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
Andrew Fraknoi –...
A Comet Visible in Our Evening Sky
A newly discovered comet is now faintly visible in our skies soon after sunset, if you have clear...
2 months ago
A newly discovered comet is now faintly visible in our skies soon after sunset, if you have clear skies and a view low toward the west-southwest horizon. See our diagram from Sky & Telescope magazine, in which the yellow numbers show you the comet’s location in the evening sky...
Asterisk
When RAND Made Magic in Santa Monica
RAND’s halcyon days lasted two decades, during which the corporation produced some of the most...
6 months ago
RAND’s halcyon days lasted two decades, during which the corporation produced some of the most influential developments in science and American foreign policy. So how did it become just another think tank?
Math Is Still...
How AI Revolutionized Protein Science, but Didn’t End It
Three years ago, Google’s AlphaFold pulled off the biggest artificial intelligence breakthrough in...
5 months ago
Three years ago, Google’s AlphaFold pulled off the biggest artificial intelligence breakthrough in science to date, accelerating molecular research and kindling deep questions about why we do science.
The post How AI Revolutionized Protein Science, but Didn’t End It...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Personalized Health Insurance and the Payer Stack | Out-Of-Pocket
Stacks on stacks on stacks
a year ago
Stacks on stacks on stacks
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...
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...
Explorations of an...
El Valle Encantado (The Enchanted Valley), And A Bump In The Road
January 19, 2023
It is not always easy to find trails worth exploring in the Andes, and the reason...
a year ago
January 19, 2023
It is not always easy to find trails worth exploring in the Andes, and the reason for this is simple. The extreme topographical changes in the mountains, combined with frequent rainfall and thick vegetation do not lend themselves to the construction and regular...
Quantum Frontiers
Caltech’s Ginsburg Center
Editor’s Note: On 10 August 2023, Caltech celebrated the groundbreaking for the Dr. Allen and...
a year ago
Editor’s Note: On 10 August 2023, Caltech celebrated the groundbreaking for the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Center for Quantum Precision Measurement, which will open in 2025. At a lunch following the ceremony, John Preskill made these remarks. Hello everyone. … Continue...
Drew Ex Machina
First Pictures: NASA’s Mars Pathfinder – July 4, 1997
During the morning hours of July 4, 1997, I experienced a strange sense of déjà vu as I sat glued to...
over a year ago
During the morning hours of July 4, 1997, I experienced a strange sense of déjà vu as I sat glued to the television set watching live […]
Blog - Practical...
Which Power Plant Does My Electricity Come From?
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
In June of 2000, the power...
a month ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
In June of 2000, the power shut off across much of the San Francisco Bay area. There simply wasn’t enough electricity to meet demands, so more than a million customers were disconnected in California's largest...
Math Is Still...
Invisible ‘Demon’ Discovered in Odd Superconductor
Physicists have long suspected that hunks of metal could vibrate in a peculiar way that would be all...
a year ago
Physicists have long suspected that hunks of metal could vibrate in a peculiar way that would be all but invisible. Now physicists have spotted these “demon modes.”
The post Invisible ‘Demon’ Discovered in Odd Superconductor first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
The Year in Biology
Biologists used artificial intelligence to make discoveries about molecules and the brain, and...
4 days ago
Biologists used artificial intelligence to make discoveries about molecules and the brain, and overturned long-held assumptions about the immune system and RNA.
The post The Year in Biology first appeared on Quanta Magazine
IEEE Spectrum
This Clock Made Power Grids Possible
On 23 October 1916, an engineer named Henry E. Warren quietly revolutionized power transmission by...
9 months ago
On 23 October 1916, an engineer named Henry E. Warren quietly revolutionized power transmission by installing an electric clock in the L Street generating station of Boston’s Edison Electric Illuminating Co. This master station clock kept a very particular type of time: It used a...
