Marine Madness
Book Club: ‘The Island of Sea Women’ by Lisa See
Little is known about Jeju- a Korean island- occupied by brutal Japanese troops in the 1930s and...
1st Sep 2021
Little is known about Jeju- a Korean island- occupied by brutal Japanese troops in the 1930s and ’40s, later liberated by US forces and turned over to the even more barbarous Korean regime whose wrongdoings were overlooked by both American and U.N. occupiers. Lisa See travels...
The Quanta Podcast
Why Did Life Move to Land? For the View
The ancient creatures who first crawled onto land may have been lured by the informational benefit...
6th Apr 2017
The ancient creatures who first crawled onto land may have been lured by the informational benefit that comes from seeing through air.
The post Why Did Life Move to Land? For the View first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Conservation...
How an extraordinary new effort is giving sharks ‘a fighting chance’
1st Nov 2024
Stephen Wolfram...
In Memory of My Wife, Elise Cawley (1961–2026), with Thanks for 36 Wonderful Years
4th Aug 2026
Asterisk
When RAND Made Magic in Santa Monica
RAND’s halcyon days lasted two decades, during which the corporation produced some of the most...
1st Jun 2024
RAND’s halcyon days lasted two decades, during which the corporation produced some of the most influential developments in science and American foreign policy. So how did it become just another think tank?
Drew Ex Machina
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
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 […]
Long Now
Jennifer Granick: Modern Surveillance: Why You Should Care and What You Can Do
The future of privacy begins with the current state of surveillance. The 21st century practices of...
4th May 2020
The future of privacy begins with the current state of surveillance. The 21st century practices of US intelligence agencies push the technological, legal and political limits of lawful surveillance. Jennifer Granick is a civil liberties and privacy law expert with the American...
Eukaryote Writes...
Recommendation: reports on the search for missing hiker Bill Ewasko
How to find someone who has died in the wilderness.
31st Jul 2024
How to find someone who has died in the wilderness.
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: The stats gap
Students understand just enough statistics to get by
4th Jan 2023
Students understand just enough statistics to get by
Interaction Magic -...
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
I built a custom energy dashboard for my house using this beautiful, 2-bit colour, e-paper display. Hardware, software, data and design.
Yale E360
China's Fossil Fuel Emissions Dropped Last Year as Solar Boomed
In China, the world's leading carbon emitter, a massive buildout of solar power is beginning to push...
2nd Mar 2026
In China, the world's leading carbon emitter, a massive buildout of solar power is beginning to push fossil fuels into decline. Last year China saw its emissions drop, even as demand for energy rose.
Read more on E360 →
Probably...
Bayesian Decision Analysis
At PyData Global 2025 I presented a workshop on Bayesian Decision Analysis with PyMC. The video is...
9th Jan 2026
At PyData Global 2025 I presented a workshop on Bayesian Decision Analysis with PyMC. The video is available now. This workshop is based on the first session of the Applied Bayesian Modeling Workshop I teach along with my colleagues at PyMC Labs. If you would like to learn more,...
Long Now
Wayne Clough: Smithsonian Forever
### The Smithsonian's long now
[Note for those who mentally enunciate words while reading: the last...
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...
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...
Many Worlds
Preparing For The Habitable Worlds Observatory, Our Best Shot at Finding ET Life
In a solar system far, far away, life of some sort is just waiting to be found. Or so the world of...
17th Oct 2023
In a solar system far, far away, life of some sort is just waiting to be found. Or so the world of astrobiology sure hopes it is. The new player in the astrobiology world, now called the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), is planned to launch in the 2040s if all goes well. ...
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?
The Quanta Podcast
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
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
Stephen Wolfram...
Ruliology of the “Forgotten” Code 10
My All-Time Favorite Science Discovery June 1, 1984—forty years ago today—is when it would be fair...
1st Jun 2024
My All-Time Favorite Science Discovery June 1, 1984—forty years ago today—is when it would be fair to say I made my all-time favorite science discovery. Like with basically all significant science discoveries (despite the way histories often present them) it didn’t happen without...
Conservation...
It’s about TIME: Conservationist recognized as climate leader
16th Nov 2023
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.
Peder M. Isager
Ganging Up on Psychological Science
Sometimes, the costs of doing good science outgrow the resources available to the individual...
31st Aug 2018
Sometimes, the costs of doing good science outgrow the resources available to the individual scientist. Large scale collaboration projects are quickly becoming our best tool for dealing with this problem in psychology.
IEEE Spectrum
Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years
The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California has spawned many pioneering computer technologies...
16th Nov 2023
The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California has spawned many pioneering computer technologies including the Alto—the first personal computer to use a graphical user interface—and the first laser printer.
The PARC facility also is known for the invention of Ethernet, a...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
2026 Healthcare Predictions Part 2 | Out-Of-Pocket
[add]
5th Jan 2026
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, September 2023
A quasi-monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them...
6th Sep 2023
A quasi-monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in my links digests. I’ve been busy helping to choose the first cohort of our blogging fellowship, so my reading has been relatively light. All emphasis in bold in the quotes...
Asterisk
The Ruin of Mumbai
Mumbai’s land use regulations are designed to keep population density low. Instead, they force...
1st Mar 2024
Mumbai’s land use regulations are designed to keep population density low. Instead, they force Mumbaikars into slums, while all of India pays the price.
IEEE Spectrum
This 1945 TV Console Showed Two Programs at Once
As I try to write this article, my friend and I have six different screens attached to three types...
3rd Jul 2025
As I try to write this article, my friend and I have six different screens attached to three types of devices. We’re working in the same room but on our own projects—separate yet together, a comfortable companionship.
I had never really thought of the proliferation of screens as...
Long Now
Craig Childs: Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Everending Earth
### How the world keeps ending
“This Earth is a story teller,” Childs began. “And it is not a...
30th Jul 2013
### How the world keeps ending
“This Earth is a story teller,” Childs began. “And it is not a stable place to live. It is always ending. We think of endings as sudden, but it is always a process.”
