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Quanta Magazine
In Our Cellular Clocks, She’s Found a Lifetime of Discoveries For decades, Carrie Partch has led pioneering structural research on the protein clockwork that...
a year ago
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a year ago
For decades, Carrie Partch has led pioneering structural research on the protein clockwork that keeps time for our circadian rhythm. Is time still on her side? The post In Our Cellular Clocks, She’s Found a Lifetime of Discoveries first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Asterisk
The Misery Bomb Children across the Western world are getting less happy. If we can’t find a way to reverse the...
a year ago
14
a year ago
Children across the Western world are getting less happy. If we can’t find a way to reverse the trend, it might have an outsized impact on their future.
Explorations of an...
Borneo: One Final Day At Kinabalu Park October 20, 2024     And just like that, it was our final day in Borneo. The previous afternoon saw...
6 months ago
18
6 months ago
October 20, 2024     And just like that, it was our final day in Borneo. The previous afternoon saw Laura and I driving to the town of Kundasang which is the main jumping off point to visit Kinabalu Park. There remained several Bornean endemics that would be lifers for Laura...
Yale E360
Global Economy More Vulnerable to Warming Than Previously Thought A new study finds warming could inflict far more damage to the global economy than previously...
3 months ago
Asterisk
Does Abundance Start at Home? Kelsey Piper and Jasmine Sun talk about microschools, whether localism is the enemy of Abundance,...
2 months ago
37
2 months ago
Kelsey Piper and Jasmine Sun talk about microschools, whether localism is the enemy of Abundance, and why Chinese bureaucrats are like Growth PMs.
Yale E360
How African Communities Are Taking Lead on Protecting Wildlife A new analysis shows that African wildlife increasingly depend on lands managed by villagers and...
6 months ago
2
6 months ago
A new analysis shows that African wildlife increasingly depend on lands managed by villagers and herders. In many areas, locally-run conservancies now more effectively protect wildlife than national parks do, with communities reaping tourism revenue and other benefits. Read more...
Yale E360
In Vermont, a Push to Prevent Flooding or Get Out of the Way An increase in extreme precipitation events has hit the tiny, mountainous state of Vermont...
5 months ago
7
5 months ago
An increase in extreme precipitation events has hit the tiny, mountainous state of Vermont especially hard. As disaster declarations mount, state officials and community groups are collaborating to restore floodplains, reduce runoff from slopes, and buy out vulnerable...
Quanta Magazine
A Century Later, New Math Smooths Out General Relativity Mathematicians prove a theorem that illuminates the geometry of universes with tiny amounts of mass....
a year ago
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a year ago
Mathematicians prove a theorem that illuminates the geometry of universes with tiny amounts of mass. The post A Century Later, New Math Smooths Out General Relativity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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...
6 months ago
57
6 months ago
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...
Quanta Magazine
Will AI Ever Understand Language Like Humans? AI may sound like a human, but that doesn’t mean that AI learns like a human. In this episode, Ellie...
2 months ago
14
2 months ago
AI may sound like a human, but that doesn’t mean that AI learns like a human. In this episode, Ellie Pavlick explains why understanding how LLMs can process language could unlock deeper insights into both AI and the human mind. The post Will AI Ever Understand...
NeuroLogica Blog
Mach Effect Thrusters Fail When thinking about potential future technology, one way to divide possible future tech is into...
a year ago
53
a year ago
When thinking about potential future technology, one way to divide possible future tech is into probable and speculative. Probable future technology involves extrapolating existing technology into the future, such as imaging what advanced computers might be like. This category...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
“Mission-driven” should be more specific | Out-Of-Pocket everything is a set of tradeoffs, let's be honest about that
a year ago
Yale E360
Saving U.S. Climate and Environmental Data Before It Goes Away Some 2,000 records went missing from government data sets after the Trump administration took office...
4 months ago
2
4 months ago
Some 2,000 records went missing from government data sets after the Trump administration took office in January. Canadian geographer Eric Nost talks about the work he and colleagues are doing to archive data related to climate and the environment while it is still...
brr
The Last Egg Five more months until freshies...
over a year ago
Quanta Magazine
Selfish, Virus-Like DNA Can Carry Genes Between Species Genetic elements called Mavericks that have some viral features could be responsible for the...
a year ago
22
a year ago
Genetic elements called Mavericks that have some viral features could be responsible for the large-scale smuggling of DNA between species. The post Selfish, Virus-Like DNA Can Carry Genes Between Species first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
Penguin Droppings May Be Seeding Clouds, Study Finds Penguin droppings may play a role in the formation of clouds over Antarctica, new research...
a month ago
15
a month ago
Penguin droppings may play a role in the formation of clouds over Antarctica, new research finds. Read more on E360 →
Quanta Magazine
Echoes of Electromagnetism Found in Number Theory A new magnum opus posits the existence of a hidden mathematical link akin to the connection between...
a year ago
26
a year ago
A new magnum opus posits the existence of a hidden mathematical link akin to the connection between electricity and magnetism. The post Echoes of Electromagnetism Found in Number Theory first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
What Can Cave Life Tell Us About Alien Ecosystems? Extremophiles, or microbes that live in the most seemingly hostile environments, are the darlings of...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
Extremophiles, or microbes that live in the most seemingly hostile environments, are the darlings of astrobiologists, who study the potential for life beyond Earth. In this episode, co-host Janna Levin speaks with astrobiologist and cave explorer Penelope Boston about how life...
Quanta Magazine
Pleasure or Pain? He Maps the Neural Circuits That Decide. The work of the neuroscientist Ishmail Abdus-Saboor has opened up a world of insights into precisely...
a year ago
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a year ago
The work of the neuroscientist Ishmail Abdus-Saboor has opened up a world of insights into precisely how much pleasure and pain animals experience during different forms of touch. The post Pleasure or Pain? He Maps the Neural Circuits That Decide. first appeared on...
Yale E360
Environmental Enforcement Slows Under Trump Federal enforcement of environmental laws has slowed significantly under President Trump. Read more...
2 months ago
7
2 months ago
Federal enforcement of environmental laws has slowed significantly under President Trump. Read more on E360 →
IEEE Spectrum
Why JPEGs Still Rule the Web A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the...
a month ago
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a month ago
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the end of the long tail. For roughly three decades, the JPEG has been the World Wide Web’s primary image format. But it wasn’t the one the Web started with. In fact, the first...
Quanta Magazine
The Brainstem Fine-Tunes Inflammation Throughout the Body The evolutionarily ancient part of the brain that controls breathing and heart rate also regulates...
a year ago
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a year ago
The evolutionarily ancient part of the brain that controls breathing and heart rate also regulates the immune system — a discovery about the brain-body axis made by experts on taste. The post The Brainstem Fine-Tunes Inflammation Throughout the Body first appeared on...
Blog - Practical...
The Hidden Engineering Behind Texas's Top Tourist Attraction [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] I am on location in downtown...
6 months ago
84
6 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] I am on location in downtown San Antonio, Texas, where crews have just finished setting up this massive 650-ton crane. The counterweights are on. The outriggers are down. And the jib, an extension for the...
Quanta Magazine
A New Map of the Universe, Painted With Cosmic Neutrinos Physicists finally know where at least some of these high-energy particles come from, which helps...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Physicists finally know where at least some of these high-energy particles come from, which helps make the neutrinos useful for exploring fundamental physics. The post A New Map of the Universe, Painted With Cosmic Neutrinos first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
Pierre de Fermat’s Link to a High School Student’s Prime Math Proof How Fermat’s less famous ‘little theorem’ got mathematicians young and old to play with prime-like...
a year ago
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a year ago
How Fermat’s less famous ‘little theorem’ got mathematicians young and old to play with prime-like Carmichael numbers. The post Pierre de Fermat’s Link to a High School Student’s Prime Math Proof first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Wanderingspace
Goodbye Ingenuity Mission completed. Ingenuity is left alone on Mars after damage to one of its blades renders it...
a year ago
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a year ago
Mission completed. Ingenuity is left alone on Mars after damage to one of its blades renders it inoperable..
The Works in...
Another reason housing in Texas is cheap What we’ve been reading: urbanism, science, tech, aesthetics and more …
3 months ago
Interaction Magic -...
Plastic archeology The history, science and engineering of Lego bricks, on the cusp between trash and treasure.
a year ago
IEEE Spectrum
50 Years Later, This Apollo-Era Antenna Still Talks to Voyager 2 For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they...
a year ago
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a year ago
For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they explore our solar system and push into the beyond. The DSS-43 radio antenna, located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, near Canberra, Australia, keeps open the line...
Yale E360
A Win for Farmers and Tribes Brings New Hope to the Klamath In the long-contentious Klamath River watershed, an experiment that turned a barley field into a...
a month ago
3
a month ago
In the long-contentious Klamath River watershed, an experiment that turned a barley field into a wetland not only improved water quality. It also offered a path forward for restoring populations of two endangered fish species that are of cultural importance to Native tribes. Read...
Asterisk
Silicon Valley’s Gold Rush Roots Silicon Valley, purveyor of disruptive technologies, likes to think of itself as sui generis. But...
a year ago
17
a year ago
Silicon Valley, purveyor of disruptive technologies, likes to think of itself as sui generis. But there’s a clear line from tech’s knowledge economy to the Bay Area’s first economy: gold mining.
Yale E360
Facing High Tariffs in U.S., Chinese Solar Flows to Poorer Countries Facing high tariffs in the U.S. and Europe, Chinese solar and battery companies have been selling a...
2 months ago
7
2 months ago
Facing high tariffs in the U.S. and Europe, Chinese solar and battery companies have been selling a growing share of their products to poorer countries, a new analysis finds. Read more on E360 →
Many Worlds
The Moon Rush Is On. Are We on Earth Ready For That? An Indian spacecraft landed on the moon this month and a pioneering Japanese lunar  lander is...
a year ago
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a year ago
An Indian spacecraft landed on the moon this month and a pioneering Japanese lunar  lander is awaiting an imminent launch.  A Russian craft trying to land in the same area — the southern polar region — recently crashed, as did a private effort by a joint Japanese-United Arab...
Quanta Magazine
When Did Nature Burst Into Vivid Color? Scientists reconstructed 500 million years of evolutionary history to reveal which came first:...
3 weeks ago
14
3 weeks ago
Scientists reconstructed 500 million years of evolutionary history to reveal which came first: colorful signals or the color vision needed to see them. The post When Did Nature Burst Into Vivid Color? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
The Gender Boxing Hubub Both Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan and Imane Khelif of Algeria earned medals in female boxing competition at...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
Both Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan and Imane Khelif of Algeria earned medals in female boxing competition at the 2024 Olympics. This has caused a controversy because both boxers, according to reports, have some form of DSD – difference of sex development. This means they have been caught...
Quanta Magazine
Mathematicians Find Hidden Structure in a Common Type of Space In 50 years of searching, mathematicians found only one example of a “subspace design” in a vector...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
In 50 years of searching, mathematicians found only one example of a “subspace design” in a vector space. A new proof reveals that there are infinitely more out there. The post Mathematicians Find Hidden Structure in a Common Type of Space first appeared on Quanta...
