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Rick Doblin: Transformational Psychedelics Humans have consumed psychedelics for at least the last 10,000 years. The outlawing of psychedelics...
11th Jun 2020
1

Rick Doblin: Transformational Psychedelics

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Jun 2020
Humans have consumed psychedelics for at least the last 10,000 years. The outlawing of psychedelics in most of the world in the 20th century didn’t stop that, but it did put an end to promising research into their psychotherapeutic applications to treat depression, addiction,...
Suhanya Raffel: World Art Through The Asian Perspective Coming to the fore in this century is Asian perspective on everything. A thrilling place to watch...
21st Oct 2019
1

Suhanya Raffel: World Art Through The Asian Perspective

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

21st Oct 2019
Coming to the fore in this century is Asian perspective on everything. A thrilling place to watch the shift is in art. Extraordinary contemporary art from all over the world, especially Asia, has been collected for the new world-class museum in Hong Kong called M+. The massive...
A.I., Wine, and Beer There have been many studies using scientific instrumentation, mostly gas chromatography, in...
10th Jun 2024
26

A.I., Wine, and Beer

from Tikalon Blog by Dev Gualtieri [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Jun 2024
There have been many studies using scientific instrumentation, mostly gas chromatography, in attempts to find what distinguishes a superb wine from an inexpensive house wine. A typical wine can contain more than 800 different aroma compounds. One study examined two Australian...
What I’ve been reading, November 2023 A ~monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in...
7th Nov 2023
60

What I’ve been reading, November 2023

from The Roots of Progress | Articles [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Nov 2023
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...
Internet Harvest (2020, 1) Internet Harvest is a selection of the most succulent links on the internet that I’ve recently...
1st Feb 2020
67

Internet Harvest (2020, 1)

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Feb 2020
Internet Harvest is a selection of the most succulent links on the internet that I’ve recently plucked from its fruitful boughs.
Steven Johnson: Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World ## Inventing toward delight Humanity has been inventing toward delight for a long time. Johnson...
5th Jan 2017
1

Steven Johnson: Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Jan 2017
## Inventing toward delight Humanity has been inventing toward delight for a long time. Johnson began with a slide of shell beads found in Morocco that indicate human interest in personal adornment going back 80,000 years. He showed 50,000-year-old bone flutes found in modern...
What Made the Moon? New Ideas Try to Rescue a Troubled Theory Textbooks say that the moon was formed after a Mars-size mass smashed the young Earth. But new...
17th Nov 2017
1

What Made the Moon? New Ideas Try to Rescue a Troubled Theory

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

17th Nov 2017
Textbooks say that the moon was formed after a Mars-size mass smashed the young Earth. But new evidence has cast doubt on that story, leaving researchers to dream up new ways to get a giant rock into orbit. The post What Made the Moon? New Ideas Try to Rescue a...
The UX of LEGO Interface Panels LEGO interface panels are beautiful, iconic, and great for learning interface design basics. I...
2nd Aug 2020
28

The UX of LEGO Interface Panels

from Interaction Magic - George Cave [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Aug 2020
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.
In Mexico’s ‘Avocado Belt,’ Villagers Stand Up to Protect Their Lands A boom in avocado production in Mexico has led to illegal deforestation and an influx of drug...
2nd May 2025
4
2nd May 2025
A boom in avocado production in Mexico has led to illegal deforestation and an influx of drug cartels dominating the lucrative trade. But Indigenous communities have fought back against the gangs and turned to traditional practices to grow avocados and save their forests.  Read...
See it with your lying ears This blog has a history of answering questions that no one should be asking. Today, we continue that...
10th Jan 2026
2

See it with your lying ears

from lcamtuf’s thing [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Jan 2026
This blog has a history of answering questions that no one should be asking. Today, we continue that proud legacy.
Ramez Naam: Enhancing Humans, Advancing Humanity ### Enhancing humans and humanity Beginning with the accelerating pace of biotech tools for human...
23rd Jul 2015
1

Ramez Naam: Enhancing Humans, Advancing Humanity

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

23rd Jul 2015
### Enhancing humans and humanity Beginning with the accelerating pace of biotech tools for human health and enhancement, Naam noted that health issues such as disease prevention will be drastically easier to implement than enhancement. Preventing some hereditary diseases can be...
The Unlimited Horizon, part 2 Previously: The Unlimited Horizon, part 1. Is there really that much more progress to be made in the...
27th Aug 2025
1

The Unlimited Horizon, part 2

from The Roots of Progress [alt+shift+b] in science

27th Aug 2025
Previously: The Unlimited Horizon, part 1. Is there really that much more progress to be made in the future? How many problems are left to solve? How much better could life really get? After all, we are pretty comfortable today. We have electricity, clean running water, heating...
Crossposting from X to my WordPress Today I built a nifty little utility that monitors which of my tweets has /syndicated tag in it, and...
10th Jan 2026
1

Crossposting from X to my WordPress

from Inverted Passion [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Jan 2026
Today I built a nifty little utility that monitors which of my tweets has /syndicated tag in it, and then crossposts automatically to my blog (invertedpassion). This is done via webhooks from Typefully, the app I use to post my tweets. If all goes well, I should see this both as...
Back From Down Under I am back from an almost three week trip to LA, Sydney and Christchurch. Sorry I did not have time...
6th Aug 2026
1

Back From Down Under

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Aug 2026
I am back from an almost three week trip to LA, Sydney and Christchurch. Sorry I did not have time to keep up with my blog over that period – in which we recorded four live SGU shows, produced three days of conference content, put on two stage shows, and hosted several other...
California’s path to redemption California is by far the richest and most powerful polity led by Progressive ideals, and it has...
2nd Mar 2025
57

California’s path to redemption

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Mar 2025
California is by far the richest and most powerful polity led by Progressive ideals, and it has taken a beating of late. In this post, I discuss a practical roadmap by which California must reclaim its mantle as the shining city on the hill, an embodiment of the positive...
A Math Theory for Why People Hallucinate Psychedelic drugs can trigger characteristic hallucinations, which have long been thought to hold...
5th Jul 2019
1

A Math Theory for Why People Hallucinate

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Jul 2019
Psychedelic drugs can trigger characteristic hallucinations, which have long been thought to hold clues about the brain’s circuitry. After nearly a century of study, a possible explanation is crystallizing. The post A Math Theory for Why People Hallucinate first...
Larry Brilliant, Richard Rockefeller, & Katherine Fulton: The Deeper News About the New... ### Philanthropic stamina 10,000 families in the US, Katherine Fulton reported, have assets of $100...
4th Nov 2006
1
4th Nov 2006
### Philanthropic stamina 10,000 families in the US, Katherine Fulton reported, have assets of $100 million or more. That's up from 7,000 just a couple years ago. Most of that money is "on the sidelines." The poor and the middle class are far more generous in their philanthropy,...
The world of tomorrow When the future arrived, it felt… ordinary. What happened to the glamour of tomorrow?
2nd Jun 2025
26

The world of tomorrow

from The Works in Progress Newsletter [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Jun 2025
When the future arrived, it felt… ordinary. What happened to the glamour of tomorrow?
Cryptography That Is Provably Secure Researchers have just released hacker-proof cryptographic code — programs with the same level of...
6th Feb 2020
1

Cryptography That Is Provably Secure

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Feb 2020
Researchers have just released hacker-proof cryptographic code — programs with the same level of invincibility as a mathematical proof. The post Cryptography That Is Provably Secure first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Good Meteor Shower This Week Wednesday evening and Thursday morning (Dec. 13-14) is the peak time for one of the best meteor...
10th Dec 2023
30

Good Meteor Shower This Week

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Dec 2023
Wednesday evening and Thursday morning (Dec. 13-14) is the peak time for one of the best meteor showers of the year – the Geminids.  The post Good Meteor Shower This Week appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Michael Pollan: Deep Agriculture ### Making farmers cool again Farming has become an occupation and cultural force of the past....
6th May 2009
1

Michael Pollan: Deep Agriculture

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Speciesquest 2026 A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
31st Dec 2025
2