NeuroLogica Blog
Immune Cells to Fight Cancer
There is a recent medical advance that you may not have heard about unless you are a healthcare...
a year ago
There is a recent medical advance that you may not have heard about unless you are a healthcare professional or encountered it from the patient side – CAR-T cell therapy. A recent study shows the potential for continued incremental advance of this technology, but already it is a...
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...
a year ago
What happens when you pair CERN scientists with science fiction writers to create short stories inspired by particle physics?
Chris Grossack's...
Talk -- What is Algebraic Geometry and Why Should You Care?
So an embarrassing amount of time ago (Feburary 17?) I gave a talk for the
undergraduate math club...
a year ago
So an embarrassing amount of time ago (Feburary 17?) I gave a talk for the
undergraduate math club titled
“What is Algebraic Geometry, and Why Should You Care?”. I think it went quite
well, and the audience seemed like they had a good time. I really wanted to
have the talk...
The Works in...
Issue 10: One word—plastics.
Plus: France's baby bust, why we empathise with animals, building infrastructure faster, and more.
a year ago
Plus: France's baby bust, why we empathise with animals, building infrastructure faster, and more.
nanoscale views
Food and (broadly speaking) fluid mechanics - great paper!
This paper (author's website pdf here, arxiv version here) is just a spectacularly good review...
a year ago
This paper (author's website pdf here, arxiv version here) is just a spectacularly good review article about fluid mechanics (broadly defined to include a bit about foams and viscoelastic systems) and food/drink. The article is broadly structured like a menu (drinks & cocktails...
Math Is Still...
The Best Neighborhoods for Starting a Life in the Galaxy
Some neighborhoods in the Milky Way may be better suited for making habitable planets than others. ...
11 months ago
Some neighborhoods in the Milky Way may be better suited for making habitable planets than others.
The post The Best Neighborhoods for Starting a Life in the Galaxy first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Generative AI and scientific images/diagrams
Generative AI for image generation is a controversial topic for many reasons. Still, as someone who...
11 months ago
Generative AI for image generation is a controversial topic for many reasons. Still, as someone who doesn't have a staff of graphic artists on hand to help make scientific illustrations, it has certainly been tempting to see whether it might be a useful tool. My brief...
Math Is Still...
What Your Brain Is Doing When You’re Not Doing Anything
When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network is active. Its discovery 20 years...
10 months ago
When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network is active. Its discovery 20 years ago inspired a raft of research into networks of brain regions and how they interact with each other.
The post What Your Brain Is Doing When You’re Not Doing Anything...
IEEE Spectrum
Skylab: The Space Station That Fell on Australia
end cap from one of Skylab’s oxygen tanks in the dirt. Cattle were drinking collected rainwater from...
a year ago
end cap from one of Skylab’s oxygen tanks in the dirt. Cattle were drinking collected rainwater from the remains of a US $2.2 billion NASA investment.
Skylab’s Failure and Recovery
Skylab’s fate was sealed moments after lift-off when the sun shield and main solar panel were...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Potential of AI + CRISPR
In my book, which I will now shamelessly promote – The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future – my coauthors...
3 months ago
In my book, which I will now shamelessly promote – The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future – my coauthors and I discuss the incredible potential of information-based technologies. As we increasingly transition to digital technology, we can leverage the increasing power of computer...
Tikalon Blog by Dev...
A.I., Wine, and Beer
There have been many studies using scientific instrumentation, mostly gas chromatography, in...
6 months ago
There have been many studies using scientific instrumentation, mostly gas chromatography, in attempts to find what distinguishes a superb wine from an inexpensive house wine. A typical wine can contain more than 800 different aroma compounds. One study examined two Australian...
IEEE Spectrum
Why the Art of Invention Is Always Being Reinvented
Every invention begins with a problem—and the creative act of seeing a problem where others might...
a month ago
Every invention begins with a problem—and the creative act of seeing a problem where others might just see unchangeable reality. For one 5-year-old, the problem was simple: She liked to have her tummy rubbed as she fell asleep. But her mom, exhausted from working two jobs, often...
Math Is Still...
