebook page doesn’t show any MAGA memes or Trump quotes. He wasn’t live-streaming on 6 January 2021, and no one has ever stepped forward to identify him as one of the mob that stormed the US Capitol that day. Oregon, Ohio, with five counts connected to the failed...
Math Is Still...
Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning...
8 months ago
35
8 months ago
Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning missions to far-off moons and planets. The post Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Answers: How should physicians get paid? | Out-Of-Pocket What is a "fair amount" for a physician to get paid?
a year ago
Wanderingspace
Apollo Lunar Rover Video Corrected Speed and Stabilized It is remarkable the difference watching this version where the time is corrected and camera...
over a year ago
6
over a year ago
It is remarkable the difference watching this version where the time is corrected and camera stabilized.. The film restorer behind DutchSteamMachine used AI to stabilize shaky footage and generate new frames in NASA moon landing films; increasing the frame rate, smoothed the...
nanoscale views
Strategic planning + departmental reviews It's been a while since I've written a post about the ways of academia, so I thought it might be...
a year ago
2
a year ago
It's been a while since I've written a post about the ways of academia, so I thought it might be time, though it's not exactly glamorous or exciting.  There are certain cycles in research universities, and two interrelated ones are the cycle of departmental strategic planning and...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Let’s Talk About Obesity Drugs | Out-Of-Pocket we're entering a new era for these treatments
a year ago
brr
South Pole Arrival Flying to the bottom of the world!
over a year ago
nanoscale views
Some interesting links - useful lecture notes, videos Proposal writing, paper writing, and course prep are eating a lot of my bandwidth right now, but I...
a year ago
24
a year ago
Proposal writing, paper writing, and course prep are eating a lot of my bandwidth right now, but I wanted to share a few things: David Tong at Cambridge is a gifted educator and communicator who has written lecture notes that span a wide swath of the physics curriculum, from...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Answers: Did The FDA Mess Up With Aduhelm? | Out-Of-Pocket what if it incentivizes actually good drugs?
a year ago
The Works in...
Works in Progress: 2023 Wrapped Our most read work of the year
a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Journalists Fail on UAP Story Nothing about the recent resurgence in interest in UFOs (now called UAPs for unidentified anomalous...
a year ago
9
a year ago
Nothing about the recent resurgence in interest in UFOs (now called UAPs for unidentified anomalous phenomena) is really new. It’s basically the same stories with the same level of completely unconvincing evidence. But what is somewhat new is the level of credulity and outright...
NeuroLogica Blog
RFK Jr., Joe Rogan, and Vaccines RFK Jr., who is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination, is anti-vaccine. He will...
a year ago
22
a year ago
RFK Jr., who is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination, is anti-vaccine. He will vehemently deny this, but I don’t buy it for a second. He is simply playing the, “I’m not anti-vaccine, I am pro-safe vaccine” gambit, which is disingenuous and always has been. We...
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2020, 3) Repairs, number stations, the only good Twitters, a low-key infohazard about pictures of...
over a year ago
22
over a year ago
Repairs, number stations, the only good Twitters, a low-key infohazard about pictures of butterflies, and more.
Math Is Still...
The #1 Clue to Quantum Gravity Sits on the Surfaces of Black Holes A black hole formula worked out in the 1970s remains the most concrete clue physicists have about...
2 months ago
19
2 months ago
A black hole formula worked out in the 1970s remains the most concrete clue physicists have about the threads of the space-time fabric. The post The #1 Clue to Quantum Gravity Sits on the Surfaces of Black Holes first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Explorations of an...
Birds And Herps In The Summer Heat January 31, 2023 Our success with the Chaco Owl and Black-bodied Woodpecker afforded us the luxury...
a year ago
17
a year ago
January 31, 2023 Our success with the Chaco Owl and Black-bodied Woodpecker afforded us the luxury of a sleep-in this morning. With the exception of the rare Chaco Eagle, as well as several species that were heard but not seen (Black-legged Seriema, Olive-crowned Crescentchest,...