Speciesquest 2026

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

31st Dec 2025
A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
Making The Most Of Winter The winter of 2025-2026 is shaping up to be a proper one. Since basically the start of December we...
4th Feb 2026
1

Making The Most Of Winter

from Explorations of an Ecologist [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Feb 2026
The winter of 2025-2026 is shaping up to be a proper one. Since basically the start of December we have experienced below average temperatures and an abundance of snow. We haven't had much respite from the cold, other than a brief warm spell in January quickly followed by an...
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 10: The Owlet Lodge (February 11 and 12, 2024) February 11, 2024 Laura and I were looking forward to our one-night visit to the Owlet Lodge. Up to...
20th Jul 2024
27

A Month In Northern Peru, Part 10: The Owlet Lodge (February 11 and 12, 2024)

from Explorations of an Ecologist [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Jul 2024
February 11, 2024 Laura and I were looking forward to our one-night visit to the Owlet Lodge. Up to this point we had only stayed at cheap hotels, while we had also eaten simply, with at least two meals each day consisting of sandwiches/snacks that we prepared. For once, someone...
Joline Blais & Jon Ippolito: At the Edge of Art ### Artibodies Art, like the antibodies in our immune system, creates alien forces in service of...
15th Dec 2007
1

Joline Blais & Jon Ippolito: At the Edge of Art

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

15th Dec 2007
### Artibodies Art, like the antibodies in our immune system, creates alien forces in service of the whole. It anticipates threats and models them. It is a diversity agent. Two forms of that process were explained and shown by Ippolito and Blais: perversion, and execution. One...
How AI Will Change Media Work with me to make it happen
3rd Apr 2026
1

How AI Will Change Media

from Uncharted Territories [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Apr 2026
Work with me to make it happen
How one Kiwi tamed inflation Inflation targeting is now standard in central banking. But it began with an offhand comment and a...
12th Jun 2025
1

How one Kiwi tamed inflation

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

12th Jun 2025
Inflation targeting is now standard in central banking. But it began with an offhand comment and a political gamble in New Zealand – long before economists took it seriously.
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
32

Do We Have Free Will?

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Fifty ways to leave your model A method for calculating the number of alternative causal models, given a number of variables/nodes.
15th Feb 2020
1

Fifty ways to leave your model

from Peder M. Isager [alt+shift+b] in science

15th Feb 2020
A method for calculating the number of alternative causal models, given a number of variables/nodes.
Eight highlights from publishing a science book for the general public What’s it like to publish a book? I’ve faced the question again and again this year, as my book...
19th Dec 2022
55

Eight highlights from publishing a science book for the general public

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

19th Dec 2022
What’s it like to publish a book? I’ve faced the question again and again this year, as my book Quantum Steampunk hit bookshelves in April. Two responses suggest themselves. On the one hand, I channel the Beatles: It’s a hard … Continue reading →
Cursed circuits #5: capacitance multiplier Capacitor vendors don't want you to know this! Save money on capacitors by spending more on other...
5th Jul 2026
1

Cursed circuits #5: capacitance multiplier

from lcamtuf’s thing [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Jul 2026
Capacitor vendors don't want you to know this! Save money on capacitors by spending more on other components
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
1

Sander van der Leeuw: The Archaeology of Innovation

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Smart Swarms Seek New Ways to Cooperate New algorithms show how swarms of very simple robots can be made to work together as a group. ...
27th Sep 2018
1

Smart Swarms Seek New Ways to Cooperate

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

27th Sep 2018
New algorithms show how swarms of very simple robots can be made to work together as a group. The post Smart Swarms Seek New Ways to Cooperate first appeared on Quanta Magazine
New Support for Alternative Quantum View An experiment claims to have invalidated a decades-old criticism against pilot-wave theory, an...
2nd Jun 2016
1

New Support for Alternative Quantum View

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Jun 2016
An experiment claims to have invalidated a decades-old criticism against pilot-wave theory, an alternative formulation of quantum mechanics that eliminates the most baffling features of the subatomic universe. The post New Support for Alternative Quantum View first...
The road from serfdom Unwinding Russian serfdom took half a century. To eventually do it in the face of powerful...
16th Feb 2024
1

The road from serfdom

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

16th Feb 2024
Unwinding Russian serfdom took half a century. To eventually do it in the face of powerful opposition took a remarkable approach that let peasants vote themselves into freedom.
Why we duel Duels can be brutal and even lethal. But duels emerged in societies around the world for an...
21st Apr 2022
1

Why we duel

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

21st Apr 2022
Duels can be brutal and even lethal. But duels emerged in societies around the world for an important reason: to control and manage violence, not just to celebrate it.
The New Science of Seeing Around Corners Computer vision researchers have uncovered a world of visual signals hiding in our midst, including...
1st Aug 2019
1

The New Science of Seeing Around Corners

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Aug 2019
Computer vision researchers have uncovered a world of visual signals hiding in our midst, including subtle motions that betray what’s being said and faint images of what’s around a corner. The post The New Science of Seeing Around Corners first appeared on Quanta...
Ray Kurzweil: Kurzweil's Law ### Escape velocity Attempts to think long term, Ray Kurzweil began, keep making the mistake of...
24th Sep 2005
1

Ray Kurzweil: Kurzweil's Law

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

24th Sep 2005
### Escape velocity Attempts to think long term, Ray Kurzweil began, keep making the mistake of imagining that the pace of the future is like the pace of the past. Pondering the next ten years, we usually begin by studying the last ten years. He recommends studying the last...
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
1

Colombia: Santa Marta Mountains And Caribbean Coast

from Explorations of an Ecologist [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
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
73

Where Do Those Undergraduate Divisibility Problems Come From?

from Chris Grossack's Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Visions of Future Physics Nima Arkani-Hamed is championing a campaign to build the world’s largest particle collider, even as...
1st Oct 2015
1

Visions of Future Physics

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Oct 2015
Nima Arkani-Hamed is championing a campaign to build the world’s largest particle collider, even as he pursues a new vision of the laws of nature. The post Visions of Future Physics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Case Against Dark Matter A proposed theory of gravity does away with dark matter, even as new astrophysical findings...
8th Dec 2016
1

The Case Against Dark Matter

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Dec 2016
A proposed theory of gravity does away with dark matter, even as new astrophysical findings challenge the need for galaxies full of the invisible mystery particles. The post The Case Against Dark Matter first appeared on Quanta Magazine
To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love....
2nd Mar 2017
1

To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Mar 2017
The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them. The post To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Frank Gavin: Five Ways to Use History Well ### History-savvy Policy Why do policy makers and historians shun each other? Gavin observed that...
13th Jul 2010
1

Frank Gavin: Five Ways to Use History Well

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

13th Jul 2010
### History-savvy Policy Why do policy makers and historians shun each other? Gavin observed that policy people want actionable information, certainty, and simple explanations. Meanwhile historians revel in nuance, distrust simple explanations and also distrust power and those...
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
134

Design for the People: The US Web Design System and the Public Sans Typeface

from Beautiful Public Data [alt+shift+b] in science

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.
Preprint -- The RAAG Functor as a Categorical Embedding After almost a year of sitting on my hard drive, I finally had time in August to finish revising my...
5th Oct 2023
30

Preprint -- The RAAG Functor as a Categorical Embedding

from Chris Grossack's Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Oct 2023
After almost a year of sitting on my hard drive, I finally had time in August to finish revising my new preprint on Right Angled Artin Groups (Raags). And in September I had time to put it on the arxiv for people to see! Within 24 hours I had an email from somebody who had...
Nicole’s guide to writing research statements Sunflowers are blooming, stores are trumpeting back-to-school sales, and professors are scrambling...
11th Aug 2025
37