Simple Equation Predicts the Shapes of Carbon-Capturing Wetlands
To calculate the amount of carbon stored inside peatlands, researchers developed a unified theory of...
6 months ago
To calculate the amount of carbon stored inside peatlands, researchers developed a unified theory of “bog physics” applicable around the world.
The post Simple Equation Predicts the Shapes of Carbon-Capturing Wetlands first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
How Quickly Do Large Language Models Learn Unexpected Skills?
A new study suggests that so-called emergent abilities actually develop gradually and predictably,...
10 months ago
A new study suggests that so-called emergent abilities actually develop gradually and predictably, depending on how you measure them.
The post How Quickly Do Large Language Models Learn Unexpected Skills? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
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...
7 months 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
NeuroLogica Blog
Student Attitudes Toward AI in the Class
Researchers recently published an extensive survey of almost 6,000 students across academic...
a year ago
Researchers recently published an extensive survey of almost 6,000 students across academic institution in Sweden. The results are not surprising, but they do give a snapshot of where we are with the recent introduction of large language model AIs. Most students, 56%, reported...
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
is the rise of urgent care a good or bad thing?
Math Is Still...
Astronomers Dig Up the Stars That Birthed the Milky Way
There once was a cosmic seed that sprouted the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers have discovered its...
a year ago
There once was a cosmic seed that sprouted the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers have discovered its last surviving remnants.
The post Astronomers Dig Up the Stars That Birthed the Milky Way first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
HEAVY CONSTRUCTION of a Sewage Pump Station - Ep 1
Check out our new series! This is the first episode of a five-part pilot series to gauge your...
a year ago
Check out our new series! This is the first 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.
Tikalon Blog by Dev...
Copper and Green Energy
The United States Department of Energy has updated its list of critically important materials. The...
5 months ago
The United States Department of Energy has updated its list of critically important materials. The current list of 54 materials includes elements that are presently critical to a transition to green energy, such as the rare earth elements important to turbine generators, and...
Math Is Still...
Nobel Prize Honors Inventors of ‘Quantum Dot’ Nanoparticles
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to three researchers who harnessed the quantum...
a year ago
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to three researchers who harnessed the quantum behaviors of semiconductor nanocrystals.
The post Nobel Prize Honors Inventors of ‘Quantum Dot’ Nanoparticles first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Will AI Make Work Redundant?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming for your job. This, at least, is increasingly conventional...
a year ago
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming for your job. This, at least, is increasingly conventional wisdom, but I’m not so sure. In a recent interview, Elon Musk predicted that AI would “make paid work redundant.” I encountered the same opinion watching the latest season of...
brr
South Pole Water Infrastructure
Fresh water from snow, at 70 below!
6 months ago
Fresh water from snow, at 70 below!
NeuroLogica Blog
Is AI Sentient – Revisited
This happened sooner than I thought. Last June I wrote about Google employee, Blake Lemoine, who...
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...
brr
Pressure Altitude
Day-to-day variability at the South Pole.
a year ago
Day-to-day variability at the South Pole.
Quantum Frontiers
Now published: Building Quantum Computers
Building Quantum Computers: A Practical Introduction by Shayan Majidy, Christopher Wilson, and...
2 months ago
Building Quantum Computers: A Practical Introduction by Shayan Majidy, Christopher Wilson, and Raymond Laflamme has been published by Cambridge University Press and will be released in the US on September 30. The authors invited me to write a Foreword for … Continue reading →
Math Is Still...
A Close-Up View Reveals the ‘Melting’ Point of an Infinite Graph
Just as ice melts to water, graphs undergo phase transitions. Two mathematicians showed that they...
a year ago
Just as ice melts to water, graphs undergo phase transitions. Two mathematicians showed that they can pinpoint such transitions by examining only local structure.
The post A Close-Up View Reveals the ‘Melting’ Point of an Infinite Graph first appeared on Quanta...
Math Is Still...
The Physicist Who’s Challenging the Quantum Orthodoxy
For decades, physicists have struggled to develop a quantum theory of gravity. But what if gravity —...
a year ago
For decades, physicists have struggled to develop a quantum theory of gravity. But what if gravity — and space-time — are fundamentally classical?
