Probably...
The Lost Chapter
I’m happy to report that Probably Overthinking It is available now in paperback. If you would like a...
4th Dec 2025
I’m happy to report that Probably Overthinking It is available now in paperback. If you would like a copy, you can order from Bookshop.org and Amazon (affiliate links). To celebrate, I’m publishing The Lost Chapter — that is, the chapter I cut from the published book. It’s about...
NeuroLogica Blog
Is AI Sentient Revisited
On the SGU this week we interviewed Blake Lemoine, the ex-Google employee who believes that Google’s...
3rd Apr 2023
On the SGU this week we interviewed Blake Lemoine, the ex-Google employee who believes that Google’s LaMDA may be sentient, based on his interactions with it. This was a fascinating discussion, and even though I think we did a pretty deep dive in the time we had, it also felt...
Quantum Frontiers
Nicole’s guide to navigating faculty-position offers
It’s happening. Your inbox registers an email from the chair of a faculty-hiring committee. With...
11th Mar 2026
It’s happening. Your inbox registers an email from the chair of a faculty-hiring committee. With trembling fingers, you click on the message. “We were very impressed…we’re delighted to offer…” Months of labor, soul-searching, strain, and anxiety give way to jubilation. …...
Long Now
Nicholas Negroponte: Beyond Digital
### A world of convergence
In education, Negroponte explained, there’s a fundamental distinction...
18th Apr 2013
### A world of convergence
In education, Negroponte explained, there’s a fundamental distinction between "instructionism" and "constructionism." "Constructionism is learning by discovery, by doing, by making. Instructionism is learning by being told." Negroponte’s lifelong...
Eukaryote Writes...
Fiber arts, mysterious dodecahedrons, and waiting on “Eureka!”
Why didn't we invent knitting before 1000 CE?
4th Aug 2022
Why didn't we invent knitting before 1000 CE?
The Quanta Podcast
Why Don’t Patients Get Sick in Sync? Modelers Find Statistical Clues.
The long, variable times that some diseases incubate after infection defies simple explanation. An...
8th Nov 2018
The long, variable times that some diseases incubate after infection defies simple explanation. An idealized model of tumor growth offers a statistical solution.
The post Why Don’t Patients Get Sick in Sync? Modelers Find Statistical Clues. first appeared on Quanta...
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Climate Change Trends and Thoughts
Climate change is a challenging issue on multiple levels – it’s challenging for scientists to...
2nd Dec 2024
Climate change is a challenging issue on multiple levels – it’s challenging for scientists to understand all of the complexities of a changing climate, it’s difficult to know how to optimally communicate to the public about climate change, and of course we face an enormous...
Long Now
Kevin Kelly: Technium Unbound
## Holos Rising
When Kevin Kelly looked up the definition of “superorganism” on Wikipedia, he found...
13th Nov 2014
## Holos Rising
When Kevin Kelly looked up the definition of “superorganism” on Wikipedia, he found this: “A collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective.” The source cited was Kevin Kelly, in his 01994 book, Out of Control. His...
Apoorva Srinivasan
getting started with bayesian inference
In my previous post, we spoke about hypothesis testing from a frequentist perspective. This is the...
27th Jun 2020
In my previous post, we spoke about hypothesis testing from a frequentist perspective. This is the method that is commonly taught in STAT101 classes. But for many decades, some statisticians have argued for another approach to conduct statistical analysis based on bayes...
lcamtuf’s thing
0.9999... ≊ 1
What is infinity, and why it's not trivial to show that 0.9999... is equal to 1.
1st Jun 2025
What is infinity, and why it's not trivial to show that 0.9999... is equal to 1.
Long Now
John Rendon: Long-term Policy to Make the War on Terror Short
### Only connect
John Rendon, head of The Rendon Group, is a senior communications consultant to...
15th Jul 2006
### Only connect
John Rendon, head of The Rendon Group, is a senior communications consultant to the White Houses and Departments of Defense. His subject in this talk is how to replace tactical, reactive response to terror with long-term strategic initative.
I think that people...
Long Now
Ken Dychtwald: The Consequences of Human Life Extension
### What long life means
Ken Dychtwald gave a terrific talk Friday evening to a standing-room...
4th Dec 2004
### What long life means
Ken Dychtwald gave a terrific talk Friday evening to a standing-room audience on "The Consequences of Human Life Extension."
The growing--and soon overwhelming--prevalence of the old in developed nations is leading to a "new old." Ken described meeting...
Long Now
Cory Doctorow: The Coming Century of War Against Your Computer
### Who governs digital trust?
Doctorow framed the question this way: "Computers are everywhere....
1st Aug 2012
### Who governs digital trust?
Doctorow framed the question this way: "Computers are everywhere. They are now something we put our whole bodies into---airplanes, cars---and something we put into our bodies---pacemakers, cochlear implants. They HAVE to be trustworthy."
Sometimes...
The Quanta Podcast
Fossil Discoveries Challenge Ideas About Earth’s Start
A series of fossil finds suggests that life on Earth started earlier than anyone thought, calling...
5th Jul 2018
A series of fossil finds suggests that life on Earth started earlier than anyone thought, calling into question a widely held theory of the solar system’s beginnings.
The post Fossil Discoveries Challenge Ideas About Earth’s Start first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Quanta Podcast
Bacterial Complexity Revises Ideas About ‘Which Came First?’
Contrary to popular belief, bacteria have organelles too. Scientists are now studying them for...
7th May 2020
Contrary to popular belief, bacteria have organelles too. Scientists are now studying them for insights into how complex cells evolved.
The post Bacterial Complexity Revises Ideas About ‘Which Came First?’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Stephen Wolfram...
On the Nature of Time
The Computational View of Time Time is a central feature of human experience. But what actually is...
8th Oct 2024
The Computational View of Time Time is a central feature of human experience. But what actually is it? In traditional scientific accounts it’s often represented as some kind of coordinate much like space (though a coordinate that for some reason is always systematically...
brr
Brr Wants A Job
8 months post-ice, it's time for something new!
22nd Jul 2024
8 months post-ice, it's time for something new!
Works in Progress...
The developing world needs more roads
The cities of the developing world could be its growth engine if their streets were not so...
11th Nov 2025
The cities of the developing world could be its growth engine if their streets were not so gridlocked. The solution is laying out wider roads.
wadertales
Four eggs or five?
There is something pleasing about four wader eggs in a nest. They seem to fit so neatly, with their...
6th Mar 2026
There is something pleasing about four wader eggs in a nest. They seem to fit so neatly, with their pointed ends in the middle, as illiustrated in the Ringed Plover nest alongside. There has been an assumption that this is an optimum arrangement for incubation, with strong...
Damn Interesting
Hunting For Kobyla
On a January day in 1964, something remarkable happened: Simon Wiesenthal took the afternoon off. He...
7th Feb 2022
On a January day in 1964, something remarkable happened: Simon Wiesenthal took the afternoon off. He parked himself at a table on the terrace of Tel Aviv’s Café Roval, soaking up the sunshine as if he wished to bottle it. The friend he’d come to meet was late, but Wiesenthal had...
Conservation...
New atlas charts a path for a landscape in crisis
6th May 2026
Eukaryote Writes...
Web-surfing tips for strange times
Meditations on what's bad about the internet lately and how to use it anyhow.
31st May 2024
Meditations on what's bad about the internet lately and how to use it anyhow.
Long Now
Ralph Cavanagh & Peter Schwartz: Nuclear Power, Climate Change and the Next 10,000 Years
### Climate change and nuclear prospects
Given the power to decide who would go first-- anti-nuke...
14th Jan 2006
### Climate change and nuclear prospects
Given the power to decide who would go first-- anti-nuke Ralph Cavanagh from Natural Resources Defense Counsel or pro-nuke Peter Schwartz from Global Business Network-- the large audience Friday night voted for Schwartz to make the...
Long Now
Peter Schwartz: The Art Of The Really Long View
### The art of the really long view
For such a weighty subject there was a lot of guffawing going...
13th Dec 2003
### The art of the really long view
For such a weighty subject there was a lot of guffawing going on in the Seminar Thursday night.
