NeuroLogica Blog
2023 Hottest Year on Record
What everyone knew was coming is now official – 2023 was the warmest year on record. This means we...
2nd Jan 2024
What everyone knew was coming is now official – 2023 was the warmest year on record. This means we can also say that the last 10 years are the hottest decade on record. 2023 dethrones 2016 as the previous warmest year and bumps 2010 out of the top 10. Further, in the last half of...
Casey Handmer's blog
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
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...
Drew Ex Machina
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
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 […]
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...
Quantum Frontiers
The Book of Mark
Mark Srednicki doesn’t look like a high priest. He’s a professor of physics at the University of...
9th Jul 2023
Mark Srednicki doesn’t look like a high priest. He’s a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB); and you’ll sooner find him in khakis than in sacred vestments. Humor suits his round face better than channeling … Continue reading →
Works in Progress...
How to write for Works in Progress
We’re looking for new authors and article pitches.
4th Apr 2025
We’re looking for new authors and article pitches.
The Quanta Podcast
The Math of Catastrophe
Around 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a lush grassland. Then, as if a switch flipped, it began to...
14th Oct 2025
Around 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a lush grassland. Then, as if a switch flipped, it began to dry out, becoming the desert that we know today. Tipping points are moments in Earth’s history where gradual change suddenly becomes rapid and forms a new equilibrium.
They’re one...
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, October 2023
A ~monthly feature. Last month was busy for me with a lot of travel and a lot of focus on The Roots...
11th Oct 2023
A ~monthly feature. Last month was busy for me with a lot of travel and a lot of focus on The Roots of Progress as a nonprofit organization, so I haven’t had as much time as I prefer for research and writing. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find...
The Quanta Podcast
Computer Scientists Break Traveling Salesperson Record
After 44 years, there’s finally a better way to find approximate solutions to the notoriously...
7th Jan 2021
After 44 years, there’s finally a better way to find approximate solutions to the notoriously difficult traveling salesperson problem.
The post Computer Scientists Break Traveling Salesperson Record first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Interaction Magic -...
Hacking the terrorist timepiece
The hardest part of building hardware interfaces is not having the right tools to prototype, test...
15th Aug 2022
The hardest part of building hardware interfaces is not having the right tools to prototype, test and validate ideas. A behind the scenes look at my prototyping process, on a project to re-invent the famous Casio F-91W watch.
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...
Stephen Wolfram...
In Memory of My Wife, Elise Cawley (1961–2026), with Thanks for 36 Wonderful Years
4th Aug 2026
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How do we increase competition for hospitals? | Out-Of-Pocket
Otherwise prices will keep going up?
5th Feb 2026
Otherwise prices will keep going up?
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.
The Roots of...
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
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...
Drew Ex Machina
First Pictures: Color View of the Earth & A Tropical Depression from Space – October 5, 1954
While today we are inundated with color images of the Earth, our earliest views from space were...
5th Oct 2024
While today we are inundated with color images of the Earth, our earliest views from space were confined to monochromatic or black and white images (see […]
wadertales
Is inbreeding a problem for England’s Black-tailed Godwits?
The current English breeding population of limosa Black-tailed Godwits is relatively new, arising...
29th Apr 2025
The current English breeding population of limosa Black-tailed Godwits is relatively new, arising from a recolonisation in the 1950s that is presumed to have involved Dutch-hatched individuals. Given that the number of breeding birds is small and that there has been a...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
My Science Fiction Story “Who Speaks for Earth” Just Published; Free Link
I am tickled to report that The Worlds Within magazine has just published my science-fiction story...
22nd Mar 2026
I am tickled to report that The Worlds Within magazine has just published my science-fiction story “Who Speaks for Earth.” It concerns a Congressional hearing about a future President, who had to bomb a radio telescope owned by a religious group that insisted on answering an...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Climate Debate Regarding Health Effects – Part III
Part 3 Hi Steve, and thank you for your timely response, and for even considering hosting this...
6th Mar 2023
Part 3 Hi Steve, and thank you for your timely response, and for even considering hosting this debate. There has been, and continues to be a “blackout” on almost all discussion regarding the science behind climate change. If “The science” is truly “settled”, it is a pretty shaky...
Long Now
Walter Mischel: The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control
### Thinking hot and cool
**In the 1960s, Mischel** and colleagues at Stanford launched a series of...
3rd May 2016
### Thinking hot and cool
**In the 1960s, Mischel** and colleagues at Stanford launched a series of delayed-gratification experiments with young children using a method that later came to be known as “the marshmallow test.” A researcher whom the child knew and trusted, after...
Wanderingspace
Saturn Vortex
“This is a view of a ~2,000-km-wide vortex of swirling clouds above Saturn's north pole, imaged in...
1st Dec 2024
“This is a view of a ~2,000-km-wide vortex of swirling clouds above Saturn's north pole, imaged in polarized light with Cassini's narrow-angle camera on November 27, 2012. I've processed the original monochrome image to approximate the color of the area at the time.” — Jason...
ToughSF
Nuclear Photon Rockets: Flashlights to the Stars
In this post, we will have a look at the concept of using a nuclear photon rocket for interstellar...
16th Nov 2020
In this post, we will have a look at the concept of using a nuclear photon rocket for interstellar travel. They are an old concept that should theoretically be the ultimate form of relativistic propulsion.
However, today they are unknown or unpopular. Why might that be the...
Drew Ex Machina
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
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 […]
brr
Pressure Altitude
Day-to-day variability at the South Pole.
6th Aug 2023
Day-to-day variability at the South Pole.
The Quanta Podcast
How Mutant Viral Swarms Spread Disease
A new understanding of viral swarms is helping researchers predict how viruses will evolve and where...
3rd Sep 2015
A new understanding of viral swarms is helping researchers predict how viruses will evolve and where disease is likely to spread.
The post How Mutant Viral Swarms Spread Disease first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Long Now
Matt Ridley: Deep Optimism
### Undeniable Progress
Hominids had upright walking, stone tools, fire, even language but still...