For his book _Apocalyptic Planet_ he sought out some of the world’s most...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Weird issues in value-based care | Out-Of-Pocket
Thoughts on value-based care from people actually building in it
1st Oct 2024
Thoughts on value-based care from people actually building in it
Peder M. Isager
License
My blog posts are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International...
1st Jan 2001
My blog posts are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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 […]
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...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Transforming Healthcare Data with Tuva Health | Out-Of-Pocket
The nitty, gritty, and shitty of working with health data
1st Nov 2023
The nitty, gritty, and shitty of working with health data
Chris Grossack's...
Proving Another "Real Theorem" with Topos Theory
Another day, another post that starts with “So I was on mse…”, lol.
Somebody asked whether...
25th Mar 2024
Another day, another post that starts with “So I was on mse…”, lol.
Somebody asked whether maximizing over a compact set is a continuous thing
to do. That is, given a continuous function $f : K \times X \to \mathbb{R}$ is the
function $x \mapsto \max_{k \in K} f(k,x)$...
NeuroLogica Blog
It’s Just A Correlation
Did you know that the number of Google searches for cat memes correlates tightly (P-value < 0.01)...
5th Aug 2025
Did you know that the number of Google searches for cat memes correlates tightly (P-value < 0.01) with England’s performance in cricket World Cups? What’s going on here? Is interest in funny cat videos driven by the excitement created by cricket victories. Perhaps cat memes are...
Quantum Frontiers
The most steampunk qubit
I never imagined that an artist would update me about quantum-computing research. Last year,...
25th May 2025
I never imagined that an artist would update me about quantum-computing research. Last year, steampunk artist Bruce Rosenbaum forwarded me a notification about a news article published in Science. The article reported on an experiment performed in physicist Yiwen Chu’s … Continue...
lcamtuf’s thing
Sierpiński triangle? In my bitwise AND?
Exploring a peculiar bit-twiddling hack at the intersection of 1980s geek sensibilities.
10th May 2025
Exploring a peculiar bit-twiddling hack at the intersection of 1980s geek sensibilities.
SubAnima
Why do bees die when they sting you?
Suicide is a truly bizarre evolutionary strategy. Why does it exist?
4th Oct 2021
Suicide is a truly bizarre evolutionary strategy. Why does it exist?
Conservation...
'My son's son will see this elephant'
6th Jul 2026
NeuroLogica Blog
The Transition to Agriculture
It is generally accepted that the transition from hunter-gatherer communities to agriculture was the...
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,...
Quanta Magazine
The Core of Fermat’s Last Theorem Just Got Superpowered
By extending the scope of the key insight behind Fermat’s Last Theorem, four mathematicians have...
2nd Jun 2025
By extending the scope of the key insight behind Fermat’s Last Theorem, four mathematicians have made great strides toward building a “grand unified theory” of math.
The post The Core of Fermat’s Last Theorem Just Got Superpowered first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Some sick wearable projects | Out-Of-Pocket
Robots, wearables for kids, and more
3rd Jun 2026
Robots, wearables for kids, and more
Cremieux Recueil
The Boring Reason GDP is Inevitable
GDP is a reviled metric, but it's highly correlated with everything we care about. I explain one...
17th Dec 2025
GDP is a reviled metric, but it's highly correlated with everything we care about. I explain one mathematical reason why.
The Quanta Podcast
In Game Theory, No Clear Path to Equilibrium
John Nash’s notion of equilibrium is ubiquitous in economic theory, but a new study shows that it is...
12th Oct 2017
John Nash’s notion of equilibrium is ubiquitous in economic theory, but a new study shows that it is often impossible to reach efficiently.
The post In Game Theory, No Clear Path to Equilibrium first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Conservation...
‘Surf and turf’ can have carbon footprint of cross-country road trip: study
16th Jan 2024
Wanderingspace
Saturn Family Portrait
From planetary.org: On July 29, 2011, Cassini captured five of Saturn’s moons in a single frame with...
1st Jul 2022
From planetary.org: On July 29, 2011, Cassini captured five of Saturn’s moons in a single frame with its narrow-angle camera: Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Rhea, and Mimas. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute. This is a full-color look at a view that was originally published in...
Long Now
James Holland Jones: The Science of Climate Fiction: Can Stories Lead to Social Action?
The warming planet is increasingly the subject of all kinds of fiction. Beyond entertainment or...
4th Apr 2019
The warming planet is increasingly the subject of all kinds of fiction. Beyond entertainment or distraction could climate fiction (“Cli-Fi”) actually help us in solving the climate dilemma? Biological anthropologist and environmental scientist [James Holland...
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.
Asterisk
Risk-Adjusted Return
What are we afraid of?
15th Apr 2026
Conservation...
News spotlight: Study buoys hope for rare axolotls
1st May 2025
Works in Progress...
The golden age of vaccine development
The first vaccine was a lucky accident. Now we can design new vaccines in weeks, atom by atom.
7th Jan 2026
The first vaccine was a lucky accident. Now we can design new vaccines in weeks, atom by atom.
Explorations of an...
Monsoon Season In Arizona, Part 1: Introduction, Phoenix to Miller Canyon
Earlier this summer, Laura and I were trying to determine where we would visit for a couple of mini...
22nd Sep 2024
Earlier this summer, Laura and I were trying to determine where we would visit for a couple of mini vacations. Due to the variations in her work schedule, Laura had two blocks of time - a five-day chunk in early August, and six days in early September - and we wanted to make the...
Works in Progress...
Interview: Ted Nordhaus on ecomodernism
Are technology and the environment friends or foes? In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss...
20th May 2021
Are technology and the environment friends or foes? In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss climate policy, activism and ecomodernism with Ted Nordhaus.
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.
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...
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 →
Casey Handmer's blog
Australian Economic Stagnation
It’s not news, at least in my circles, that much of the developed world is seeing economic...
4th Sep 2025
It’s not news, at least in my circles, that much of the developed world is seeing economic stagnation. Last month Australia convened a Productivity Summit/Economic Reform Roundtable to try to better address the sluggish growth of the economy relative, in particular, to ever...