The topic was "The Art of the Really Long View." Peter Schwartz chatted through his slides for tonight's lecture, then the discussion waded in....
nanoscale views
So you want to build a science/engineering laboratory building
A very quick summary of some non-negative news developments:
The NSF awarded 500 more graduate...
15th Jun 2025
A very quick summary of some non-negative news developments:
The NSF awarded 500 more graduate fellowships this week, bringing the total for this year up to 1500. (Apologies for the X link.) This is still 25% lower than last year's number, and of course far below the original...
Works in Progress...
Who cares about plagiarism?
Plagiarism is unforgivable in academia but it’s not plagiarism itself that should trouble us. It’s...
21st Jan 2022
Plagiarism is unforgivable in academia but it’s not plagiarism itself that should trouble us. It’s carelessness and a lack of originality.
Long Now
Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco, 5
### Lives of San Francisco
"You are the soundtrack," Prelinger told the capacity audience at the...
17th Dec 2010
### Lives of San Francisco
"You are the soundtrack," Prelinger told the capacity audience at the Herbst Theater, and they responded to his mostly silent archival films by calling out locations, questions, comments, and jokes.
They saw footage of a 1941 Market Street parade of...
Works in Progress...
How TV learned to sell itself
Sports solved a problem that nearly killed television.
11th Mar 2026
Sports solved a problem that nearly killed television.
The Quanta Podcast
The New Thermodynamic Understanding of Clocks
Investigations of the simplest possible clocks have revealed their fundamental limitations — as well...
11th Nov 2021
Investigations of the simplest possible clocks have revealed their fundamental limitations — as well as insights into the nature of time itself.
The post The New Thermodynamic Understanding of Clocks first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Brief items - Static electricity, quantum geometry, Hubbard model, + news
It's been a busy time that has cut into my blogging, but I wanted to point out some links from the...
8th Aug 2025
It's been a busy time that has cut into my blogging, but I wanted to point out some links from the past couple of weeks.
Physics Today has a cover article this past issue about what is colloquially known as static electricity, but what is more technically described as...
Works in Progress...
Escaping science’s paradox
Scientific research today is afflicted by poor reliability and low utility, despite the best efforts...
19th Oct 2020
Scientific research today is afflicted by poor reliability and low utility, despite the best efforts of individual researchers.
NeuroLogica Blog
Hydrogen Tech
I often get questions like the one below:
“I live part time in Japan. Everyone sees hydrogen powered...
3rd Jul 2026
I often get questions like the one below:
“I live part time in Japan. Everyone sees hydrogen powered generators, trains, trucks, etc regularly. High density population means it’s easy to get enough synergy to justify the infrastructure. So sad we aren’t doing more to utilize this...
Casey Handmer's blog
Stuff you should have been taught in college but weren’t
As part of my job running Terraform Industries, I get to build an amazing team of super smart...
4th Feb 2025
As part of my job running Terraform Industries, I get to build an amazing team of super smart people, and that involves interviewing hundreds of people. Over time certain patterns have become obvious, but I remember when they weren’t obvious to me on the other side of the table!...
IEEE Spectrum
Esoteric Languages Challenge Coders to Think Way Outside the Box
Have you ever tried programming with a language that uses musical notation? What about a language...
4th Sep 2025
Have you ever tried programming with a language that uses musical notation? What about a language that never runs programs the same way? What about a language where you write code with photographs?
All exist, among many others, in the world of esoteric programming languages, and...
Long Now
Drew Endy & Jim Thomas: Synthetic Biology Debate
### Terms of Biocontainment
"I want to develop tools that make biology easy to engineer," Drew Endy...
18th Nov 2008
### Terms of Biocontainment
"I want to develop tools that make biology easy to engineer," Drew Endy began. The first purpose is better understanding fundamental biological mechanisms through "learning by building." The toolkit of Synthetic Biology starts with DNA construction...
Interaction Magic -...
Plastic archeology
The history, science and engineering of Lego bricks, on the cusp between trash and treasure.
20th Nov 2023
The history, science and engineering of Lego bricks, on the cusp between trash and treasure.
Quantum Frontiers
A (quantum) complex legacy
Early in the fourth year of my PhD, I received a most John-ish email from John Preskill, my PhD...
30th Jan 2023
Early in the fourth year of my PhD, I received a most John-ish email from John Preskill, my PhD advisor. The title read, “thermodynamics of complexity,” and the message was concise the way that the Amazon River is damp: “Might … Continue reading →
Quanta Magazine
How a Human Smell Receptor Works Is Finally Revealed
After decades of frustration, researchers have finally determined how an airborne scent molecule...
1st May 2023
After decades of frustration, researchers have finally determined how an airborne scent molecule links to a human smell receptor.
The post How a Human Smell Receptor Works Is Finally Revealed first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Melting Asphalt
Minimum Viable Superorganism
Originally published at Ribbonfarm. Of all the remarkable things about our species — and there are...
11th Feb 2016
Originally published at Ribbonfarm. Of all the remarkable things about our species — and there are many — perhaps the most striking of all is our ability to band together and act as a united, coherent superorganism. E pluribus unum.…
Read more ›
nanoscale views
Vortices everywhere
The 2026 APS Oliver E. Buckley Prize in condensed matter physics was announced this week, and it's a...
8th Nov 2025
The 2026 APS Oliver E. Buckley Prize in condensed matter physics was announced this week, and it's a really interesting combination of topics that, to a lay person, may seem to be completely unrelated.
Fig. 1 from this follow-up PRB.
On the one hand, John Reppy (at age 94!)...
ToughSF
Fusion without Fissiles: Superbombs and Wilderness Orion
Fusion technology today relies on expensive, building-sized equipment for ignition, or the help of...
25th Mar 2022
Fusion technology today relies on expensive, building-sized equipment for ignition, or the help of an already powerful fission detonation. What if we could do away with both?
Fusion power without the need for fissiles, but also small enough to be launched into space. It is...
The Works in...
Flipping the switch on far-UVC
We’ve known about far-UVC’s promise for a decade. Why isn't it everywhere?
10th Mar 2025
We’ve known about far-UVC’s promise for a decade. Why isn't it everywhere?
Long Now
Sara Seager: Other Earths. Other Life.
## To find living exoplanets
Thanks to recent exoplanet research, Seager began, we now know that...
11th Aug 2015
## To find living exoplanets
Thanks to recent exoplanet research, Seager began, we now know that nearly all of our galaxy’s 300 billion stars are accompanied by planets, and a unexpectedly high number of them are rocky like Earth, and many of those orbit in a “habitable”...
Quantum Frontiers
Watch out for geese! My summer in Waterloo
It’s the beginning of another summer, and I’m looking forward to outdoor barbecues, swimming in...
6th Jun 2024
It’s the beginning of another summer, and I’m looking forward to outdoor barbecues, swimming in lakes and pools, and sharing my home-made ice cream with friends and family. One thing that I won’t encounter this summer, but I did last … Continue reading →
The Quanta Podcast
Physicists Find a Way to See the ‘Grin’ of Quantum Gravity
A recently proposed experiment would confirm that gravity is a quantum force.
The post...
6th Dec 2018
A recently proposed experiment would confirm that gravity is a quantum force.
The post Physicists Find a Way to See the ‘Grin’ of Quantum Gravity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Long Now
Maya Tudor: Can Nationalism be a Resource for Democracy?
A political scientist examines how foundational nationalisms affect democracy globally, using...
6th May 2019
A political scientist examines how foundational nationalisms affect democracy globally, using countries like India and Myanmar to illustrate that some kinds of nationalism can be an essential resource for protecting democracy.
Maya Tudor is a comparative political scientist...
The Quanta Podcast
Colliding Black Holes Tell New Story of Stars
Just months after their discovery, gravitational waves coming from the mergers of black holes...
13th Oct 2016
Just months after their discovery, gravitational waves coming from the mergers of black holes are shaking up astrophysics.
The post Colliding Black Holes Tell New Story of Stars first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
New Proofs Probe the Limits of Mathematical Truth
By proving a broader version of Hilbert’s famous 10th problem, two groups of mathematicians have...
3rd Feb 2025
By proving a broader version of Hilbert’s famous 10th problem, two groups of mathematicians have expanded the realm of mathematical unknowability.