NeuroLogica Blog
How Substance Abuse Affects the Brain I will acknowledge up front that I never drink, ever. The concept of deliberately consuming a known...
a year ago
8
a year ago
I will acknowledge up front that I never drink, ever. The concept of deliberately consuming a known poison to impair the functioning of your brain never appealed to me. Also, I am a bit of a supertaster, and the taste of alcohol to me is horrible – it overwhelms any other...
Stephen Wolfram...
Yet More New Ideas and New Functions: Launching Version 14.1 of Wolfram Language & Mathematica For the 36th Time… the Latest from Our R&D Pipeline There’s Now a Unified Wolfram App Vector...
4 months ago
39
4 months ago
For the 36th Time… the Latest from Our R&D Pipeline There’s Now a Unified Wolfram App Vector Databases and Semantic Search RAGs and Dynamic Prompting for LLMs Connect to Your Favorite LLM Symbolic Arrays and Their Calculus Binomials and Pitchforks: Navigating Mathematical...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Special Edition: A Toilet And A Neural Network | Out-Of-Pocket You didn't know you needed this. And you probably don't.
a year ago
ToughSF
Permanent and Perfect Stealth in Space Despite the commonly accepted truth in Hard Science Fiction, spacecraft are able to evade detection...
over a year ago
7
over a year ago
Despite the commonly accepted truth in Hard Science Fiction, spacecraft are able to evade detection in space in many circumstances. The Hydrogen Steamer was a design that used liquid hydrogen evaporative cooling to keep a non-reflective surface practically invisible.  However,...
Math Is Still...
Mathematicians Attempt to Glimpse Past the Big Bang By studying the geometry of model space-times, researchers offer alternative views of the universe’s...
6 months ago
65
6 months ago
By studying the geometry of model space-times, researchers offer alternative views of the universe’s first moments. The post Mathematicians Attempt to Glimpse Past the Big Bang first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier Researchers have shown how to find the simplest description of a data set faster than by simply ...
8 months ago
42
8 months ago
Researchers have shown how to find the simplest description of a data set faster than by simply checking every possibility. The post Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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...
3 months ago
19
3 months ago
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...
Math Is Still...
A Plan to Address the World’s Challenges With Math Minhyong Kim is leading a new initiative called Mathematics for Humanity that encourages...
a year ago
60
a year ago
Minhyong Kim is leading a new initiative called Mathematics for Humanity that encourages mathematicians to apply their skills to solving social problems. The post A Plan to Address the World’s Challenges With Math first appeared on Quanta Magazine
IEEE Spectrum
James Wimshurst’s Electrostatic Immortality James Wimshurst did not invent the machine that bears his name. But thanks to his many refinements...
a year ago
5
a year ago
James Wimshurst did not invent the machine that bears his name. But thanks to his many refinements to a distinctive type of electrostatic generator, we now have the Wimshurst influence machine. What does a Wimshurst machine do? Influence machines date back to the 18th century....
NeuroLogica Blog
Problems with the Institute Of Noetic Sciences I was interviewed recently for a Daily Beast article on recent research involving the Institute of...
a year ago
37
a year ago
I was interviewed recently for a Daily Beast article on recent research involving the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Overall the article is very good, and author Maddie Bender was fair and reasonable in how I was quoted. I can’t always take that as a given. No matter how...
brr
Engineering for Slow Internet How to minimize user frustration in Antarctica.
6 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
GMOs – Ask a Farmer The topic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is a great target for science communication...
4 months ago
49
4 months ago
The topic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is a great target for science communication because public attitudes have largely been shaped by deliberate misinformation, and the research suggests that those attitudes can change in response to more accurate information. It is...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Exoplanet Radius Gap As of this writing, there are 5,573 confirmed exoplanets in 4,146 planetary systems. That is enough...