23rd Mar 2011
### Undeniable Progress
Hominids had upright walking, stone tools, fire, even language but still remained in profound stasis. What led to humanity's global takeoff, Ridley argues, was the invention of exchange about 120,000 years ago. "That's ten times older than...
Probably...
Think Java, but interactive
The online version of Think Java now features interactive widgets that run the code examples in the...
3 weeks ago
The online version of Think Java now features interactive widgets that run the code examples in the browser. For readers, it means you can try out the examples, modify them, and test your code. And for us it means we can publish an interactive version of the book without...
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
Conservation...
In climate fight, ‘nature vs tech’ a false debate
2nd Dec 2024
The Quanta Podcast
Mathematicians Tame Rogue Waves, Lighting Up Future of LEDs
The mathematician Svitlana Mayboroda and collaborators have figured out how to predict the behavior...
1st Feb 2018
The mathematician Svitlana Mayboroda and collaborators have figured out how to predict the behavior of electrons — a mathematical discovery that could have immediate practical effects.
The post Mathematicians Tame Rogue Waves, Lighting Up Future of LEDs first...
Works in Progress...
Watt lies beneath
The earth’s core is hot. So hot, that if we drilled deep enough, we could power the world millions...
15th Nov 2023
The earth’s core is hot. So hot, that if we drilled deep enough, we could power the world millions of times over with cheap, clean energy, supporting renewables when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. But getting there is tough.
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
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.
pcloadletter
Make your PR process resilient to AI slop
One concern I have heard from AI naysayers is that AI slop will make code reviews nearly impossible....
24th Dec 2025
One concern I have heard from AI naysayers is that AI slop will make code reviews nearly impossible. AI churns out so much code, documentation, etc. that it's just impossible for any reviewer to keep up with it... right?
Wrong!
If you have good PR review processes, then reviewing...
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Renewable Energy Updates
I came across a few news items that I could possibly write about today and couldn’t decide which to...
4th May 2026
I came across a few news items that I could possibly write about today and couldn’t decide which to cover, so I will write about all of them, since they all relate to renewable energy. The first is a new study comparing direct air capture (DAC) to installing new wind and solar....
Explorations of an...
The Gambia, Part 1 of 2
In November I visited The Gambia along with ten travellers from Quest Nature Tours. Why The Gambia,...
19th Dec 2025
In November I visited The Gambia along with ten travellers from Quest Nature Tours. Why The Gambia, you may ask? This tiny country is not well-known to the international community, but it is an attractive ecotourism destination. The Gambia is a stable, English-speaking democracy...
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Fully Renewable Grid?
My long-stated position (although certainly modifiable in the face of any new evidence,...
2nd Feb 2026
My long-stated position (although certainly modifiable in the face of any new evidence, technological advance, or good arguments) is that the optimal pathway to most rapidly decarbonize our electrical infrastructure is to pursue all low-carbon options. I have not heard anything...
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
Louis Hyman: The New Deal You Don't Know
Historian Louis Hyman's work focuses on the history of American capitalism. In his book _[Borrow:...
2nd Jan 2018
Historian Louis Hyman's work focuses on the history of American capitalism. In his book _[Borrow: The American Way of Debt](https://www.amazon.com/Borrow-American-Debt-Vintage-Original/dp/0307741680/)_ , he examines in detail how the evolution of personal debt has not only...
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 →
Long Now
Carl Zimmer: Viral Time
### What's time to a virus?
"Everything about viruses is extreme," Zimmer began. The number of...
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...
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.
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...
Long Now
Geoffrey B West: Why Cities Keep on Growing, Corporations Always Die, and Life Gets Faster
### Superlinear Cities
"It's hard to kill a city," West began, "but easy to kill a company." The...
26th Jul 2011
### Superlinear Cities
"It's hard to kill a city," West began, "but easy to kill a company." The mean life of companies is 10 years. Cities routinely survive even nuclear bombs. And "cities are the crucible of civilization." They are the major source of innovation and wealth...
Interaction Magic -...
Engineering beneath the ice sheet
Living in Greenland, deploying electronic beacons deep beneath the ice.
25th Nov 2024
Living in Greenland, deploying electronic beacons deep beneath the ice.
Peder M. Isager
What is Worth Replicating? - SIPS 2020 Unconference session
Given that most research is original and we have limited resources available for replication, we...
30th Jun 2020
Given that most research is original and we have limited resources available for replication, we need guidelines for study selection in replication research. But what makes a study worth replicating? In our unconference session at SIPS this year, we had the pleasure of discussing...
Quanta Magazine
A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness
“Anomalous” heat flow, which at first appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, gives...
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
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
Susan Freinkel: Eternal Plastic
### Making plastic even better
Plastic is so new, Freinkel began, that among all the objects...
23rd May 2012
### Making plastic even better
Plastic is so new, Freinkel began, that among all the objects preserved in the sunken _Titanic_ , none are synthetic plastic, because there was hardly any available in 1912. Natural plastic, however, was a familiar material. Amber was popular....
Works in Progress...
Reclaiming the roads
Until recently, roads were shared between a messy mix of cyclists, stagecoaches, carts, horses, and...
21st Jul 2022
Until recently, roads were shared between a messy mix of cyclists, stagecoaches, carts, horses, and pedestrians, with no dominant user.
Long Now
Alexander Rose, Brian Eno, & Stewart Brand: Long Finance: The Enduring Value Conference
### Enduring Value
In February 02010, [Brian Eno](../../../../people/board/prospect4/), [Stewart...
1st Feb 2010
### Enduring Value
In February 02010, [Brian Eno](../../../../people/board/prospect4/), [Stewart Brand](../../../../people/board/sb1/), and [Alexander Rose](../../../../people/staff/zander/) spoke at the [Long Finance...
Quantum Frontiers
What does it mean to create a topological qubit?
I’ve worked on topological quantum computation, one of Alexei Kitaev’s brilliant innovations, for...