The post New Proofs Probe the Limits of Mathematical Truth first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Long Now
Jesse Ausubel: Nature is Rebounding
### Why nature is rebounding
Over the last 40 years, in nearly every field, human productivity has...
14th Jan 2015
### Why nature is rebounding
Over the last 40 years, in nearly every field, human productivity has _decoupled_ from resource use, Ausubel began. Even though our prosperity and population continue to increase, the trends show _decreasing_ use of energy, water, land, material...
Interaction Magic -...
The last design you'll ever make
Designing from cradle to grave is no longer good enough. We need to postpone that grave as long as...
7th Dec 2021
Designing from cradle to grave is no longer good enough. We need to postpone that grave as long as possible. This is how to design for a right to repair.
Quantum Frontiers
How can objects interact without touching?
Rethinking the electric field Have you ever wondered what an electric field actually is? The...
a week ago
Rethinking the electric field Have you ever wondered what an electric field actually is? The electric field is the foundation of most technologies that we rely on every day. From power grids and electronic devices to radio communication and the … Continue reading →
IEEE Spectrum
Sci-fi and Hi-fi
Many a technologist has been inspired by science fiction. Some have even built, or rebuilt, entire...
4th Mar 2024
Many a technologist has been inspired by science fiction. Some have even built, or rebuilt, entire companies around an idea introduced in a story they read, as the founders of Second Life and Meta did, working from the metaverse as imagined by Neal Stephenson in his seminal 1992...
The Quanta Podcast
How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain
Feelings of loneliness prompt changes in the brain that further isolate people from social contact....
2nd Aug 2023
Feelings of loneliness prompt changes in the brain that further isolate people from social contact. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Slow Burn” by Kevin MacLeod.
Works in Progress...
Steam networks
New York’s skyscrapers soar above a century-old steam network that still warms the city. While the...
13th Mar 2025
New York’s skyscrapers soar above a century-old steam network that still warms the city. While the rest of the world moved to hot water, Manhattanites still buy steam by the megapound.
Stephen Wolfram...
Foundations of Biological Evolution: More Results & More Surprises
This is a follow-on to Why Does Biological Evolution Work? A Minimal Model for Biological Evolution...
5th Dec 2024
This is a follow-on to Why Does Biological Evolution Work? A Minimal Model for Biological Evolution and Other Adaptive Processes [May 3, 2024]. Even More from an Extremely Simple Model A few months ago I introduced an extremely simple “adaptive cellular automaton” model that...
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, March 2023
A new monthly feature, let me know what you think.
Books
Matt Ridley, How Innovation Works (2020)....
9th Mar 2023
A new monthly feature, let me know what you think.
Books
Matt Ridley, How Innovation Works (2020). About halfway through, lots of interesting case studies, very readable.
Vaclav Smil, Creating the Twentieth Century (2005). I read the first chapter; saving the rest of it for when...
IEEE Spectrum
Chuck E. Cheese’s Animatronics Band Bows Out
That may have been the last time I entered a Chuck E. Cheese pizzeria. And yet, when I heard that...
2nd Dec 2024
That may have been the last time I entered a Chuck E. Cheese pizzeria. And yet, when I heard that the company was phasing out the animatronic bands from all but five locations by the end of this year, I felt a twinge of nostalgia. Much to my surprise, I was truly sad that the...
Long Now
George P. Shultz: Perspective
Perspective? No one has a longer or better-informed view of world affairs and America's role than...
2nd Aug 2018
Perspective? No one has a longer or better-informed view of world affairs and America's role than George Shultz, now 97. (Henry Kissinger is only 95.)
Secretary Shultz was a US Marine Captain in World War II. After becoming an economics professor at MIT and the University of...
Drew Ex Machina
Recollections of NASA’s Apollo 11 Mission
Like a lot of kids who grew up during the ‘60s and ‘70s, I had a fascination with spaceflight. This...
20th Jul 2024
Like a lot of kids who grew up during the ‘60s and ‘70s, I had a fascination with spaceflight. This interest started honestly enough back around […]
Works in Progress...
Advancing antivenom
Snakebites kill between 80,000 and 140,000 people every year. Better antivenom should be a high...
8th Dec 2022
Snakebites kill between 80,000 and 140,000 people every year. Better antivenom should be a high priority – thankfully new technology can help.
Long Now
Annalee Newitz: Science Needs Fiction
Science fiction does more than predict future inventions. Stories are a testbed for exploring the...
14th Jul 2020
Science fiction does more than predict future inventions. Stories are a testbed for exploring the unexpected ways people could incorporate technology into their cultures. Science journalist and novelist [Annalee Newitz](http://techsploitation.com) discusses how scientists,...
Damn Interesting
The Traveler and His Baggage
On 19 May 1943, a news report from Berlin deepened the already dreary gloom that clung to the people...
3rd Jun 2021
On 19 May 1943, a news report from Berlin deepened the already dreary gloom that clung to the people of Nazi-occupied Paris. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels proudly announced to the world that the German capital of Berlin was officially judenfrei–free of all Jews. As this...
NeuroLogica Blog
Virtual Walking
When I use my virtual reality gear I do practical zero virtual walking – meaning that I don’t have...
1st Mar 2024
When I use my virtual reality gear I do practical zero virtual walking – meaning that I don’t have my avatar walk while I am not walking. I general play standing up which means I can move around the space in my office mapped by my VR software – so I am physically walking to...
Long Now
Blaise Agüera y Arcas: What is Intelligence?
Blaise Agüera y Arcas’s talk took us on a journey through What is Intelligence?, his groundbreaking...
9th Oct 2025
Blaise Agüera y Arcas’s talk took us on a journey through What is Intelligence?, his groundbreaking new work connecting the evolutionary dots between life, computation, and symbiogenesis.
He explores how, in our symbiotic world, things combine to make larger things all the...
Light from Space
The Rosette Nebula
Next to the Orion Nebula, the Rosette Nebula is definitely a must-do on the list of every aspiring...
26th Feb 2023
Next to the Orion Nebula, the Rosette Nebula is definitely a must-do on the list of every aspiring astrophotographer. Located not too far from Orion in Monoceros, this large H II region has spectacular features, centered around a star cluster.
Click or tap to...
nanoscale views
New updates + tetrahedra, tunneling times, and more
Here are a number of items from the past week or so that I think readers of this blog might find...
9th Jul 2025
Here are a number of items from the past week or so that I think readers of this blog might find interesting:
Essentially all the news pertaining to the US federal funding of science continues to be awful. This article from Science summarizes the situation well, as does this...
Long Now
Geoffrey B West: The Universal Laws of Growth and Pace
## Why cities live forever
**West focussed on cities** in his discussion of the newly discovered...
24th May 2017
## Why cities live forever
**West focussed on cities** in his discussion of the newly discovered exponential scaling laws that govern everything alive. “We live,” he said, “in an exponentially expanding socio-economic universe.” Global urbanization has reached the point that...
nanoscale views
Reproducibility in materials research, and an anecdote
Yesterday I attended the 40th annual summer research colloquium of the Smalley-Curl Institute at...
8th Aug 2026
Yesterday I attended the 40th annual summer research colloquium of the Smalley-Curl Institute at Rice, a fun internal conference that provides a great opportunity for undergrads (including visitors), graduate students, and a few postdocs to present their work. The keynote...
nanoscale views
Energy storage in the internal states of molecules - old and new
A science story first, then a US research ecosystem story later.
When we think about using molecules...
2nd May 2026
A science story first, then a US research ecosystem story later.
When we think about using molecules to store energy, it's usually in the context of food or fuel, so that chemical reactions take place - bonds are broken and remade, and in an exothermic reaction, the products end...
The Roots of...
Who regulates the regulators?
IRBs
Scott Alexander reviews a book about institutional review boards (IRBs), the panels that review...
4th May 2023
IRBs
Scott Alexander reviews a book about institutional review boards (IRBs), the panels that review the ethics of medical trials: From Oversight to Overkill, by Dr. Simon Whitney. From the title alone, you can see where this is going.
IRBs are supposed to (among other things)...
Long Now
Alexander Rose: Millennial Precedent
Alexander Rose, Long Now Executive Director and project manager for the Clock of the Long Now,...