10 months ago
20
10 months ago
As of this writing, there are 5,573 confirmed exoplanets in 4,146 planetary systems. That is enough exoplanets, planets around stars other than our own sun, that we can do some statistics to describe what’s out there. One curious pattern that has emerged is a relative gap in the...
IEEE Spectrum
This Wearable Computer Made a Fashion Statement Google Glass debuted, the artist Lisa Krohn designed a prototype wearable computer that looked like...
5 months ago
64
5 months ago
Google Glass debuted, the artist Lisa Krohn designed a prototype wearable computer that looked like no other. The Cyberdesk was an experiment in augmented reality. At a time when computers were mostly beige and boxy, Krohn envisioned a pliable, high-tech garment that fused...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
OOP Slack final reminder | Out-Of-Pocket it's the final countdownnnnn
9 months ago
Math Is Still...
How Will We Know We’re Not Alone? The first planet beyond our solar system was identified just 30 years ago. Since then, thousands...
3 days ago
4
3 days ago
The first planet beyond our solar system was identified just 30 years ago. Since then, thousands have been found and characterized. As we look for more, exoplanet experts are also probing for signs of alien biospheres hundreds of light-years away. In this episode, co-host Janna...
IEEE Spectrum
Tiny Exploding Houses Promoted 18th-Century Lightning Rods Imagine if engineers were required to build a working model to demonstrate every new technological...
a year ago
4
a year ago
Imagine if engineers were required to build a working model to demonstrate every new technological concept to the general public. Done right, tech literacy might soar! A compelling visual example can really help people understand the applications and implications of new...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How to integrate into an EMR and why Epic won with Brendan Keeler | Out-Of-Pocket everything you need to know about EMRs, healthcare data standards, and integrations
a year ago
Asterisk
From Warp Speed to 100 Days During the COVID pandemic, we learned to design vaccines within weeks. Now, the bottleneck is...
a year ago
2
a year ago
During the COVID pandemic, we learned to design vaccines within weeks. Now, the bottleneck is testing that they work. To get even faster, we need innovations in clinical trial design.
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...
10 months ago
18
10 months 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...
The Works in...
Does higher density cause lower birth rates? Assessing one recent claim that it does
7 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Update on Self-Driving Cars The story has become a classic of failed futurism – driverless or self-driving cars were supposed...
a year ago
5
a year ago
The story has become a classic of failed futurism – driverless or self-driving cars were supposed start taking over the roads as early as 2020. But that didn’t happen – it turned that the last 5% of capability was about as difficult to develop as the first 95%. Around 2015 I...
Math Is Still...
Hopes of Big Bang Discoveries Ride on a Future Spacecraft Physicists and cosmologists will have a new probe of primordial processes when Europe launches the...
8 months ago
68
8 months ago
Physicists and cosmologists will have a new probe of primordial processes when Europe launches the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) next decade. The post Hopes of Big Bang Discoveries Ride on a Future Spacecraft first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Dwarf Planet Ring Mystery Scientists love mysteries, because that is where new discoveries lay. It is nice to find evidence...
a year ago
26
a year ago
Scientists love mysteries, because that is where new discoveries lay. It is nice to find evidence consistent with existing theories, providing further confirmation, but it’s exciting to find evidence that cannot be explained with existing theories. Astronomers may have found such...
NeuroLogica Blog
How Much Do Couples Share Traits? Do birds of a feather flock together, or do opposites attract? These are both common aphorisms,...
a year ago
122
a year ago
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...
Explorations of an...
2023 Part 4: Indonesia and Ecuador September The island of Sulawesi must be on the bucket list for any naturalist with a strong...
11 months ago
11
11 months ago
September The island of Sulawesi must be on the bucket list for any naturalist with a strong interest in biogeography. Though Borneo is situated only a few hundred kilometers to the west, and the Moluccas are not far to the east, the species composition of Sulawesi is...
IEEE Spectrum
The Sneaky Standard A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the...