Eukaryote Writes...
There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically)
Dendronization – Evolving into a tree-like morphology. (In the style of “carcinization".) From...
3rd May 2021
Dendronization – Evolving into a tree-like morphology. (In the style of “carcinization".) From 'dendro', the ancient Greek root for tree.
Long Now
Bjorn Lomborg: From Feel-Good to High-Yield Good: How to Improve Philanthropy and Aid
## Doing Good...
14th Mar 2017
## Doing Good Better
[](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...
Quanta Magazine
In a ‘Dark Dimension,’ Physicists Search for the Universe’s Missing Matter
An idea derived from string theory suggests that dark matter is hiding in a (relatively) large extra...
1st Feb 2024
An idea derived from string theory suggests that dark matter is hiding in a (relatively) large extra dimension. The theory makes testable predictions that physicists are investigating now.
The post In a ‘Dark Dimension,’ Physicists Search for the Universe’s Missing...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Sunday is Both Father’s Day and the Summer Solstice
June 21 is not just father's day but the day of the summer solstice
The post Sunday is Both Father’s...
19th Jun 2026
June 21 is not just father's day but the day of the summer solstice
The post Sunday is Both Father’s Day and the Summer Solstice appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
nanoscale views
EUV lithography - a couple of quick links
Welcome to the new year!
I've written previously (see here, item #3) about the extreme ultraviolet...
2nd Jan 2026
Welcome to the new year!
I've written previously (see here, item #3) about the extreme ultraviolet lithography tools used in modern computer chip fabrication. These machines are incredible, the size of a railway car, and cost hundreds of millions of dollars each. Veritasium...
Casey Handmer's blog
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
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...
Casey Handmer's blog
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
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...
IEEE Spectrum
Lord Kelvin and His Analog Computer
William Thomson, mourning the death of his wife and flush with cash from various patents related to...
2nd Jun 2024
William Thomson, mourning the death of his wife and flush with cash from various patents related to the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, decided to buy a yacht. His schooner, the Lalla Rookh, became Thomson’s summer home and his base for hosting scientific...
Long Now
The Refugee Reality: Thinking Long-term About the Evolving Global Challenge
With a complex and truly global problem like this, we can only scratch the surface in an hour. But...
1st Oct 2017
With a complex and truly global problem like this, we can only scratch the surface in an hour. But we hoped to reframe some aspects and include perspectives not always heard. What's certain is this is a long-term problem that has been ongoing and looks likely to worsen due to...
The Quanta Podcast
When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field
The study of natural language processing, or NLP, dates back to the 1940s. It gave Stephen Hawking a...
29th Jul 2025
The study of natural language processing, or NLP, dates back to the 1940s. It gave Stephen Hawking a voice, Siri a brain and social media companies another way to target us with ads. In less than five years, large language models broke NLP and made it anew.
The Quanta Podcast,...
Melting Asphalt
Minimum Viable Superorganism
Originally published at Ribbonfarm. Of all the remarkable things about our species — and there are...
11th Feb 2016
Originally published at Ribbonfarm. Of all the remarkable things about our species — and there are many — perhaps the most striking of all is our ability to band together and act as a united, coherent superorganism. E pluribus unum.…
Read more ›
Quanta Magazine
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
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
Quanta Magazine
Scientists Re-Create the Microbial Dance That Sparked Complex Life
Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent...
2nd Jan 2025
Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the first time, biologists made it happen in the lab.
The post Scientists Re-Create the Microbial Dance That Sparked Complex Life first appeared...
NeuroLogica Blog
Using Sound to Modulate the Brain
The technique is called holographic transcranial ultrasound neuromodulation – which sounds like a...
6th Oct 2025
The technique is called holographic transcranial ultrasound neuromodulation – which sounds like a mouthful but just means using multiple sound waves in the ultrasonic frequency to affect brain function. Most people know about ultrasound as an imaging technique, used, for example,...
lcamtuf’s thing
A nicer voltmeter clock
Sometimes, electronic circuit design is mostly about wood
16th May 2026
Sometimes, electronic circuit design is mostly about wood
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Caves on Mars
Recently, in social media posts, Dr. Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute discussed the intriguing caves...
24th Nov 2024
Recently, in social media posts, Dr. Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute discussed the intriguing caves on the side of the giant martian volcano called Arsia Mons as interesting places for future exploration and even human residences. As it happens, my very first published...
The Quanta Podcast
The Art of Teaching Math and Science
The impasse in math and science instruction runs deeper than test scores or the latest educational...
26th Jan 2017
The impasse in math and science instruction runs deeper than test scores or the latest educational theory. What can we learn from the best teachers on the front lines?
The post The Art of Teaching Math and Science first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Fine, let’s talk about peptides | Out-Of-Pocket
What and why are people injecting themselves?
5th May 2026
What and why are people injecting themselves?
NeuroLogica Blog
Nanotyrannus Controversy Solved
One of the things I like about following paleontology news is that new evidence can just be...
3rd Nov 2025
One of the things I like about following paleontology news is that new evidence can just be discovered, and sometimes these new pieces to the puzzle can significantly change what we think about past life. One such controversy I have been following for a while is whether or not...
SubAnima
The Problem With Richard Dawkins
How should we view The Selfish Gene 50 years on?
22nd Apr 2023
How should we view The Selfish Gene 50 years on?
The Quanta Podcast
Sphere Packing Solved in Higher Dimensions
The Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska has solved the centuries-old sphere-packing problem in...
7th Apr 2016
The Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska has solved the centuries-old sphere-packing problem in dimensions eight and 24.
The post Sphere Packing Solved in Higher Dimensions first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Beautiful Public...
50,000 boat names
From SEA SLUT II to BILBOAT BAGGINS, a deep dive into AIS vessel data turns up 50,000 boat names...
10th Aug 2026
From SEA SLUT II to BILBOAT BAGGINS, a deep dive into AIS vessel data turns up 50,000 boat names packed with nautical puns, dirty jokes, and Tolkien deep cuts.