6th Apr 2011
Alexander Rose, Long Now Executive Director and project manager for the Clock of the Long Now, discussed lessons learned in multi-millennial site design. Rose covers his trip to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault as well as other sites and precedents like the Mormon Genealogical...
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, September 2023
A quasi-monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them...
6th Sep 2023
A quasi-monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in my links digests. I’ve been busy helping to choose the first cohort of our blogging fellowship, so my reading has been relatively light. All emphasis in bold in the quotes...
ToughSF
The Expanse's Epstein Drive
We aim to take a fictional propulsion
technology from The Expanse, and apply the appropriate science...
5th Oct 2019
We aim to take a fictional propulsion
technology from The Expanse, and apply the appropriate science to explain its
features in a realistic manner.
This also applies to other SciFi
settings that want a similar engine for their own spacecraft.
The Epstein Drive
Title art...
Works in Progress...
The ultra-selfish gene
We now have the power to genetically modify entire species by inserting certain genes into them with...
3rd Sep 2024
We now have the power to genetically modify entire species by inserting certain genes into them with brute force. Doing this to malaria-carrying mosquitoes could allow us to wipe out humanity’s most deadly killer.
lcamtuf’s thing
How much of HN is AI?
I have a complicated relationship with Hacker News. The site is the most important aggregator of...
12th Mar 2026
I have a complicated relationship with Hacker News. The site is the most important aggregator of geek news and a major source of traffic to this blog. At the same time, it has a fair number of toxic commenters, making it a dependable source of insults hurled in my general...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Time Toxicity - A Real-World Example | Out-Of-Pocket
Being sick is already annoying, now I gotta spend time on the phone???
3rd Jan 2024
Being sick is already annoying, now I gotta spend time on the phone???
Interaction Magic -...
Light Engineering
Exploring the physics and engineering of light pipes, where optics and mechanical design meet.
4th Jun 2020
Exploring the physics and engineering of light pipes, where optics and mechanical design meet.
Long Now
Philip K. Howard: Fixing Broken Government
### Government 4.0
Americans have made major adjustments to our government before, Howard declared....
19th Jan 2011
### Government 4.0
Americans have made major adjustments to our government before, Howard declared. At the beginning of the 20th century a Progressive era ended strict laissez-faire. The New Deal in the 1930s provided social safety nets. In the 1960s Civil Rights came to the...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The New Wave of Concierge Medicine | Out-Of-Pocket
This episode of Out-Of-Pocket is brought to you by…
9th Jul 2024
This episode of Out-Of-Pocket is brought to you by…
brr
South Pole Signage
Please close doors quietly!
23rd Jul 2023
Please close doors quietly!
Long Now
Jared Diamond: How Societies Fail-And Sometimes Succeed
### On failing to think long-term
Sophisticated societies from time to time collapse utterly, often...
16th Jul 2005
### On failing to think long-term
Sophisticated societies from time to time collapse utterly, often leaving traces of a civilization that was at a proud peak just before the fall. Other societies facing the same dangers figure out how to adapt around them, recover, and go on to...
The Quanta Podcast
Milestone Experiment Proves Quantum Communication Really Is Faster
In a Paris lab, researchers have shown for the first time that quantum methods of transmitting...
7th Nov 2019
In a Paris lab, researchers have shown for the first time that quantum methods of transmitting information are superior to classical ones.
The post Milestone Experiment Proves Quantum Communication Really Is Faster first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Drew Ex Machina
The Promise of MIDAS: The First Experimental Early Warning Satellites
Today in the United States we almost take for granted the military’s ability to detect missile...
19th Jul 2023
Today in the United States we almost take for granted the military’s ability to detect missile launches anywhere on the planet and quickly determine whether it […]
Stephen Wolfram...
Ruliology of the “Forgotten” Code 10
My All-Time Favorite Science Discovery June 1, 1984—forty years ago today—is when it would be fair...
1st Jun 2024
My All-Time Favorite Science Discovery June 1, 1984—forty years ago today—is when it would be fair to say I made my all-time favorite science discovery. Like with basically all significant science discoveries (despite the way histories often present them) it didn’t happen without...
NeuroLogica Blog
Harvesting Energy from Water Vapor
I did not plan to write yet another post about energy, but this popped up and I had to write about...
1st Jun 2023
I did not plan to write yet another post about energy, but this popped up and I had to write about it. UMASS researchers have produced a device that generates electricity by harvesting charge from water vapor. They write: The common feature of these materials is that they are...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
A Nice (Almost Total) Eclipse of the Moon Aug. 27
How to get information about viewing the eclipse of the Moon Aug. 27
The post A Nice (Almost Total)...
3 weeks ago
How to get information about viewing the eclipse of the Moon Aug. 27
The post A Nice (Almost Total) Eclipse of the Moon Aug. 27 appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Yale E360
Bizarre New Creatures Discovered 30,000 Feet Under the Sea
The Titanic lies about 12,500 feet under the ocean. The pressure down there is so immense that even...
1st Aug 2025
The Titanic lies about 12,500 feet under the ocean. The pressure down there is so immense that even submersibles supposedly built for those conditions can, as we know, tragically fail. Now imagine taking a sub nearly three times deeper.
Read more on E360 →
Beautiful Public...
The Naughty Words the FAA Removed From the Sky
New FOIA records from the FAA shed light on the frantic effort in 2015 to rename navigation...
28th May 2024
New FOIA records from the FAA shed light on the frantic effort in 2015 to rename navigation waypoints related to Donald Trump and reveal the list of naughty waypoint names that were changed over the years.
Drew Ex Machina
Habitable Planet Reality Check: TOI-700e Discovered by NASA’s TESS Mission
During a press conference held on January 6, 2020 at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical...
23rd Jan 2023
During a press conference held on January 6, 2020 at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Honolulu, Emily Gilbert (then a graduate […]
Long Now
Daniel Kahneman: Thinking Fast and Slow
### On taking thought
Before a packed house, Kahneman began with the distinction between what he...
14th Aug 2013
### On taking thought
Before a packed house, Kahneman began with the distinction between what he calls mental “System 1”---fast thinking, intuition---and “System 2”---slow thinking, careful consideration and calculation. System 1 operates on the illusory principle: _What you see...
Uncharted...
Iran: The Day After
What's going to happen in the coming days and weeks?
3rd Mar 2026
What's going to happen in the coming days and weeks?
Long Now
Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4
### Gas Stations, Not Flowers
The fourth incarnation of _Lost Landscapes of San Francisco_ played...
5th Dec 2009
### Gas Stations, Not Flowers
The fourth incarnation of _Lost Landscapes of San Francisco_ played to a sold out house at the Herbst Theater with the chanteuse Suzanne Ramsey opening the evening with a selection of historical San Francisco songs including the 01926 gem [Masculine...
Confessions of a...
Marine Ecology or Marine Biology….what’s the difference!?!?!?
A few of you may be wondering why the blog is called ‘Confessions of a Marine Ecologist” and not...
22nd Jan 2013
A few of you may be wondering why the blog is called ‘Confessions of a Marine Ecologist” and not ‘Confessions of a Marine Biologist”. After all, if you ask a group of school kids what they want to be when they grow up, more than a handful would happily answer “marine biologist”,...
The Roots of...
Progress for progressives
I was invited to speak at the Festival of Progressive Abundance, a conference to rally around...
2nd Feb 2026
I was invited to speak at the Festival of Progressive Abundance, a conference to rally around “abundance” as a new direction for the political left. This is a writeup of what I said: my message to the left.
Thank you for having me—it’s great to be here. I’m the founder and...
IEEE Spectrum
Designing the First Apple Macintosh: The Engineers’ Story
In 1979 the Macintosh personal computer existed only as the pet idea of Jef Raskin, a veteran of the...
2nd Jul 2023
In 1979 the Macintosh personal computer existed only as the pet idea of Jef Raskin, a veteran of the Apple II team, who had proposed that Apple Computer Inc. make a low-cost “appliance”-type computer that would be as easy to use as a toaster. Mr. Raskin believed the computer he...
Quantum Frontiers
Nicole’s guide to interviewing for faculty positions
Snow is haunting weather forecasts, home owners are taking down Christmas lights, stores are...
5th Jan 2026
Snow is haunting weather forecasts, home owners are taking down Christmas lights, stores are discounting exercise equipment, and faculty-hiring committees are winnowing down applications. In-person interviews often take place between January and March but can extend from December...