6th Mar 2025
I’ve worked on topological quantum computation, one of Alexei Kitaev’s brilliant innovations, for around 15 years now. It’s hard to find a more beautiful physics problem, combining spectacular quantum phenomena (non-Abelian anyons) with the promise of transformative...
Peder M. Isager
Which variables to control for, and why
In this post, we will use a practical example to explore the power of statistical control,...
17th Nov 2025
In this post, we will use a practical example to explore the power of statistical control, explaining why adjusting for the right variables clarifies relationships and why adjusting for the wrong ones can introduce new, serious biases.
The Quanta Podcast
New Clues to How the Brain Maps Time
The same brain cells that track location in space appear to also count beats in time. The research...
4th Feb 2016
The same brain cells that track location in space appear to also count beats in time. The research suggests that our thoughts may take place on a mental space-time canvas.
The post New Clues to How the Brain Maps Time first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Inverted Passion
Why AI agents aren’t adopted widely
Hint: managing someone is actually hard, and most times not worth it. Most people don’t use AI...
5th Aug 2026
Hint: managing someone is actually hard, and most times not worth it. Most people don’t use AI agents daily because delegation (to another human) is a learned skill. Using AI agents is actually a lot like doing natural language programming: specifying requirements, verifying...
Interaction Magic -...
Modelling my brain
A 22 hour medical experiment breathing 12% oxygen, and the 7000 images of my brain that came out of...
29th Mar 2021
A 22 hour medical experiment breathing 12% oxygen, and the 7000 images of my brain that came out of it.
Asterisk
The Art of Asking Questions
Everyone seems to agree that self-report questions are fraught with lies, biases, errors, and other...
1st Dec 2024
Everyone seems to agree that self-report questions are fraught with lies, biases, errors, and other inaccuracies. We all use them anyway. How can we ask them better?
Beautiful Public...
Government Comic Books
Government comics have taught Americans how to prevent forest fires, survive a nuclear blast, and...
27th Nov 2023
Government comics have taught Americans how to prevent forest fires, survive a nuclear blast, and how soldiers should handle homosexuality in the military.
Quantum Frontiers
The physicists of Florence
A scientist in Florence can’t avoid bumping into colleagues. When visiting the Renaissance’s...
29th Jun 2026
A scientist in Florence can’t avoid bumping into colleagues. When visiting the Renaissance’s birthplace last summer, I ran into a fellow physicist even on a Saturday morning. I was wandering around the Uffizi Gallery, a museum blessed with some of … Continue reading →
IEEE Spectrum
The Marimba Virtuoso’s Desktop Planetarium
The United States was at the time approaching “peak space.” The previous year, cosmonaut Yuri...
1st Oct 2023
The United States was at the time approaching “peak space.” The previous year, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human to reach outer space, and on 12 September 1962 President Kennedy would announce the United States’ intention to put a man on the moon before the...
Casey Handmer's blog
Career Development Guide for Job Seekers
Context October 2025: With the government shut down and NASA JPL business in apparent terminal...
3rd Oct 2025
Context October 2025: With the government shut down and NASA JPL business in apparent terminal decline, I have received numerous inbounds from former colleagues and friends asking for advice in post-NASA career development. At the same time, in my day job running Terraform...
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 […]
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.
The Quanta Podcast
Tiny Galaxies Reveal Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes
Dwarf galaxies weren’t supposed to have big black holes. Their surprise discovery has revealed clues...
8th Jun 2022
Dwarf galaxies weren’t supposed to have big black holes. Their surprise discovery has revealed clues about how the universe’s biggest black holes could have formed. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Patient Messaging Conundrum pt. 2 | Out-Of-Pocket
Some thoughts from an academic, a behavioral scientist, a patient, and more
3rd Oct 2023
Some thoughts from an academic, a behavioral scientist, a patient, and more
Drew Ex Machina
Apollo A-002: Testing the Limits of the Launch Escape System
One of the more dangerous parts of a space mission is launch which is why almost all crewed...
8th Dec 2024
One of the more dangerous parts of a space mission is launch which is why almost all crewed spacecraft have had launch abort options to cover […]
John Salvatier
If only we had taller been
Ray Bradbury once explained with a poem why he writes science fiction and why space travel is so...
4th Mar 2017
Ray Bradbury once explained with a poem why he writes science fiction and why space travel is so important to him. It is perhaps my favorite poem.
Text version:
The fence we walked between the years
We ached and almost touched that stuff;
O, Thomas, will a Race one day stand...
Probably...
Simpson’s What?
I like Simpson’s paradox so much I wrote three chapters about it in Probably Overthinking It. In...
16th Oct 2025
I like Simpson’s paradox so much I wrote three chapters about it in Probably Overthinking It. In fact, I like it so much I have a Google alert that notifies me when someone publishes a new example (or when the horse named Simpson’s Paradox wins a race). So I was initially excited...
Long Now
David Rooney: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks
As with all Long Now Talks, David Rooney’s talk on Thursday, September 9, 02021 began with a few...
23rd Dec 2021
As with all Long Now Talks, David Rooney’s talk on Thursday, September 9, 02021 began with a few tones from Brian Eno’s January 07003: Bell Studies for The Clock of the Long Now, based on the original algorithm for the Clock’s ever-changing chimes designed by Danny Hillis. These...
Peder M. Isager
Bakeoff
Formspree makes it easy to receive submissions from HTML forms on your static website. Functional...
1st Jul 2019
Formspree makes it easy to receive submissions from HTML forms on your static website. Functional Form This theme has a form-to-email feature built in, thanks to the simple Formspree integration. All you need to activate the form is a valid recipient email address saved in the...
pcloadletter
The Monty Hall Problem, a side-by-side simulation
I saw a cool version of the Monty Hall game here recently: https://monty.donk.systems.
This is...
1st Jan 2026
I saw a cool version of the Monty Hall game here recently: https://monty.donk.systems.
This is really cool! But I had an itch I wanted to scratch: rather than manually test out the probabilities, I wanted to run two games side-by-side: one where a switch happened and one where a...
Long Now
John Baez: Zooming Out in Time
### Welcome to the Anthropocene
The graphs we see these days, John Baez began, all look vertical--...