Nicole’s guide to writing research statements

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Aug 2025
Sunflowers are blooming, stores are trumpeting back-to-school sales, and professors are scrambling to chart out the courses they planned to develop in July. If you’re applying for an academic job this fall, now is the time to get your application … Continue reading →
Paul Saffo: Embracing Uncertainty: the secret to effective forecasting ### Rules of Forecasting Reflecting on his 25 years as a forecaster, Paul Saffo pointed out that a...
12th Jan 2008
1
12th Jan 2008
### Rules of Forecasting Reflecting on his 25 years as a forecaster, Paul Saffo pointed out that a forecaster's job is not to predict outcomes, but to map the "cone of uncertainty" on a subject. Where are the edges of what might happen? (Uncertainty is cone-shaped because it...
373 | Colin Camerer on the Neuroscience of Economic Thinking Economics often starts with an assumption that people are rational maximizers of their own...
a week ago
1

373 | Colin Camerer on the Neuroscience of Economic Thinking

from Sean Carroll [alt+shift+b] in science

a week ago
Economics often starts with an assumption that people are rational maximizers of their own self-interest; but it doesn't stop there. […]
Advancing antivenom Snakebites kill between 80,000 and 140,000 people every year. Better antivenom should be a high...
8th Dec 2022
1

Advancing antivenom

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

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.
Powering the Mars base This post is part of the series on space topics. This post is not the last word on this topic. The...
5th Nov 2024
68

Powering the Mars base

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Nov 2024
This post is part of the series on space topics. This post is not the last word on this topic. The usual caveats apply. I’m curious if you have strong opinions on different fuel mixes. A growing Mars base has a prodigious need for power. I’ve previously written two posts on...
Some Future Tech Possibilities It’s difficult to pick winners and losers in the future tech game. In reality you just have to see...
1st Feb 2024
45

Some Future Tech Possibilities

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Feb 2024
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 perks of being a mole rat The secrets to extending human lifespans might lie in the animals that can already live for...
4th Feb 2026
1

The perks of being a mole rat

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Feb 2026
The secrets to extending human lifespans might lie in the animals that can already live for centuries.
Dorie Clark: The Long Game: How to be a long-term thinker in a short-term world Personal goals need a long-term strategy too. Dorie Clark offers concrete practices to sharpen...
18th May 2022
1
18th May 2022
Personal goals need a long-term strategy too. Dorie Clark offers concrete practices to sharpen strategic thinking and incorporate a long-term perspective within a personal time scale. By reorienting ourselves to focus on the big picture, and using the power of small but...
Farewell, WordPress This blog has moved to https://blog.caseyhandmer.com/?moved. All the old posts are there, with...
17 hours ago
1

Farewell, WordPress

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

17 hours ago
This blog has moved to https://blog.caseyhandmer.com/?moved. All the old posts are there, with interactive versions of many of the charts. The RSS feed is now https://blog.caseyhandmer.com/feed.xml. This site stays up for old links but won’t get new posts.
James Carse: Religious War In Light of the Infinite Game ### Finite and infinite games Countless readers have been hooked by the opening line of James P....
15th Jan 2005
1

James Carse: Religious War In Light of the Infinite Game

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

15th Jan 2005
### Finite and infinite games Countless readers have been hooked by the opening line of James P. Carse's [_Finite and Infinite Games_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345341848/qid=1105811409/lono0a-20) -- "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be...
Fusion Highways in Space A transport system that can get spacecraft to Jupiter in 10 days, but without a massive onboard...
11th Mar 2021
1

Fusion Highways in Space

from ToughSF [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Mar 2021
A transport system that can get spacecraft to Jupiter in 10 days, but without a massive onboard reactor, using antimatter fuel or riding a gigantic laser beam?  What we need instead is a Fusion Highway to connect the Solar System in unprecedented ways.  The art above is by...
No Retvrn An American tradition of embracing modernity.
4th Aug 2025
1

No Retvrn

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Aug 2025
An American tradition of embracing modernity.
Notes on the Fermi Paradox I recently realized I hadn’t written much in this blog about the Fermi Paradox, though I do write...
3rd Mar 2026
1

Notes on the Fermi Paradox

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Mar 2026
I recently realized I hadn’t written much in this blog about the Fermi Paradox, though I do write about it elsewhere. So here is a quick note. The Fermi Paradox, sometimes paraphrased as “where are they?” is a question about the apparent lack of intelligent alien life in the...
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
1

Clay Shirky: Making Digital Durable: What Time Does to Categories

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
A Course on Aliens in Science & Science Fiction for People Over 50 I am teaching a fun, 6-week, non-credit course on the search for intelligent life among the stars,...
23rd Sep 2026
1

A Course on Aliens in Science & Science Fiction for People Over 50

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

23rd Sep 2026
I am teaching a fun, 6-week, non-credit course on the search for intelligent life among the stars, offered (by zoom or in person) through the San Francisco State University Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, starting Sept. 30.  It’s part of a program of courses for retired...
Caroline Winterer: The Art and Science of Deep Time: Conceiving the Inconceivable in the 19th... The ambition to think on the scale of thousands, millions, even billion of years emerged in the 19th...
6th Feb 2020
1
6th Feb 2020
The ambition to think on the scale of thousands, millions, even billion of years emerged in the 19th century. Historian and author [Caroline Winterer](https://history.stanford.edu/people/caroline-winterer) chronicles how the concept of “deep time” has inspired and puzzled...
The Mystery at the Heart of Physics That Only Math Can Solve The accelerating effort to understand the mathematics of quantum field theory will have profound...
2nd Sep 2021
1

The Mystery at the Heart of Physics That Only Math Can Solve

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Sep 2021
The accelerating effort to understand the mathematics of quantum field theory will have profound consequences for both math and physics. The post The Mystery at the Heart of Physics That Only Math Can Solve first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Life as a physical process It’s always hard to define life. Everyone has their favorite definition – some describe it as a...
4th Jun 2025
47

Life as a physical process

from Inverted Passion [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Jun 2025
It’s always hard to define life. Everyone has their favorite definition – some describe it as a struggle against entropy, while others describe it as an emergent property of chemicals. Countless books have been written on the topic, yet we’re far from a consensus. Against the...
Stewart Brand: Rethinking Green ### Globalizing Green Brand built his case for rethinking environmental goals and methods on two...
10th Oct 2009
1

Stewart Brand: Rethinking Green

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

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,...
Plant Sounds My early adulthood coincided with the New Age movement and its belief in many discredited past...
5th Aug 2024
26

Plant Sounds

from Tikalon Blog by Dev Gualtieri [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Aug 2024
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...
Memories of Project RAMOS (Russian American Observation Satellites) 1991 – 2004 During the course of my professional career, one of the more important projects I had the pleasure...
29th Sep 2023
54
29th Sep 2023
During the course of my professional career, one of the more important projects I had the pleasure to work on was the joint US/Russian Federation (RF) […]
Liberté, égalité, radioactivité France built 40 nuclear reactors in a decade. Here’s how they did it, and how the world can follow...
4th Sep 2025
1

Liberté, égalité, radioactivité

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Sep 2025
France built 40 nuclear reactors in a decade. Here’s how they did it, and how the world can follow their lead today.
128 New Moons Found Around Saturn An international team of astronomers announced recently that they had discovered 128 new, small...
9th Apr 2025
50

128 New Moons Found Around Saturn

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

9th Apr 2025
An international team of astronomers announced recently that they had discovered 128 new, small moons orbiting the planet Saturn.  That brings the total number of moons known around the ringed planet to 274, breaking all planetary records. Jupiter, the runner-up, has “only” 95...
Oxygen and Stem Cells May Have Reshaped Early Complex Animals An unlikely team offers a controversial hypothesis about what enabled animal life to get more...
3rd Jan 2019
1

Oxygen and Stem Cells May Have Reshaped Early Complex Animals

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Jan 2019
An unlikely team offers a controversial hypothesis about what enabled animal life to get more complex during the Cambrian explosion. The post Oxygen and Stem Cells May Have Reshaped Early Complex Animals first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Jim Richardson: Heirlooms ### Save Agricultural Biodiversity Humanity’s agricultural legacy is on a par with any of our great...
23rd Feb 2012
1