Chris Grossack's...
A Quick Application of Model Categories
Almost exactly a year ago (time flies!) I was thinking really hard about
model categories in...
22nd Mar 2023
Almost exactly a year ago (time flies!) I was thinking really hard about
model categories in preparation for the HoTTEST summer school. I learned
a TON doing this, but I’ve just today seen a really nice (and somewhat concrete)
reason to care about the whole endeavor! I’d love...
Long Now
Lynn Rothschild: Nature’s Hardware Store
What if the solutions to humanity’s greatest challenges — on Earth and beyond — have already been...
5th Nov 2025
What if the solutions to humanity’s greatest challenges — on Earth and beyond — have already been invented by nature? In this forward-looking talk, evolutionary biologist and astrobiologist Dr. Lynn Rothschild explores how life’s patterns, materials, and mechanisms, refined over...
Long Now
Benjamin Barber: If Mayors Ruled the World
### City-based global governance
Sovereign nation states have conspicuously failed to cooperate...
6th Jun 2012
### City-based global governance
Sovereign nation states have conspicuously failed to cooperate well enough to deal with increasingly global problems such as climate change, environmental degradation, and organized crime, Barber said. Nations focus on their borders, which are...
Works in Progress...
The first non-opioid painkiller
For nearly two centuries, pain relief meant effective but addictive opioids. Scientists have finally...
6th Oct 2025
For nearly two centuries, pain relief meant effective but addictive opioids. Scientists have finally made something better.
Long Now
David Eagleman: The Brain and The Now
### The Brain’s Now
Our perception of time raises all sorts of questions, Eagleman began. “Why does...
5th Oct 2016
### The Brain’s Now
Our perception of time raises all sorts of questions, Eagleman began. “Why does time seem to slow down when you’re scared? And why does it seem to speed up as you get older?”
With an onscreen demonstration, Eagleman showed that “Time is actively constructed...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Open Source in Healthcare Is An Opportunity | Out-Of-Pocket
Can AI bring the benefits of open source to a slow, sclerotic industry?
6th Mar 2026
Can AI bring the benefits of open source to a slow, sclerotic industry?
Long Now
Paul Hawken: The Long Green
### The long green
The environmental movement has moved on. It has become so deep and wide that it...
16th Oct 2004
### The long green
The environmental movement has moved on. It has become so deep and wide that it adds up to something new entirely, still unnamed. Whatever it is, it is now the largest movement in the world and the least ideological. Driven by science and patience, it is...
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!
IEEE Spectrum
Esoteric Languages Challenge Coders to Think Way Outside the Box
Have you ever tried programming with a language that uses musical notation? What about a language...
4th Sep 2025
Have you ever tried programming with a language that uses musical notation? What about a language that never runs programs the same way? What about a language where you write code with photographs?
All exist, among many others, in the world of esoteric programming languages, and...
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.
Probably...
What’s a Chartist?
Recently I heard the word “chartist” for the first time in my life (that I recall). And then later...
19th Nov 2024
Recently I heard the word “chartist” for the first time in my life (that I recall). And then later the same day, I heard it again. So that raises two questions: To answer the second question first, it’s someone who supported chartism, which was “a working-class movement for...
The Quanta Podcast
The Fundamental Tension at the Heart of Math
We tend to think of math as all about logic and rigor. But what “rigor” actually means has been...
7th Apr 2026
We tend to think of math as all about logic and rigor. But what “rigor” actually means has been shaken up quite a few times over the past few centuries. The newest attempt to formalize math comes in the form of the computer program Lean. Mathematicians have mixed feelings. On...
Long Now
Phillip Longman: The Depopulation Problem
### The depopulation problem
Full PDF of the talk...
14th Aug 2004
### The depopulation problem
Full PDF of the talk [here](http://static.longnow.org/seminars/020040813-longman/salt-020040813-longman.pdf "PDF"), slideshow [here](https://media.longnow.org/salt-slides/Longman.html "The Depopulation Problem").
No need to summarize this time....
Long Now
Alex Wright: Glut: Mastering Information Though the Ages
### A Series of Information Explosions
As usual, microbes led the way. Bacteria have swarmed in...
18th Aug 2007
### A Series of Information Explosions
As usual, microbes led the way. Bacteria have swarmed in intense networks for 3.5 billion years. Then a hierarchical form emerged with the first nucleated cells that were made up of an enclosed society of formerly independent...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Last call for software engineers + announcing…KNOWLEDGEFEST! | Out-Of-Pocket
we got some good events cookin' up
1st Jul 2026
we got some good events cookin' up
The Quanta Podcast
Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex Life
A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial...
12th Nov 2015
A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial mysteries in evolution — how simple microbes transformed into the complex cells that produced animals, plants and fungi.
The post Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex...
nanoscale views
FY27 Presidential budget request
To the surprise of no one at all, the 2027 presidential budget request is extremely bad for...
3rd Apr 2026
To the surprise of no one at all, the 2027 presidential budget request is extremely bad for science. Remember, this is largely a political document, and Congress does not have to follow this. In the past year, Congress largely ignored the recommendations and appropriated a much...
Asterisk
The Wrong Kind of City?
How much can the way cities grow tell us about the economic trajectory of their countries? According...
4th Sep 2024
How much can the way cities grow tell us about the economic trajectory of their countries? According to the father of modern sociology, quite a lot.
Long Now
Mariana Mazzucato: The Entrepreneurial State
### Government as radical, patient VC
The iPhone, Mazzucato pointed out, is held up as a classic...
25th Mar 2014
### Government as radical, patient VC
The iPhone, Mazzucato pointed out, is held up as a classic example of world-changing innovation coming from business.
Yet every feature of the iPhone was created, originally, by multi-decade government-funded research. From DARPA came the...
Casey Handmer's blog
Sierras Projects
A short post where I collate some info related to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, various...