Yale E360
Warming Linked to Rising Cancer Rates Among Women in the Middle East New research finds a link between increasingly extreme heat in the Middle East and rising rates of...
a month ago
3
a month ago
New research finds a link between increasingly extreme heat in the Middle East and rising rates of cancer in women. Read more on E360 →
Yale E360
A.I. Is Quietly Powering a Revolution in Weather Prediction Weather forecasts powered by artificial intelligence are usually more accurate — and require less...
3 months ago
3
3 months ago
Weather forecasts powered by artificial intelligence are usually more accurate — and require less computational energy and fewer human hours — than conventional predictions. But questions remain about A.I. systems’ reliability and their ability to forecast extreme weather...
Uncharted...
Why Could Lebanon Be Rich, but Is so Chaotic? Mountains, seas, and a shitty region
9 months ago
Quanta Magazine
Where Does Meaning Live in a Sentence? Math Might Tell Us. The mathematician Tai-Danae Bradley is using category theory to try to understand both human and...
3 months ago
32
3 months ago
The mathematician Tai-Danae Bradley is using category theory to try to understand both human and AI-generated language. The post Where Does Meaning Live in a Sentence? Math Might Tell Us. first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
Wildlife Returns to Site of Devastating Southern California Wildfire Four months after the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, California, wildlife is making a...
2 months ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The New Ways Pharma Subsidizes Care | Out-Of-Pocket Is it right? Is it wrong? Is it just hard to track?
2 months ago
Asterisk
The Science of Woo A conversation about neuroscience, meditation, and the many paths to insight.
4 months ago
Yale E360
In a Major Reversal, the World Bank Is Backing Mega Dams Despite continued opposition, the World Bank has approved the first of five big dam projects...
7 months ago
4
7 months ago
Despite continued opposition, the World Bank has approved the first of five big dam projects expected to get its support in the coming months. Climate change has upped the need for renewable energy, but the environmental and social costs of building such massive projects...
symmetry magazine
Listening to the radio on the far side of the moon LuSEE-Night will demonstrate whether an experiment to search for ancient radio signals can survive...
a year ago
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a year ago
LuSEE-Night will demonstrate whether an experiment to search for ancient radio signals can survive the moon’s unforgiving environment.
Asterisk
Why Isn’t Solar Scaling in Africa? The World Bank designed the Scaling Solar program to set Africa on a course to sustainable energy....
a year ago
22
a year ago
The World Bank designed the Scaling Solar program to set Africa on a course to sustainable energy. Instead, it shed light on how a lack of transparency in the climate and development industry hampers progress.
IEEE Spectrum
The Incredible Story Behind the First Transistor Radio But that’s pretty much what Pat Haggerty, vice president of Texas Instruments, did in 1954. The...
9 months ago
102
9 months ago
But that’s pretty much what Pat Haggerty, vice president of Texas Instruments, did in 1954. The result was the Regency TR-1, the world’s first commercial transistor radio, which debuted 70 years ago this month. The engineers delivered on Haggerty’s audacious goal, and I...
Quanta Magazine
Introducing The Quanta Podcast Exploring the distant universe, the insides of cells, the abstractions of math, the complexity of...
2 months ago
24
2 months ago
Exploring the distant universe, the insides of cells, the abstractions of math, the complexity of information itself and much more, The Quanta Podcast will be a tour of the frontier between the known and the unknown. The post Introducing The Quanta Podcast first...
Casey Handmer's blog
Potentially undervalued companies I am routinely solicited for my technical opinion on new and interesting technologies and companies...
10 months ago
29
10 months ago
I am routinely solicited for my technical opinion on new and interesting technologies and companies developing them. 90% of the time, my answer is “I don’t know” but it continues to concern me that aspects of technical feasibility are evidently not legible to financial types (and...
Yale E360
China's Disastrous Summer Floods Linked to Unusually Warm Spring in Tibet A new study links devastating summer floods in southern China to unusually warm spring weather over...
5 months ago
2
5 months ago
A new study links devastating summer floods in southern China to unusually warm spring weather over the Tibetan plateau. Read more on E360 →
SubAnima
Evolution Isn't Always For The Best Evolution is not, I repeat, NOT natural selection
over a year ago
The Works in...
The breaking of Britain's National Grid A story of aging infrastructure and perverse incentives
2 months ago
Yale E360
In War-Torn Sudan, a Gold Mining Boom Takes a Human Toll As civil war rages in Sudan, a surge in gold production is helping finance and arm the warring...
3 months ago
4
3 months ago
As civil war rages in Sudan, a surge in gold production is helping finance and arm the warring factions. Most of the mining is done on a small scale by villagers who process the gold using mercury and cyanide, posing serious threats to their health and to the environment. Read...
Quanta Magazine
How ‘Idle’ Egg Cells Defend Their DNA From Damage How do immature egg cells maintain genetic quality for decades before they mature? Scientists find...
a year ago
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a year ago
How do immature egg cells maintain genetic quality for decades before they mature? Scientists find unusual safeguards in this quiescent cell that may inform research into fertility. The post How ‘Idle’ Egg Cells Defend Their DNA From Damage first appeared on Quanta...
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2020, 3) Repairs, number stations, the only good Twitters, a low-key infohazard about pictures of...
over a year ago
40
over a year ago
Repairs, number stations, the only good Twitters, a low-key infohazard about pictures of butterflies, and more.
Yale E360
The Year in Energy in Four Charts The global energy sector defied expectations this year, in ways both good and bad for the climate....
6 months ago
2
6 months ago
The global energy sector defied expectations this year, in ways both good and bad for the climate. Four charts highlight key trends in the transition to clean energy. Read more on E360 →
Yale E360
A Third of Forests Lost This Century Will Likely Never Be Restored Of the forest lost so far this century, roughly a third was destroyed to make room for farms, a new...
a month ago
16
a month ago
Of the forest lost so far this century, roughly a third was destroyed to make room for farms, a new analysis finds. Those woodlands, which spanned an area larger than Mongolia, will likely never be restored, authors say. Read more on E360 →
Blog - Practical...
The Hidden Engineering of Floating Bridges [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In the early 1900s, Seattle...
4 days ago
9
4 days ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In the early 1900s, Seattle was a growing city hemmed in by geography. To the west was Puget Sound, a vital link to the Pacific Ocean. To the east, Lake Washington stood between the city and the farmland and...
Sean Carroll
Thanksgiving This year we give thanks for Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. (We’ve previously given thanks for the...
over a year ago
51
over a year ago
This year we give thanks for Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. (We’ve previously given thanks for the Standard Model Lagrangian, Hubble’s Law, the Spin-Statistics Theorem, conservation of momentum, effective field theory, the error bar, gauge symmetry, Landauer’s Principle, the...
NeuroLogica Blog
GMOs and Butterflies Are attitudes towards genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our agriculture softening? Back in...
over a year ago
35
over a year ago
Are attitudes towards genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our agriculture softening? Back in 2015 a Pew survey found that the gap between public opinion and that of scientists was greatest on acceptance of GMOs (more than any other topic surveyed), with a 51% gap. But more...
Quanta Magazine
New Proof Threads the Needle on a Sticky Geometry Problem A new proof marks major progress toward solving the Kakeya conjecture, a deceptively simple question...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A new proof marks major progress toward solving the Kakeya conjecture, a deceptively simple question that underpins a tower of conjectures. The post New Proof Threads the Needle on a Sticky Geometry Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Explorations of an...
A Quest Nature Tour To Borneo: Kota Kinabalu, Mount Kinabalu, Sepilok And The Kinabatangan River Our Quest Nature Tours group assembled in Kota Kinabalu on the evening of October 3 and the...
8 months ago
18
8 months ago
Our Quest Nature Tours group assembled in Kota Kinabalu on the evening of October 3 and the following morning we were off. Kota Kinabalu is situated on the coast, but is only a two hour drive from the mountains that form the spine of Borneo and its highest peak, Mount Kinabalu....
NeuroLogica Blog
911 Conspiracy Theories Persist On September 11, 2001, as part of a planned terrorist attack, commercial planes were hijacked and...
8 months ago
54
8 months ago
On September 11, 2001, as part of a planned terrorist attack, commercial planes were hijacked and flown into each of the two towers at the World Trade Center in New York. A third plane was flown into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed after the passengers fought back. This, of...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
ARISE ERISA | Out-Of-Pocket Levity in the time of Coronavirus
a year ago
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...
12 months ago
85
12 months ago
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 […]
ToughSF
Permanent and Perfect Stealth in Space Despite the commonly accepted truth in Hard Science Fiction, spacecraft are able to evade detection...
over a year ago
16
over a year ago
Despite the commonly accepted truth in Hard Science Fiction, spacecraft are able to evade detection in space in many circumstances. The Hydrogen Steamer was a design that used liquid hydrogen evaporative cooling to keep a non-reflective surface practically invisible.  However,...
Quanta Magazine
With ‘Digital Twins,’ The Doctor Will See You Now By creating digital twins of patients, Amanda Randles wants to bring unprecedented precision to...
11 months ago
71
11 months ago
By creating digital twins of patients, Amanda Randles wants to bring unprecedented precision to medical forecasts. The post With ‘Digital Twins,’ The Doctor Will See You Now first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Asterisk
The Transistor Cliff Moore’s law may be coming to an end. What happens to AI progress if it does?
over a year ago
Uncharted...
Should You Be Able to Experiment on Your Own Cancer? A researcher in virology and immunotherapy got bad news: Her cancer was back with a vengeance; the...
9 months ago
24
9 months ago
A researcher in virology and immunotherapy got bad news: Her cancer was back with a vengeance; the treatments weren’t working. She decided to treat it herself.
Asterisk
What I Won’t Eat A reflection on ethics, animal cognition, and chocolate cake.
over a year ago
Uncharted...
10 Interesting Facts on Relationships & Sex Q1 2025
3 months ago
Yale E360
A Decade After a Lead Crisis, Flint Has At Last Replaced Its Pipes A decade after Flint, Michigan, was beset by widespread lead contamination, officials confirmed the...
2 weeks ago
26
2 weeks ago
A decade after Flint, Michigan, was beset by widespread lead contamination, officials confirmed the city has replaced its lead pipes, as ordered by a federal court. Read more on E360 →
ToughSF
Hypervelocity Macron Accelerators We look at the various ways of accelerating micro-scale projectiles up to hypervelocity (10-10,000...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
We look at the various ways of accelerating micro-scale projectiles up to hypervelocity (10-10,000 km/s) and their use in space. Going small to go fast Macrons or macroscopic particles are tiny projectiles that sit on the border between the complex structures we see under a...
NeuroLogica Blog
Big Ring Challenges Cosmological Principle University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) PhD student Alexia Lopez, who two years ago discovered a...
a year ago
49
a year ago
University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) PhD student Alexia Lopez, who two years ago discovered a giant arc of galaxy clusters in the distant universe, has now discovered a Big Ring. This (if real) is one of the largest structures in the observable universe at 1.3 billion light...
Chris Grossack's...