Jim Richardson: Heirlooms

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

23rd Feb 2012
### Save Agricultural Biodiversity Humanity’s agricultural legacy is on a par with any of our great cultural legacies, Richardson said, but preserving it is not just a matter of honoring the history and richness of our most fundamental civilization-enabling technology. For the...
A Blight on Soviet Science On a hazy afternoon in March 1927, a Russian scientist was walking through the dense forests of...
4th Mar 2021
33

A Blight on Soviet Science

from Damn Interesting [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Mar 2021
On a hazy afternoon in March 1927, a Russian scientist was walking through the dense forests of Abyssinia, ducking under low-hanging branches and stopping to inspect the wild coffee trees lining his path. Accompanied by a group of local guides, the young traveller had been hiking...
How mind bootstraps itself Daniel Dennett, who recently passed away, is an inspiration for people like me who love grand ideas...
1st Jun 2026
1

How mind bootstraps itself

from Inverted Passion [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Jun 2026
Daniel Dennett, who recently passed away, is an inspiration for people like me who love grand ideas that connect many different fields at a deep level (and be rigorous about that; well as rigorous as grand theories can be). His thinking is difficult to categorize: part...
Carl Zimmer: Viral Time ### What's time to a virus? "Everything about viruses is extreme," Zimmer began. The number of...
8th Jun 2011
1

Carl Zimmer: Viral Time

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Jun 2011
### What's time to a virus? "Everything about viruses is extreme," Zimmer began. The number of viruses on Earth is estimated to be 1 followed by 31 zeroes. Small as they are, if you stacked them all up, the stack would reach 100 million light years. They are the planet's most...
Lazar Kunstmann & Jon Lackman: Preservation without Permission ### Preservation Without Permission Their video showed clandestine urban “infiltration”...
14th Nov 2012
1

Lazar Kunstmann & Jon Lackman: Preservation without Permission

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

14th Nov 2012
### Preservation Without Permission Their video showed clandestine urban “infiltration” (trespassing) at its most creative. Paris’s Urban Experiment group (UX), now in their fourth decade, have a restoration branch called Untergunther. They evade authorities to carry out secret...
Planning for your midlife crisis Yesterday I presented a talk at ODSC East 2026, called “Counterfactual Analysis with Bayesian...
1st May 2026
3

Planning for your midlife crisis

from Probably Overthinking It [alt+shift+b] in science

1st May 2026
Yesterday I presented a talk at ODSC East 2026, called “Counterfactual Analysis with Bayesian Models: What Drives the Life Expectancy Gap?” Here’s the abstract Across nearly every country in the world, women live longer than men—but the size of this gap varies from about two...
Robert Fuller: Patient Revolution: Human Rights Past and Future ### The culminating human right What does it take to change human habits of cruelty (such as...
13th Aug 2005
1

Robert Fuller: Patient Revolution: Human Rights Past and Future

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

13th Aug 2005
### The culminating human right What does it take to change human habits of cruelty (such as slavery, genocide) and humiliation (racism, sexism)? What do past and present efforts for human rights tell about their future?… Robert Fuller is author of the ground-breaking...
Americans Are Richer Than Everyone Else The U.S. is the place to be if you're ambitious, but not necessarily if you're poor
7th Aug 2026
2

Americans Are Richer Than Everyone Else

from Cremieux Recueil [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Aug 2026
The U.S. is the place to be if you're ambitious, but not necessarily if you're poor
Just bury your trash What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?
1st Sep 2026
1

Just bury your trash

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Sep 2026
What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?
Daniel Suarez: Daemon: Bot-mediated Reality ### Bot-dominated Reality [Daniel Suarez, originally published as Leinad Zaurus, delivered a talk...
9th Aug 2008
1

Daniel Suarez: Daemon: Bot-mediated Reality

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

9th Aug 2008
### Bot-dominated Reality [Daniel Suarez, originally published as Leinad Zaurus, delivered a talk on the themes developed in his (originally self published) book __Daemon__. The book is now scheduled to be released in hard cover in January 02009 by Dutton.] Forget about...
The Quantum Secret to Superconductivity In a virtuoso experiment, physicists have revealed details of a “quantum critical point” that...
3rd Mar 2016
1

The Quantum Secret to Superconductivity

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Mar 2016
In a virtuoso experiment, physicists have revealed details of a “quantum critical point” that underlies high-temperature superconductivity. The post The Quantum Secret to Superconductivity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Upzoning New Zealand How a small country started building a lot of homes
1st Feb 2024
54

Upzoning New Zealand

from The Works in Progress Newsletter [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Feb 2024
How a small country started building a lot of homes
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
1

The developing world needs more roads

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

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.
Critical Forecasts from Space: “Tech & Space Leaders Show” with Lisa Dreher While my Gentle Readers are well aware of my decades of writing on space-related topics, I also have...
8th Aug 2026
1
8th Aug 2026
While my Gentle Readers are well aware of my decades of writing on space-related topics, I also have a day job as the Chief Scientist of […]
Do you know what GDP is? I thought I knew! But the more I introspected, the hazy my understanding got. Is GDP amount of stuff...
1st May 2025
41

Do you know what GDP is?

from Inverted Passion [alt+shift+b] in science

1st May 2025
I thought I knew! But the more I introspected, the hazy my understanding got. Is GDP amount of stuff produced or consumed? Does it include imports or exports? What does it have to do with well being? Why does it keep increasing? So, I fired up Claude and started understanding...
A love letter to civilian OSINT What is civilian OSINT, and could it be used altruistically?
10th Jul 2020
63

A love letter to civilian OSINT

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Jul 2020
What is civilian OSINT, and could it be used altruistically?
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
37

Esoteric Languages Challenge Coders to Think Way Outside the Box

from IEEE Spectrum [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Announcing Think Stats 3e The third edition of Think Stats is on its way to the printer! You can preorder now from...
6th Apr 2025
51

Announcing Think Stats 3e

from Probably Overthinking It [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Apr 2025
The third edition of Think Stats is on its way to the printer! You can preorder now from Bookshop.org and Amazon (those are affiliate links), or if you can’t wait to get a paper copy, you can read the free, online version here. Here’s the new cover, still featuring a...
Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems After years of false starts, a team of computer scientists has found a way to efficiently deduce the...
1st May 2024
76

Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems

from Quanta Magazine [alt+shift+b] in science

1st May 2024
After years of false starts, a team of computer scientists has found a way to efficiently deduce the Hamiltonian of a physical system at any constant temperature. The post Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NSF, spending, and the end of the fiscal year We are less than one month away from the end of the federal fiscal year, and traditionally there are...
5th Sep 2026
0

NSF, spending, and the end of the fiscal year

from nanoscale views [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Sep 2026
We are less than one month away from the end of the federal fiscal year, and traditionally there are internal deadlines for agencies to allocate their final spending by around September 9. Right now, the NSF is on track to issue about 4000 fewer (!!) awards in FY26 than it did...
First Pictures: Earthrise from Apollo 8 – December 24, 1968 The year 1968 was a tumultuous one in the US with many political and cultural changes punctuated by...
24th Dec 2023
74

First Pictures: Earthrise from Apollo 8 – December 24, 1968

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

24th Dec 2023
The year 1968 was a tumultuous one in the US with many political and cultural changes punctuated by the assassination of prominent public figures, violent protests […]
Star Way of Humanity: American Space Art During the COVID-19 shutdown three years ago, I spent a lot of my time at home digging through my...
20th Aug 2023
37

Star Way of Humanity: American Space Art

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Aug 2023
During the COVID-19 shutdown three years ago, I spent a lot of my time at home digging through my archives discovering all sorts of items I […]
Lichen as the common ancestor of all life on earth The alternate "Lichen as last universal common ancestor" model, which I will refer to for...
2nd Apr 2026
1

Lichen as the common ancestor of all life on earth

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Apr 2026
The alternate "Lichen as last universal common ancestor" model, which I will refer to for convenience as “Big Lichen”, does not expect so little of mother nature.
The perks of being a mole rat The secrets to extending human lifespans might lie in the animals that can already live for...
4th Feb 2026
1