15th Aug 2025
A short post where I collate some info related to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, various aspirational objectives and questions. Table Mountain Traverse Table Mountain is at the north west edge of the Kern River basin. It has numerous third and fourth class routes. I...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
What Do Hospitals Care About? | Out-Of-Pocket
Let’s look at three big priorities and a real hospital
11th Feb 2025
Let’s look at three big priorities and a real hospital
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.
Long Now
Eric Cline: 1177 B.C.: When Civilization Collapsed
### When chaos overwhelmed civilization
Archaeologist Cline began by declaring that the time he...
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...
Long Now
Peter Schwartz: The Art Of The Really Long View
### The art of the really long view
For such a weighty subject there was a lot of guffawing going...
13th Dec 2003
### The art of the really long view
For such a weighty subject there was a lot of guffawing going on in the Seminar Thursday night.
The topic was "The Art of the Really Long View." Peter Schwartz chatted through his slides for tonight's lecture, then the discussion waded in....
brr
Engineering for Slow Internet
How to minimize user frustration in Antarctica.
31st May 2024
How to minimize user frustration in Antarctica.
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...
Beautiful Public...
FAA Aviation Maps
Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a...
29th Jan 2024
Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a higher information density than the Federal Aviation Administration’s aviation maps.
Conservation...
This El Niño is different. Here’s why
2 weeks ago
The Quanta Podcast
The Infinite Heist - Part 1
In 1874, Georg Cantor published one of the most important papers in math’s 4,000-year history. Some...
3rd Mar 2026
In 1874, Georg Cantor published one of the most important papers in math’s 4,000-year history. Some ideas in it were stolen. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, the first of a two-parter, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about the hard-fought journey...
Conservation...
Our work in the news, February 2026
3rd Mar 2026
IEEE Spectrum
Sci-fi and Hi-fi
Many a technologist has been inspired by science fiction. Some have even built, or rebuilt, entire...
4th Mar 2024
Many a technologist has been inspired by science fiction. Some have even built, or rebuilt, entire companies around an idea introduced in a story they read, as the founders of Second Life and Meta did, working from the metaverse as imagined by Neal Stephenson in his seminal 1992...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
2024 Healthcare Predictions, Out-Of-Pocket Style | Out-Of-Pocket
I'm not a fortune teller, I'm a fortune, teller
12th Dec 2023
I'm not a fortune teller, I'm a fortune, teller
Quantum Frontiers
The sequel
This October, fantasy readers are devouring a sequel: the final installment in Philip Pullman’s...
27th Oct 2025
This October, fantasy readers are devouring a sequel: the final installment in Philip Pullman’s trilogy The Book of Dust. The series follows student Lyra Silvertongue as she journeys from Oxford to the far east. Her story features alternate worlds, souls … Continue reading →
NeuroLogica Blog
Cognitive Legos
We have all likely had the experience that when we learn a task it becomes easier to learn a...
1st Dec 2025
We have all likely had the experience that when we learn a task it becomes easier to learn a distinct but related task. Learning to cook one dish makes it easier to learn other dishes. Learning how to repair a radio helps you learn to repair other electronics. Even more...
Cremieux Recueil
Fast Fact Check: Does Hep B Vaccination Cause Autism?
Obviously not
5th Mar 2026
Long Now
Alexander Rose: Millennial Precedent
Alexander Rose, Long Now Executive Director and project manager for the Clock of the Long Now,...
6th Apr 2011
Alexander Rose, Long Now Executive Director and project manager for the Clock of the Long Now, discussed lessons learned in multi-millennial site design. Rose covers his trip to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault as well as other sites and precedents like the Mormon Genealogical...
nanoscale views
Vortices everywhere
The 2026 APS Oliver E. Buckley Prize in condensed matter physics was announced this week, and it's a...
8th Nov 2025
The 2026 APS Oliver E. Buckley Prize in condensed matter physics was announced this week, and it's a really interesting combination of topics that, to a lay person, may seem to be completely unrelated.
Fig. 1 from this follow-up PRB.
On the one hand, John Reppy (at age 94!)...
Wanderingspace
URANUS FROM THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE
This is not natural light, nothing is from Webb. The infrared image combines data from two filters...
21st Jul 2023
This is not natural light, nothing is from Webb. The infrared image combines data from two filters which are shown in blue and orange,. The planet displays a blue hue in the resulting representative-color image which is similar to the planet’s actual color. But in reality Uranus...
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...
Asterisk
You’re Invited to a Colonoscopy!
Colonoscopies are the first-line method for preventing colorectal cancer in America —and almost...
1st Oct 2023
Colonoscopies are the first-line method for preventing colorectal cancer in America —and almost nowhere else. But do they work? We finally have a comprehensive trial, but it’s left gastroenterologists with more questions than answers.
Long Now
Laura Cunningham: Ten Millennia of California Ecology
### Eco-continuity in California
California ecology used to be much more driven by floods and...
18th Oct 2011
### Eco-continuity in California
California ecology used to be much more driven by floods and fires, Cunningham said, showing with her paintings how the Great Valley would become a vast inland sea, like a huge vernal pool progressing each year from navigable water to intense...
Long Now
Brewster Kahle: Universal Access to All Knowledge
### All knowledge, to all people, for all time, for free
Universal access to all knowledge, Kahle...
1st Dec 2011
### All knowledge, to all people, for all time, for free
Universal access to all knowledge, Kahle declared, will be one of humanity's greatest achievements. We are already well on the way. "We're building the Library of Alexandria, version 2. We can one-up the Greeks!"
Start...
Long Now
Roger Kennedy: The Political History of North America from 25,000 BC to 12,000 AD
### Ancient American politics
Roger Kennedy, the former head of the Smithsonian National Museum of...
26th Feb 2005
### Ancient American politics
Roger Kennedy, the former head of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and former Director of the US National Park Service, is so eloquent that Walt Kelly based a "Pogo" character on him (the bear P.T. Bridgeport, whose speech...
The Roots of...
Accelerating science through evolvable institutions
This is the written version of a talk presented to the Santa Fe Institute at a working group on...
4th Dec 2023
This is the written version of a talk presented to the Santa Fe Institute at a working group on “Accelerating Science.”