14th Oct 2006
### Welcome to the Anthropocene
The graphs we see these days, John Baez began, all look vertical-- carbon burning shooting up, CO2 in the air shooting up, global temperature shooting up, and population still shooting up. How can we understand what really going on? "It's like...
Long Now
Bruce Sterling: The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole
One reason lots of people don't want to think long term these days is because technology keeps...
12th Jun 2004
One reason lots of people don't want to think long term these days is because technology keeps accelerating so rapidly, we assume the world will become unrecognizable in a few years and then move on to unimaginable. Long-term thinking must be either impossible or irrelevant.
The...
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 →
Beautiful Public...
Aerial Glacier Photographs
A collection of 100,000 striking high-resolution aerial photos of glaciers, photographed over 40...
18th Jun 2024
A collection of 100,000 striking high-resolution aerial photos of glaciers, photographed over 40 years with a 63-pound WW II surveillance camera.
Uncharted...
Never Bet Against America
Why the US Is Overpowered
4th Sep 2025
Why the US Is Overpowered
The Works in...
Issue 12: Houston, we have a solution
Plus: How Mexico built its state, the causes of the Baby Boom, and the 141-year quest for a malaria...
7th Sep 2023
Plus: How Mexico built its state, the causes of the Baby Boom, and the 141-year quest for a malaria vaccine.
Quanta Magazine
‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback
You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the...
2nd Sep 2025
You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the same?
The post ‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Many Worlds
Many Worlds Archive is Available
I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column — sponsored by NASA’s NExSS...
14th Nov 2023
I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column — sponsored by NASA’s NExSS initiative and the Lunar & Planetary Institute — for almost eight years. But the run came to an end in October. Now an archive of the more than 400 columns is easily available at...
Light from Space
Andromeda: Our Galactic Neighbor
Many things have been said about the Andromeda Galaxy, arguably the most majestic galaxy that...
27th Sep 2024
Many things have been said about the Andromeda Galaxy, arguably the most majestic galaxy that amateur astronomers can image due to it's sheer size in the sky—many times larger than the Moon appears to us, but also many times dimmer.
With the naked eye, even in
Asterisk
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
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.
Quantum Frontiers
Building a Visceral Understanding of Quantum Phenomena
A great childhood memory that I have comes from first playing “The Incredible Machine” on PC in the...
6th Aug 2024
A great childhood memory that I have comes from first playing “The Incredible Machine” on PC in the early 90’s. For those not in the know, this is a physics-based puzzle game about building Rube Goldberg style contraptions to achieve … Continue reading →
Eukaryote Writes...
23 lessons you will learn living in a very snowy place
6. Snow is heavier than you think.
You might think physical strength is useful for lots of things,...
22nd Jan 2026
6. Snow is heavier than you think.
You might think physical strength is useful for lots of things, like overall health or familiar household tasks or picking up dudes (literally or metaphorically.) But actually, the main thing physical strength is useful for is letting you...
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.
Quantum Frontiers
My friend Mark Wise
Mark Wise, the John A. McCone Professor of High Energy Physics at Caltech, passed away on July 10 at...
18th Jul 2026
Mark Wise, the John A. McCone Professor of High Energy Physics at Caltech, passed away on July 10 at age 72. At a recent memorial service, John Preskill made these remarks. I’m John Preskill, Mark’s colleague on the Caltech physics … Continue reading →
Confessions of a...
Predation of juvenile reef fish in coral patches at Ningaloo Reef
The second research article I have decided to discuss is one I had the pleasure to be involved with!...
11th Feb 2013
The second research article I have decided to discuss is one I had the pleasure to be involved with! In fact, it was the first paper I was a co-author on, after linking up with the Department of Environment and Conservation through an ANNiMS internship program. The paper was...
Eukaryote Writes...
Who invented knitting? The plot thickens
Last time on Eukaryote Writes Blog: You learned about knitting history. You thought you were done...
4th Feb 2023
Last time on Eukaryote Writes Blog: You learned about knitting history. You thought you were done learning about knitting history? You fool. You buffoon. I wanted to double check some things in the last post and found out that the origins of knitting are even weirder than I...
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 →
Explorations of an...
Dominican Republic, October 2025: Mountain Endemics At Zapotén
Zapotén is a legendary birding area in southwestern Dominican Republic quite close to the Haiti...
1st Nov 2025
Zapotén is a legendary birding area in southwestern Dominican Republic quite close to the Haiti border, and it is a must-visit site for any birder on Hispaniola. This rough track climbs high into the Sierra de Bahoruco, a beautiful mountain range cloaked in pine and broadleaf...
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...
Long Now
Stewart Brand: Reviving Extinct Species
### De-extinction begins
The new tools of synthetic biology, I began, are about to liberate...
22nd May 2013
### De-extinction begins
The new tools of synthetic biology, I began, are about to liberate conservation in a spectacular way. It is becoming possible to bring some extinct species back to life.
A project within Long Now called “Revive & Restore” is pushing to make...
Long Now
Jimmy Wales: Vision: Wikipedia and the Future of Free Culture
### Community-built content rules
Vision is one of the most powerful forms of long-term thinking....
15th Apr 2006
### Community-built content rules
Vision is one of the most powerful forms of long-term thinking. Jimmy Wales, founder and president of the all-embracing online encyclopedia Wikipedia, examines how vision drives and defines that project and its strategy-- and how it fits into...
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...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Two of My Science-Fiction Stories Published in May
View this email in your browser A Change of Pace from Astronomy News As you may know, I have been...
2nd Jun 2025
View this email in your browser A Change of Pace from Astronomy News As you may know, I have been writing science-fiction stories based on good astronomy as my retirement project. After a good number of rejections from the finest sci-fi magazines the world over, I am now...
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.
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...
Long Now
Stefan Kröpelin: Civilization’s Mysterious Desert Cradle
### The Sahara and civilization
“Almost everything breaks in the desert,” Kröpelin began. He showed...