The perks of being a mole rat

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Feb 2026
The secrets to extending human lifespans might lie in the animals that can already live for centuries.
Curlew nest survival The Eurasian Curlew is designated as ‘Near-Threatened’ by IUCN/BirdLife. It is Red-listed in the UK,...
4th Jan 2023
61

Curlew nest survival

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Jan 2023
The Eurasian Curlew is designated as ‘Near-Threatened’ by IUCN/BirdLife. It is Red-listed in the UK,  largely due to a rapid decline in breeding numbers. In this context, the fact that there are a few pink squares (indicating increased numbers) on the map showing breeding...
New Whale Fossil – Possibly Heaviest Animal Ever The largest and heaviest animal to ever live on the Earth, as far as we know, is the blue whale,...
3rd Aug 2023
27

New Whale Fossil – Possibly Heaviest Animal Ever

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Aug 2023
The largest and heaviest animal to ever live on the Earth, as far as we know, is the blue whale, which is extant today. The blue whale is larger than any dinosaur, even the giant sauropods. The average weight of a blue whale is 160 tons, with the largest specimen being 190 tons,...
Carl Sagan, nuking the moon, and not nuking the moon Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the...
13th Apr 2024
123

Carl Sagan, nuking the moon, and not nuking the moon

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

13th Apr 2024
Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the moon.” The truth is that given a lot of power, a nuclear weapon, and a lot of extremely specific circumstances, we too might find ourselves thinking “I should nuke the moon.”
At Tiny Scales, a Giant Burst on Tree of Life A new technique for finding and characterizing microbes has boosted the number of known bacteria by...
6th Aug 2015
1

At Tiny Scales, a Giant Burst on Tree of Life

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Aug 2015
A new technique for finding and characterizing microbes has boosted the number of known bacteria by almost 50 percent, revealing a hidden world all around us. The post At Tiny Scales, a Giant Burst on Tree of Life first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Mary Catherine Bateson: Live Longer, Think Longer ### Parenting Earth The birth of a first child is the most intense disruption that most adults...
10th Feb 2011
1

Mary Catherine Bateson: Live Longer, Think Longer

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Feb 2011
### Parenting Earth The birth of a first child is the most intense disruption that most adults experience. Suddenly the new parents have no sleep, no social life, no sex, and they have to keep up with a child that changes from week to week. "Two ignorant adults learn from the...
The great reinforcer Alongside all the successes of science in the Covid era, the pandemic has also sparked an outbreak...
8th Feb 2021
1

The great reinforcer

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Feb 2021
Alongside all the successes of science in the Covid era, the pandemic has also sparked an outbreak of viral misinformation and sloppy research, revealing the glaring flaws in our scientific system.
4th Nov 2025
13

Readers from Canada, Australia and the EU can now subscribe to Works in Progress

from The Works in Progress Newsletter [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Nov 2025
Our first print edition ships in two weeks.
NAS "State of Science" 2026 address I watched the webcast of the NAS State of Science address by outgoing NAS president Dr. Marcia...
2nd Jun 2026
1

NAS "State of Science" 2026 address

from nanoscale views [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Jun 2026
I watched the webcast of the NAS State of Science address by outgoing NAS president Dr. Marcia McNutt.  (I did not watch the panel discussion afterward, so sorry if I missed critical pieces.)  A few thoughts on this: The intro music was a very classy baroque string quartet. ...
How TV learned to sell itself Sports solved a problem that nearly killed television.
11th Mar 2026
1

How TV learned to sell itself

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Mar 2026
Sports solved a problem that nearly killed television.
The power of awe Mid-afternoon, one Saturday late in September, I forgot where I was. I forgot that I was visiting...
20th Nov 2023
53

The power of awe

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Nov 2023
Mid-afternoon, one Saturday late in September, I forgot where I was. I forgot that I was visiting Seattle for the second time; I forgot that I’d just finished co-organizing a workshop partially about nuclear physics for the first time. I’d … Continue reading →
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
1

Cory Doctorow: The Coming Century of War Against Your Computer

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Larry Harvey: Why The Man Keeps Burning ## The Hundred Year Burn "Burning Man is like one of those birthday candles you can’t blow out,”...
21st Oct 2014
1

Larry Harvey: Why The Man Keeps Burning

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

21st Oct 2014
## The Hundred Year Burn "Burning Man is like one of those birthday candles you can’t blow out,” observed Burning Man’s primary founder and Chief Philosophical Officer. Indeed, Burning Man has thrived in the face of Burners and skeptics alike declaring it dead after each of its...
Scant Evidence of Power Laws Found in Real-World Networks A new study challenges one of the most celebrated and controversial ideas in network science. ...
11th Oct 2018
1

Scant Evidence of Power Laws Found in Real-World Networks

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Oct 2018
A new study challenges one of the most celebrated and controversial ideas in network science. The post Scant Evidence of Power Laws Found in Real-World Networks first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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
76

Mechanical Watch

from Bartosz Ciechanowski [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
A New Twist Reveals Superconductivity’s Secrets An unexpected superconductor was beginning to look like a fluke, but a new theory and a second...
8th Jul 2021
1

A New Twist Reveals Superconductivity’s Secrets

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Jul 2021
An unexpected superconductor was beginning to look like a fluke, but a new theory and a second discovery have revealed that emergent quasiparticles may be behind the effect. The post A New Twist Reveals Superconductivity’s Secrets first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Edward O. Wilson: The Social Conquest of Earth ### The real creation story “History makes no sense without prehistory,“ Wilson declared, “and...
21st Apr 2012
1

Edward O. Wilson: The Social Conquest of Earth

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

21st Apr 2012
### The real creation story “History makes no sense without prehistory,“ Wilson declared, “and prehistory makes no sense without biology.” He began by noting that every religion has a different creation story, all of them necessarily based on ignorance of what really happened in...
How to write for Works in Progress We’re looking for new authors and article pitches.
4th Apr 2025
1

How to write for Works in Progress

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Apr 2025
We’re looking for new authors and article pitches.
Roman Krznaric: Becoming a Better Ancestor Human beings have an astonishing evolutionary gift: agile imaginations that can shift in an instant...
18th Nov 2020
1

Roman Krznaric: Becoming a Better Ancestor

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

18th Nov 2020
Human beings have an astonishing evolutionary gift: agile imaginations that can shift in an instant from thinking on a scale of seconds to a scale of years or even centuries. The need to draw on our capacity to think long-term has never been more urgent, whether in areas such as...
Visualizing Ship Movements with AIS Data Explore the beautiful, intricate paths of ships over a year—tracked from America's busiest ports to...
17th Sep 2024
117

Visualizing Ship Movements with AIS Data

from Beautiful Public Data [alt+shift+b] in science

17th Sep 2024
Explore the beautiful, intricate paths of ships over a year—tracked from America's busiest ports to the open ocean via AIS marine tracking data.
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....
22nd Jan 2024
116

Colliding the familiar and the anti-familiar at CERN

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

22nd Jan 2024
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 →
getting started with bayesian inference In my previous post, we spoke about hypothesis testing from a frequentist perspective. This is the...
27th Jun 2020
23

getting started with bayesian inference

from Apoorva Srinivasan [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Talk - Where Are The Open Sets? I was invited to give a talk at HoTTEST 2022, and was more than happy to accept! Ever since I was...
6th Oct 2022
41

Talk - Where Are The Open Sets?

from Chris Grossack's Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Oct 2022
I was invited to give a talk at HoTTEST 2022, and was more than happy to accept! Ever since I was first learning HoTT I was curious how we could be sure that theorems in HoTT give us corresponding theorems in “classical” homotopy theory. Earlier this summer I spent a lot of...
Local warming Gas heating is bad for the environment. But home-built heat pumps aren’t perfect either.
21st Apr 2022
1

Local warming

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

21st Apr 2022
Gas heating is bad for the environment. But home-built heat pumps aren’t perfect either.
Borneo: Ridiculous Mothing At Trus Madi Entomology Camp When doing research on the few possible "lifer" birds that I could find on this trip to Sabah, and...
14th Dec 2024
46