The post The Physicist Who’s Challenging the Quantum Orthodoxy first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Strategic planning + departmental reviews
It's been a while since I've written a post about the ways of academia, so I thought it might be...
a year ago
It's been a while since I've written a post about the ways of academia, so I thought it might be time, though it's not exactly glamorous or exciting. There are certain cycles in research universities, and two interrelated ones are the cycle of departmental strategic planning and...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Thinking beyond value-based care | Out-Of-Pocket
Maybe there’s more to life than shared savings
3 months ago
Maybe there’s more to life than shared savings
NeuroLogica Blog
Virtual Walking
When I use my virtual reality gear I do practical zero virtual walking – meaning that I don’t have...
9 months ago
When I use my virtual reality gear I do practical zero virtual walking – meaning that I don’t have my avatar walk while I am not walking. I general play standing up which means I can move around the space in my office mapped by my VR software – so I am physically walking to...
Damn Interesting
The Comforts of the Throne
In the days when hunting was a more common pursuit than it is today, those involved in the job...
over a year ago
In the days when hunting was a more common pursuit than it is today, those involved in the job cultivated a taxonomy for the various droppings they might encounter and use for tracking. Thus, rather than merely looking out for scat, those stalking deer would keep an eye peeled...
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2020, 3)
Repairs, number stations, the only good Twitters, a low-key infohazard about pictures of...
over a year ago
Repairs, number stations, the only good Twitters, a low-key infohazard about pictures of butterflies, and more.
Math Is Still...
Covid-19 mRNA Vaccines Win Nobel Prize for Medicine 2023
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine...
a year ago
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries leading to mRNA vaccines, such as those that protect against COVID-19.
The post Covid-19 mRNA Vaccines Win Nobel Prize for Medicine 2023 first appeared on...
NeuroLogica Blog
Fossil Fuels – Reduce Demand or Supply?
This is a bit of a false choice – we can do both, or neither – but it is an important question and a...
a year ago
This is a bit of a false choice – we can do both, or neither – but it is an important question and a somewhat of a dilemma. Is the optimal path to reductions and eventual elimination of fossil fuel burning through reduced demand or supply? There are some interesting tradeoffs...
Blog - Practical...
HEAVY CONSTRUCTION of a Sewage Pump Station - Ep 5
This is the fifth and final episode of a five-part pilot series to gauge your interest in "How It's...
a year ago
This is the fifth and final 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.
Quantum Frontiers
Winners of the Quantum-Steampunk Short-Story Contest
During the past seven months, I’ve steamed across the Atlantic, sailed in a flying castle,...
a year ago
During the past seven months, I’ve steamed across the Atlantic, sailed in a flying castle, teleported across the globe, and shuttled forward and backward in time. Literarily, not literally—the Quantum-Steampunk Short-Story Contest began welcoming submissions in October 2022. We...
symmetry magazine
Rap with an undercurrent of particle physics
UK musician Consensus spins the big ideas of physics into rap and hip-hop tracks.
a year ago
UK musician Consensus spins the big ideas of physics into rap and hip-hop tracks.
IEEE Spectrum
The Story Behind Pixar’s RenderMan CGI Software
Watching movies and TV series that use digital visual effects to create fantastical worlds lets...
9 months ago
Watching movies and TV series that use digital visual effects to create fantastical worlds lets people escape reality for a few hours. Thanks to advancements in computer-generated technology used to produce films and shows, those worlds are highly realistic. In many cases, it can...
Probably...
Bertrand’s Boxes
An early draft of Probably Overthinking It included two chapters about probability. I still think...