A Cute Application of the Yoneda Lemma Every few weeks recently I’ve been putting a new fun problem on one of the whiteboards in the first...
4 months ago
38
4 months ago
Every few weeks recently I’ve been putting a new fun problem on one of the whiteboards in the first year office. These are often inspired by something I saw on MSE, and I’m usually choosing problems that force you to understand something fundamental really well. Then I usually...
Quanta Magazine
A ‘Lobby’ Where a Molecule Mob Tells Genes What to Do Highly repetitive regions of junk DNA may be the key to a newly discovered mechanism for gene...
a year ago
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a year ago
Highly repetitive regions of junk DNA may be the key to a newly discovered mechanism for gene regulation. The post A ‘Lobby’ Where a Molecule Mob Tells Genes What to Do first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
March Meeting 2025, Day 0 Technically, this year the conference is known as the APS Global Physics Summit rather than the...
4 months ago
37
4 months ago
Technically, this year the conference is known as the APS Global Physics Summit rather than the March Meeting, but I'm keeping my blog post titles consistent with previous years.   Over 14,000 physicists have descended upon Anaheim, and there are parallel events in more than a...
NeuroLogica Blog
Are Small Modular Reactors Finally Coming? Small nuclear reactors have been around since the 1950s. They mostly have been used in military...
4 months ago
35
4 months ago
Small nuclear reactors have been around since the 1950s. They mostly have been used in military ships, like aircraft carriers and submarines. They have the specific advantage that such ships could remain at sea for long periods of time without needing to refuel. But small modular...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Pharmacies Inside-and-Out With John Capecelatro | Out-Of-Pocket How does a pharmacy actually work?
a year ago
Cremieux Recueil
The Ottoman Origins of Modernity Would we have the modern world without Islamic incursion into Southeastern Europe?
10 months ago
IEEE Spectrum
James Wimshurst’s Electrostatic Immortality James Wimshurst did not invent the machine that bears his name. But thanks to his many refinements...
over a year ago
46
over a year ago
James Wimshurst did not invent the machine that bears his name. But thanks to his many refinements to a distinctive type of electrostatic generator, we now have the Wimshurst influence machine. What does a Wimshurst machine do? Influence machines date back to the 18th century....
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: A winter's tale Melting snow can make the season easier
over a year ago
Quanta Magazine
Computer Scientists Inch Closer to Major Algorithmic Goal A new paper finds a faster method for determining when two mathematical groups are the same. ...
over a year ago
32
over a year ago
A new paper finds a faster method for determining when two mathematical groups are the same. The post Computer Scientists Inch Closer to Major Algorithmic Goal first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Damn Interesting
The Traveler and His Baggage On 19 May 1943, a news report from Berlin deepened the already dreary gloom that clung to the people...
over a year ago
31
over a year ago
On 19 May 1943, a news report from Berlin deepened the already dreary gloom that clung to the people of Nazi-occupied Paris. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels proudly announced to the world that the German capital of Berlin was officially judenfrei–free of all Jews. As this...
Asterisk
Through a Glass Darkly Nobody predicted the AI revolution, except for the 352 experts who were asked to predict it.
over a year ago
18
over a year ago
Nobody predicted the AI revolution, except for the 352 experts who were asked to predict it.
Beautiful Public...
Visualizing Rivers and Floodplains with USGS Data Using USGS elevation data to visualize stunning views of the flow of water through rivers and...
over a year ago
Quanta Magazine
Concept Cells Help Your Brain Abstract Information and Build Memories Individual cells in the brain light up for specific ideas. These concept neurons, once known as...
5 months ago
58
5 months ago
Individual cells in the brain light up for specific ideas. These concept neurons, once known as “Jennifer Aniston cells,” help us think, imagine and remember episodes from our lives. The post Concept Cells Help Your Brain Abstract Information and Build Memories first...
Quanta Magazine
The Hidden Brain Connections Between Our Hands and Tongues Sticking out your tongue while doing delicate work with your hands reveals a history of evolutionary...
a year ago
50
a year ago
Sticking out your tongue while doing delicate work with your hands reveals a history of evolutionary relationships. The post The Hidden Brain Connections Between Our Hands and Tongues first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Nuclear Microreactors The first nuclear powered vessel was completed in 1959. Since then there have been nuclear powered...
over a year ago
64
over a year ago
The first nuclear powered vessel was completed in 1959. Since then there have been nuclear powered vessels in the oceans, including many nuclear submarines. The obvious advantage is that is such vessels can stay at see for long periods of time without refueling. These ships use...
Asterisk
Development Finance Done Right A veteran diplomat explains how to navigate the U.S. development ecosystem, master the interagency...
a year ago
15
a year ago
A veteran diplomat explains how to navigate the U.S. development ecosystem, master the interagency process, and bring electricity to 200 million people.
Quanta Magazine
How to Build an Origami Computer Two mathematicians have shown that origami can, in principle, be used to perform any possible...
a year ago
66
a year ago
Two mathematicians have shown that origami can, in principle, be used to perform any possible computation. The post How to Build an Origami Computer first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
Mathematicians Attempt to Glimpse Past the Big Bang By studying the geometry of model space-times, researchers offer alternative views of the universe’s...
a year ago
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a year ago
By studying the geometry of model space-times, researchers offer alternative views of the universe’s first moments. The post Mathematicians Attempt to Glimpse Past the Big Bang first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Update on Self-Driving Cars The story has become a classic of failed futurism – driverless or self-driving cars were supposed...
a year ago
19
a year ago
The story has become a classic of failed futurism – driverless or self-driving cars were supposed start taking over the roads as early as 2020. But that didn’t happen – it turned that the last 5% of capability was about as difficult to develop as the first 95%. Around 2015 I...
wadertales
Flexible nesting behaviour In April and May, tens of thousands of Black-tailed Godwits return to Iceland, having spent the...
9 months ago
67
9 months ago
In April and May, tens of thousands of Black-tailed Godwits return to Iceland, having spent the summer in Western Europe, particularly Britain & Ireland but also France, Portugal and Spain. For early arrivals, the conditions they encounter vary markedly between years. In a cold...
Tikalon Blog by Dev...
Quantum Year 2025 Children decide early in life to become scientists when they find that topics such as the...
11 months ago
21
11 months ago
Children decide early in life to become scientists when they find that topics such as the Pythagorean theorem and the hydrological cycle are more interesting and more important than knowing which state is noted for corn. My childhood was notable for witnessing the launch of the...
Cremieux Recueil
Food Deserts Are Not Real They're more like bad habit neighborhoods
10 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
GMOs – Ask a Farmer The topic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is a great target for science communication...
11 months ago
77
11 months ago
The topic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is a great target for science communication because public attitudes have largely been shaped by deliberate misinformation, and the research suggests that those attitudes can change in response to more accurate information. It is...
IEEE Spectrum
How Vannevar Bush Engineered the 20th Century In the summer of 1945, Robert J. Oppenheimer and other key members of the Manhattan Project gathered...
a year ago
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a year ago
In the summer of 1945, Robert J. Oppenheimer and other key members of the Manhattan Project gathered in New Mexico to witness the first atomic bomb test. Among the observers was Vannevar Bush, who had overseen the Manhattan Project and served as the sole liaison to U.S. President...
wadertales
What happens when the mud disappears? The Yellow Sea provides important ‘service stations’ for shorebirds on the East Asian-Australasian...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
The Yellow Sea provides important ‘service stations’ for shorebirds on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, especially on their way north to Russian and Alaskan breeding areas. In a thought-provoking paper in Biological Conservation, Xiaodan Wang and colleagues consider how...
Apoorva Srinivasan
niceR code with functional programming At the end of this blog post, you will be able to: Describe functional programming concepts Write...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
At the end of this blog post, you will be able to: Describe functional programming concepts Write functional programming code using purrr package in R If you are anything like me, you probably focused primarily on learning statistics, machine learning and programming on a...
Quanta Magazine
How ‘Embeddings’ Encode What Words Mean — Sort Of Machines work with words by embedding their relationships with other words in a string of numbers. ...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Machines work with words by embedding their relationships with other words in a string of numbers. The post How ‘Embeddings’ Encode What Words Mean — Sort Of first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Bartosz Ciechanowski
Mechanical Watch In the world of modern portable devices, it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the...
over a year ago
64
over a year ago
In the world of modern portable devices, it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the most convenient way to keep track of time was a mechanical watch. Unlike their quartz and smart siblings, mechanical watches can run without using any batteries or other...
Yale E360
In Uganda, Deadly Landslides Force an Agricultural Reckoning As growing populations denude its slopes and heavy rain intensifies, Mount Elgon has become...
a week ago
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a week ago
As growing populations denude its slopes and heavy rain intensifies, Mount Elgon has become increasingly vulnerable to landslides. In response, Ugandan farmers are planting native trees and changing the crops they plant in efforts to build resilience against future...
IEEE Spectrum
Before the Undo Command, There Was the Electric Eraser hot combs—they all obviously benefited from the jolt of electrification. But the eraser? What was so...
3 months ago
34
3 months ago
hot combs—they all obviously benefited from the jolt of electrification. But the eraser? What was so problematic about the humble eraser that it needed electrifying? 1935 patent application for an apparatus for erasing, “Hand held rubbers are clumsy and cover a greater area than...
Yale E360
How Tearing Down Small Dams Is Helping Restore Northeast Rivers More than 30,000 small dams currently block river tributaries from Maine to Maryland. New...
5 months ago
4
5 months ago
More than 30,000 small dams currently block river tributaries from Maine to Maryland. New initiatives to remove them are aimed at restoring natural flows, improving habitat for aquatic life, and reopening thousands of river miles to migratory fish, from shad to American...
Yale E360
Pakistan's Solar Revolution Is Bringing Power to the People Fed up with pricey electricity from an unreliable grid, Pakistanis have snapped up cheap solar...
a week ago
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a week ago
Fed up with pricey electricity from an unreliable grid, Pakistanis have snapped up cheap solar panels. In an interview, Muhammad Mustafa Amjad, of Islamabad-based Renewables First, says his country can stand as a model for other nations as they transition away from fossil...
NeuroLogica Blog
Do We Have Free Will? Let’s dive head first into one of the internet’s most contentious questions – do we have true free...
a year ago
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a year ago
Let’s dive head first into one of the internet’s most contentious questions – do we have true free will? This comes up not infrequently whenever I write here about neuroscience, most recently when I wrote about hunger circuitry, because the notion of the brain as a physical...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Next Step in Space Travel The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced they are developing their own commercial space...
a year ago
25
a year ago
The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced they are developing their own commercial space capsule. This will be used initially for cargo, but then eventually for crew as well. They anticipate a maiden voyage in 2028. I think this is a positive development. It seems we are...
Uncharted...
What Is the Earth’s Carrying Capacity? Most "experts" don't understand technology or economics
7 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
How Much Do Couples Share Traits? Do birds of a feather flock together, or do opposites attract? These are both common aphorisms,...
a year ago
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a year ago
Do birds of a feather flock together, or do opposites attract? These are both common aphorisms, which means that they are commonly offered as generally accepted truths, but also that they may by wrong. People like pithy phrases, so they spread prolifically, but that does not mean...