Borneo: Ridiculous Mothing At Trus Madi Entomology Camp

from Explorations of an Ecologist [alt+shift+b] in science

14th Dec 2024
When doing research on the few possible "lifer" birds that I could find on this trip to Sabah, and in particular, looking for sites to find the Bornean Frogmouth, I read about the Trus Madi Entomology Camp. This piqued my interest, as there is almost nothing I like more than...
Fluorescent lamps (don’t) have ears Welcome to this week’s edition of the Journal of Negative Results
1st Sep 2026
1

Fluorescent lamps (don’t) have ears

from lcamtuf’s thing [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Sep 2026
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Journal of Negative Results
Nadia Asparouhova: The Making and Maintenance of our Open Source Infrastructure Nadia Asparouhova is particularly interested in infrastructure, governance, and the economics of the...
10th Dec 2020
1
10th Dec 2020
Nadia Asparouhova is particularly interested in infrastructure, governance, and the economics of the internet - and how the dynamics of these subjects play out in software, online communities and generally living life online. Asparouhova, who interviewed hundreds of developers...
The rare, deadly virus lurking in the Southwest US, and the bigger picture If you live in this one county in California, you might be more likely to die from Sin Nombre Virus...
14th Nov 2025
1

The rare, deadly virus lurking in the Southwest US, and the bigger picture

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

14th Nov 2025
If you live in this one county in California, you might be more likely to die from Sin Nombre Virus than in a car crash.
Can we “cure” cancer? In an excellent recent essay on “big visions for biology,” Sam Rodriques writes: Ask most biologists...
1st Feb 2023
61

Can we “cure” cancer?

from The Roots of Progress | Articles [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Feb 2023
In an excellent recent essay on “big visions for biology,” Sam Rodriques writes: Ask most biologists about the cure for cancer, and they will tell you it doesn’t exist: cancer is many diseases that are mostly unrelated to each other, and that all have to be cured one at a...
Brr Wants A Job 8 months post-ice, it's time for something new!
22nd Jul 2024
102

Brr Wants A Job

from brr [alt+shift+b] in science

22nd Jul 2024
8 months post-ice, it's time for something new!
The End of Paris Yesterday
a week ago
1

The End of Paris

from Uncharted Territories [alt+shift+b] in science

a week ago
Yesterday
Margaret Levi: The Organized Pursuit of Knowledge The human quest to understand our world continues. The Director of Stanford’s [Center for Advanced...
18th Apr 2018
1

Margaret Levi: The Organized Pursuit of Knowledge

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

18th Apr 2018
The human quest to understand our world continues. The Director of Stanford’s [Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS)](http://casbs.stanford.edu/) discusses how academics and researchers have organized the study of human action, society, and institutions...
How to build a crazy awesome Australian immigration system The Australian immigration system must exclude dickheads, bullshitters, and bludgers. This post has...
10th Jun 2026
2

How to build a crazy awesome Australian immigration system

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Jun 2026
The Australian immigration system must exclude dickheads, bullshitters, and bludgers. This post has been inspired by Joe Walker’s recent set of three exemplary interviews (Martin Parkinson (former Treasury, author of 2023 migration review), Mark Cully (historian), Mike Pezzullo...
Bakeoff Formspree makes it easy to receive submissions from HTML forms on your static website. Functional...
1st Jul 2019
1

Bakeoff

from Peder M. Isager [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Jul 2019
Formspree makes it easy to receive submissions from HTML forms on your static website. Functional Form This theme has a form-to-email feature built in, thanks to the simple Formspree integration. All you need to activate the form is a valid recipient email address saved in the...
Sylvia Earle & Tierney Thys: Oceanic ### Oceans alive Neither of them eats fish. Both marine biologists applaud the improved regulation...
21st May 2014
1

Sylvia Earle & Tierney Thys: Oceanic

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

21st May 2014
### Oceans alive Neither of them eats fish. Both marine biologists applaud the improved regulation of American fishing and the resulting recovery of important fisheries, but they note that 90% of our seafood is imported, and one-third of that is caught illegally. Two-thirds of...
David Grinspoon: Earth in Human Hands ## Cognitive planet **Thanks to the growing human domination** of natural systems on Earth, people...
20th Sep 2017
1

David Grinspoon: Earth in Human Hands

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Sep 2017
## Cognitive planet **Thanks to the growing human domination** of natural systems on Earth, people say we are entering an Anthropocene Epoch, Grinspoon began, but what if the term “epoch” understates the consequence of what is going on? Astrobiologists recently learned that...
The Forgotten Piece of Evolutionary Theory What if we took the 'struggle for life' seriously again?
22nd Jul 2023
48

The Forgotten Piece of Evolutionary Theory

from SubAnima [alt+shift+b] in science

22nd Jul 2023
What if we took the 'struggle for life' seriously again?
Philip Tetlock: Superforecasting ### All it takes to improve forecasting is KEEP SCORE Will Syria’s President Assad still be in...
24th Nov 2015
1

Philip Tetlock: Superforecasting

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

24th Nov 2015
### All it takes to improve forecasting is KEEP SCORE Will Syria’s President Assad still be in power at the end of next year? Will Russia and China hold joint naval exercises in the Mediterranean in the next six months? Will the Oil Volatility Index fall below 25 in 2016? Will...
1
14th Mar 2017
## Doing Good Better [![](https://media.longnow.org/files/2/lomborghaiti520w.jpg)](https://media.longnow.org/files/2/lomborghaiti.jpg) **Lomborg opened with a photo from Haiti** , showing a young girl dressed for school wading through the muck and garbage of a slum, with pigs...
Do Apes Have a Theory of Mind Designing research studies to determine what is going on inside the minds of animals is extremely...
4th Feb 2025
47

Do Apes Have a Theory of Mind

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Feb 2025
Designing research studies to determine what is going on inside the minds of animals is extremely challenging. The literature is littered with past studies that failed to properly control for all variables and thereby overinterpreted the results. The challenge is that we cannot...
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...
7th Aug 2023
32

What I’ve been reading, July–August 2023

from The Roots of Progress | Articles [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Aug 2023
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...
Eric Cline: 1177 B.C.: When Civilization Collapsed ### When chaos overwhelmed civilization Archaeologist Cline began by declaring that the time he...
12th Jan 2016
1

Eric Cline: 1177 B.C.: When Civilization Collapsed

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

12th Jan 2016
### When chaos overwhelmed civilization Archaeologist Cline began by declaring that the time he would most like to be transported to is the Late Bronze Age in the Mediterranean—the five centuries between 1700 and 1200 B.C. In those centuries eight advanced societies were densely...
A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning I've never been plagued by the big existential questions. You know, like What's my purpose? or What...
11th Jul 2016
35

A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning

from Melting Asphalt [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Jul 2016
I've never been plagued by the big existential questions. You know, like What's my purpose? or What does it all mean? Growing up I was a very science-minded kid — still am — and from an early age I learned… Read more ›
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
55

A (quantum) complex legacy

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

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 →
How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too Computer scientists have come up with a bounded algorithm that can fairly divide a cake among any...
10th Nov 2016
1

How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Nov 2016
Computer scientists have come up with a bounded algorithm that can fairly divide a cake among any number of people. The post How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too first appeared on Quanta Magazine
14,000 Photos of Army Uniforms and Rations from the 70s and 80s An incredible archive of 14,000 photos of Army uniforms, military gear and rations from the 70s and...
20th Nov 2024
123

14,000 Photos of Army Uniforms and Rations from the 70s and 80s

from Beautiful Public Data [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Nov 2024
An incredible archive of 14,000 photos of Army uniforms, military gear and rations from the 70s and 80s.
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
1

Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
5th Feb 2026
1

How do we increase competition for hospitals? | Out-Of-Pocket

from Out-of-Pocket Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Feb 2026
Otherwise prices will keep going up?
Machine Learning’s ‘Amazing’ Ability to Predict Chaos In new computer experiments, artificial-intelligence algorithms can tell the future of chaotic...
14th Feb 2019
1