Long Now
Saul Griffith: Infrastructure and Climate Change
## Green infrastructure
Griffith began with an eyeroll at the first round of responses in the US...
22nd Sep 2015
## Green infrastructure
Griffith began with an eyeroll at the first round of responses in the US to reducing greenhouse gases, a program he calls “peak Al Gore.” Some activities feel virtuous —becoming vegetarian, installing LED lights, avoiding bottled water, reading news...
The Quanta Podcast
A Good Memory or a Bad One? One Brain Molecule Decides.
When the brain encodes memories as positive or negative, one molecule determines which way they will...
4th Jan 2023
When the brain encodes memories as positive or negative, one molecule determines which way they will go. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Retro” by Wayne Jones.
Blog - Practical...
Why Are There No Short Arch Dams?
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Flaming Gorge Dam rises from...
5th Aug 2025
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Flaming Gorge Dam rises from the Green River in northern Utah like a concrete wedge driven into the canyon, anchored against the sheer rock walls that flank it. It’s quintessential, in a way. It’s what we...
The Quanta Podcast
Dark Matter Recipe Calls for One Part Superfluid
A different kind of dark matter could help to resolve an old celestial conundrum.
The...
25th Aug 2017
A different kind of dark matter could help to resolve an old celestial conundrum.
The post Dark Matter Recipe Calls for One Part Superfluid first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Casey Handmer's blog
Sierras Projects
A short post where I collate some info related to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, various...
15th Aug 2025
A short post where I collate some info related to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, various aspirational objectives and questions. Table Mountain Traverse Table Mountain is at the north west edge of the Kern River basin. It has numerous third and fourth class routes. I...
Long Now
James Nestor: Humanity and the Deep Ocean
In _[DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells us about...
1st Feb 2018
In _[DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells us about Ourselves](https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Freediving-Renegade-Science-Ourselves/dp/0547985525)_ James Nestor follows extreme athletes, adventurers, and scientists as they plumb the limits of the ocean's...
Quantum Frontiers
Let gravity do its work
One day, early this spring, I found myself in a hotel elevator with three other people. The cohort...
13th May 2024
One day, early this spring, I found myself in a hotel elevator with three other people. The cohort consisted of two theoretical physicists, one computer scientist, and what appeared to be a normal person. I pressed the elevator’s 4 button, … Continue reading →
Uncharted...
Should We Eradicate Mosquitoes?
They kill us and bother us, but is that enough to eradicate them, or their role in the environment...
2 weeks ago
They kill us and bother us, but is that enough to eradicate them, or their role in the environment is too important?
Uncharted...
AI Weeks When Decades Happen
How fast AI is improving, and how that's impacting jobs today
6th Feb 2025
How fast AI is improving, and how that's impacting jobs today
Inverted Passion
Becoming a Republic
The following is the essay I had submitted as part of the one week summer course I took at the...
1st Aug 2025
The following is the essay I had submitted as part of the one week summer course I took at the Oxford University, where we read Plato’s Republic. The essay includes a few references to structure and specific content from the book, so if something doesn’t make sense, it’s probably...
Works in Progress...
The bad science behind expensive nuclear
How a dubious theory of radiation damage based on fruit flies and a secretive weapons testing...
27th May 2025
How a dubious theory of radiation damage based on fruit flies and a secretive weapons testing program came to be – and why its time may now be up.
Wanderingspace
OSIRIS-REX Leaves Bennu
The OSIRIS-REX mission in on a two year trajectory back to Earth after capturing fragments of the...
12th May 2021
The OSIRIS-REX mission in on a two year trajectory back to Earth after capturing fragments of the near Earth asteroid Bennu after successfully executing a sample touchdown last fall. [LINK]
The sampling of of the asteroid’s surface is shown above.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Weird issues in value-based care | Out-Of-Pocket
Thoughts on value-based care from people actually building in it
1st Oct 2024
Thoughts on value-based care from people actually building in it
The Quanta Podcast
What Can We Gain by Losing Infinity?
Most mathematicians take the notion of infinity for granted — it’s deeply rooted in math’s most...
5th May 2026
Most mathematicians take the notion of infinity for granted — it’s deeply rooted in math’s most fundamental assumptions. But a small group of researchers hopes to banish infinity completely. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana...
Interaction Magic -...
Metaphors mold minds
Every good design is founded on a great metaphor. How to use metaphors to design more a inclusive...
21st Mar 2022
Every good design is founded on a great metaphor. How to use metaphors to design more a inclusive future for our cities. My IXDA Interaction 22 conference talk.
NeuroLogica Blog
Do We Have Free Will?
Let’s dive head first into one of the internet’s most contentious questions – do we have true free...
1st Dec 2023
Let’s dive head first into one of the internet’s most contentious questions – do we have true free will? This comes up not infrequently whenever I write here about neuroscience, most recently when I wrote about hunger circuitry, because the notion of the brain as a physical...
Damn Interesting
A Taste of Italy
In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian...
14th May 2021
In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian domination (a holdover from the Holy Roman Empire) and the other for unification. At the time, Europe’s boot was a curious conglomeration of separate states, not all of which got along....
Quantum Frontiers
What distinguishes quantum from classical thermodynamics?
Should you require a model for an Oxford don in a play or novel, look no farther than Andrew Briggs....
27th Nov 2025
Should you require a model for an Oxford don in a play or novel, look no farther than Andrew Briggs. The emeritus professor of nanomaterials speaks with a southern-English accent as crisp as shortbread, exhibits manners to which etiquette influencer … Continue reading →
Casey Handmer's blog
Anti-aging tech fixes demographic collapse
With the latest studies on GLP-1 drugs showing not just a drop in all-cause mortality but also an...
2nd Sep 2024
With the latest studies on GLP-1 drugs showing not just a drop in all-cause mortality but also an apparent slowing of aging, I thought I’d write a quick note on how I think this technology, if it replicates, can drastically improve our lives. It’s hard to believe I’m writing...
Chris Grossack's...
Analytic Combinatorics -- A Worked Example
Another day, another blog post that starts with
“I was on mse the other day…”. This time, someone...
8th Apr 2025
Another day, another blog post that starts with
“I was on mse the other day…”. This time, someone asked
an interesting question amounting to “how many unordered rooted
ternary trees with $n$
nodes are there, up to isomorphism?”. I’m a sucker for these kinds of
combinatorial...
SubAnima
Can Biology Be Reduced To Physics?
"Physics is the most fundamental and all-inclusive of the sciences." Or is it?
11th Nov 2022
"Physics is the most fundamental and all-inclusive of the sciences." Or is it?
Long Now
Adam Steltzner: Beyond Mars, Earth
### Mighty daring on Mars
Engineer Steltzner took his rapt audience striding with him through the...
16th Oct 2013
### Mighty daring on Mars
Engineer Steltzner took his rapt audience striding with him through the wrong solutions for landing a one-ton rover on Mars that his team worked through a decade ago. Previous rovers had weighed 50 pounds, 385 pounds. This traveling “Mars Science...
NeuroLogica Blog
Clickbait and Misinformation
Which is worse – clickbaity headlines for news articles that are factually correct, but may be...
3rd Jun 2024
Which is worse – clickbaity headlines for news articles that are factually correct, but may be playing up a sensational angle, or straight-up misinformation? It depends on what you mean by “worse”. A new study tries to address this information, with some interesting findings....
Long Now
Jason Scott: The Web In An Eye Blink
Jason Scott is an activist archiver who preserves artifacts of digital culture for the future. Users...
1st Nov 2017
Jason Scott is an activist archiver who preserves artifacts of digital culture for the future. Users today have many ways to create content online, but they often lack the skills, tools or guidance to preserve the media they make. As startups fail, platforms disappear, and...
Quanta Magazine
An Easy-Sounding Problem Yields Numbers Too Big for Our Universe
Researchers prove that navigating certain systems of vectors is among the most complex computational...
4th Dec 2023
Researchers prove that navigating certain systems of vectors is among the most complex computational problems.
The post An Easy-Sounding Problem Yields Numbers Too Big for Our Universe first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Inverted Passion
Why frontier labs are scaling-pilled
Investors underwrite scaling laws because the alternative (having an Einstein discover better...