7 months ago
83
7 months ago
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the end of the long tail. Personal computing has changed a lot in the past four decades, and one of the biggest changes, perhaps the most unheralded, comes down to compatibility. These...
NeuroLogica Blog
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
9
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....
nanoscale views
Reading material - orders of magnitude and difficult times Over the past couple of weeks (and more) I have found a number of things to read that I wanted to...
a year ago
53
a year ago
Over the past couple of weeks (and more) I have found a number of things to read that I wanted to pass on.  First, if you'd like a break from the seemingly continual stream of bad news in the world and enjoy good "think like a physicist"/dimensional analysis/order of magnitude...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
What's The Deal With Telemedicine? | Out-Of-Pocket we're in the weird in-between stage of adoption
a year ago
nanoscale views
Materials characterization techniques – a brief glossary Suppose someone has synthesized or found what they think is a new material. How do people studying...
11 months ago
22
11 months ago
Suppose someone has synthesized or found what they think is a new material. How do people studying materials (condensed matter physicists, materials scientists, materials chemists) figure out what they have and understand its properties? That's the puzzle-solving aspect of...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
A Movie about a Galaxy Far, Far Away & Long, Long Ago (from Webb Telescope) Explains a new movie of distant galaxies and remote time from the Webb Telescope. The post A Movie...
a year ago
5
a year ago
Explains a new movie of distant galaxies and remote time from the Webb Telescope. The post A Movie about a Galaxy Far, Far Away & Long, Long Ago (from Webb Telescope) appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
NeuroLogica Blog
Using CRISPR To Treat HIV CRISPR has been big scientific news since it was introduced in 2012. The science actually goes back...
9 months ago
31
9 months ago
CRISPR has been big scientific news since it was introduced in 2012. The science actually goes back to 1987, but the CRISPR/Cas9 system was patented in 2012, and the developers won the Noble Prize in Chemistry in 2020. The system gives researchers the ability to quickly and...
Math Is Still...
The Enduring Mystery of How Water Freezes Making ice requires more than subzero temperatures. The unpredictable process takes microscopic...
6 months ago
60
6 months ago
Making ice requires more than subzero temperatures. The unpredictable process takes microscopic scaffolding, random jiggling and often a little bit of bacteria. The post The Enduring Mystery of How Water Freezes first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Ghosts Are Not Real It’s Halloween, so there are a lot of fluff pieces about ghosts and similar phenomena circulating in...
a year ago
4
a year ago
It’s Halloween, so there are a lot of fluff pieces about ghosts and similar phenomena circulating in the media. There are some good skeptical pieces as well, which is always nice to see. For this piece I did not want to frame the headline as a question, which I think is...
NeuroLogica Blog
Trust in Science How much does the public trust in science and scientists? Well, there’s some good news and some bad...
a year ago
6
a year ago
How much does the public trust in science and scientists? Well, there’s some good news and some bad news. Let’s start with the bad news – a recent Pew survey finds that trust in scientist has been in decline for the last few years. From its recent peak in 2019, those who answered...
Probably...
Think Python Goes to Production Think Python has moved into production, on schedule for the official publication date in July — but...
9 months ago
58
9 months ago
Think Python has moved into production, on schedule for the official publication date in July — but maybe earlier if things go well. To celebrate, I have posted the next batch of chapters on the new site, up through Chapter 12, which is about Markov text analysis and generation,...
NeuroLogica Blog
T-rex Had Lips One of the challenges of paleontology is that we are trying to infer and entire animal just from the...
a year ago
52
a year ago
One of the challenges of paleontology is that we are trying to infer and entire animal just from the hard parts that fossilize, mostly bones and teeth (and sometimes just teeth). But if we look at animals today there are a lot of details we could not guess from their bones alone...
Drew Ex Machina
Catching Up: Talking about the Weather After an unintended four-month hiatus publishing new work on the Drew Ex Machina website, I figured...
a year ago
37
a year ago
After an unintended four-month hiatus publishing new work on the Drew Ex Machina website, I figured it was time to catch up on what I’ve been […]
Asterisk
How to Make a Great Government Website Do lots of user research, travel to every county in California, iterate constantly, and troubleshoot...