Machine Learning’s ‘Amazing’ Ability to Predict Chaos

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

14th Feb 2019
In new computer experiments, artificial-intelligence algorithms can tell the future of chaotic systems. The post Machine Learning’s ‘Amazing’ Ability to Predict Chaos first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Plan To Build First Commercial Fusion Reactor How close are we to having fusion reactors actually sending electric power to the grid? This is a...
6th Jan 2025
96

Plan To Build First Commercial Fusion Reactor

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Jan 2025
How close are we to having fusion reactors actually sending electric power to the grid? This is a huge and complicated question, and one with massive implications for our civilization. I think we are still at the point where we cannot count on fusion reactors coming online...
The Transition to Agriculture It is generally accepted that the transition from hunter-gatherer communities to agriculture was the...
3rd Apr 2025
38

The Transition to Agriculture

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Apr 2025
It is generally accepted that the transition from hunter-gatherer communities to agriculture was the single most important event in human history, ultimately giving rise to all of civilization. The transition started to take place around 12,000 years ago in the Middle East,...
Towards a Computational Formalization for Foundations of Medicine A Theory of Medicine? As it’s practiced today, medicine is almost always about particulars: “this...
3rd Feb 2025
92

Towards a Computational Formalization for Foundations of Medicine

from Stephen Wolfram Writings [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Feb 2025
A Theory of Medicine? As it’s practiced today, medicine is almost always about particulars: “this has gone wrong; this is how to fix it”. But might it also be possible to talk about medicine in a more general, more abstract way—and perhaps to create a framework in which one can...
Peatland restoration – ploughing for plovers. Commercial forestry was never a good option for the wet peatlands of northeast Scotland, with...
16th Aug 2025
41

Peatland restoration – ploughing for plovers.

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

16th Aug 2025
Commercial forestry was never a good option for the wet peatlands of northeast Scotland, with planting financed by tax subsidies and sold on the mantra of ‘rural jobs’. The trees did not grow well and, thirty years on, more government money started to be spent to restore the same...
A New Blast May Have Forged Cosmic Gold For decades, researchers believed that violent supernovas forged gold and other heavy elements. But...
18th May 2017
1

A New Blast May Have Forged Cosmic Gold

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

18th May 2017
For decades, researchers believed that violent supernovas forged gold and other heavy elements. But many now argue for a different cosmic quarry. The post A New Blast May Have Forged Cosmic Gold first appeared on Quanta Magazine
In praise of questions Prende y se apaga sola, sale después de hora. CHARLY GARCÍA La máquina de ser feliz I’ve learned to...
8th Oct 2026
1

In praise of questions

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Oct 2026
Prende y se apaga sola, sale después de hora. CHARLY GARCÍA La máquina de ser feliz I’ve learned to tolerate them, and sometimes even like them, but Zoom meetings are weird. Even in familiar contexts: I have weekly check-ins with … Continue reading →
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
44

Designing the First Apple Macintosh: The Engineers’ Story

from IEEE Spectrum [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Philip Rosedale: 'Second Life:' What Do We Learn If We Digitize EVERYTHING? ### 2nd Life takes off What is real life coming to owe digital life? After a couple years in the...
1st Dec 2006
2
1st Dec 2006
### 2nd Life takes off What is real life coming to owe digital life? After a couple years in the flat part of exponential growth, the steep part is now arriving for the massive multi-player online world construction kit called "Second Life." With 1.7 million accounts,...
South Pole Topography The relentless accumulation (and management) of snow.
27th Jan 2023
60

South Pole Topography

from brr [alt+shift+b] in science

27th Jan 2023
The relentless accumulation (and management) of snow.
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
1

Jared Diamond: How Societies Fail-And Sometimes Succeed

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Metaphors mold minds Every good design is founded on a great metaphor. How to use metaphors to design more a inclusive...
21st Mar 2022
26

Metaphors mold minds

from Interaction Magic - George Cave [alt+shift+b] in science

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.
A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness “Anomalous” heat flow, which at first appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, gives...
1st Oct 2025
25

A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness

from Quanta Magazine [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Oct 2025
“Anomalous” heat flow, which at first appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, gives physicists a way to detect quantum entanglement without destroying it. The post A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness first appeared on Quanta Magazine
A nicer voltmeter clock Sometimes, electronic circuit design is mostly about wood
16th May 2026
1

A nicer voltmeter clock

from lcamtuf’s thing [alt+shift+b] in science

16th May 2026
Sometimes, electronic circuit design is mostly about wood
Orientation Using Mahony & Madgwick to calibrate and process Arduino orientation data.
1st Jul 2018
25

Orientation

from Interaction Magic - George Cave [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Jul 2018
Using Mahony & Madgwick to calibrate and process Arduino orientation data.
Why Am I Left-Handed? Why are only 10% of people left-handed? Geneticists, developmental biologists, neuroscientists, and...
4th Aug 2026
1

Why Am I Left-Handed?

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Aug 2026
Why are only 10% of people left-handed? Geneticists, developmental biologists, neuroscientists, and evolutionary biologists have all sought explanations, resulting in an astronomical amount of research into the mystery of handedness. No one has put all the pieces together yet,...
Adornment "Form follows function" is a maxim that an object's shape and appearance should be defined only by...
2nd Sep 2024
44

Adornment

from Tikalon Blog by Dev Gualtieri [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Sep 2024
"Form follows function" is a maxim that an object's shape and appearance should be defined only by its purpose or function. A quick perusal of any antique shop will show that this maxim is generally ignored. Humans (Homo sapiens) have been called "naked apes," but we and our...
Alaska Wolf Found With Record Amount of Mercury, a Sign of Growing Contamination When Alaska’s wolves began eating sea otters, it looked like a story of adaptation. Then they...
2nd Jan 2026
1
2nd Jan 2026
When Alaska’s wolves began eating sea otters, it looked like a story of adaptation. Then they started getting sick. Read more on E360 →
Wayne Clough: Smithsonian Forever ### The Smithsonian's long now [Note for those who mentally enunciate words while reading: the last...
18th Aug 2009
1

Wayne Clough: Smithsonian Forever

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

18th Aug 2009
### The Smithsonian's long now [Note for those who mentally enunciate words while reading: the last name is pronounced "Cluff."] Secretary Clough reminded the audience that we own the Smithsonian, and what that amounts to is 19 museums and galleries containing 137 million...
How Randomness Improves Algorithms Unpredictability can help computer scientists solve otherwise intractable problems. The...
3rd Apr 2023
74

How Randomness Improves Algorithms

from Quanta Magazine [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Apr 2023
Unpredictability can help computer scientists solve otherwise intractable problems. The post How Randomness Improves Algorithms first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Shark Bay: a pristine template for marine ecosystems worldwide Here in Western Australia, we are lucky to be in the global centre of seagrass diversity.  As such,...
13th Aug 2013
75

Shark Bay: a pristine template for marine ecosystems worldwide

from Confessions of a Marine Ecologist [alt+shift+b] in science

13th Aug 2013
Here in Western Australia, we are lucky to be in the global centre of seagrass diversity.  As such, we have a coastline dominated by many different species of seagrasses – from large, temperate seagrasses like Posidonia australis to small, tropical species like Halodule...
Direct Current Data Centers Casey Handmer, Matt Weickert Originally posted at the Terraform Blog. This post explains our current...
30th Jan 2026
1

Direct Current Data Centers

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

30th Jan 2026
Casey Handmer, Matt Weickert Originally posted at the Terraform Blog. This post explains our current views on how humanity will achieve Kardashev Level 1 status by exploiting the full energy resources of an entire planet. More specifically, how pure solar+batteries will power AI...
What does Innovaccer actually do? A look under the hood | Out-Of-Pocket A conversation about EHRs, who their customers actually are, and building apps
3rd Jun 2025
37

What does Innovaccer actually do? A look under the hood | Out-Of-Pocket

from Out-of-Pocket Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Jun 2025
A conversation about EHRs, who their customers actually are, and building apps
Common ROI mistakes in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket Plus some benchmark ROI numbers for you to think about
7th Jul 2025
35