We’re here to discuss “accelerating science.” I like to start on topics like this by taking the historical view: When (if ever) has science accelerated in the...
nanoscale views
What is the Aharonov-Bohm effect?
After seeing this latest extremely good video from Veritasium, and looking back through my posts, I...
1st Feb 2026
After seeing this latest extremely good video from Veritasium, and looking back through my posts, I realized that while I've referenced it indirectly, I've never explicitly talked about the Aharonov-Bohm effect. The video is excellent, and that wikipedia page is pretty good, but...
The Quanta Podcast
The Brain Processes Speech in Parallel With Other Sounds
Scientists thought that the brain’s hearing centers might just process speech along with other...
6th Jan 2022
Scientists thought that the brain’s hearing centers might just process speech along with other sounds. But new work suggests that speech gets some special treatment very early on.
The post The Brain Processes Speech in Parallel With Other Sounds first appeared on...
NeuroLogica Blog
How Much Do Couples Share Traits?
Do birds of a feather flock together, or do opposites attract? These are both common aphorisms,...
5th Sep 2023
Do birds of a feather flock together, or do opposites attract? These are both common aphorisms, which means that they are commonly offered as generally accepted truths, but also that they may by wrong. People like pithy phrases, so they spread prolifically, but that does not mean...
Asterisk
The Institute Behind Taiwan’s Chip Dominance
TSMC (and most of Taiwan’s chip industry) spun out of one government research institute. How did...
16th Mar 2026
TSMC (and most of Taiwan’s chip industry) spun out of one government research institute. How did ITRI implement one of the most successful industrial policy programs of all time?
Quantum Frontiers
A (quantum) complex legacy: Part deux
I didn’t fancy the research suggestion emailed by my PhD advisor. A 2016 email from John Preskill...
20th Feb 2023
I didn’t fancy the research suggestion emailed by my PhD advisor. A 2016 email from John Preskill led to my publishing a paper about quantum complexity in 2022, as I explained in last month’s blog post. But I didn’t explain … Continue reading →
Works in Progress...
Understanding the Baby Boom
The West has been below replacement fertility once before. Then came the Baby Boom. Understanding...
7th Sep 2023
The West has been below replacement fertility once before. Then came the Baby Boom. Understanding that boom may help us deal with today’s bust.
Damn Interesting
A Taste of Italy
In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian...
14th May 2021
In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian domination (a holdover from the Holy Roman Empire) and the other for unification. At the time, Europe’s boot was a curious conglomeration of separate states, not all of which got along....
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...
The evolution of bacteria
Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists...
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.
The Works in...
Flipping the switch on far-UVC
We’ve known about far-UVC’s promise for a decade. Why isn't it everywhere?
10th Mar 2025
We’ve known about far-UVC’s promise for a decade. Why isn't it everywhere?
Asterisk
After Work, We’ll Have Each Other
Once you realize what that means, you’ll be giving two cheers for the American work ethic.
2 weeks ago
Once you realize what that means, you’ll be giving two cheers for the American work ethic.
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...
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...
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.
Long Now
Maya Tudor: Can Nationalism be a Resource for Democracy?
A political scientist examines how foundational nationalisms affect democracy globally, using...
6th May 2019
A political scientist examines how foundational nationalisms affect democracy globally, using countries like India and Myanmar to illustrate that some kinds of nationalism can be an essential resource for protecting democracy.
Maya Tudor is a comparative political scientist...
Long Now
George Dyson: There's Plenty of Room at the Top: Long-term Thinking About Large-scale Computing
### Long-term thinking about large-scale computing
Ever since his 1997 breakthrough book, _Darwin...
10th Jan 2004
### Long-term thinking about large-scale computing
Ever since his 1997 breakthrough book, _Darwin Among the Machines_ , Dyson has become regarded as a leading historian and interpreter of computer science, bringing a rigorous and unconventional perspective. Thus his willingness...
Beautiful Public...
US Government UFO (UAP) Footage
For decades, the public suspected that the US Government was hiding secret intelligence about UFOs —...
10th Feb 2025
For decades, the public suspected that the US Government was hiding secret intelligence about UFOs — (now known as UAPs). Turns out…it kind of was.
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.
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...
Chris Grossack's...
Life in Johnstone's Topological Topos 1 -- Fundamentals
I’ve been thinking a lot about the internal logic of topoi again, and I
want to have more examples...
3rd Jul 2024
I’ve been thinking a lot about the internal logic of topoi again, and I
want to have more examples of topoi that I understand well enough to
externalize some statements. There’s more to life than just a localic
$\mathsf{Sh}(B)$, and since I’m starting to feel like I understand...
Drew Ex Machina
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
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 […]
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.
wadertales
Four eggs or five?
There is something pleasing about four wader eggs in a nest. They seem to fit so neatly, with their...
6th Mar 2026
There is something pleasing about four wader eggs in a nest. They seem to fit so neatly, with their pointed ends in the middle, as illiustrated in the Ringed Plover nest alongside. There has been an assumption that this is an optimum arrangement for incubation, with strong...
The Quanta Podcast
Brightest-Ever Space Explosion Reveals Possible Hints of Dark Matter
A recent gamma-ray burst known as the BOAT — “brightest of all time” — appears to have produced a...
1st Mar 2023
A recent gamma-ray burst known as the BOAT — “brightest of all time” — appears to have produced a high-energy particle that shouldn’t exist. For some, dark matter provides the explanation. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.
Yale E360
Suburban Sprawl Puts Western Homes at Risk from Wildfires
Recent fires in Spokane, Washington, and Reno, Nevada, illustrate the risks from suburban sprawl,...
2 weeks ago
Recent fires in Spokane, Washington, and Reno, Nevada, illustrate the risks from suburban sprawl, experts say. In both cities, encroaching flames burned homes built at the edge of wilderness.
Read more on E360 →
Yale E360
More Than 110 New Species Discovered In Deep Waters Off Australia
Scientists have identified more than 110 new species found in deep water beyond the edges of...