7 months ago
2
7 months 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.
Light from Space
Andromeda: Our Galactic Neighbor Many things have been said about the Andromeda Galaxy, arguably the most majestic galaxy that...
2 months ago
37
2 months ago
Many things have been said about the Andromeda Galaxy, arguably the most majestic galaxy that amateur astronomers can image due to it's sheer size in the sky—many times larger than the Moon appears to us, but also many times dimmer. With the naked eye, even in
Eukaryote Writes...
Will the growing deer prion epidemic spread to humans? Why not? If a fatal neurological virus were spreading across deer in the US, and showed up in cooked infected...
a year ago
54
a year ago
If a fatal neurological virus were spreading across deer in the US, and showed up in cooked infected meat, my default assumption would be “we're in danger.” But a prion isn’t a virus. Why does that matter?
Drew Ex Machina
The Dream: The First Probe to the Moon The past decade or so has seen a marked increase in interest to reach the Moon for exploration as...
11 months ago
14
11 months ago
The past decade or so has seen a marked increase in interest to reach the Moon for exploration as well as the potential exploitation of its […]
symmetry magazine
From inventor to entrepreneur Creating a startup to commercialize technology developed during research is a risky road for...
a year ago
56
a year ago
Creating a startup to commercialize technology developed during research is a risky road for physicists and engineers, but the help of experts can improve their chances.
Andrew Fraknoi –...
My Free Introductory Astronomy Textbook Hits a Milestone This time I am posting something a bit personal. I am the lead author of a free book that is part of...
7 months ago
25
7 months ago
This time I am posting something a bit personal. I am the lead author of a free book that is part of a nonprofit experiment to help students with the costs of college. Here is the news from our publisher: OpenStax, the open textbook publisher based at Rice University, is pleased...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Physics of Flocks Most people have watched large flocks of birds. They are fascinating, and have interested scientists...
8 months ago
38
8 months ago
Most people have watched large flocks of birds. They are fascinating, and have interested scientists for a long time. How, exactly, do so many birds maintain their cohesion as a flock? It’s obviously a dynamic process, but what are the mechanisms? When I was young I was taught...
Eukaryote Writes...
A point of clarification on infohazard terminology “Infohazard” means any kind of information that could be harmful in some fashion. Let’s use “memetic...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
“Infohazard” means any kind of information that could be harmful in some fashion. Let’s use “memetic hazard” to describe information that could specifically harm the person who knows it.
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)....
a year ago
33
a year ago
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
In 1926, TV Was Mechanical John Logie Baird had a lot of ingenious ideas, not all of which caught on. His phonovision was an...
3 months ago
29
3 months ago
John Logie Baird had a lot of ingenious ideas, not all of which caught on. His phonovision was an early attempt at video recording, with the signals preserved on phonograph records. His noctovision used infrared light to see objects in the dark, which some experts claim was a...
Math Is Still...
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
5
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...
ToughSF
Space Tethers: Stringing up the Solar System All the methods we have used to reach space so far have been subject to the Tsiolkovsky rocket...
over a year ago
4
over a year ago
All the methods we have used to reach space so far have been subject to the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation - propellant must be ejected and more and more of it is needed to go further. What if we could break that equation with rotating orbital tethers? The tether I have worked...
Drew Ex Machina
First Pictures: NASA’s Mars Pathfinder – July 4, 1997 During the morning hours of July 4, 1997, I experienced a strange sense of déjà vu as I sat glued to...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
During the morning hours of July 4, 1997, I experienced a strange sense of déjà vu as I sat glued to the television set watching live […]
nanoscale views
Brief items - light-driven diamagnetism, nuclear recoil, spin transport in VO2 Real life continues to make itself felt in various ways this summer (and that's not even an allusion...