14th Jul 2026
Investors underwrite scaling laws because the alternative (having an Einstein discover better algorithms) is high variance What would it take to make progress towards general intelligence, where general stands for any problem that might arise in our world? Since our world is big...
The Works in...
The end of lead
How a single taxi ride saved millions of lives
3rd Jul 2025
How a single taxi ride saved millions of lives
Peder M. Isager
Quantifying the corroboration of a finding
A summary of the pros and cons of multiple candidate statistics.
12th Apr 2019
A summary of the pros and cons of multiple candidate statistics.
nanoscale views
DOE experimental condensed matter PI meeting, + other items
This week I am attending the every-two-years DOE Experimental Condensed Matter Physics PI meeting. ...
8th Sep 2025
This week I am attending the every-two-years DOE Experimental Condensed Matter Physics PI meeting. Previously I have written up highlights of these meetings (see here, here, here, here, here), though two years I was unable to do so because I was attending virtually. I will do...
Long Now
James Dewar: Long-term Policy Analysis
### Long-term policy analysis
Dewar is head of RAND’s Pardee Center on very long-term policy—35 to...
14th Feb 2004
### Long-term policy analysis
Dewar is head of RAND’s Pardee Center on very long-term policy—35 to 200 years
For over half a century the RAND Corporation has influenced national policy and invented major intellectual tools. Packet switching (Paul Baran) came from RAND; so did...
IEEE Spectrum
Lord Kelvin and His Analog Computer
William Thomson, mourning the death of his wife and flush with cash from various patents related to...
2nd Jun 2024
William Thomson, mourning the death of his wife and flush with cash from various patents related to the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, decided to buy a yacht. His schooner, the Lalla Rookh, became Thomson’s summer home and his base for hosting scientific...
Chris Grossack's...
Building Objects with Category Theory
Typically category theory is useful for showing the uniqueness
of certain objects by checking that...
20th Feb 2023
Typically category theory is useful for showing the uniqueness
of certain objects by checking that they satisfy some
universal property. This makes them unique up to unique isomorphism.
However, category theory can also be used in order to show that objects
exist at all, usually...
Long Now
Mark Lynas: The Nine Planetary Boundaries
### The Quantified Planet
“About 74,000 years ago,” Lynas began, “a volcanic event nearly wiped out...
7th Mar 2012
### The Quantified Planet
“About 74,000 years ago,” Lynas began, “a volcanic event nearly wiped out humanity. We were down to just a thousand or so embattled breeding pairs. We’ve made a bit of a comeback since then. We’re over seven billion strong. In half a million years we’ve...
Stephen Wolfram...
Can AI Solve Science?
Note: Click any diagram to get Wolfram Language code to reproduce it. Wolfram Language code for...
5th Mar 2024
Note: Click any diagram to get Wolfram Language code to reproduce it. Wolfram Language code for training the neural nets used here is also available (requires GPU). Won’t AI Eventually Be Able to Do Everything? Particularly given its recent surprise successes, there’s a somewhat...
Works in Progress...
There was no great stagnation
We may not have flying cars but we do have incredible information technology. We’re mismeasuring the...
12th Oct 2022
We may not have flying cars but we do have incredible information technology. We’re mismeasuring the huge benefits it is bringing.
Beautiful Public...
FAA Aviation Maps
Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a...
29th Jan 2024
Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a higher information density than the Federal Aviation Administration’s aviation maps.
Long Now
Clay Shirky: Making Digital Durable: What Time Does to Categories
### Categories go nova
It is fortunate that the leading thinker in "social software" is one of the...
15th Nov 2005
### Categories go nova
It is fortunate that the leading thinker in "social software" is one of the best speakers in the high-tech world, a hot ticket at any conference that can get him. Clay Shirky gave one of his dazzling presentations Monday, Nov. 14, examining a new dimension...
The Works in...
From MANUALS to YOUTUBE
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
14th Aug 2023
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
Quantum Frontiers
My favorite rocket scientist
Whenever someone protests, “I’m not a rocket scientist,” I think of my friend Jamie Rankin. Jamie is...
8th Jul 2024
Whenever someone protests, “I’m not a rocket scientist,” I think of my friend Jamie Rankin. Jamie is a researcher at Princeton University, and she showed me her lab this June. When I first met Jamie, she was testing instruments to … Continue reading →
Melting Asphalt
2015 Meta
Time for my annual blogging review. And only 11 days late! I'll keep it brief. Blog stats I...
11th Jan 2016
Time for my annual blogging review. And only 11 days late! I'll keep it brief. Blog stats I published a paltry six full essays this year. Don't get me wrong: I'm proud of them. But still, six. It would be…
Read more ›
Asterisk
We Can, Must, and Will Simulate Nematode Brains
Scientists have spent over 25 years trying — and failing — to build computer simulations of the...
5th Mar 2025
Scientists have spent over 25 years trying — and failing — to build computer simulations of the smallest brain we know. Today, we finally have the tools to pull it off.
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: A winter's tale
Melting snow can make the season easier
4th May 2023
Melting snow can make the season easier
Explorations of an...
Colombia: Santa Marta Mountains And Caribbean Coast
I have recently returned from an excellent tour of northern Colombia for Quest Nature Tours. This...
4th Apr 2026
I have recently returned from an excellent tour of northern Colombia for Quest Nature Tours. This was my fourth time guiding for Quest here, in the birdiest country in the world. Birdiest may be a bold claim, but eBird shows 1,956 species recorded for Colombia, while the...
Long Now
Peter Calthorpe: Urban Planet
Throughout Peter Calthorpe's decade-spanning career in urban design, planning, and architecture, he...
6th Aug 2020
Throughout Peter Calthorpe's decade-spanning career in urban design, planning, and architecture, he has developed and practiced the key principles of [New Urbanism](https://www.cnu.org/resources/what-new-urbanism): that the most successful places are diverse in uses and users,...
Asterisk
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart AIs Are?
Scientists have repeatedly failed to recognize the complexity of animal cognition. Will we make the...
1st Jun 2023
Scientists have repeatedly failed to recognize the complexity of animal cognition. Will we make the same mistakes with AI?
IEEE Spectrum
Xerox Donates Legendary PARC Research Center
Xerox is donating its legendary research lab PARC to the nonprofit research institute SRI...
2nd May 2023
Xerox is donating its legendary research lab PARC to the nonprofit research institute SRI International. The subsidiary’s pioneering research in the 1970s helped give birth to the era of personal computing. Xerox says the move will allow it to focus on its core business.
The...
Beautiful Public...
Design for the People: The US Web Design System and the Public Sans Typeface
The United States has an official web design system and a custom typeface that belongs to the...
2nd Jul 2024
The United States has an official web design system and a custom typeface that belongs to the people. This thoughtful public design system aims to make government websites not only look good, but to make them accessible and functional for all.
IEEE Spectrum
The Saga of AD-X2, the Battery Additive That Roiled the NBS
Senate hearings, a post office ban, the resignation of the director of the National Bureau of...
1st Aug 2024
Senate hearings, a post office ban, the resignation of the director of the National Bureau of Standards, and his reinstatement after more than 400 scientists threatened to resign. Who knew a little box of salt could stir up such drama?
What was AD-X2?
It all started in 1947 when...
Long Now
Robert Neuwirth: The 21st Century Medieval City
### World squatter reality
Humanity is urbanizing at a world-changing pace and in a world-changing...
11th Jun 2005
### World squatter reality
Humanity is urbanizing at a world-changing pace and in a world-changing way. A billion squatters are re-inventing their lives and their cities simultaneously. One of the few to experience the range of the phenomenon first hand is Robert Neuwirth,...
Works in Progress...
Libraries of matter
Libraries contain books, yes. But they also contain latex rubber, carbon fiber fabrics, and graphene...
29th Aug 2024
Libraries contain books, yes. But they also contain latex rubber, carbon fiber fabrics, and graphene aerogel. And in some materials libraries you can cut, cast, drill, sand, scrape, and sculpt too.
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...
7th Jun 2023
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
Tong Test for Artificial General Intelligence
Most readers are probably familiar with the Turing Test – a concept proposed by early computing...