1st Apr 2026
Scientists have identified more than 110 new species found in deep water beyond the edges of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Read more on E360 →
Long Now
Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco, 5
### Lives of San Francisco
"You are the soundtrack," Prelinger told the capacity audience at the...
17th Dec 2010
### Lives of San Francisco
"You are the soundtrack," Prelinger told the capacity audience at the Herbst Theater, and they responded to his mostly silent archival films by calling out locations, questions, comments, and jokes.
They saw footage of a 1941 Market Street parade of...
Long Now
Beth Shapiro: How to Clone a Mammoth
## De-extinction science
When people hear about “ancient DNA” in fossils, Shapiro began, the first...
12th May 2015
## De-extinction science
When people hear about “ancient DNA” in fossils, Shapiro began, the first question always is “Can we clone a dinosaur?” Dinosaurs died out so many millions of years ago, their fossils are nothing but rock (and by the way, there’s no workaround with...
Eukaryote Writes...
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
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.”
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....
Conservation...
Despite dire headlines, ‘it would be a mistake to write off tropical forests’
19th Feb 2024
The Quanta Podcast
How the Physics of Nothing Underlies Everything
The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of...
7th Dec 2022
The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of the vacuum. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.
Long Now
Susan Freinkel: Eternal Plastic
### Making plastic even better
Plastic is so new, Freinkel began, that among all the objects...
23rd May 2012
### Making plastic even better
Plastic is so new, Freinkel began, that among all the objects preserved in the sunken _Titanic_ , none are synthetic plastic, because there was hardly any available in 1912. Natural plastic, however, was a familiar material. Amber was popular....
Chris Grossack's...
A truly incredible fact about the number 37
So I was on math stackexchange the other day, and I saw a cute post
looking for a book which lists,...
8th Nov 2023
So I was on math stackexchange the other day, and I saw a cute post
looking for a book which lists, for many many integers, facts that Ramanujan
could have told Hardy if he’d taken a cab other than 1729. A few days ago
OP answered their own question, saying that the book in...
Beautiful Public...
How LiDAR measures the toll of climate disasters
Comparing LiDAR data from before and after the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles reveals the scale...
25th Aug 2025
Comparing LiDAR data from before and after the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles reveals the scale of devastation in ways satellite imagery can’t match.
Yale E360
India Says Its Grasslands Are 'Wastelands.' Medieval Folklore Suggests Otherwise
The sprawling grasslands of western India are, in the popular imagination, the remains of woodlands...
2nd Feb 2026
The sprawling grasslands of western India are, in the popular imagination, the remains of woodlands that were leveled under British rule — areas to be reforested, rather than conserved. But a recent analysis of stories, songs, and poems from centuries past reveals that western...
The Quanta Podcast
To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget
Researchers find evidence that neural systems actively remove memories, suggesting that forgetting...
6th Jun 2019
Researchers find evidence that neural systems actively remove memories, suggesting that forgetting may be the default mode of the brain.
The post To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Eukaryote Writes...
COVID-19 FAQ
A lot of people have been asking me questions about the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak, in my...
12th Mar 2020
A lot of people have been asking me questions about the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak, in my informal capacity as “local biodefense person”.
Quantum Frontiers
The Noncommuting-Charges World Tour (Part 1 of 4)
Introduction: “Once Upon a Time”…with a twist Thermodynamics problems have surprisingly many...
1st Feb 2024
Introduction: “Once Upon a Time”…with a twist Thermodynamics problems have surprisingly many similarities with fairy tales. For example, most of them begin with a familiar opening. In thermodynamics, the phrase “Consider an isolated box of particles” serves a similar purpose …...
Cremieux Recueil
American Elections Are Unfair
Unfortunately, unfairness is baked in
5th Nov 2024
Unfortunately, unfairness is baked in
Long Now
Danny Hillis & Brian Eno: The Long Now, now
### Make the next legal U-turn
"Bitching Betty," they call the robotic voice of the car’s GPS...
22nd Jan 2014
### Make the next legal U-turn
"Bitching Betty," they call the robotic voice of the car’s GPS guidance system. Eno and Hillis, on their road trips, always become so engrossed in conversation that they get lost—one time, driving to Monterey they wound up in Sacramento, 200 miles...
The Quanta Podcast
Machines Learn Better if We Teach Them the Basics
A wave of research improves reinforcement learning algorithms by pre-training them as if they were...
5th Jul 2023
A wave of research improves reinforcement learning algorithms by pre-training them as if they were human. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Quasi Motion” by Kevin MacLeod.
lcamtuf’s thing
Approximation game
The number 22/7 and the pigeon flock of Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet.
28th Feb 2026
The number 22/7 and the pigeon flock of Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Can patients be good healthcare shoppers? | Out-Of-Pocket
Should their be limits to patient agency?
8th Aug 2024
Should their be limits to patient agency?
Uncharted...
Where Will AI Stocks Go from Here?
Summer 2026 Dispatch
3rd Aug 2026
Quantum Frontiers
How I didn’t become a philosopher (but wound up presenting a named philosophy lecture anyway)
Many people ask why I became a theoretical physicist. The answer runs through philosophy—which I...
15th Apr 2024
Many people ask why I became a theoretical physicist. The answer runs through philosophy—which I thought, for years, I’d left behind in college. My formal relationship with philosophy originated with Mr. Bohrer. My high school classified him as a religion … Continue reading →
Tikalon Blog by Dev...
Copper and Green Energy
The United States Department of Energy has updated its list of critically important materials. The...
1st Jul 2024
The United States Department of Energy has updated its list of critically important materials. The current list of 54 materials includes elements that are presently critical to a transition to green energy, such as the rare earth elements important to turbine generators, and...
Long Now
Andy Weir: The Red Planet for Real
Before Andy Weir's self-published novel _The Martian_ became a _New York Times_ bestseller and a...
9th Jun 2017
Before Andy Weir's self-published novel _The Martian_ became a _New York Times_ bestseller and a blockbuster film, it began as a series of blog posts. Those posts, and the online conversation they sparked, reflect Andy's lifelong love of space and his detailed research into how...