5 months ago
52
5 months ago
Real life continues to make itself felt in various ways this summer (and that's not even an allusion to political madness), but here are three papers (two from others and a self-indulgent plug for our work) you might find interesting. There has been a lot of work in recent...
Many Worlds
The Makeup of Red Dwarf Solar Systems May Seriously Limit the Formation of Habitable Planets Jupiter is often described as the “big brother” planet of our solar system that made the formation...
a year ago
5
a year ago
Jupiter is often described as the “big brother” planet of our solar system that made the formation and evolution of Earth possible. In the early days of the solar system, massive Jupiter helped the planet grow rapidly while serving as a gravity well that shielded the planet from...
Math Is Still...
The Hidden Brain Connections Between Our Hands and Tongues Sticking out your tongue while doing delicate work with your hands reveals a history of evolutionary...
a year ago
26
a year ago
Sticking out your tongue while doing delicate work with your hands reveals a history of evolutionary relationships. The post The Hidden Brain Connections Between Our Hands and Tongues first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Mathematicians Identify the Best Versions of Iconic Shapes Researchers are discovering the shortest knots and fattest Möbius strips, among other “optimal...
11 months ago
15
11 months ago
Researchers are discovering the shortest knots and fattest Möbius strips, among other “optimal shapes.” The post Mathematicians Identify the Best Versions of Iconic Shapes first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Drew Ex Machina
USAF Project Able-1: The First Attempt to Reach the Moon In the years leading up to the beginning of the Space Age, there were many studies made in the West...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
In the years leading up to the beginning of the Space Age, there were many studies made in the West about lunar missions which gripped the […]
NeuroLogica Blog
Fossil Fuels – Reduce Demand or Supply? This is a bit of a false choice – we can do both, or neither – but it is an important question and a...
a year ago
8
a year ago
This is a bit of a false choice – we can do both, or neither – but it is an important question and a somewhat of a dilemma. Is the optimal path to reductions and eventual elimination of fossil fuel burning through reduced demand or supply? There are some interesting tradeoffs...
IEEE Spectrum
Saving the Big Bang (Antenna) The antenna that discovered a cosmic microwave background coming from all directions in...
a year ago
6
a year ago
The antenna that discovered a cosmic microwave background coming from all directions in space—cementing the theory that the universe was created in a big bang—now stares down its own topsy-turvy future. Its owner says the hardware will be preserved, but the fate of the historical...
Interaction Magic -...
Plastic archeology The history, science and engineering of Lego bricks, on the cusp between trash and treasure.
a year ago
Tikalon Blog by Dev...
Plant Sounds My early adulthood coincided with the New Age movement and its belief in many discredited past...
4 months ago
2
4 months ago
My early adulthood coincided with the New Age movement and its belief in many discredited past ideas, such as astrology. One New Age idea that seemed strange at the time was that talking to plants helped them to grow. What could be more New Age than a hippie chick talking to a...
Sean Carroll
What I Look for in Podcast Guests People often suggest guests to appear on Mindscape — which I very much appreciate! Several of my...
over a year ago
36
over a year ago
People often suggest guests to appear on Mindscape — which I very much appreciate! Several of my best conversations were with people I had never heard of before they were effectively suggested by someone. Suggestions could be made here (in comments below), or on the subreddit, or...
Many Worlds
Many Worlds Archive is Available I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column — sponsored by NASA’s NExSS...
a year ago
32
a year ago
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
DNA Nanorobot Kill Switch for Cancer How’s that for a provocative title? But it is technically accurate. The title of the paper in...
5 months ago
46
5 months ago
How’s that for a provocative title? But it is technically accurate. The title of the paper in question is: “A DNA robotic switch with regulated autonomous display of cytotoxic ligand nanopatterns.” The study is a proof of concept in an animal model, so we are still years away...
Probably...