7 months ago
An early draft of Probably Overthinking It included two chapters about probability. I still think they are interesting, but the other chapters are really about data, and the examples in these chapters are more like brain teasers — so I’ve saved them for another book. Here’s an...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The New Era Of Digital Therapeutics | Out-Of-Pocket
Guess it's time to start defining the term again
a year ago
Guess it's time to start defining the term again
Light from Space
The Soul of the Heart Nebula
A spectacular emission Nebula, the Heart Nebula is one of the classics of Northern Hemisphere...
over a year ago
A spectacular emission Nebula, the Heart Nebula is one of the classics of Northern Hemisphere amateury astronomy.
In the gallery below, I've highlighted 3 very different areas of the image:
Left: Planetary Nebula WeBo-1
Middle: Melotte 15 in the... heart of the Heart...
Wanderingspace
Saturn Vortex
“This is a view of a ~2,000-km-wide vortex of swirling clouds above Saturn's north pole, imaged in...
3 weeks ago
“This is a view of a ~2,000-km-wide vortex of swirling clouds above Saturn's north pole, imaged in polarized light with Cassini's narrow-angle camera on November 27, 2012. I've processed the original monochrome image to approximate the color of the area at the time.” — Jason...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Coming Up: Einstein without Tears; Religion and Extraterrestrial Life
Two upcoming events that may be of interest to you (please pass on to others who may like them): The...
2 months ago
Two upcoming events that may be of interest to you (please pass on to others who may like them): The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State Presents: A non-technical, 6-week class with Professor Andrew Fraknoi Einstein without Tears Tuesdays from 12:30 to 2:30...
Marine Madness
Fear factor: How sensationalised shark documentaries undermine conservation efforts
Experts explain why misleading documentaries about sharks can be problematic. When Brendon Sing...
over a year ago
Experts explain why misleading documentaries about sharks can be problematic. When Brendon Sing first encountered sharks he was as a young boy behind the safety of aquarium glass in his native South Africa. Like many children of his generation, Brendon’s limited knowledge about...
Interaction Magic -...
3 tips for co-designing with kids
Designing future sports products with a group of 11 year olds.
a year ago
Designing future sports products with a group of 11 year olds.
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2023, Day 2
I ended up spending more time catching up with people this afternoon than going to talks after my...
a year ago
I ended up spending more time catching up with people this afternoon than going to talks after my session ended, but here are a couple of highlights:
There was an invited session about the metal halide perovskites, and there were some interesting talks. My faculty colleague...
Eukaryote Writes...
I got dysentery so you don’t have to
On turning 30 in a human challenge trial ward.
2 months ago
On turning 30 in a human challenge trial ward.
Cremieux Recueil
Why America’s Racial Poverty Statistics Are a Lesson for Researchers
What if a single government employee could tell you an entire literature was wrong?
3 months ago
What if a single government employee could tell you an entire literature was wrong?
Chris Grossack's...
Life in Johnstone's Topological Topos 2 -- Topological Algebras
In the first post, we introduced Johnstone’s topological topos $\mathcal{T}$
and talked about what...
5 months ago
In the first post, we introduced Johnstone’s topological topos $\mathcal{T}$
and talked about what its objects look like. We showed how the interpretation
of type theory in $\mathcal{T}$ gives us an “intrinsic topology” on any
type we construct. We also alluded to the fact...
The Works in...
Issue 09: Cheap shots and killer bots
Plus: Why scientific writing is so bad, how to stop snakebites from killing 100,000 people every...
over a year ago
Plus: Why scientific writing is so bad, how to stop snakebites from killing 100,000 people every year, and what science can learn from the fight against global poverty.
The Works in...
Fermenting revolution
The Victorian fight against bad bread and its role in women’s liberation
a year ago
The Victorian fight against bad bread and its role in women’s liberation
Math Is Still...
The Electron Is So Round That It’s Ruling Out Potential New Particles
If the electron’s charge wasn’t perfectly round, it could reveal the existence of hidden particles....
a year ago
If the electron’s charge wasn’t perfectly round, it could reveal the existence of hidden particles. A new measurement approaches perfection.
The post The Electron Is So Round That It’s Ruling Out Potential New Particles first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Healthcare should NOT be local | Out-Of-Pocket
Let's think bigger
a year ago
Beautiful Public...