11th Jun 2014
### The Sahara and civilization
“Almost everything breaks in the desert,” Kröpelin began. He showed trucks mired in sand, one vehicle blown up by a land mine, and a Unimog with an impossibly, hopelessly broken axle. (Using the attached backhoe, it hunched its way 50 miles back...
Works in Progress...
The road from serfdom
Unwinding Russian serfdom took half a century. To eventually do it in the face of powerful...
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.
Melting Asphalt
Social Status II: Cults and Loyalty
So my previous post on social status was recently treated to a review/critique by Scott Alexander...
2nd Nov 2015
So my previous post on social status was recently treated to a review/critique by Scott Alexander over at Slate Star Codex. I expect most of my readers are already big fans of Scott's blog (as am I). But for those…
Read more ›
Works in Progress...
Why we didn’t get a malaria vaccine sooner
Hundreds of thousands of people die from malaria each year, but it took 141 years to develop a...
7th Sep 2023
Hundreds of thousands of people die from malaria each year, but it took 141 years to develop a vaccine for it. Advance market commitments could speed things up next time.
Works in Progress...
Making energy too cheap to meter
The great slowdown began when we started rationing energy. Restarting progress means getting energy...
12th Oct 2022
The great slowdown began when we started rationing energy. Restarting progress means getting energy that is so abundant that it’s almost free.
Long Now
Daniel Everett: Endangered languages, lost knowledge and the future
### Language Revolution
The Piraha tribe in the heart of the Amazon numbers only 360, spread in...
21st Mar 2009
### Language Revolution
The Piraha tribe in the heart of the Amazon numbers only 360, spread in small groups over 300 miles. An exceptionally cheerful people, they live with a focus on immediacy, empiricism, and physical rigor that has shaped their unique language, claims...
Drew Ex Machina
Failure to Launch: The First Moon Race 1958-60
While it has been a few months since I have published a new post on the Drew Ex Machina website,...
2nd Jun 2023
While it has been a few months since I have published a new post on the Drew Ex Machina website, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t […]
The Works in...
The world of tomorrow
When the future arrived, it felt… ordinary. What happened to the glamour of tomorrow?
2nd Jun 2025
When the future arrived, it felt… ordinary. What happened to the glamour of tomorrow?
Casey Handmer's blog
How to build a lunar mass driver
Casey Handmer May 2026 What? Elon has recently (late 2025, early 2026) been talking about building...
8th May 2026
Casey Handmer May 2026 What? Elon has recently (late 2025, early 2026) been talking about building many terawatts of orbital AI compute and launching some components from Moon factories with a mass driver. This is an old idea, enabled by …
Long Now
Steven Johnson: Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World
## Inventing toward delight
Humanity has been inventing toward delight for a long time. Johnson...
5th Jan 2017
## Inventing toward delight
Humanity has been inventing toward delight for a long time. Johnson began with a slide of shell beads found in Morocco that indicate human interest in personal adornment going back 80,000 years. He showed 50,000-year-old bone flutes found in modern...
Stephen Wolfram...
Towards a Theory of Bugs: The Ruliology of the Unexpected
21st Jul 2026
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: An Englishman in New York
Reflections on the revolution in Manhattan
7th Oct 2022
Reflections on the revolution in Manhattan
lcamtuf’s thing
Weekend projects: Chicken Squisher 3000
If it clucks like a duck...
14th Oct 2025
If it clucks like a duck...
SubAnima
Have We Already Found Life On Mars?
Definitions are a funny thing..
4th May 2022
Definitions are a funny thing..
Beautiful Public...
All of the 8,291 License Plates in America
States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations,...
21st Aug 2023
States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations, professions, sports teams, causes and other groups.
Confessions of a...
Let’s argue against the Shark Cull with science
There’s been a lot in the news recently about the implementation of the Shark Cull (or, as the...
1st Feb 2014
There’s been a lot in the news recently about the implementation of the Shark Cull (or, as the Government put it, the “shark protection measures”) here in Western Australia. Just as I am not a climate scientist, I am not a shark biologist, and cannot claim to be a shark expert....
The Quanta Podcast
Fossil DNA Reveals New Twists in Modern Human Origins
Modern humans and more ancient hominins interbred many times throughout Eurasia and Africa, and the...
13th Aug 2020
Modern humans and more ancient hominins interbred many times throughout Eurasia and Africa, and the genetic flow went both ways.
The post Fossil DNA Reveals New Twists in Modern Human Origins first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quantum Frontiers
The quantum gold rush
Even if you don’t recognize the name, you probably recognize the saguaro cactus. It’s the archetype...
18th Mar 2024
Even if you don’t recognize the name, you probably recognize the saguaro cactus. It’s the archetype of the cactus, a column from which protrude arms bent at right angles like elbows. As my husband pointed out, the cactus emoji is … Continue reading →
The Roots of...
Links and short notes, 2025-12-19
The links digest is back, baby!
I got so busy writing The Techno-Humanist Manifesto this year that...
20th Dec 2025
The links digest is back, baby!
I got so busy writing The Techno-Humanist Manifesto this year that after May I stopped doing the links digest and my monthly reading updates. I’m bringing them back now (although we’ll see what frequency I can keep up). This one covers the last two...
Long Now
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
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...
Long Now
Mike Kuniavsky: Our Future in Algorithm Farming
Everything will be connected to the network, even things that shouldn’t be. From automobiles to egg...
1st Mar 2018
Everything will be connected to the network, even things that shouldn’t be. From automobiles to egg timers, Kuniavsky explains all these devices will try to get our attention and prove their value. They’ll also attempt to predict the future—at least the immediate future of our...
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...
Long Now
Neal Stephenson: ANATHEM Book Launch Event
### _Anathem_ book launch
Neal Stephenson's nearly thousand page tome...
9th Sep 2008
### _Anathem_ book launch
Neal Stephenson's nearly thousand page tome [_Anathem_](https://longnow.org/anathem/) was inspired in part by Long Now's [10,000 Year Clock](https://longnow.org/projects/clock/) project, and so a collaboration on the launch event was a natural fit. With...
lcamtuf’s thing
Cursed circuits #5: capacitance multiplier
Capacitor vendors don't want you to know this! Save money on capacitors by spending more on other...