The World Population Singularity One of the exercises in Modeling and Simulation in Python invites readers to download estimates of...
a year ago
5
a year ago
One of the exercises in Modeling and Simulation in Python invites readers to download estimates of world population from 10,000 BCE to the present, and to see if they are well modeled by any simple mathematical function. Here’s what the estimates look like (aggregated on...
Math Is Still...
Bats Use the Same Brain Cells to Map Physical and Social Worlds New research in social bats raises the intriguing possibility that evolution can reprogram the...
a year ago
11
a year ago
New research in social bats raises the intriguing possibility that evolution can reprogram the brain’s “place cells,” which are typically associated with location, to encode all kinds of environmental information. The post Bats Use the Same Brain Cells to Map Physical...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Scaling Organizations, Patient Payments, and Collections with Lora Rosenblum | Out-Of-Pocket Why am I getting bills 6 months later, Lora pls help
a year ago
Interaction Magic -...
The UX of LEGO Interface Panels LEGO interface panels are beautiful, iconic, and great for learning interface design basics. I...
over a year ago
2
over a year ago
LEGO interface panels are beautiful, iconic, and great for learning interface design basics. I bought 52 of them from BrickLink to explore the design, layout and organisation of complex interfaces.
nanoscale views
The physics of squeaky shoes In these unsettling and trying times, I wanted to write about the physics of a challenge I'm facing...
5 months ago
48
5 months ago
In these unsettling and trying times, I wanted to write about the physics of a challenge I'm facing in my professional life: super squeaky shoes.  When I wear a particularly comfortable pair of shoes at work, when I walk in some hallways in my building (but not all), my shoes...
Blog - Practical...
How The Channel Tunnel Works [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] 2024 marks thirty years since...
11 months ago
40
11 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] 2024 marks thirty years since the opening of the channel tunnel, or chunnel, or as they say in Calais, Le tunnel sous la Manche. This underground/undersea railroad tunnel connects England with France, crossing...
Cremieux Recueil
High-Frequency Trading Is Good Sichuan Mala has written a guest post on one of the most unfairly maligned parts of the financial...
3 months ago
4
3 months ago
Sichuan Mala has written a guest post on one of the most unfairly maligned parts of the financial industry
Math Is Still...
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. ...
a year ago
34
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
Probably...
What does a confidence interval mean? Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. In general, I will...
8 months ago
71
8 months ago
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. In general, I will try to focus on practical problems, but this one is a little more philosophical. confidence What does a confidence interval mean?¶ Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics...
Asterisk
Community Organizing
a month ago
Interaction Magic -...
Designing bikes or bike lanes? Which impacts the cycling experience more: the design of the bike or the bike lanes? Interview and...
over a year ago
2
over a year ago
Which impacts the cycling experience more: the design of the bike or the bike lanes? Interview and podcast with city transport planners Catherine Osborn and David Wills.
NeuroLogica Blog
Will Hydrogen BEV Hybrids Be A Thing? I recently recorded a YouTube video on the notion of hydrogen fuel cell cars (it will be posted...
a year ago
64
a year ago
I recently recorded a YouTube video on the notion of hydrogen fuel cell cars (it will be posted soon, and I will add the link when it’s up). One question I did not get into in the video, but which is an interesting thought experiment, is hydrogen – plug-in battery hybrid...
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
7
a year ago
Astronomers are championing a relatively new technique as a method to understand the structure of the early universe in three dimensions.
Damn Interesting
Devouring the Heart of Portugal On the morning of Thursday, 04 December 1924, a tall and well-dressed Dutch trader named Karel...
over a year ago
10
over a year ago
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
World Events and the Conspiracy Instinct By now most people have heard that on Saturday there was a failed assassination attempt on candidate...
5 months ago
51
5 months ago
By now most people have heard that on Saturday there was a failed assassination attempt on candidate Trump at a rally. While it has only been a few days, preliminary investigation has found that 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, using a AR style rifle purchased legally by his...
Quantum Frontiers
A classical foreshadow of John Preskill’s Bell Prize Editor’s Note: This post was co-authored by Hsin-Yuan Huang (Robert) and Richard Kueng. John...