Mapping the Sea Floor
USGS research vessels equipped with cameras, sonar and scanners created a map of 125 square miles of...
a year ago
USGS research vessels equipped with cameras, sonar and scanners created a map of 125 square miles of the sea floor off Cape Ann, MA.
Light from Space
The Cat's Paw
Located very close to the Lobster Nebula in the southern constellation of Scorpius, the Cat's Paw...
over a year ago
Located very close to the Lobster Nebula in the southern constellation of Scorpius, the Cat's Paw Nebula (NGC 6334) does indeed have a striking resemblance to a feline footprint.
It's quite low in the sky here from Tucson (at a maximum of about 22º above
The Works in...
Fixing retail with land value capture
How to create beautiful shopping streets everywhere
6 months ago
How to create beautiful shopping streets everywhere
Probably...
Probably Overthinking It Notebooks
To celebrate one month since the launch of Probably Overthinking It, I’m releasing the Jupyter...
11 months ago
To celebrate one month since the launch of Probably Overthinking It, I’m releasing the Jupyter notebooks I used to create the book. There’s one per chapter, and they contain all of the code I used to do the analysis and generate the figures. So if you are curious about the...
NeuroLogica Blog
Superconducting Kagome Metals
Superconductivity is an extremely interesting, and potentially extremely useful, physical...
3 months ago
Superconductivity is an extremely interesting, and potentially extremely useful, physical phenomenon. It refers to a state in which current flows through a material without resistance, and therefore without any loss of energy or waste heat. As our civilization is increasingly run...
Explorations of an...
Heading East Across The Chaco
I’ve written about the Chaco region before – that vast dry, scrubby area south of the Amazon which...
a year ago
I’ve written about the Chaco region before – that vast dry, scrubby area south of the Amazon which happens to cover much of central and northern Argentina. Laura and I had skirted the edge of the Chaco earlier in the trip, including near Laguna Salinas Grande and in the Salta...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
ARISE ERISA | Out-Of-Pocket
Levity in the time of Coronavirus
a year ago
Levity in the time of Coronavirus
NeuroLogica Blog
Meteostat-12 Meets Flat Earthers
I know this wasn’t the purpose of sending up a €4.3bn satellite into geostationary orbit, but...
a year ago
I know this wasn’t the purpose of sending up a €4.3bn satellite into geostationary orbit, but tweaking flat earthers is a fun side effect. European countries have collaborated on this project, having weather satellites in orbit since 1977. The latest iteration is Meteostat-12,...
Asterisk
Crash Testing GPT-4
Can we tell if an AI model is safe before it’s released? The group that tested GPT–4 is trying to...
a year ago
Can we tell if an AI model is safe before it’s released? The group that tested GPT–4 is trying to figure out how.
Asterisk
Why Is Everyone Suddenly Furious About AI Regulation?
Please tell us, because we're stumped.
7 months ago
Please tell us, because we're stumped.
Probably...
Political Alignment, Affiliation, and Attitudes
Is there a growing gender gap in the U.S? Alignment A recent article in the Financial Times suggests...
10 months ago
Is there a growing gender gap in the U.S? Alignment A recent article in the Financial Times suggests that among young people there is a growing gender gap in political alignment on a spectrum from liberal to conservative. In last week’s post, I tried to replicate this result...
Quantum Frontiers
Colliding the familiar and the anti-familiar at CERN
toise me at CERN was a box of chocolates. CERN is a multinational particle-physics collaboration....
11 months ago
toise me at CERN was a box of chocolates. CERN is a multinational particle-physics collaboration. Based in Geneva, CERN is famous for having “the world’s largest and most powerful accelerator,” according to its website. So a physicist will take for … Continue reading →
Blog - Practical...
Why Are Cooling Towers Shaped Like That?
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
This is not smoke. And this...
a month ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
This is not smoke. And this isn’t a smoke stack (at least not the kind we normally think of). It serves a totally different purpose at a power plant than smoke stacks whose job is moving combustion products...