5th Jul 2026
Capacitor vendors don't want you to know this! Save money on capacitors by spending more on other components
The Quanta Podcast
What Actually Causes Lightning?
Thunderstorms have captivated humanity for millennia, and yet their inner workings remain deeply...
2nd Jun 2026
Thunderstorms have captivated humanity for millennia, and yet their inner workings remain deeply mysterious. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, guest host and Quanta senior editor Hannah Waters speaks with staff writer Charlie Wood about the new technologies that are helping...
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
Works in Progress...
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
The secrets to extending human lifespans might lie in the animals that can already live for centuries.
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...
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
Yale E360
A Home Battery Revolution Is Reshaping the Power Grid
As residential batteries have become more energy dense, cheaper, and smaller, more households are...
1st Jul 2026
As residential batteries have become more energy dense, cheaper, and smaller, more households are storing their excess solar power. Now, utilities and energy companies in dozens of countries are buying up those electrons, bundling them together, and using them to balance the...
Long Now
Jane Langdale: Radical Ag: C4 Rice and Beyond
## Revolutionary rice
Feeding the world (and saving nature) in this populous century, Jane Langdale...
15th Mar 2016
## Revolutionary rice
Feeding the world (and saving nature) in this populous century, Jane Langdale began, depends entirely on agricultural efficiency—the ability to turn a given amount of land and sunlight into ever more food. And that depends on three forms of efficiency in...
Melting Asphalt
A Natural History of Beauty
A mashup of ideas from David Deutsch, Geoffrey Miller, and Richard Prum, with a little César Hidalgo...
30th Oct 2018
A mashup of ideas from David Deutsch, Geoffrey Miller, and Richard Prum, with a little César Hidalgo thrown in for good measure. —— Of all the problems that can plague a discussion of beauty — and there are several — perhaps…
Read more ›
Conservation...
Why Indigenous rights matter
1st Aug 2025
Quanta Magazine
How the Higgs Field (Actually) Gives Mass to Elementary Particles
In this article adapted from his new book, "Waves in an Impossible Sea," physicist Matt Strassler...
3rd Sep 2024
In this article adapted from his new book, "Waves in an Impossible Sea," physicist Matt Strassler explains that the origin of mass in the universe has a lot to do with music.
The post How the Higgs Field (Actually) Gives Mass to Elementary Particles first appeared on...
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!
Drew Ex Machina
GOES Video of Solar Eclipse – October 14, 2023
Solar eclipses have fascinated humanity since ancient times and the annular eclipse of October 14,...
14th Oct 2023
Solar eclipses have fascinated humanity since ancient times and the annular eclipse of October 14, 2023 was no different. Unlike a total solar eclipse where the […]
The Quanta Podcast
The Thoughts of a Spiderweb
Spiders appear to offload cognitive tasks to their webs, making them one of a number of species with...
13th Jul 2017
Spiders appear to offload cognitive tasks to their webs, making them one of a number of species with a mind that isn’t fully confined within the head.
The post The Thoughts of a Spiderweb first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Quanta Podcast
A Long-Sought Proof, Found and Almost Lost
When a German retiree proved a famous long-standing mathematical conjecture, the response was...
1st Jun 2017
When a German retiree proved a famous long-standing mathematical conjecture, the response was underwhelming.
The post A Long-Sought Proof, Found and Almost Lost first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Can AI solve the pain of endless hold times? | Out-Of-Pocket
A look at how it works under the hood + what Assort is doing
11th Nov 2025
A look at how it works under the hood + what Assort is doing
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!!
Conservation...
High seas treaty ‘a long time coming’
10th Jun 2025
Long Now
Neil Gaiman: How Stories Last
## How stories last
Stories are alive. The ones that last, Gaiman said, outcompete other stories by...
10th Jun 2015
## How stories last
Stories are alive. The ones that last, Gaiman said, outcompete other stories by changing over time. They make it from medium to medium—from oral to written to film and beyond. They lose uninteresting elements but hold on to the most compelling bits or even...
wadertales
Juvenile settlement in Black-tailed Godwits
Adult waders tend to be exceptionally consistent in their use of time and space, with marked...
12th Sep 2024
Adult waders tend to be exceptionally consistent in their use of time and space, with marked individuals turning up on the same estuaries at the same time year after year, as discussed in the Whimbrel blog ‘Whimbrel: time to leave’. How do these patterns become established? Do...
Long Now
Eric Debrah Otchere: Sonic Spaces
Eric Debrah Otchere's research revolves around the power of music in the context of work; covering...
10th Feb 2023
Eric Debrah Otchere's research revolves around the power of music in the context of work; covering an ambitious range from ethnographic research on Ghanaian indigenous fishing culture to personalized musical preferences via modern technology.
Throughout history, the power of...
Long Now
Jonathan Rose: The Well Tempered City
### Coherent cities
What holds a city together? Rose noted that the earliest cities were built...
21st Sep 2016
### Coherent cities
What holds a city together? Rose noted that the earliest cities were built around a temple and the spirituality it embodied. As the early communities became larger and more diverse and complex, their economic activity intensified. To be effective in trade...
Quanta Magazine
When Data Is Missing, Scientists Guess. Then Guess Again.
Across the social and biological sciences, statisticians use a technique that leverages randomness...
2nd Oct 2024
Across the social and biological sciences, statisticians use a technique that leverages randomness to deal with the unknown.
The post When Data Is Missing, Scientists Guess. Then Guess Again. first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery
After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at...
1st Aug 2025
After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture.
The post At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Google x Out-Of-Pocket!! | Out-Of-Pocket
Plus other fun updates
3rd Oct 2025
The Works in...
Issue 16: I dream of genes
Plus: how humans are outdoing nature's shiniest creations; the history of measuring price rises; and...
3rd Sep 2024
Plus: how humans are outdoing nature's shiniest creations; the history of measuring price rises; and how America's favourite type of coffee got really, really good.