NeuroLogica Blog
Apologizing for Uri Geller A recent New York Times article tries to rehabilitate the reputation of Uri Geller, famed...
over a year ago
57
over a year ago
A recent New York Times article tries to rehabilitate the reputation of Uri Geller, famed spoon-bending magician, by simply telling a one-sided narrative. From my perspective as a skeptic, this was a terrible article that missed the real issue, glossed over glaring defects in...
The Works in...
Stian Westlake on the intangible economy and paying for social science Episode two of The Works in Progress Podcast is out now
a week ago
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...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
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 →
NeuroLogica Blog
How Humans Solve Problems The human brain is extremely good at problem-solving, at least relatively speaking. Cognitive...
a month ago
15
a month ago
The human brain is extremely good at problem-solving, at least relatively speaking. Cognitive scientists have been exploring how, exactly, people approach and solve problems – what cognitive strategies do we use, and how optimal are they. A recent study extends this research and...
Wanderingspace
Dust Storm On Mars A dust storm in Olympia Planum's north polar dune fields was triggered by a late Martian summer cold...
a year ago
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a year ago
A dust storm in Olympia Planum's north polar dune fields was triggered by a late Martian summer cold front. As the northern polar cap shrinks fast, it releases cold air that sometimes moves south, like on Earth. These cold fronts strengthen in late summer and early fall due to...
Interaction Magic -...
Interaction20 Round-up Summary of all the amazing, curious and challenging ideas from last week's IXDA Interaction 20...
over a year ago
Yale E360
U.S. Aid Cuts Are Hitting Global Conservation Projects Hard The Trump Administration’s dismantling of USAID has done more than cut off life-saving humanitarian...
2 months ago
6
2 months ago
The Trump Administration’s dismantling of USAID has done more than cut off life-saving humanitarian assistance. It has also eliminated funding for environmental protection and conservation work in dozens of countries, with many programs now being forced to shut down. Read more on...
Yale E360
Lightning Strikes the Arctic: What Will It Mean for the Far North? A warmer world is expected to bring more thunderstorms, especially at higher latitudes. Scientists...
a month ago
12
a month ago
A warmer world is expected to bring more thunderstorms, especially at higher latitudes. Scientists are now reporting a dramatic surge in lightning in the far north and are scrambling to parse how this could affect wildfires, the chemistry of the atmosphere, and Arctic...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Future of (Unpaid) Work If we think of the top inventions that had a positive impact on human society and our quality of...
over a year ago
42
over a year ago
If we think of the top inventions that had a positive impact on human society and our quality of life most lists would contain things like the printing press, the wheel, or the computer. One invention that should be on everyone’s list but is easy to overlook is – the washing...
NeuroLogica Blog
Using AI To Create Virtual Environments Generative AI applications seem to be on the steep part of the development curve – not only is the...
a year ago
105
a year ago
Generative AI applications seem to be on the steep part of the development curve – not only is the technology getting better, but people are finding more and more uses for it. It’s a new powerful tool with broad applicability, and so there are countless startups and researchers...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Bit of Energy Pseudoscience Remember the 1980 film, The Formula? Probably not, because it was a mediocre film that did not age...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Remember the 1980 film, The Formula? Probably not, because it was a mediocre film that did not age well. The basic plot is that Nazi chemists during WWII developed a formula for synthetic gasoline. A detective investigating a murder gets embroiled in a conspiracy to cover up the...
Quanta Magazine
Is Mathematics Mostly Chaos or Mostly Order? Two new notions of infinity challenge a long-standing plan to define the mathematical universe. ...
4 weeks ago
18
4 weeks ago
Two new notions of infinity challenge a long-standing plan to define the mathematical universe. The post Is Mathematics Mostly Chaos or Mostly Order? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
To Breed Heat-Proof Cows, Nigerian Farmers Source Brazilian Bull Genes As the planet warms, Nigerian farmers are looking to breed cattle that can take the heat, importing...
5 months ago
5
5 months ago
As the planet warms, Nigerian farmers are looking to breed cattle that can take the heat, importing semen from a Brazilian breed suited to balmy tropical weather. Read more on E360 →
The Works in...
Gentrification as a housing problem The root cause of displacement is inflexible supply
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
New Maps of the Bizarre, Chaotic Space-Time Inside Black Holes Physicists hope that understanding the churning region near singularities might help them reconcile...
4 months ago
43
4 months ago
Physicists hope that understanding the churning region near singularities might help them reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics. The post New Maps of the Bizarre, Chaotic Space-Time Inside Black Holes first appeared on Quanta Magazine
pcloadletter
Somewhere along the way we forgot about software craftsmanship "Ship it!" "We're agile now, baby. Move fast and break things!"" "We measure our engineers by the...
a year ago
38
a year ago
"Ship it!" "We're agile now, baby. Move fast and break things!"" "We measure our engineers by the impact they have!" Somewhere along the way, in the midst of the agilification of software, or the software engineer salary gold rush, we forgot about craftsmanship. I have been in...
NeuroLogica Blog
What Kind of Social Media Do We Want? Recently Meta decided to end their fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram. The move has been both...
6 months ago
57
6 months ago
Recently Meta decided to end their fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram. The move has been both hailed and criticized. They are replacing the fact-checkers with an X-style “community notes”. Mark Zuckerberg summed up the move this way: “It means we’re going to catch less bad...
The Works in...
Communities of Practice: The Soul of Maintaining a New Machine The first section of Ch. 3 of Stewart Brand’s Maintenance on Books in Progress
11 months ago
IEEE Spectrum
The British Navy Resisted a Decent Lightning Rod for Decades Frustrated scientists turned to visual aids to help make their case for the lightning rod. The...
4 months ago
48
4 months ago
Frustrated scientists turned to visual aids to help make their case for the lightning rod. The exploding thunder house is one example. When a small amount of gunpowder was deposited inside the dollhouse-size structure and a charge was applied, the house would either explode or...
NeuroLogica Blog
Tong Test for Artificial General Intelligence Most readers are probably familiar with the Turing Test – a concept proposed by early computing...
a year ago
22
a year ago
Most readers are probably familiar with the Turing Test – a concept proposed by early computing expert Alan Turing in 1950, and originally called “The Imitation Game”. The original paper is enlightening to read. Turing was not trying to answer the question “can machines think”....
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Healthcare Ideas That Look Good But Are Bad | Out-Of-Pocket clinical trial matching, "find a specialist", and more
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
A New Kind of Symmetry Shakes Up Physics So-called “higher symmetries” are illuminating everything from particle decays to the behavior of...
over a year ago
68
over a year ago
So-called “higher symmetries” are illuminating everything from particle decays to the behavior of complex quantum systems. The post A New Kind of Symmetry Shakes Up Physics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Asterisk
Get In, Weirdos
6 months ago
SubAnima
You've Been Lied To About Genetics Should we give Mendel's peas a chance? Nah, we've moved on.
over a year ago
Quanta Magazine
A Triplet Tree Forms One of the Most Beautiful Structures in Math The Markov numbers reveal the secrets of irrational numbers and the patterns of the Fibonacci...
a year ago
30
a year ago
The Markov numbers reveal the secrets of irrational numbers and the patterns of the Fibonacci sequence. But there’s one question about them that has resisted proof for over a century. The post A Triplet Tree Forms One of the Most Beautiful Structures in Math first...
Asterisk
California vs. Big Soda Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes work. But during the time it took to figure this out, enacting them...
a year ago
17
a year ago
Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes work. But during the time it took to figure this out, enacting them became much harder.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Mental Health And The Weird Fixation With Employers | Out-Of-Pocket an uncomfortable conversation about mental health access
a year ago
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: Selective breeding and chicken welfare We've bred larger and larger chickens. Now can we breed happier ones?
over a year ago
Beautiful Public...
US Government UFO (UAP) Footage For decades, the public suspected that the US Government was hiding secret intelligence about UFOs —...
5 months ago
53
5 months ago
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.
brr
Brr Wants A Job 8 months post-ice, it's time for something new!
12 months ago
IEEE Spectrum
Robert Kahn: The Great Interconnector In the mid-1960s, Robert Kahn began thinking about how computers with different operating systems...
a year ago
130
a year ago
In the mid-1960s, Robert Kahn began thinking about how computers with different operating systems could talk to each other across a network. He didn’t think much about what they would say to one another, though. He was a theoretical guy, on leave from the faculty of the...
Light from Space
Lagoon and the Hourglass A view of the center region of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8, Sharpless 25). There's several other...
over a year ago
39
over a year ago
A view of the center region of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8, Sharpless 25). There's several other objects visible, notably the Hourglass Nebula and open star cluster NGC 6530, as well as numerous Bok globules (the small dark clouds, that will one day form new stars). Click...
Blog - Practical...
What Is A Black Start Of The Power Grid? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] November 1965 saw one of the...
over a year ago
69
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] November 1965 saw one of the most widespread power outages in North American history. On the freezing cold evening of the 9th, the grid was operating at maximum capacity as people tried to stay warm when a...
Quanta Magazine
AI System Beats Chess Puzzles With ‘Artificial Brainstorming’ By bringing together disparate approaches, machines can reach a new level of creative...
a year ago
49
a year ago
By bringing together disparate approaches, machines can reach a new level of creative problem-solving. The post AI System Beats Chess Puzzles With ‘Artificial Brainstorming’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Eclipse 2024 I am currently in Dallas Texas waiting to see, hopefully, the 2024 total solar eclipse. This would...
a year ago
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a year ago
I am currently in Dallas Texas waiting to see, hopefully, the 2024 total solar eclipse. This would be my first total eclipse, and everything I have heard indicates that it is an incredible experience. Unfortunately, the weather calls for some clouds, although forecasts have been...
Blog - Practical...
How Do You Steer a Drill Below The Earth? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In December 2019, the City of...
over a year ago
52
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In December 2019, the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida experienced a series of catastrophic ruptures in a critical wastewater transmission line, releasing raw sewage into local waterways and neighborhoods....
The Roots of...
Can submarines swim? Did any science fiction predict that when AI arrived, it would be unreliable, often illogical, and...
over a year ago
47
over a year ago
Did any science fiction predict that when AI arrived, it would be unreliable, often illogical, and frequently bullshitting? Usually in fiction, if the AI says something factually incorrect or illogical, that is a deep portent of something very wrong: the AI is sick, or turning...
Yale E360
Volunteers in England Plant Thousands of Trees to Restore Celtic Rainforest Volunteers have planted more than 2,500 native trees on pasture in southwest England, part of a...
5 months ago
5
5 months ago
Volunteers have planted more than 2,500 native trees on pasture in southwest England, part of a larger effort to recreate the temperate rainforest that once dominated much of the British Isles. Read more on E360 →
Asterisk
The Highway to NIMBYism San Francisco’s history of collective decision-making helped prevent the city from being carved up...
a year ago
20
a year ago
San Francisco’s history of collective decision-making helped prevent the city from being carved up by highways. Today, that same legacy prevents the city from building what it desperately needs: more housing.