Long Now
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
## 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...
Works in Progress...
Just bury your trash
What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?
2 weeks ago
What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?
Sean Carroll
AMA | June 2026
Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded...
1st Jun 2026
Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who […]
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.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The New Wave of Concierge Medicine | Out-Of-Pocket
This episode of Out-Of-Pocket is brought to you by…
9th Jul 2024
This episode of Out-Of-Pocket is brought to you by…
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Heads Up: Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming March 3
Information on the total eclipse of the Moon coming the morning of March 3
The post Heads Up: Total...
25th Feb 2026
Information on the total eclipse of the Moon coming the morning of March 3
The post Heads Up: Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming March 3 appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Chris Grossack's...
Where Do Those Undergraduate Divisibility Problems Come From?
Oftentimes in your “intro to proofs” class or your first “discrete math” class
or something...
16th Jan 2025
Oftentimes in your “intro to proofs” class or your first “discrete math” class
or something similar, you’ll be shown problems of the form “prove that for
$n^6 + n^3 + 2n^2 + 2n$ is a multiple of $6$ for every $n$”… But where do
these problems come from? And have you ever...
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.
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...
Probably...
Trust and Well-Being
In a previous article, I claimed that Young adults are not very happy. Now the World Happiness...
3rd Apr 2026
In a previous article, I claimed that Young adults are not very happy. Now the World Happiness Report 2026 has confirmed that young people in North America and Western Europe are less happy than they were fifteen years ago, and less happy than previous generations. In this...
The Quanta Podcast
New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory
Researchers have mapped hundreds of semantic categories to the tiny bits of the cortex that...
11th May 2022
Researchers have mapped hundreds of semantic categories to the tiny bits of the cortex that represent them in our thoughts and perceptions. What they discovered might change our view of memory.
The post New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory first...
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Climate Change Trends and Thoughts
Climate change is a challenging issue on multiple levels – it’s challenging for scientists to...
2nd Dec 2024
Climate change is a challenging issue on multiple levels – it’s challenging for scientists to understand all of the complexities of a changing climate, it’s difficult to know how to optimally communicate to the public about climate change, and of course we face an enormous...
Drew Ex Machina
Recollections of NASA’s Apollo 11 Mission
Like a lot of kids who grew up during the ‘60s and ‘70s, I had a fascination with spaceflight. This...
20th Jul 2024
Like a lot of kids who grew up during the ‘60s and ‘70s, I had a fascination with spaceflight. This interest started honestly enough back around […]
Conservation...
Landmark debt swap to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs
15th Jan 2025
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...
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...
Long Now
Stewart Brand: Rethinking Green
### Globalizing Green
Brand built his case for rethinking environmental goals and methods on two...
10th Oct 2009
### Globalizing Green
Brand built his case for rethinking environmental goals and methods on two major changes going on in the world. The one that most people still don't take into consideration is that power is shifting to the developing world, where 5 out of 6 people live,...
Long Now
Frans Lanting: Life's Journey Through Time
### The deep past in the remote present
It began on a New Jersey beach. Frans Lanting was...
28th Apr 2007
### The deep past in the remote present
It began on a New Jersey beach. Frans Lanting was photographing horseshoe crabs for a story about how they are being ground up for eel bait and at the same time their blood is used for drug testing--a $100 million industry. The crabs have...
Uncharted...
Why Is Argentina Poor?
The root of its economic mismanagement
1st Nov 2025
The root of its economic mismanagement
Long Now
David Rumsey: Mapping Time
### Maps and time
David Rumsey's spectacularly illustrated lecture, "Mapping Time" is not just...
15th May 2004
### Maps and time
David Rumsey's spectacularly illustrated lecture, "Mapping Time" is not just about maps. It is the future of data and knowledge handling. People literally gasp at the things Rumsey shows can be done.
I love it when techies, artists, and historians all gasp at...
Cremieux Recueil
Bad Drugs Get Pulled Fast
Safety issues usually get identified and acted on quickly
3rd Aug 2025
Safety issues usually get identified and acted on quickly
Long Now
Iqbal Quadir: Technology Empowers the Poorest
### Making Money WITH the Poor
When Iqbal Quadir applied to US colleges from his home town in...
22nd May 2008
### Making Money WITH the Poor
When Iqbal Quadir applied to US colleges from his home town in Bangladesh he was surprised to discover that not all American universities were found in Washington, DC. That's how it was in Bangladesh, where everything of importance was centralized...
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
Andrew Fraknoi –...
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
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.
NeuroLogica Blog
Marmosets Call Each Other By Name
Humans identify and call each other by specific names. So far this advanced cognitive behavior has...
3rd Sep 2024
Humans identify and call each other by specific names. So far this advanced cognitive behavior has only been identified in a few other species, dolphins, elephants, and some parrots. Interestingly, it has never been documented in our closest relatives, non-human primates – that...
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 Quanta Podcast
Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory
Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa’s lab is overturning old assumptions about how memories form, how...
7th Jun 2018
Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa’s lab is overturning old assumptions about how memories form, how recall works and whether lost memories might be restored from "silent engrams."
The post Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory first appeared on...
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...
IEEE Spectrum
The Saga of AD-X2, the Battery Additive That Roiled the NBS
Senate hearings, a post office ban, the resignation of the director of the National Bureau of...
1st Aug 2024
Senate hearings, a post office ban, the resignation of the director of the National Bureau of Standards, and his reinstatement after more than 400 scientists threatened to resign. Who knew a little box of salt could stir up such drama?
What was AD-X2?
It all started in 1947 when...
Confessions of a...
Marine science, the environment, and the 2013 Australian election
I’ve been a bit reluctant to write about the upcoming election in this blog; after all the point of...
10th Sep 2013
I’ve been a bit reluctant to write about the upcoming election in this blog; after all the point of this blog has never been about anything political! However, for better or worse the state of our environment (including our oceans) are inextricably linked to politics, so here...
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