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.
Eukaryote Writes...
Learn to write well BEFORE you have something worth saying
Lessons learned from trip reports and journal articles.
29th Dec 2024
Lessons learned from trip reports and journal articles.
The Works in...
What did Henry George think about cities?
Solving the terrible urban conditions of the 1800s by abolishing cities
9th May 2024
Solving the terrible urban conditions of the 1800s by abolishing cities
NeuroLogica Blog
Challenging the Acceleration of the Universe
South Korean astronomers are challenging the notion that the universe’s expansion is accelerating,...
5th Jan 2026
South Korean astronomers are challenging the notion that the universe’s expansion is accelerating, an observation in the 1990s that lead to the theory of dark energy. This is currently very controversial, and may simply fizzle away or change our understanding of the fate of 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...
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: Doing science backwards
Preregistering research as a cure for scientific bias
2nd Aug 2022
Preregistering research as a cure for scientific bias
Stephen Wolfram...
What Is Ruliology?
Ruliology is taking off! And more and more people are talking about it. But what is ruliology? Since...
12th Jan 2026
Ruliology is taking off! And more and more people are talking about it. But what is ruliology? Since I invented the term, I decided I should write something to explain it. But then I realized: I actually already wrote something back in 2021 when I first invented the term. What I...
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.
Long Now
Daniel Suarez: Daemon: Bot-mediated Reality
### Bot-dominated Reality
[Daniel Suarez, originally published as Leinad Zaurus, delivered a talk...
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...
Beautiful Public...
1,000 Photos of Dolphin Fins
Scars, scratches and wounds abound in these photos as encounters with unknown creatures and boat...
10th Apr 2023
Scars, scratches and wounds abound in these photos as encounters with unknown creatures and boat propellers leave their marks, imprinting a story of close escapes and cheating death.
Long Now
Esther Dyson: The Short Now: What Addiction, Day Trading, and Most of Society’s Ills Have in Common
Long Now board member Esther Dyson shares her ongoing work to move communities away from short-term...
9th Jan 2020
Long Now board member Esther Dyson shares her ongoing work to move communities away from short-term thinking and into health. In conversation with previous Interval speaker [Kara Platoni](http://www.karaplatoni.com/), she discusses how short-term desire is addiction, affecting...
Works in Progress...
Why didn’t suicides rise during Covid?
Covid-19 brought death, suffering and financial straits, so it was unsurprising that depression rose...
20th May 2021
Covid-19 brought death, suffering and financial straits, so it was unsurprising that depression rose around the world. But when the data came in, we found suicide did not – and it’s a mystery why.
The Works in...
Readers from Canada, Australia and the EU can now subscribe to Works in Progress
Our first print edition ships in two weeks.
4th Nov 2025
Our first print edition ships in two weeks.
Quanta Magazine
Fresh X-Rays Reveal a Universe as Clumpy as Cosmology Predicts
By mapping the largest structures in the universe in X-rays, cosmologists have found striking...
4th Mar 2024
By mapping the largest structures in the universe in X-rays, cosmologists have found striking agreement with their standard theoretical model of how the universe evolves.
The post Fresh X-Rays Reveal a Universe as Clumpy as Cosmology Predicts first appeared on Quanta...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Some Common Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Angels | Out-Of-Pocket
With some real decks and emails!
21st Feb 2024
With some real decks and emails!
The Quanta Podcast
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
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
Cremieux Recueil
Statins and Strength
Does lowering your LDL and saving your heart mean sacrificing muscular strength? No.
6th May 2026
Does lowering your LDL and saving your heart mean sacrificing muscular strength? No.
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...
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...
Long Now
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
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...
Interaction Magic -...
Units: the forgotten half of the statistic
From the millihelen to the microcentury, via jerk, pirate-ninjas and the Mongolian vowel separator.
2nd Feb 2021
From the millihelen to the microcentury, via jerk, pirate-ninjas and the Mongolian vowel separator.
The Quanta Podcast
A World Without Clouds
A state-of-the-art supercomputer simulation indicates that a feedback loop between global warming...
2nd Jan 2020
A state-of-the-art supercomputer simulation indicates that a feedback loop between global warming and cloud loss can push Earth’s climate past a disastrous tipping point in as little as a century.
The post A World Without Clouds first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Inverted Passion
Don’t compete
The Internet is full of people winning all the time. Someone is traveling to exotic locations,...
22nd Mar 2025
The Internet is full of people winning all the time. Someone is traveling to exotic locations, someone else is raising funds, and another person is winning awards. Essentially, everyone around you is succeeding while you do spend your days as the nature intended – sleeping,...
Asterisk
The State of American Science Funding (For the Next Five Minutes)
A comprehensive but nowhere near exhaustive overview of how the Trump Administration is impacting...
1st Jul 2025
A comprehensive but nowhere near exhaustive overview of how the Trump Administration is impacting American science.
Probably...
Young Adults Are Not Very Happy
Since 1972, the General Social Survey has asked respondents: “Taken all together, how would you say...
19th Mar 2026
Since 1972, the General Social Survey has asked respondents: “Taken all together, how would you say things are these days—would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?” The following figure shows how the responses have changed over time and between birth...
The Roots of...
Get your fine, handcrafted artisanal essays right here
I don’t use AI to draft my writing. These are fine handcrafted artisanal essays, every word placed...
10th Jun 2026
I don’t use AI to draft my writing. These are fine handcrafted artisanal essays, every word placed individually with loving care.
I use AI a lot for researching, occasionally for brainstorming, and increasingly for fact-checking. But not for outlining, drafting, or directly...
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.
Stephen Wolfram...
Games between Programs: The Ruliology of Competition
The Basic Setup
Whether one’s dealing with biology, economics, politics or a host of other fields,...
4th Jun 2026
The Basic Setup
Whether one’s dealing with biology, economics, politics or a host of other fields, it’s common to encounter situations that can be modeled as involving two agents that repeatedly compete with each other. One imagines that at each step each agent can take one of a...