The Works in...
The failure of the land value tax Implementing them in Britain destroyed the then-dominant Liberal Party.
2 months ago
The Roots of...
Quote quiz: “drifting into dependence” Quote quiz: who said this? (No fair looking it up). I have modified the original quotation slightly,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Quote quiz: who said this? (No fair looking it up). I have modified the original quotation slightly, by making a handful of word substitutions to bring it up to date: It might be argued that the human race would never be foolish enough to hand over all power to AI. But we are...
Quanta Magazine
Game Theory Can Make AI More Correct and Efficient Researchers are drawing on ideas from game theory to improve large language models and make them...
a year ago
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a year ago
Researchers are drawing on ideas from game theory to improve large language models and make them more consistent. The post Game Theory Can Make AI More Correct and Efficient first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Beautiful Public...
A Rover's First 590 Days* on Mars I downloaded 60,000 images to experience what NASA's Perseverance rover has been seeing since...
over a year ago
67
over a year ago
I downloaded 60,000 images to experience what NASA's Perseverance rover has been seeing since landing there in Feb. 2021.
Blog - Practical...
The Only State Capital Where You Can’t Drink the Water [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] As a blast of bitter Arctic...
over a year ago
49
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] As a blast of bitter Arctic air poured into North America around Christmas Time in December 2022, weather conditions impacted nearly every aspect of life, from travel to electricity to just trying to get out...
IEEE Spectrum
The Forgotten Story of How IBM Invented the Automated Fab In 1970, Bill Harding envisioned a fully automated wafer-fabrication line that would produce...
7 months ago
78
7 months ago
In 1970, Bill Harding envisioned a fully automated wafer-fabrication line that would produce integrated circuits in less than one day. Not only was such a goal gutsy 54 years ago, it would be bold even in today’s billion-dollar fabs, where the fabrication time of an advanced IC...
Tikalon Blog by Dev...
Brain Size Deep thought is what distinguishes humans from other animals. The brain is the medium for thought;...
10 months ago
28
10 months ago
Deep thought is what distinguishes humans from other animals. The brain is the medium for thought; so, there's the idea that brain size is important, with larger brains allowing more profound thought. Larger brains in hominids appears to have an evolutionary advantage, but the...
Tikalon Blog by Dev...
Plant Sounds My early adulthood coincided with the New Age movement and its belief in many discredited past...
11 months ago
18
11 months ago
My early adulthood coincided with the New Age movement and its belief in many discredited past ideas, such as astrology. One New Age idea that seemed strange at the time was that talking to plants helped them to grow. What could be more New Age than a hippie chick talking to a...
The Works in...
How Airbus took off Why you can build a European airliner, but not a European Google
3 months ago
Quanta Magazine
Physicists Start To Pin Down How Stars Forge Heavy Atoms The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in...
2 weeks ago
14
2 weeks ago
The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in smoldering stellar corpses. They definitely exist in East Lansing, Michigan. The post Physicists Start To Pin Down How Stars Forge Heavy Atoms first appeared on Quanta...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Placebos Are Getting Stronger | Out-Of-Pocket Should we incorporate them into clinical practice?
a year ago
Yale E360
Spread of Dark Algae Could Hasten Melt of Greenland Ice Sheet Dark algae are spreading across the Greenland ice sheet as snow retreats. Their dark color causes...
4 months ago
7
4 months ago
Dark algae are spreading across the Greenland ice sheet as snow retreats. Their dark color causes ice to absorb more heat from the sun, accelerating melting, and according to a new study, the harsh conditions atop the ice sheet will do little to slow their advance. Read more on...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
GTFO Employers | Out-Of-Pocket Back To The Future
a year ago
The Roots of...
What if they gave an Industrial Revolution and nobody came? Imagine you could go back in time to the ancient world to jump-start the Industrial Revolution. You...
over a year ago
110
over a year ago
Imagine you could go back in time to the ancient world to jump-start the Industrial Revolution. You carry with you plans for a steam engine, and you present them to the emperor, explaining how the machine could be used to drain water out of mines, pump bellows for blast furnaces,...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Should more people be using urgent care? | Out-Of-Pocket is the rise of urgent care a good or bad thing?
a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Latest Starship Launch SpaceX has conducted their most successful test launch of a Starship system to date. The system they...
9 months ago
61
9 months ago
SpaceX has conducted their most successful test launch of a Starship system to date. The system they tested has three basic components – the Super Heavy first stage rocket booster, the Starship second stage (which is the actual space ship that will go places), and the...
Drew Ex Machina
The Largest Launch Vehicles in Service – 1957 to the Present With the successful launch of NASA’s Artemis I test flight, we now have a new holder of the title...
over a year ago
38
over a year ago
With the successful launch of NASA’s Artemis I test flight, we now have a new holder of the title “the largest launch vehicle in service”: the […]
Quantum Frontiers
Finding Ed Jaynes’s ghost You might have heard of the conundrum “What do you give the man who has everything?” I discovered a...
6 months ago
84
6 months ago
You might have heard of the conundrum “What do you give the man who has everything?” I discovered a variation on it last October: how do you celebrate the man who studied (nearly) everything? Physicist Edwin Thompson Jaynes impacted disciplines from quantum information theory to...
Yale E360
Biotech Firm Unveils ‘Woolly Mice,’ a Step Toward Recreating Woolly Mammoths A U.S. biotech firm working to bring back extinct animals said it had reached a milestone in its...
4 months ago
8
4 months ago
A U.S. biotech firm working to bring back extinct animals said it had reached a milestone in its quest to recreate woolly mammoths. This week it unveiled “woolly mice” — mice that had been genetically engineered to sport woolly coats reminiscent of long-dead mammoths. Read more...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Completely new healthcare markets and what to build for them | Out-Of-Pocket that new new
a year ago
Yale E360
Peruvian Farmer Sues German Energy Giant Over Its Role in Climate Change Hearings began Monday in a landmark climate case in Hamm, Germany, where a Peruvian farmer is suing...
4 months ago
3
4 months ago
Hearings began Monday in a landmark climate case in Hamm, Germany, where a Peruvian farmer is suing energy giant RWE over its role in warming. Read more on E360 →
Quanta Magazine
Maze Proof Establishes a ‘Backbone’ for Statistical Mechanics Four mathematicians have estimated the chances that there’s a clear path through a random maze. ...
a year ago
39
a year ago
Four mathematicians have estimated the chances that there’s a clear path through a random maze. The post Maze Proof Establishes a ‘Backbone’ for Statistical Mechanics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
Swirling Forces, Crushing Pressures Measured in the Proton Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of...
a year ago
68
a year ago
Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of energies, forces and pressures inside a subatomic particle for the first time. The post Swirling Forces, Crushing Pressures Measured in the Proton first appeared on Quanta...
nanoscale views
CHIPS and Science - the reality vs the aspiration I already wrote about this issue here back in August, but I wanted to highlight a policy statement...
9 months ago
13
9 months ago
I already wrote about this issue here back in August, but I wanted to highlight a policy statement that I wrote with colleagues as part of Rice's Baker Institute's Election 2024: Policy Playbook, which "delivers nonpartisan, expert insights into key issues at stake on the 2024...
Many Worlds
All Six Element Needed For Life as We Know It Have Now Been Found in The Watery Plumes of Enceladus The elements needed for life as we know it are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen sulfur and...
over a year ago
30
over a year ago
The elements needed for life as we know it are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen sulfur and phosphorus. Before today, planetary scientists could say that five of those crucial elements had been found in the watery spray that spurts out of the Saturn’s moon, Enceladus.  All that...
NeuroLogica Blog
Will Hydrogen BEV Hybrids Be A Thing? I recently recorded a YouTube video on the notion of hydrogen fuel cell cars (it will be posted...
over a year ago
100
over a year ago
I recently recorded a YouTube video on the notion of hydrogen fuel cell cars (it will be posted soon, and I will add the link when it’s up). One question I did not get into in the video, but which is an interesting thought experiment, is hydrogen – plug-in battery hybrid...
The Works in...
Does higher density cause lower birth rates? Assessing one recent claim that it does
a year ago
Wanderingspace
Space-X Looking Like 2001 Space Odyssey Amazing shot. Looks like a movie.
a year ago
Yale E360
U.S. Solar and Batteries Headed for Record Year Solar panels and batteries will account for more than 80 percent of new power capacity installed in...
4 months ago
2
4 months ago
Solar panels and batteries will account for more than 80 percent of new power capacity installed in the U.S. this year, officials say. Both technologies are set for record growth, helping to hasten the decline of coal power. Read more on E360 →
IEEE Spectrum
Sony Kills Recordable Blu-Ray And Other Vintage Media Physical media fans need not panic yet—you’ll still be able to buy new Blu-Ray movies for your...
5 months ago
58
5 months ago
Physical media fans need not panic yet—you’ll still be able to buy new Blu-Ray movies for your collection. But for those who like to save copies of their own data onto the discs, the remaining options just became more limited: Sony announced last week that it’s ending all...
Yale E360
Deconstructing Buildings: The Quest for New Life for Old Wood A growing number of cities have launched initiatives to reuse the wood waste from construction and...
a month ago
3
a month ago
A growing number of cities have launched initiatives to reuse the wood waste from construction and demolition that now ends up in landfills. The challenge, proponents say, is to deploy new techniques for disassembling old buildings and markets for repurposing the salvaged...
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...
a year ago
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a year ago
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 →
Wanderingspace
The Green Light of Day Image of tire tracks on Mars with an unusual green tone. . Taken by Perseverance on February 4th.
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Image of tire tracks on Mars with an unusual green tone. . Taken by Perseverance on February 4th.
Yale E360
How a Former Herder Protected Mongolia's Vast Grasslands Batmunkh Luvsandash has fought to protect more than a million acres of steppe lands in his native...
2 months ago
5
2 months ago
Batmunkh Luvsandash has fought to protect more than a million acres of steppe lands in his native Mongolia. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he explains how, by drawing on the knowledge of local herders, he was able to take on the powerful mining industry and win. Read...
Quanta Magazine
Does Nothingness Exist? Even empty space bubbles with energy, according to quantum mechanics — and that fact affects almost...
a year ago
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a year ago
Even empty space bubbles with energy, according to quantum mechanics — and that fact affects almost every facet of physical reality. The theoretical physicist Isabel Garcia Garcia explains to Steven Strogatz why it’s so important in modern physics to understand what a true vacuum...
IEEE Spectrum
The Data Reveals Top Patent Portfolios Eight years is a long time in the world of patents. When we last published what we then called the...
a month ago
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a month ago
Eight years is a long time in the world of patents. When we last published what we then called the Patent Power Scorecard, in 2017, it was a different technological and social landscape—Google had just filed a patent application on the transformer architecture, a momentous...