10 months ago
29
10 months ago
Editor’s Note: This post was co-authored by Hsin-Yuan Huang (Robert) and Richard Kueng. John Preskill, Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, has been named the 2024 John Stewart Bell Prize recipient. The prize honors John’s contributions in … Continue...
Cremieux Recueil
Eliminating Distractions in Longevity Research Longevity maximizers should invest in biotechnology, not modifiable lifestyle factors
2 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Thoughts on Aging If either of the two presumptive nominees for the major political parties in the US are elected in...
5 months ago
53
5 months 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,...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Answers: Too much money in digital health? | Out-Of-Pocket Here's what some of you had to say
a year ago
nanoscale views
Anyons, simulation, and "real" systems Quanta magazine this week published an article about two very recent papers, in which different...
a year ago
90
a year ago
Quanta magazine this week published an article about two very recent papers, in which different groups performed quantum simulations of anyons, objects that do not follow Bose-Einstein or Fermi-Dirac statistics when they are exchanged.  For so-called Abelian anyons (which I wrote...
NeuroLogica Blog
Reading The Mind with fMRI and AI This is pretty exciting neuroscience news – Semantic reconstruction of continuous language from...
a year ago
47
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...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The Change Healthcare Debacle | Out-Of-Pocket what are clearinghouses and do we still need them?
9 months ago
nanoscale views
Science and how it will be practiced in the future I just registered for an event that celebrates the 35th anniversary of a particular science and...
a year ago
25
a year ago
I just registered for an event that celebrates the 35th anniversary of a particular science and engineering program, and one question they posed was, to paraphrase, "Science has changed a lot in the last 35 years.  Please make three predictions about science in the next 35...
Cremieux Recueil
American Elections Are Unfair Unfortunately, unfairness is baked in
a month ago
The Works in...
Lost Science When discoveries are forgotten and then found
11 months ago
Asterisk
AI Isn’t Coming for Tech Jobs—Yet LLMs can make a developer’s job easier and faster. When might they make them obsolete?
a year ago
Math Is Still...
In New Paradox, Black Holes Appear to Evade Heat Death The puzzling behavior of black hole interiors has led researchers to propose a new physical law: the...
a year ago
53
a year ago
The puzzling behavior of black hole interiors has led researchers to propose a new physical law: the second law of quantum complexity. The post In New Paradox, Black Holes Appear to Evade Heat Death first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Asterisk
The Ruin of Mumbai Mumbai’s land use regulations are designed to keep population density low. Instead, they force...
9 months ago
2
9 months ago
Mumbai’s land use regulations are designed to keep population density low. Instead, they force Mumbaikars into slums, while all of India pays the price.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Breaking Down Electronic Data Interchange, X12, and Stedi | Out-Of-Pocket
7 months ago
IEEE Spectrum
This 1920 Chess Automaton Was Wired to Win The Mechanical Turk was a fraud. The chess-playing automaton, dressed in a turban and elaborate...
a year ago
7
a year ago
The Mechanical Turk was a fraud. The chess-playing automaton, dressed in a turban and elaborate Ottoman robes, toured Europe in the closing decades of the 18th century accompanied by its inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen. The Turk wowed Austrian empress Maria Theresa, French emperor...
Asterisk
The Art of Asking Questions Everyone seems to agree that self-report questions are fraught with lies, biases, errors, and other...
3 weeks ago
3
3 weeks ago
Everyone seems to agree that self-report questions are fraught with lies, biases, errors, and other inaccuracies. We all use them anyway. How can we ask them better?
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Video Games x Healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket Video games should be our models for engagement
a year ago
Uncharted...
Become a World-Class Communicator I’m running a 2nd cohort of my course: How to Become a World-Class Communicator, starting in two...
2 months ago
4
2 months ago
I’m running a 2nd cohort of my course: How to Become a World-Class Communicator, starting in two weeks, on November 4th!