2nd Oct 2023
Most readers are probably familiar with the Turing Test – a concept proposed by early computing expert Alan Turing in 1950, and originally called “The Imitation Game”. The original paper is enlightening to read. Turing was not trying to answer the question “can machines think”....
Peder M. Isager
Ganging Up on Psychological Science
Sometimes, the costs of doing good science outgrow the resources available to the individual...
31st Aug 2018
Sometimes, the costs of doing good science outgrow the resources available to the individual scientist. Large scale collaboration projects are quickly becoming our best tool for dealing with this problem in psychology.
IEEE Spectrum
The Rise and Fall of 3M’s Floppy Disk
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the...
2nd Apr 2024
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the end of the long tail.
if you look on 3M’s own website, you will see no mention of this legacy—it’s a firm that sells abrasive materials, adhesive tapes, filters, films, personal...
Long Now
Tony Hsieh: Helping Revitalize a City
### The downtown company
The business advice that Tony Hsieh most took to heart came from an ad...
23rd Apr 2014
### The downtown company
The business advice that Tony Hsieh most took to heart came from an ad executive: “A great brand is a story that never stops unfolding.” With his own company, Zappos, he determined that “brand equals culture,” and made quality of culture the top...
Eukaryote Writes...
Speciesquest 2026
A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
31st Dec 2025
A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
Bartosz Ciechanowski
Moon
In the vastness of empty space surrounding Earth, the Moon is our closest celestial...
17th Dec 2024
In the vastness of empty space surrounding Earth, the Moon is our closest celestial neighbor.
Its face, periodically filled with light and devoured by darkness, has an ever-changing, but dependable presence in our skies.
In this article, we’ll learn about the Moon and its path...
Quantum Frontiers
Announcing the quantum-steampunk creative-writing course!
Why not run a quantum-steampunk creative-writing course? Quantum steampunk, as Quantum Frontiers...
19th Sep 2024
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:...
Long Now
Frank Ostaseski: What the Dying Teach the Living
## Death’s Honesty
**In one of Long Now’s most moving talks** , Ostaseski began: “I’m not romantic...
11th Apr 2017
## Death’s Honesty
**In one of Long Now’s most moving talks** , Ostaseski began: “I’m not romantic about dying. This is the hardest work you will ever do. It is tough. It’s sad and it’s messy and it’s cruel and it’s beautiful sometimes and mysterious, but above all that, it’s...
Conservation...
High seas treaty ‘a long time coming’
10th Jun 2025
Interaction Magic -...
Orientation
Using Mahony & Madgwick to calibrate and process Arduino orientation data.
1st Jul 2018
Using Mahony & Madgwick to calibrate and process Arduino orientation data.
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Enjoy the Coming Leap Day: Some Thoughts about the Calendar
This year February will have an extra day -- we discuss why?
The post Enjoy the Coming Leap Day: ...
12th Feb 2024
This year February will have an extra day -- we discuss why?
The post Enjoy the Coming Leap Day: Some Thoughts about the Calendar appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Transcarent, AI Therapists, Interoperability, and more | Out-Of-Pocket
Plus Out-Of-Pocket is hiring!!
16th Jan 2025
Plus Out-Of-Pocket is hiring!!
The Quanta Podcast
Secrets of Early Animal Evolution Revealed by Chromosome 'Tectonics'
Large blocks of genes conserved through hundreds of millions of years of evolution hint at how the...
14th Apr 2022
Large blocks of genes conserved through hundreds of millions of years of evolution hint at how the first animal chromosomes came to be.
The post Secrets of Early Animal Evolution Revealed by Chromosome ‘Tectonics’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Quanta Podcast
Interspecies Hybrids Play a Vital Role in Evolution
Hybrids, once treated as biological misfits, play a vital role in the evolution of many animal...
18th Jan 2018
Hybrids, once treated as biological misfits, play a vital role in the evolution of many animal species. Now conservationists are trying to reconcile that truth with policies.
The post Interspecies Hybrids Play a Vital Role in Evolution first appeared on Quanta...
The Quanta Podcast
Heat-Loving Microbes, Once Dormant, Thrive Over Decades-Old Fire
In harsh ecosystems around the world, microbiologists are finding evidence that “microbial seed...
12th Mar 2020
In harsh ecosystems around the world, microbiologists are finding evidence that “microbial seed banks” protect biodiversity from changing conditions.
The post Heat-Loving Microbes, Once Dormant, Thrive Over Decades-Old Fire first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Willem Pennings
Home Assistant-compatible air quality sensor
I recently moved and our new home is equipped with a ventilation system that distributes fresh...
13th Dec 2021
I recently moved and our new home is equipped with a ventilation system that distributes fresh (outside) air through the house and recoups heat from the air that is exhausted. There is a problem with this system, though. Sometimes, for example when a neighbour lights their wood...
Melting Asphalt
Here Be Sermons
I've long turned up my nose at sermons and related forms of mass moralizing. One reason, quite...
11th Sep 2017
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 ›
Conservation...
Countries agreed to protect 30% of the planet. Now what?
6th Sep 2024
Long Now
Philip Tetlock: Why Foxes Are Better Forecasters Than Hedgehogs
### Ignore confident forecasters
"What is it about politics that makes people so dumb?"
From his...
27th Jan 2007
### Ignore confident forecasters
"What is it about politics that makes people so dumb?"
From his perspective as a psychology researcher, Philip Tetlock watched political advisors on the left and the right make bizarre rationalizations about their wrong predictions at the time...
Quantum Frontiers
Memories of things past
My best friend—who’s held the title of best friend since kindergarten—calls me the keeper of her...
6th Mar 2023
My best friend—who’s held the title of best friend since kindergarten—calls me the keeper of her childhood memories. I recall which toys we played with, the first time I visited her house,1 and which beverages our classmates drank during snack … Continue reading →
Long Now
Michael Pollan: Deep Agriculture
### Making farmers cool again
Farming has become an occupation and cultural force of the past....
6th May 2009
### Making farmers cool again
Farming has become an occupation and cultural force of the past. Michael Pollan's talk promoted the premise - and hope - that farming can become an occupation and force of the future. In the past century American farmers were given the assignment to...
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,...
1st Oct 2024
How viruses kill cancers, which viruses to use, how many injections, at what stage of the cancer, and much more
brr
The Last Egg
Five more months until freshies...
9th Jun 2023
Five more months until freshies...
Inverted Passion
Notes on doing science and research
I know it’s been awfully quiet here. I’ve not posted for a while. But I’ve been writing prolifically...
23rd Oct 2025
I know it’s been awfully quiet here. I’ve not posted for a while. But I’ve been writing prolifically somewhere else. Earlier this year, I started an AI lab called Lossfunk and that is what has kept me (happily) busy. We have a newsletter there called Lossfunk Letters where I...
Long Now
Stewart Brand: Rethinking Green
### Globalizing Green
Brand built his case for rethinking environmental goals and methods on two...
10th Oct 2009
### Globalizing Green
Brand built his case for rethinking environmental goals and methods on two major changes going on in the world. The one that most people still don't take into consideration is that power is shifting to the developing world, where 5 out of 6 people live,...
Chris Grossack's...
Where Do Those Undergraduate Divisibility Problems Come From?
Oftentimes in your “intro to proofs” class or your first “discrete math” class
or something...
16th Jan 2025
Oftentimes in your “intro to proofs” class or your first “discrete math” class
or something similar, you’ll be shown problems of the form “prove that for
$n^6 + n^3 + 2n^2 + 2n$ is a multiple of $6$ for every $n$”… But where do
these problems come from? And have you ever...
Long Now
Rachel Sussman: The World's Oldest Living Organisms
### The Missing Science of Biological Longevity
Creative photographer Sussman showed beautiful...
16th Nov 2010
### The Missing Science of Biological Longevity
Creative photographer Sussman showed beautiful slides of very elderly organisms. The captions were as crucial as the images---naming the species, the place, and the approximate age. You can see many of them here:...
Long Now
Paul Hawken: The Long Green
### The long green
The environmental movement has moved on. It has become so deep and wide that it...
16th Oct 2004
### The long green
The environmental movement has moved on. It has become so deep and wide that it adds up to something new entirely, still unnamed. Whatever it is, it is now the largest movement in the world and the least ideological. Driven by science and patience, it is...