Quantum Frontiers
I know I am but what are you? Mind and Matter in Quantum Mechanics Nowadays it is best to exercise caution when bringing the words “quantum” and “consciousness”...
a month ago
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a month ago
Nowadays it is best to exercise caution when bringing the words “quantum” and “consciousness” anywhere near each other, lest you be suspected of mysticism or quackery. Eugene Wigner did not concern himself with this when he wrote his “Remarks on … Continue reading →
Yale E360
Endangered Eels a Top Target for Traffickers in Europe Endangered eels are a top target for wildlife traffickers in Europe and generating billions in...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
Endangered eels are a top target for wildlife traffickers in Europe and generating billions in profits for smugglers globally, according to two new reports. Read more on E360 →
Breck's Blog
Information is the Easiest Job
2 months ago
IEEE Spectrum
The Cheesy Charm of the Clapper “Clap on! Clap off! Clap on! Clap off! The Clapper!” This 1980s earworm of a jingle touted a gadget...
a year ago
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a year ago
“Clap on! Clap off! Clap on! Clap off! The Clapper!” This 1980s earworm of a jingle touted a gadget to turn your lights, your TV, or any other electrical device on or off with the clap of your hands. If you watched any amount of American television back then, you probably saw the...
NeuroLogica Blog
Intuitive and Analytical Thinking Here is a relatively simple math problem:  A bat and a ball cost $1.10 combined. The bat costs $1...
a year ago
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a year ago
Here is a relatively simple math problem:  A bat and a ball cost $1.10 combined. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? (I will provide the answer below the fold.) This problem is the basis of a large psychological literature on thinking systems in the...
Quanta Magazine
How Did Altruism Evolve? If evolution favors the survival of the fittest, where did the impulse to help others come from?...
a year ago
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a year ago
If evolution favors the survival of the fittest, where did the impulse to help others come from? Host Janna Levin speaks with Stephanie Preston, a neuropsychologist who studies the biology of altruism. The post How Did Altruism Evolve? first appeared on Quanta...
Yale E360
Grass-Fed Beef No Better for Climate Than Industrial Beef, Study Finds New research finds that, pound for pound, grazing cattle generate at least as much heat-trapping gas...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
New research finds that, pound for pound, grazing cattle generate at least as much heat-trapping gas as those raised in feedlots. Read more on E360 →
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How much is “too much” when it comes to overpromising as a startup? | Out-Of-Pocket navigating the gray area
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
What Is the True Promise of Quantum Computing? Despite the hype, it’s been surprisingly challenging to find quantum algorithms that outperform...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
Despite the hype, it’s been surprisingly challenging to find quantum algorithms that outperform classical ones. In this episode, Ewin Tang discusses her pioneering work in “dequantizing” quantum algorithms — and what it means for the future of quantum computing. The...
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!...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
DNA Nanorobot Kill Switch for Cancer How’s that for a provocative title? But it is technically accurate. The title of the paper in...
a year ago
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a year ago
How’s that for a provocative title? But it is technically accurate. The title of the paper in question is: “A DNA robotic switch with regulated autonomous display of cytotoxic ligand nanopatterns.” The study is a proof of concept in an animal model, so we are still years away...
The Works in...
How New Zealand invented inflation targeting The political gamble that made modern central banking
3 weeks ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The Debate: Should Medical Aid in Death Be Legal? | Out-Of-Pocket Oh boy, I’m nervous to wade into this conversation
4 months ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Climate Sensitivity and Confirmation Bias I love to follow kerfuffles between different experts and deep thinkers. It’s great for revealing...
a year ago
51
a year ago
I love to follow kerfuffles between different experts and deep thinkers. It’s great for revealing the subtleties of logic, science, and evidence. Recently there has been an interesting online exchange between a physicists science communicator (Sabine Hossenfelder) and some...
NeuroLogica Blog
Should You Get a Heat Pump? Starting around 1550 and lasting through the 1600s, England had an energy crisis. They were running...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Starting around 1550 and lasting through the 1600s, England had an energy crisis. They were running out of wood, which was the main source of fuel for residential and commercial heating. England also needed a lot of wood for their massive navy – it took about 2,000 trees to build...
Probably...
Young Adults Want Fewer Children The most recent data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) provides a first look at...
4 months ago
27
4 months ago
The most recent data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) provides a first look at people born in the 2000s as young adults and an updated view of people born in the 1990s at the peak of their child-bearing years. Compared to previous generations at the same ages,...
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...
a year ago
300
a year ago
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Clipper Europa Mission I wrote earlier this week about the latest successful test of Starship and the capture of the Super...
9 months ago
64
9 months ago
I wrote earlier this week about the latest successful test of Starship and the capture of the Super Heavy booster by grabbing arms of the landing tower. This was quite a feat, but it should not eclipse what was perhaps even bigger space news this week – the launch of NASAs...
symmetry magazine
Collaboration builds fantastical stories from nuggets of truth What happens when you pair CERN scientists with science fiction writers to create short stories...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
What happens when you pair CERN scientists with science fiction writers to create short stories inspired by particle physics?
Yale E360
China’s Mega Dam Project Poses Big Risks for Asia’s Grand Canyon China’s plans to build a massive hydro project in Tibet have sparked fears about the environmental...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
China’s plans to build a massive hydro project in Tibet have sparked fears about the environmental impacts on the world’s longest and deepest canyon. It has also alarmed neighboring India, which fears that China could hold back or even weaponize river water it depends on. Read...
Quanta Magazine
Evolving Bacteria Can Evade Barriers to ‘Peak’ Fitness Paradoxically, natural selection can sometimes seem to block organisms from evolving useful...
a year ago
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a year ago
Paradoxically, natural selection can sometimes seem to block organisms from evolving useful adaptations. But a new study of “fitness landscapes” and antibiotic resistance in bacteria shows that life still finds a way. The post Evolving Bacteria Can Evade Barriers to...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Common ROI mistakes in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket Plus some benchmark ROI numbers for you to think about
a week ago
Yale E360
Exposure to Air Pollution Can Make It Harder to Focus, Study Finds A person’s ability to focus on everyday tasks is affected by short-term exposure to air pollution, a...
5 months ago
3
5 months ago
A person’s ability to focus on everyday tasks is affected by short-term exposure to air pollution, a study has found. Read more on E360 →
NeuroLogica Blog
AC vs DC and other Power Questions I was away last week, first at CSICON and then at a conference in Dubai. I was invited to give a 9...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
I was away last week, first at CSICON and then at a conference in Dubai. I was invited to give a 9 hour seminar on scientific skepticism for the Dubai Future Foundation. That sounds like a lot of time, but it isn’t. It was a good reminder of the vast body of knowledge that is...
Quantum Frontiers
Watch out for geese! My summer in Waterloo It’s the beginning of another summer, and I’m looking forward to outdoor barbecues, swimming in...
a year ago
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a year ago
It’s the beginning of another summer, and I’m looking forward to outdoor barbecues, swimming in lakes and pools, and sharing my home-made ice cream with friends and family. One thing that I won’t encounter this summer, but I did last … Continue reading →
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Secret Research Techniques | Out-Of-Pocket A magician always reveals his tricks for the purposes of engagement
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
OOP’s 2025 Healthcare AI Hackathon Projects | Out-Of-Pocket Copilots for parents, Chaining Agents, Talking to Your Genome, and more.
a month ago
Quanta Magazine
New Conversations, Deep Questions, Bold Ideas in Season Four of ‘The Joy of Why’ Steven Strogatz and Janna Levin return for a new season on major scientific and mathematical...
4 months ago
25
4 months ago
Steven Strogatz and Janna Levin return for a new season on major scientific and mathematical questions of our time, with 12 all-new episodes and a new format. The post New Conversations, Deep Questions, Bold Ideas in Season Four of ‘The Joy of Why’ first appeared on...
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...
6 months ago
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6 months ago
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...
Casey Handmer's blog
SLS is still a national disgrace Four years ago, unable to find a comprehensive summary of the ongoing abject failure known as the...
9 months ago
41
9 months ago
Four years ago, unable to find a comprehensive summary of the ongoing abject failure known as the NASA SLS (Space Launch System), I wrote one. If you’re unfamiliar with the topic, you should read it first.  It is hard to …
Yale E360
Peruvian Farmer Sues German Energy Giant Over Its Role in Climate Change Hearings began Monday in a landmark climate case in Hamm, Germany, where a Peruvian farmer is suing...
4 months ago
7
4 months ago
Hearings began Monday in a landmark climate case in Hamm, Germany, where a Peruvian farmer is suing energy giant RWE over its role in warming. Read more on E360 →
Quanta Magazine
A Rosetta Stone for Mathematics In 1940 André Weil wrote a letter to his sister, Simone, outlining his vision for translating...
a year ago
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a year ago
In 1940 André Weil wrote a letter to his sister, Simone, outlining his vision for translating between three distinct areas of mathematics. Eighty years later, it still animates many of the most exciting developments in the field. The post A Rosetta Stone for...
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, May 2023 This is a monthly feature. As usual, I’ve omitted recent blog posts and such, which you can find in...
over a year ago
67
over a year ago
This is a monthly feature. As usual, I’ve omitted recent blog posts and such, which you can find in my links digests. John Gall, The Systems Bible (2012), aka Systemantics, 3rd ed. A concise, pithy collection of wisdom about “systems”, mostly human organizations, projects, and...
NeuroLogica Blog
Another UFO Whistleblower How seriously should we take the claims of David Grusch? He is an airforce veteran and former member...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
How seriously should we take the claims of David Grusch? He is an airforce veteran and former member of the UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) task force, which is enough to at least hear him out. He gave an exclusive interview to journalist Ross Coulthart from NewsNation, part...
Yale E360
Ten Remarkable Plants and Fungi Named by Science This Year In 2024, researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, recorded 172 new species of plants and fungi...
7 months ago
6
7 months ago
In 2024, researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, recorded 172 new species of plants and fungi across the globe, from England to Cameroon. Read more on E360 →
Yale E360
Return of Trees to Eastern U.S. Is Fueling a Surge in Wildfires Trees and shrubs have proliferated in unmanaged forests in the eastern U.S. This growth, which marks...
6 months ago
5
6 months ago
Trees and shrubs have proliferated in unmanaged forests in the eastern U.S. This growth, which marks a return of trees to the region after centuries of deforestation, is fueling a new surge in wildfires, a study finds. Read more on E360 →
NeuroLogica Blog
New Generation of Electric Robots Boston Dynamics (now owned by Hyundai) has revealed its electric version of its Atlas robot. These...
a year ago
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a year ago
Boston Dynamics (now owned by Hyundai) has revealed its electric version of its Atlas robot. These robot videos always look impressive, but at the very least we know that we are seeing the best take. We don’t know how many times the robot failed to get the one great video. There...
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...
a year ago
42
a year ago
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...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Can patients be good healthcare shoppers? | Out-Of-Pocket Should their be limits to patient agency?
11 months ago
IEEE Spectrum
How Engineers at Digital Equipment Corp. Saved Ethernet I’ve enjoyed reading magazine articles about Ethernet’s 50th anniversary, including one in the The...
a year ago
99
a year ago
I’ve enjoyed reading magazine articles about Ethernet’s 50th anniversary, including one in the The Institute. Invented by computer scientists Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs, Ethernet has been extraordinarily impactful. Metcalfe, an IEEE Fellow, received the 1996 IEEE Medal of...