Asterisk
The Myth of the Loneliness Epidemic
Are we really living through a uniquely lonely moment in American history? When it comes to...
a month ago
Are we really living through a uniquely lonely moment in American history? When it comes to friendship, this isn’t the first time that authorities have cried wolf.
NeuroLogica Blog
How Much Carbon do Living Things Store?
Since we are in a “all hands on deck” situation when it comes to climate change, we need to take a...
a year ago
Since we are in a “all hands on deck” situation when it comes to climate change, we need to take a look at all potential strategies for delaying and blunting global warming. The game at this point is all about peak warming – how much will the Earth warm before temperatures peak...
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
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...
The Roots of...
If you wish to make an apple pie, you must first become dictator of the universe
The word “robot” is derived from the Czech robota, which means “serfdom.” It was introduced over a...
a year ago
The word “robot” is derived from the Czech robota, which means “serfdom.” It was introduced over a century ago by the Czech play R.U.R., for “Rossum’s Universal Robots.” In the play, the smartest and best-educated of the robots leads a slave revolt that wipes out most of...
Blog - Practical...
Why Is Desalination So Difficult?
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
This is the Carlsbad...
a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
This is the Carlsbad Desalination Plant outside of San Diego, California. It produces roughly ten percent of the area’s fresh water, around 50 million gallons or 23,000 cubic meters per day. Unlike most...
Math Is Still...
AI Needs Enormous Computing Power. Could Light-Based Chips Help?
Optical neural networks, which use photons instead of electrons, have advantages over traditional...
7 months ago
Optical neural networks, which use photons instead of electrons, have advantages over traditional systems. They also face major obstacles.
The post AI Needs Enormous Computing Power. Could Light-Based Chips Help? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
How Our Longest Nerve Orchestrates the Mind-Body Connection
Like a highway system, the vagus nerve branches profusely from your brain through your organs to...
3 months ago
Like a highway system, the vagus nerve branches profusely from your brain through your organs to marshal bodily functions, including aspects of mind such as mood, pleasure and fear.
The post How Our Longest Nerve Orchestrates the Mind-Body Connection first appeared on...
The Works in...
Two Assault Rifles
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
a year ago
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
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
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...
The Works in...
From MANUALS to YOUTUBE
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
a year ago
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
Math Is Still...
Microbes Gained Photosynthesis Superpowers From a ‘Proton Pump’
New research reveals how marine microbes use an extra membrane that once had digestive functions to...
a year ago
New research reveals how marine microbes use an extra membrane that once had digestive functions to boost their yield from photosynthesis.
The post Microbes Gained Photosynthesis Superpowers From a ‘Proton Pump’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Healthcare Ideas That Look Good But Are Bad | Out-Of-Pocket
clinical trial matching, "find a specialist", and more
8 months ago
clinical trial matching, "find a specialist", and more
Quantum Frontiers
Quantum physics proposes a new way to study biology – and the results could revolutionize our...
By guest blogger Clarice D. Aiello, faculty at UCLA Imagine using your cellphone to control the...
a year ago
By guest blogger Clarice D. Aiello, faculty at UCLA Imagine using your cellphone to control the activity of your own cells to treat injuries and disease. It sounds like something from the imagination of an overly optimistic science fiction writer. … Continue reading →
NeuroLogica Blog
New Asteroid Probably Won’t Hit Earth
NASA recently discovered a 50 meter wide asteroid whose orbit will come close to Earth. They...
a year ago
NASA recently discovered a 50 meter wide asteroid whose orbit will come close to Earth. They estimate a close approach in 2046, which will likely bring the asteroid within 1.1 million miles of the Earth, about four times the distance of the moon. However, there is always...
Math Is Still...
With Fifth Busy Beaver, Researchers Approach Computation’s Limits
After decades of uncertainty, a motley team of programmers has proved precisely how complicated...
5 months ago
After decades of uncertainty, a motley team of programmers has proved precisely how complicated simple computer programs can get.