Common ROI mistakes in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket

from Out-of-Pocket Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Jul 2025
Plus some benchmark ROI numbers for you to think about
A look at Britain’s new DARPA ARIA is the UK’s visionary new scientific funding body. It has £800m and the freedom to make big...
10th Feb 2023
1

A look at Britain’s new DARPA

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Feb 2023
ARIA is the UK’s visionary new scientific funding body. It has £800m and the freedom to make big bold bets on the scientific trajectories it thinks will benefit Britain – and change the future. We interviewed chief executive Ilan Gur and chairman Matt Clifford, to better...
Quantum computing vs. Grubhub pon receiving my speaking assignments for the Tucson Festival of Books, I mentally raised my...
3rd Apr 2023
76

Quantum computing vs. Grubhub

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Apr 2023
pon receiving my speaking assignments for the Tucson Festival of Books, I mentally raised my eyebrows. I’d be participating in a panel discussion with Mike Evans, the founder of Grubhub? But I hadn’t created an app that’s a household name. I … Continue reading →
Octopus, solar & e-paper energy dashboards I built a custom energy dashboard for my house using this beautiful, 2-bit colour, e-paper display....
19th May 2025
1

Octopus, solar & e-paper energy dashboards

from Interaction Magic - George Cave [alt+shift+b] in science

19th May 2025
I built a custom energy dashboard for my house using this beautiful, 2-bit colour, e-paper display. Hardware, software, data and design.
Making an Aging Clock Is this really where longevity science needs to go?
a week ago
1

Making an Aging Clock

from Cremieux Recueil [alt+shift+b] in science

a week ago
Is this really where longevity science needs to go?
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
28

Notes on doing science and research

from Inverted Passion [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
What’s Coming in the Sky in 2026? We review what's coming in the sky and in space exploration for 2026 The post What’s Coming in the...
11th Jan 2026
1

What’s Coming in the Sky in 2026?

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Jan 2026
We review what's coming in the sky and in space exploration for 2026 The post What’s Coming in the Sky in 2026? appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
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
34

Enjoy the Coming Leap Day: Some Thoughts about the Calendar

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

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.
Kishore Mahbubani: Has the West Lost It? Can Asia Save It? In Kishore Mahbubani’s view, global power is shifting from the West to the Rest—from Europe and...
1st May 2018
1

Kishore Mahbubani: Has the West Lost It? Can Asia Save It?

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

1st May 2018
In Kishore Mahbubani’s view, global power is shifting from the West to the Rest—from Europe and North America to Asia and Africa. He argues that changes will be required both in the West and the Rest to manage the shift gracefully for long-term stability. The rest of the world...
Could There Be Laws Of Biology? Physics has such nice equations and universal laws. Could we ever expect to find similar principles...
10th Mar 2023
40

Could There Be Laws Of Biology?

from SubAnima [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Mar 2023
Physics has such nice equations and universal laws. Could we ever expect to find similar principles or axioms for biology?
Terraform Talent Development Originally posted at the Terraform Blog on November 17, 2025. Terraform Industries is the vehicle by...
24th Nov 2025
1

Terraform Talent Development

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
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
1

Tony Hsieh: Helping Revitalize a City

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
NASA’s Explorer 18: The First Interplanetary Monitoring Platform Among the greatest scientific achievements of the opening years of the Space Age was the...
27th Nov 2023
51

NASA’s Explorer 18: The First Interplanetary Monitoring Platform

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

27th Nov 2023
Among the greatest scientific achievements of the opening years of the Space Age was the characterization of Earth’s magnetic field and the discovery of what became […]
Math’s ‘Bunkbed Conjecture’ Has Been Debunked It was intuitive, even obvious. It was also wrong. The post Math’s ‘Bunkbed Conjecture’...
1st Nov 2024
124

Math’s ‘Bunkbed Conjecture’ Has Been Debunked

from Quanta Magazine [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Nov 2024
It was intuitive, even obvious. It was also wrong. The post Math’s ‘Bunkbed Conjecture’ Has Been Debunked first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Unleashing the Advantage of Quantum AI As experimental capabilities advance rapidly, the quantum computing community faces a critical...
10th Apr 2026
1

Unleashing the Advantage of Quantum AI

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Apr 2026
As experimental capabilities advance rapidly, the quantum computing community faces a critical elephant in the room: What will these quantum machines eventually be useful for? Will they deliver the promised broad societal impact, or will they remain highly specialized devices …...
South Pole Signage Please close doors quietly!
23rd Jul 2023
28

South Pole Signage

from brr [alt+shift+b] in science

23rd Jul 2023
Please close doors quietly!
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
1

Proposing a theory committee at the Psychological Science Accelerator

from Peder M. Isager [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
The Illogic of Nuclear Escalation How much is enough? It’s the most basic question in the nuclear arms race. For over sixty years, few...
1st Nov 2022
27

The Illogic of Nuclear Escalation

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Nov 2022
How much is enough? It’s the most basic question in the nuclear arms race. For over sixty years, few have asked it, and even fewer have received an answer.
Alexander Rose: Millennial Precedent Alexander Rose, Long Now Executive Director and project manager for the Clock of the Long Now,...
6th Apr 2011
1

Alexander Rose: Millennial Precedent

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Tong Test for Artificial General Intelligence Most readers are probably familiar with the Turing Test – a concept proposed by early computing...
2nd Oct 2023
30

Tong Test for Artificial General Intelligence

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

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”....
The evolution of bacteria Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists...
5th Nov 2025
1

The evolution of bacteria

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Nov 2025
Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists have watched evolution happen in real time, and it’s changed how we understand natural selection.
Internet Harvest (2020, 3) Repairs, number stations, the only good Twitters, a low-key infohazard about pictures of...
18th Sep 2020
49

Internet Harvest (2020, 3)

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

18th Sep 2020
Repairs, number stations, the only good Twitters, a low-key infohazard about pictures of butterflies, and more.
How to tame a complex system I get a lot of pushback to the idea that humanity can “master” nature. Nature is a complex system, I...
6th Jan 2026
1

How to tame a complex system

from The Roots of Progress [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Jan 2026
I get a lot of pushback to the idea that humanity can “master” nature. Nature is a complex system, I am told, and therefore unpredictable, uncontrollable, unruly. I think this is true but irrelevant. Consider the weather, a prime example of a complex system. We can predict the...
Conservation beyond boundaries When an environmental impact assessment concludes that only a small number of shorebirds will be...
7th Apr 2023
57

Conservation beyond boundaries

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Apr 2023
When an environmental impact assessment concludes that only a small number of shorebirds will be affected by a new airport, because relatively small flocks are counted during field surveys, is there an assumption that the birds encountered are always the same individuals? What if...
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
1

What distinguishes quantum from classical thermodynamics?

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

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 →
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...
17th Aug 2022
47

USAF Project Able-1: The First Attempt to Reach the Moon

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

17th Aug 2022
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 […]
Winter Solstice Arrives on Sunday Dec 21 Dec. 21 is the winter solstice. We explain what this means and how the seasons come about. The post...
19th Dec 2025
1

Winter Solstice Arrives on Sunday Dec 21

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

19th Dec 2025
Dec. 21 is the winter solstice. We explain what this means and how the seasons come about. The post Winter Solstice Arrives on Sunday Dec 21 appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Against supplements My methods and my madness
a week ago
2

Against supplements

from The Works in Progress Newsletter [alt+shift+b] in science

a week ago
My methods and my madness
Confidence In the Press This is the fifth in a series of excerpts from Elements of Data Science, now available from Lulu.com...
4th Jan 2025
28

Confidence In the Press

from Probably Overthinking It [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Jan 2025
This is the fifth in a series of excerpts from Elements of Data Science, now available from Lulu.com and online booksellers. It’s based on Chapter 16, which is part of the political alignment case study. You can read the complete example here, or run the Jupyter notebook on...
Rust in Numbers Why do manure spreaders have life cycles?
6th May 2026
1

Rust in Numbers

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

6th May 2026
Why do manure spreaders have life cycles?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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