Blog - Practical...
When Natural Gas Had No Smell [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Excitement and hope permeated...
a year ago
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a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Excitement and hope permeated the crowds gathered in a dusty farm carved from the piney woods in east Texas. The rumor was that Columbus Joiner had struck oil. At 70 years old, Joiner had already won and lost...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The Change Healthcare Debacle | Out-Of-Pocket what are clearinghouses and do we still need them?
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
More 2022 predictions | Out-Of-Pocket A curation of your 2022 predictions
a year ago
Yale E360
A Craze for Tiny Plants Is Driving a Poaching Crisis in South Africa South Africa’s Succulent Karoo is the most biodiverse arid region on the planet, with thousands of...
4 months ago
7
4 months ago
South Africa’s Succulent Karoo is the most biodiverse arid region on the planet, with thousands of plants found nowhere else. But to meet a demand fueled by social media, criminal networks have been poaching these colorful succulents by the millions and smuggling them...
Yale E360
Cuts to U.S. Climate Aid Will Leave Large Gap in Global Funding The U.S. provides nearly a tenth of all climate finance globally, a well of funding that is at risk...
4 months ago
3
4 months ago
The U.S. provides nearly a tenth of all climate finance globally, a well of funding that is at risk of drying up as the Trump administration takes aim at overseas spending. Read more on E360 →
Blog - Practical...
Why Engineers Can't Control Rivers [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is the Old River Control...
over a year ago
103
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is the Old River Control Structure, a relatively innocuous complex of floodgates and levees off the Mississippi River in central Louisiana. It was built in the 1950s to solve a serious problem. Typically...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Yet Another Teladongo Take | Out-Of-Pocket You haven't read enough of them
a year ago
Stephen Wolfram...
Nestedly Recursive Functions Yet Another Ruliological Surprise Integers. Addition. Subtraction. Maybe multiplication. Surely...
9 months ago
96
9 months ago
Yet Another Ruliological Surprise Integers. Addition. Subtraction. Maybe multiplication. Surely that’s not enough to be able to generate any serious complexity. In the early 1980s I had made the very surprising discovery that very simple programs based on cellular automata could...
Blog - Practical...
The Most Implausible Tunneling Method [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] The original plan to get I-95...
a month ago
28
a month ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] The original plan to get I-95 over the Baltimore Harbor was a double-deck bridge from Fort McHenry to Lazaretto Point. The problem with the plan was this: the bridge would have to be extremely high so that...
Uncharted...
The Force That Drives Korea The force that split Korea in 1945 in two is not recent: It has been pulling it apart for thousands...
3 months ago
31
3 months ago
The force that split Korea in 1945 in two is not recent: It has been pulling it apart for thousands of years. If you understand it, you can understand all of Korea's history.
Uncharted...
10 Other Places Where Geniuses Hide Groups, networks, the Internet, IQ, state sponsorship, and many more
7 months ago
Eukaryote Writes...
Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant: a review of Skibidi Toilet Art has died and been reborn a thousand times now. Join me at its graveside once again. Let us speak...
3 weeks ago
20
3 weeks ago
Art has died and been reborn a thousand times now. Join me at its graveside once again. Let us speak a few words for what once was. Let us imagine the inconceivable and hollow future ahead without it. If you weep, I will pass you my handkerchief. And let us all pretend to be...
Beautiful Public...
The Style Guide for America’s Highways: The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices Driving across America, you will encounter a wide variety of cultures, landscapes, people and...
over a year ago
49
over a year ago
Driving across America, you will encounter a wide variety of cultures, landscapes, people and animals. But the one consistent thing that will stay the same from Maine to California are the signs you pass on the highway. That is because America’s roads and highways have a big, fat...
nanoscale views
Updates, thoughts about industrial support of university research Lots of news in the last few days regarding federal funding of university research: NSF has now...
2 months ago
15
2 months ago
Lots of news in the last few days regarding federal funding of university research: NSF has now frozen all funding for new and continuing awards.  This is not good; just how bad it is depends on the definition of "until further notice".   Here is an open letter from the NSF...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Did The FDA Mess Up With Aduhelm? | Out-Of-Pocket Rethinking the approval, coverage, and reimbursement dynamic
a year ago
Quanta Magazine
A Quantum Trick Implied Eternal Stability. Now the Idea May Be Falling Apart. A series of advances seemed to promise the impossible: the existence of quantum states that would...
a year ago
60
a year ago
A series of advances seemed to promise the impossible: the existence of quantum states that would never, ever fall into disarray. But physicists are now discovering that the pull of disorder may not be so easily overcome. The post A Quantum Trick Implied Eternal...
Yale E360
Turning Farmland Back to Peatland: Can It Slow CO2 Emissions? Farmers have long drained peatlands for agriculture, but the dried-out soils release vast quantities...
5 months ago
6
5 months ago
Farmers have long drained peatlands for agriculture, but the dried-out soils release vast quantities of CO2. To halt this process, new initiatives in Germany are not only rewetting peatlands but also creating markets for the native grasses, reeds, and sedges they support. Read...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Exoplanet Radius Gap As of this writing, there are 5,573 confirmed exoplanets in 4,146 planetary systems. That is enough...
a year ago
41
a year ago
As of this writing, there are 5,573 confirmed exoplanets in 4,146 planetary systems. That is enough exoplanets, planets around stars other than our own sun, that we can do some statistics to describe what’s out there. One curious pattern that has emerged is a relative gap in the...
Uncharted...
GeoHistory News | Q3 2024 Longshoremen strike, Mexico – Spain conflict, how Islam propelled Europe more than Protestantism,...
9 months ago
30
9 months ago
Longshoremen strike, Mexico – Spain conflict, how Islam propelled Europe more than Protestantism, and more
IEEE Spectrum
Why Engineers Still Need the Humanities Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, or Katherine Johnson, but there are many other women in engineering you...
2 months ago
18
2 months ago
Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, or Katherine Johnson, but there are many other women in engineering you should know about. Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology, in Kansas City, Mo., and I’m currently working through the unpublished papers of the American...
IEEE Spectrum
The Tremendous VR and CG Systems—of the 1960s Ivan Sutherland has blazed a truly unique trail through computing over the past six decades. One of...
over a year ago
28
over a year ago
Ivan Sutherland has blazed a truly unique trail through computing over the past six decades. One of the most influential figures in the story of computing, he helped to open new pathways for others to explore and dramatically extend: interactive computer graphics, virtual...
NeuroLogica Blog
The 80-20 Rule From the Topic Suggestions (Lal Mclennan): What is the 80/20 theory portrayed in Netflix’s...
3 months ago
30
3 months ago
From the Topic Suggestions (Lal Mclennan): What is the 80/20 theory portrayed in Netflix’s Adolescence? The 80/20 rule was first posed as a Pareto principle that suggests that approximately 80 per cent of outcomes stem from just 20 per cent of causes. This concept takes its name...
Marine Madness
Book Club: ‘Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia’ by Christina Thompson Who first settled the islands of the remote Pacific? Where did they come from? How did they get...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Who first settled the islands of the remote Pacific? Where did they come from? How did they get there, and how do we know? The answers to these and more questions are all explored in this mesmerizing novel by Pacific historian Christina Thompson.  For over a millennium,...
wadertales
Juvenile settlement in Black-tailed Godwits Adult waders tend to be exceptionally consistent in their use of time and space, with marked...
10 months ago
75
10 months ago
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...
Blog - Practical...
Why Construction Projects Always Go Over Budget [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Boston, Massachusetts is one...
over a year ago
61
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Boston, Massachusetts is one of the oldest cities in America, founded in 1630, more than a few years before the advent of modern motor vehicles. In the 1980s, traffic in downtown Boston was nearly unbearable...
IEEE Spectrum
The Rise of Groupware A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the...
11 months ago
71
11 months ago
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the end of the long tail. These days, computer users take collaboration software for granted. Google Docs, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Salesforce, and so on, are such a big part of many...
Blog - Practical...
What's the Difference Between Paint and Coatings? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] There’s a popular myth that...
over a year ago
61
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] There’s a popular myth that I’ve heard about several bridges (including the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Forth Bridge in eastern Scotland) that they paint the structure continuously from end to...
Interaction Magic -...
Designing bikes or bike lanes? Which impacts the cycling experience more: the design of the bike or the bike lanes? Interview and...
over a year ago
25
over a year ago
Which impacts the cycling experience more: the design of the bike or the bike lanes? Interview and podcast with city transport planners Catherine Osborn and David Wills.
Quanta Magazine
Does Form Really Shape Function? From brain folds to insect architecture, L. Mahadevan explains how complex biological forms and...
a month ago
15
a month ago
From brain folds to insect architecture, L. Mahadevan explains how complex biological forms and behaviors emerge through the interplay of physical forces, environment and embodiment. The post Does Form Really Shape Function? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Using AI for Neuroforecasting I’ve been following AI (artificial intelligence) news very closely, including all the controversies...
over a year ago
42
over a year ago
I’ve been following AI (artificial intelligence) news very closely, including all the controversies and concerns. I tend to fall on the side of – AI is a powerful tool, we should continue to develop it and use it responsibly. We don’t need to panic, and highly restrictive laws...
Cremieux Recueil
American Elections Are Unfair Unfortunately, unfairness is baked in
8 months ago
Marine Madness
Cownose rays at Bristol Aquarium (video) Watch Bristol Aquarium’s newest residents in action. Bristol Aquarium reopened its doors on May 18...
over a year ago
40
over a year ago
Watch Bristol Aquarium’s newest residents in action. Bristol Aquarium reopened its doors on May 18 after being closed for months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning visitors were finally allowed to return and see their favourite ocean creatures up close. But during the...
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...
over a year ago
49
over a year ago
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
Is AI Sentient – Revisited This happened sooner than I thought. Last June I wrote about Google employee, Blake Lemoine, who...
over a year ago
66
over a year ago
This happened sooner than I thought. Last June I wrote about Google employee, Blake Lemoine, who claimed that the LaMDA  chatbot he was working on was probably sentient. I didn’t buy it then and I still don’t, but Lemoine is not backing away from his claims. In an interview on H3...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Announcing…The Out-Of-Pocket Hackathon #2 | Out-Of-Pocket We’re doing it again, but we know what we’re doing now
5 months ago
Yale E360
As War Halts, the Environmental Devastation in Gaza Runs Deep The war in Gaza has taken a heavy toll on the environment, with water supplies contaminated, raw...
5 months ago
5
5 months ago
The war in Gaza has taken a heavy toll on the environment, with water supplies contaminated, raw sewage pouring into the Mediterranean, once-fertile soils ruined, and the land stripped of trees. Experts say the extent of the damage needs to be tallied to help plan for a...
Yale E360
As U.S. Scientists Look Abroad, China Aims to Lure Top Talent Chinese locales are looking to lure top scientific talent from overseas by offering lavish sums for...
a month ago
13
a month ago
Chinese locales are looking to lure top scientific talent from overseas by offering lavish sums for resettling, as well as housing, health care, and other perks. The moves come as the Trump administration cuts funding for science and works to expel Chinese students. Read more on...