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.
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 →
Light from Space
The Soul of the Heart Nebula
A spectacular emission Nebula, the Heart Nebula is one of the classics of Northern Hemisphere...
5th Nov 2022
A spectacular emission Nebula, the Heart Nebula is one of the classics of Northern Hemisphere amateury astronomy.
In the gallery below, I've highlighted 3 very different areas of the image:
Left: Planetary Nebula WeBo-1
Middle: Melotte 15 in the... heart of the Heart...
SubAnima
You've Been Lied To About Genetics
Should we give Mendel's peas a chance? Nah, we've moved on.
20th Jan 2023
Should we give Mendel's peas a chance? Nah, we've moved on.
Works in Progress...
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
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 Frontiers
Astrobiology meets quantum computation?
The origin of life appears to share little with quantum computation, apart from the difficulty of...
23rd Oct 2023
The origin of life appears to share little with quantum computation, apart from the difficulty of achieving it and its potential for clickbait. Yet similar notions of complexity have recently garnered attention in both fields. Each topic’s researchers expect only … Continue...
Peder M. Isager
How to share your data online with OSF
The Open Science movement is here to stay. However, incorporating open practices like data sharing...
2nd Oct 2018
The Open Science movement is here to stay. However, incorporating open practices like data sharing into your work flow can seem like a challenging task. If you have never made data available online before, the process can feel a bit daunting. Where should I put the data? What...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How To (Properly) Text Patients | Out-Of-Pocket
Do’s and don’ts + tactical tips from an actual doctor
10th Apr 2024
Do’s and don’ts + tactical tips from an actual doctor
Andrew Fraknoi –...
“I Swallowed a Martian” and Water on Mars
The history of water on Mars allows us to wonder if the planet ever had life.
The post “I Swallowed...
14th Jul 2026
The history of water on Mars allows us to wonder if the planet ever had life.
The post “I Swallowed a Martian” and Water on Mars appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
ToughSF
Fusion Highways in Space
A transport system that can get spacecraft to Jupiter in 10 days, but without a massive onboard...
11th Mar 2021
A transport system that can get spacecraft to Jupiter in 10 days, but without a massive onboard reactor, using antimatter fuel or riding a gigantic laser beam?
What we need instead is a Fusion Highway to connect the Solar System in unprecedented ways.
The art above is by...
Works in Progress...
Every grain of rice
As climate change threatens crop yields, we need a second Green Revolution – one that, this time, is...
22nd May 2023
As climate change threatens crop yields, we need a second Green Revolution – one that, this time, is driven by genetic engineering.
Cremieux Recueil
Are All the Good Men Married?
Why do married men earn so much? Is it because the good men get married, or does marriage make men...
13th Sep 2025
Why do married men earn so much? Is it because the good men get married, or does marriage make men good?
Long Now
Niall Ferguson & Peter Schwartz: Historian vs. Futurist on Human Progress
### Past vs. Future
In what turned out to be a riveting evening, historian Niall Ferguson and...
29th Apr 2008
### Past vs. Future
In what turned out to be a riveting evening, historian Niall Ferguson and futurist Peter Schwartz fire-hosed each other with enough ideas, frames of reference, ripostes, and eloquences to lead to a clear conceptual divergence. At the same time, the two were...
Cremieux Recueil
The Making of an Elite: Japanese Christians
Why are Japanese elites so likely to be Christian when Japan is a 99% non-Christian country?
7th Nov 2025
Why are Japanese elites so likely to be Christian when Japan is a 99% non-Christian country?
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.
ToughSF
Nuclear Conversion for Starship
There has been much discussion about converting the SpaceX Starship to use nuclear propulsion. It...
14th Oct 2021
There has been much discussion about converting the SpaceX Starship to use nuclear propulsion. It would allow for a great increase in specific impulse and a massive extension of mission capabilities.
But is it actually worthwhile?
The image above is modified from...
Long Now
Paul Saffo: The Creator Economy
### The Creator Economy
Media innovations drive economic shifts, Saffo began. “We invent new...
1st Apr 2015
### The Creator Economy
Media innovations drive economic shifts, Saffo began. “We invent new technology and then use it to reinvent ourselves.”
1\. The Industrial/producer Economy. At the beginning of the 20th century the leading scarcity was _stuff_ , and so manufacture was...
Conservation...
Despite dire headlines, ‘it would be a mistake to write off tropical forests’
19th Feb 2024
The Roots of...
The Problem-Solving Animal, part 1
Previously: The Flywheel, part 1 and part 2.
I feel sorry for the Rev. Thomas Malthus. He was doomed...
3rd Jun 2025
Previously: The Flywheel, part 1 and part 2.
I feel sorry for the Rev. Thomas Malthus. He was doomed to be misremembered by history.
His Essay on the Principle of Population is remembered as a prophecy of scarcity. But Malthus’s focus was how to deal with scarcity, which he took...
Long Now
Mary Lou Jepsen: Toward Practical Telepathy
With her stunning breakthroughs in neural imaging, Mary Lou Jepsen is making the brain readable (and...
5th Nov 2018
With her stunning breakthroughs in neural imaging, Mary Lou Jepsen is making the brain readable (and stimulatable) in real time. That will revolutionize brain study and brain medicine, but what about brain communication? Could a direct high-resolution interface to the brain lead...
Beautiful Public...
San Diego Photologs from the 1970s
A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored...
23rd Jun 2026
A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored cars and whimsical signage.
Chris Grossack's...
Monoidal Monoidoidoids
So I was on the nlab the other day, and I saw a fantastic joke:
A 2-category is “just” a monoidal...
21st Aug 2022
So I was on the nlab the other day, and I saw a fantastic joke:
A 2-category is “just” a monoidal monoidoidoid! Here’s a screenshot
in case the nlab page for 2-categories changes someday:
There’s a thing called the Category Theorist’s “Just”, which describes
the joy that many...
Works in Progress...
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
France built 40 nuclear reactors in a decade. Here’s how they did it, and how the world can follow their lead today.
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