Bartosz Ciechanowski
Mechanical Watch
In the world of modern portable devices, it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the...
4th May 2022
In the world of modern portable devices, it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the most convenient way to keep track of time was a mechanical watch. Unlike their quartz and smart siblings, mechanical watches can run without using any batteries or other...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
A Course Via Zoom on Atomic Science for Everyone
I am teaching a new Zoom course on the mysterious world of the atom, with lots of visuals and no...
20th Sep 2025
I am teaching a new Zoom course on the mysterious world of the atom, with lots of visuals and no math. It’s a six-week class for retired people: Join me for a richly illustrated tour of the atomic world that lies beneath our everyday conception of reality. Using historical...
Quanta Magazine
How Randomness Improves Algorithms
Unpredictability can help computer scientists solve otherwise intractable problems.
The...
3rd Apr 2023
Unpredictability can help computer scientists solve otherwise intractable problems.
The post How Randomness Improves Algorithms first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Chris Grossack's...
$\mathsf{B}\text{Diff}(\Sigma)$ Classifies $\Sigma$-bundles
I’ve been trying to learn all about topological (quantum) field theories, the
cobordism hypothesis,...
21st Dec 2024
I’ve been trying to learn all about topological (quantum) field theories, the
cobordism hypothesis, and how to use $(\infty,n)$-categories. This is all
in service of some stuff I’m doing with skein algebras (which are part of a
“$3+1$ TQFT” often named after Crane–Yetter, but...
Long Now
Ed Moses: Clean Fusion Power This Decade
### Imminent fusion power
All the light we see from the sky, Moses pointed out, comes from fusion...
17th Jun 2010
### Imminent fusion power
All the light we see from the sky, Moses pointed out, comes from fusion power burning hydrogen, the commonest element in the universe---3/4 of all mass. A byproduct of the cosmic fusion is the star-stuff that we and the Earth are made of.
On Earth, 4...
Peder M. Isager
Proposing a theory committee at the Psychological Science Accelerator
(written in collaboration with Nicholas A. Coles)
The Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA) is a...
25th Aug 2019
(written in collaboration with Nicholas A. Coles)
The Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA) is a global network of psychological laboratories that organizes large-scale empirical research projects. The organization aims “to accelerate the accumulation of reliable and...
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...
3rd Nov 2024
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...
Stephen Wolfram...
What Ultimately Is There? Metaphysics and the Ruliad
The Wolfram Institute recently received a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation for...
4th Feb 2026
The Wolfram Institute recently received a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation for “Computational Metaphysics”. I wrote this piece in part as a launching point for discussions with experts in traditional philosophy.
Moving Metaphysics from Philosophy to...
Long Now
Julia Watson: Design by Radical Indigenism
Responding to climate change by building hard infrastructures and favoring high-tech homogenous...
6th Oct 2020
Responding to climate change by building hard infrastructures and favoring high-tech homogenous design, we are ignoring millennia-old knowledge of how to live in symbiosis with nature. Without implementing soft systems that use biodiversity as a building block, designs remain...
The Quanta Podcast
Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real
Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming...
14th Oct 2021
Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming energy. Physicists claim to have built this new phase of matter inside a quantum computer.
Long Now
Kevin Kelly: The Next 100 Years of Science: Long-term Trends in the Scientific Method.
### Recursion drives science
The co-founding editor of “Wired” magazine and author of _Out of...
11th Mar 2006
### Recursion drives science
The co-founding editor of “Wired” magazine and author of _Out of Control_ is working on a new book on “what technology wants.” His research led to the first-ever history of scientific methodology. Starting from this long-term view of science’s past...
Long Now
Alex Wright: Glut: Mastering Information Though the Ages
### A Series of Information Explosions
As usual, microbes led the way. Bacteria have swarmed in...
18th Aug 2007
### A Series of Information Explosions
As usual, microbes led the way. Bacteria have swarmed in intense networks for 3.5 billion years. Then a hierarchical form emerged with the first nucleated cells that were made up of an enclosed society of formerly independent...
Works in Progress...
The ultimate horse
Selective breeding has pushed horses to the limits of biology. But at what cost?
5th Aug 2026
Selective breeding has pushed horses to the limits of biology. But at what cost?
Long Now
Rosabeth Moss Kanter: Enduring Principles for Changing Times
### Principles against panic
"Everything looks like a failure in the middle." Any new enterprise,...
10th Nov 2007
### Principles against panic
"Everything looks like a failure in the middle." Any new enterprise, Kanter explained, encounters roadblocks. As the obstacles multiply, the situation looks hopeless. That's when deeply held principles and the long view are most needed to get you...
The Quanta Podcast
DNA of Giant ‘Corpse Flower’ Parasite Surprises Biologists
The bizarre genome of the world’s most mysterious flowering plants shows how far parasites will go...
5th Aug 2021
The bizarre genome of the world’s most mysterious flowering plants shows how far parasites will go in stealing, deleting and duplicating DNA.
The post DNA of Giant ‘Corpse Flower’ Parasite Surprises Biologists first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Peder M. Isager
Four one-sided test of significance (FOST). Dear reader, does this make sense?
In this blog post I propose a four one-sided test of significance (FOST) that can be used to test...
24th May 2024
In this blog post I propose a four one-sided test of significance (FOST) that can be used to test whether an effect is smaller than OR larger than OR equivalent to the smallest effect size of interest. I lay out the general setup and interpretation of FOST, and ask readers to...
Conservation...
How an extraordinary new effort is giving sharks ‘a fighting chance’
1st Nov 2024
Casey Handmer's blog
Terraform Talent Development
Originally posted at the Terraform Blog on November 17, 2025. Terraform Industries is the vehicle by...
24th Nov 2025
Originally posted at the Terraform Blog on November 17, 2025. Terraform Industries is the vehicle by which I build the people that build the team I need to build the future I am determined to build. One of the unexpected privileges of founding an ambitious, future-oriented...
Quantum Frontiers
Ten lessons I learned from John Preskill
Last August, Toronto’s Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control (CQIQC) gave me 35 minutes...
20th Jan 2025
Last August, Toronto’s Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control (CQIQC) gave me 35 minutes to make fun of John Preskill in public. CQIQC was hosting its biannual conference, also called CQIQC, in Toronto. The conference features the awarding of … Continue reading →
Uncharted...
Things I Learned at the 2025 Progress Conference
Neural Implants with Actual Neurons, Drone Delivery, Freedom of Speech and AI, Fact-Checking...
3rd Dec 2025
Neural Implants with Actual Neurons, Drone Delivery, Freedom of Speech and AI, Fact-Checking Tech, When AI Will Manage Entire Companies, Ecoterrorists Could Stop Global Warming, and more
Eukaryote Writes...
There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically)
Dendronization – Evolving into a tree-like morphology. (In the style of “carcinization".) From...
3rd May 2021
Dendronization – Evolving into a tree-like morphology. (In the style of “carcinization".) From 'dendro', the ancient Greek root for tree.
Asterisk
The Case for Insect Consciousness
The evidence that insects feel pain is mounting, however we approach the issue.
1st Jan 2025
The evidence that insects feel pain is mounting, however we approach the issue.
Long Now
John Brockman: Possible Minds
John Brockman's newly released book [_Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at...
13th Mar 2019
John Brockman's newly released book [_Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI_](https://smile.amazon.com/Possible-Minds-Twenty-Five-Ways-Looking-ebook/dp/B07D6C1X3X/ref=sr_1_1) is the springboard for this Seminar on Artificial Intelligence. Brockman will interview...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Real Risk of AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is unavoidable. It’s now a part of our daily lives as it has been...
7th Jul 2025
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is unavoidable. It’s now a part of our daily lives as it has been steadily infiltrating the technology we use every day, whether you realize it or not. I remain somewhat in the middle in terms of the hype-to-technological-miracle spectrum. I don’t...
Long Now
Sander van der Leeuw: The Archaeology of Innovation
### History of Innovation
The development of human mental ability can be tracked through the...
19th Nov 2009
### History of Innovation
The development of human mental ability can be tracked through the progressive crafting of stone tools, Van der Leeuw explained. First we learned to shape an edge---a line---then the surface, then the whole volume of the tool, then the sophisticated...
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