Blog - Practical...
Philadelphia I-95 Bridge Collapse Explained [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] On Jun 11, 2023, a fuel tanker...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] On Jun 11, 2023, a fuel tanker truck caught fire on an exit underneath Interstate 95 in Northeast Philadelphia. The fire severely damaged the northbound bridge, eventually causing it to collapse. Sadly, the...
Yale E360
In Mexico’s ‘Avocado Belt,’ Villagers Stand Up to Protect Their Lands A boom in avocado production in Mexico has led to illegal deforestation and an influx of drug...
2 months ago
3
2 months ago
A boom in avocado production in Mexico has led to illegal deforestation and an influx of drug cartels dominating the lucrative trade. But Indigenous communities have fought back against the gangs and turned to traditional practices to grow avocados and save their forests.  Read...
Quanta Magazine
Mathematicians Solve Long-Standing Coloring Problem A new result shows how much of the plane can be colored by points that are never exactly one unit...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A new result shows how much of the plane can be colored by points that are never exactly one unit apart. The post Mathematicians Solve Long-Standing Coloring Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Damn Interesting
From Where the Sun Now Stands An American Indian man on horseback stood outlined against a steely sky past midday on 05 October...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
An American Indian man on horseback stood outlined against a steely sky past midday on 05 October 1877. Winter was already settling into the prairies of what would soon become the state of Montana. Five white men stood in the swaying grass on the other side of the field,...
Quanta Magazine
The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA By treating DNA as a language, Brian Hie’s “ChatGPT for genomes” could pick up patterns that humans...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
By treating DNA as a language, Brian Hie’s “ChatGPT for genomes” could pick up patterns that humans can’t see, accelerating biological design. The post The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
The Hidden Engineering of Landfills [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is the Puente Hills...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is the Puente Hills Landfill outside of Los Angeles, California. The first truckload of trash was dumped here in 1957, and the trucks just kept coming. For more than five decades, if you threw something...
Stephen Wolfram...
Five Most Productive Years: What Happened and What’s Next So… What Happened? Today is my birthday—for the 65th time. Five years ago, on my 60th birthday, I...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
So… What Happened? Today is my birthday—for the 65th time. Five years ago, on my 60th birthday, I did a livestream where I talked about some of my plans. So… what happened? Well, what happened was great. And in fact I’ve just had the most productive five years of my life. Nine...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
New Health Plans Need New Operating Systems with Flume Health | Out-Of-Pocket this claim is automatic, programmatic, hypnotic, funky fresh
a year ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Ways to give power to the patients | Out-Of-Pocket can software give us agency?
a year ago
The Works in...
Issue 10: One word—plastics. Plus: France's baby bust, why we empathise with animals, building infrastructure faster, and more.
over a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Have Current AI Reached Their Limit? We are still very much in the hype phase of the latest crop of artificial intelligence applications,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
We are still very much in the hype phase of the latest crop of artificial intelligence applications, specifically the large language models and so-called “transformers” like Chat GPT. Transformers are a deep learning model that use self-attention to differentially weight the...
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...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
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....
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Announcing the Out-Of-Pocket Job Board! | Out-Of-Pocket Recruiting a ton? Get your healthcare jobs in front of the right people
a year ago
NeuroLogica Blog
Panspermia Again Recently I was asked what I thought about this video, which suggests it is possible that life formed...
a year ago
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a year ago
Recently I was asked what I thought about this video, which suggests it is possible that life formed in the early universe, shortly after the Big Bang. Although no mentioned specifically in the video, the ideas presents are essentially panspermia – the idea that life formed in...
Confessions of a...
Marine Ecology or Marine Biology….what’s the difference!?!?!? A few of you may be wondering why the blog is called ‘Confessions of a Marine Ecologist” and not...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A few of you may be wondering why the blog is called ‘Confessions of a Marine Ecologist” and not ‘Confessions of a Marine Biologist”.  After all, if you ask a group of school kids what they want to be when they grow up, more than a handful would happily answer “marine biologist”,...
Yale E360
With Sea Ice Melting, Killer Whales Are Moving Into the Arctic Killer whales have begun to migrate farther into previously icy regions of the Arctic, preying on...
5 months ago
7
5 months ago
Killer whales have begun to migrate farther into previously icy regions of the Arctic, preying on narwhal, beluga, and bowhead. Scientists say their increasing numbers could shift food webs in ways that affect both endangered whale populations and subsistence Inuit hunters. Read...
Stephen Wolfram...
Can AI Solve Science? Note: Click any diagram to get Wolfram Language code to reproduce it. Wolfram Language code for...
a year ago
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a year ago
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...
Quanta Magazine
The Researcher Who Explores Computation by Conjuring New Worlds Russell Impagliazzo studies hard problems, the limits of cryptography, the nature of randomness and...
a year ago
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a year ago
Russell Impagliazzo studies hard problems, the limits of cryptography, the nature of randomness and more. The post The Researcher Who Explores Computation by Conjuring New Worlds first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine
The Mathematician Who Sculpted the Shape of Space Eugenio Calabi, who died on September 25, conceived of novel geometric objects that later became...
a year ago
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a year ago
Eugenio Calabi, who died on September 25, conceived of novel geometric objects that later became fundamental to string theory. The post The Mathematician Who Sculpted the Shape of Space first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Uncharted...
Desalination: a Future of Infinite Water Desalination is finally cheap, and it’s only getting cheaper. Will this usher a world of plentiful...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
Desalination is finally cheap, and it’s only getting cheaper. Will this usher a world of plentiful water everywhere? Will we be able to build in the Sahara?
wadertales
Why count shorebirds? A tale from Portugal The Sado Estuary is one of Portugal’s most important wetlands – a key link in the chain of sites...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
The Sado Estuary is one of Portugal’s most important wetlands – a key link in the chain of sites connecting Africa and the Arctic, on the East Atlantic Flyway. In a paper in Waterbirds, João Belo and colleagues analyse changes in numbers of waders wintering in this estuary over...
NeuroLogica Blog
AI – Is It Time to Panic? I’m really excited about the recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and their potential...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I’m really excited about the recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and their potential as powerful tools. I am also concerned about unintended consequences. As with any really powerful tool, there is the potential for abuse and also disruption. But I also think that...
Blog - Practical...
HEAVY CONSTRUCTION of a Sewage Pump Station - Ep 4 This is the fourth episode of a five-part pilot series to gauge your interest in "How It's...
a year ago
48
a year ago
This is the fourth episode of a five-part pilot series to gauge your interest in "How It's Made"-esque heavy construction videos. Drop a comment or send me an email to let me know what you think! Watch on YouTube above or ad-free on Nebula here.
NeuroLogica Blog
New Platform for Timed Drug Release This is one of those technologies that most people probably never think about, but could potentially...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This is one of those technologies that most people probably never think about, but could potentially have a significant impact on our lives – timed drug release. The concept is nothing new, but there is a lot of room for improvement on current technologies. We already have...
ToughSF
Inter-Orbital Kinetic Energy Exchanges: Part I Electrical power can be transferred between planets using high velocity masses. Kinetic Energy...
over a year ago
15
over a year ago
Electrical power can be transferred between planets using high velocity masses. Kinetic Energy Exchanges are an efficient concept that can output more energy than it consumes and only gets better with distance. Guest writer Zerraspace (Zach Hajj) works out the details and...
Breck's Blog
Knowledge
2 months ago
Quanta Magazine
Physicists Puzzle Over Emergence of Strange Electron Aggregates Electrons have been seen uniting into entities with fractions of electric charge, this time without...
a year ago
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a year ago
Electrons have been seen uniting into entities with fractions of electric charge, this time without a magnetic field coaxing them into it. The post Physicists Puzzle Over Emergence of Strange Electron Aggregates first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Drew Ex Machina
Venera 8: The First Characterization of the Surface of Venus Recent years has seen a marked increase in the planetary community’s interest in Venus after decades...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Recent years has seen a marked increase in the planetary community’s interest in Venus after decades of near-neglect. Part of this renewed interest is to understand […]
IEEE Spectrum
Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California has spawned many pioneering computer technologies...
a year ago
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a year ago
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...
Sean Carroll
George B. Field, 1929-2024 George Field, brilliant theoretical astrophysicist and truly great human being, passed away on the...
11 months ago
84
11 months ago
George Field, brilliant theoretical astrophysicist and truly great human being, passed away on the morning of July 31. He was my Ph.D. thesis advisor and one of my favorite people in the world. I often tell my own students that the two most important people in your life who you...
Interaction Magic -...
Think outside the screen Nobody likes stroking a pane of glass, so why do we love touchscreens so much? Let's build...
over a year ago
16
over a year ago
Nobody likes stroking a pane of glass, so why do we love touchscreens so much? Let's build distributed interfaces that work.
Marine Madness
Which countries eat the most seafood per person? The top 10 seafood-consuming nations in the world, plus trends among the world’s richest countries....
over a year ago
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over a year ago
The top 10 seafood-consuming nations in the world, plus trends among the world’s richest countries. Seafood is a vital food group and form of income for millions of people around the world. The seafood industry has more than quadrupled in the last 50 years and is estimated to be...
IEEE Spectrum
The Battle for Better, Broader, More Inclusive AI AI’s inclusivity problem is no secret. According to the ACLU, AI systems can perpetuate housing...
a year ago
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a year ago
AI’s inclusivity problem is no secret. According to the ACLU, AI systems can perpetuate housing discrimination and bias in the justice system, among other harms. Bias in the data an AI model relies on is reproduced in its results. Large Language Models (LLMs) share this problem;...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
It’s Time For Physician Independence | Out-Of-Pocket Why it might be easier to start a practice today
a year ago
Blog - Practical...
4 Myths About Construction Debunked [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Construction is something you...
over a year ago
50
over a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Construction is something you probably either love or hate, depending on your commute or profession. Obviously, as a civil engineer, it’s something I think a lot about, and over the past 6 years of reading...
nanoscale views
NSF, quo vadis? There is a lot going on.  Today, some words about NSF. Yesterday Sethuraman Panchanathan, the...
2 months ago
14
2 months ago
There is a lot going on.  Today, some words about NSF. Yesterday Sethuraman Panchanathan, the director of the National Science Foundation, resigned 16 months before the end of his six year term.  The relevant Science article raises the possibility that this is because, as an...
NeuroLogica Blog
Science News in 2023 This is not exactly a “best of” because I don’t know how that applies to science news, but here are...
a year ago
28
a year ago
This is not exactly a “best of” because I don’t know how that applies to science news, but here are what I consider to be the most impactful science news stories of 2023 (or at least the ones that caught by biased attention). This was a big year for medical breakthroughs. We are...
nanoscale views
Guide to faculty searches, 2024 edition As you can tell from my posting frequency lately, I have been unusually busy.  I hope to be writing...
9 months ago
14
9 months ago
As you can tell from my posting frequency lately, I have been unusually busy.  I hope to be writing about more condensed matter and nano science soon.   In the meantime, I realized that I have not re-posted or updated my primer on how tenure-track faculty searches work in physics...