The post With Fifth Busy Beaver, Researchers Approach Computation’s Limits first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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
8 months ago
everything is a set of tradeoffs, let's be honest about that
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Battery News
I have been following battery technology pretty closely, as this is a key technology for the...
a year ago
I have been following battery technology pretty closely, as this is a key technology for the transition to green energy. The most obvious application is in battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The second most obvious application is in grid storage. But also there are all the...
NeuroLogica Blog
Spider-Man’s Web Shooter
I have to admit that my favorite superhero as a kid, and still today, is Spider-Man (and yes, that’s...
2 months ago
I have to admit that my favorite superhero as a kid, and still today, is Spider-Man (and yes, that’s the correct spelling). There are a number of narrative reasons for this that I grew to appreciate more as I aged. First, Spider-Man is in the sweet spot of super abilities – he is...
Probably...
Think Stats 3rd Edition
I am excited to announce that I have started work on a third edition of Think Stats, to be published...
2 months ago
I am excited to announce that I have started work on a third edition of Think Stats, to be published by O’Reilly Media in 2025. At this point the content is mostly settled, and I am revising chapters to get them ready for technical review. If you want to start reading now, the...
Math Is Still...
How (Nearly) Nothing Might Solve Cosmology’s Biggest Questions
By measuring the universe’s emptiest spaces, scientists can study how matter clumps together and how...
a year ago
By measuring the universe’s emptiest spaces, scientists can study how matter clumps together and how fast it flies apart.
The post How (Nearly) Nothing Might Solve Cosmology’s Biggest Questions first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Works in...
The concept of sustainment
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
a year ago
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
NeuroLogica Blog
3D Printed Rocket Launches
This is one of those technology news stories where the implications of the technology is greater...
a year ago
This is one of those technology news stories where the implications of the technology is greater than the thing itself. Relativity Space, a rocket company based in California, launched their first Terran-1 rocket. The launch ultimately failed when the second stage failed to...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Secret Research Techniques | Out-Of-Pocket
A magician always reveals his tricks for the purposes of engagement
a year ago
A magician always reveals his tricks for the purposes of engagement
Drew Ex Machina
NASA’s Viking Mission & The Search for Life on Mars: The Experiments
For young space enthusiasts like myself growing up in the 1970s, NASA’s Viking mission to Mars was...
over a year ago
For young space enthusiasts like myself growing up in the 1970s, NASA’s Viking mission to Mars was one of the more exciting and memorable. The Viking […]
Math Is Still...
The Surprisingly Simple Math Behind Puzzling Matchups
If Anna beats Benji in a game and Benji beats Carl, will Anna beat Carl?
The post The...
11 months ago
If Anna beats Benji in a game and Benji beats Carl, will Anna beat Carl?
The post The Surprisingly Simple Math Behind Puzzling Matchups first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Using Cement for Energy Storage
Imagine if every house, every building, came with 1-2 days (or possibly more) of energy storage....
a year ago
Imagine if every house, every building, came with 1-2 days (or possibly more) of energy storage. What if every wind turbine could store a day’s worth of the energy it produces on average? How beneficial would it be if the most common building material the world could be used to...
Explorations of an...
Day Three at Río Bigal: A Rainout, Another Snake, And More Mothing Adventures
Part of the reason why I gave myself five nights to spend at Río Bigal was to mitigate in case I had...
a year ago
Part of the reason why I gave myself five nights to spend at Río Bigal was to mitigate in case I had a couple of days washed out by heavy rain. The eastern Andes of Ecuador receive a high amount of precipitation. Moisture-laden air from the Amazon basin drifts westwards to the...
Asterisk
Democracy by Mistake
Most political scientists see democracy as the natural consequence of economic development or the...
10 months ago
Most political scientists see democracy as the natural consequence of economic development or the result of strategic and rational choice. A detailed look through history suggests democracy emerges as often as not by another path: human error.
nanoscale views
Electronic structure and a couple of fun links
Real life has been very busy recently. Posting will hopefully pick up soon.
One brief item. ...
8 months ago
Real life has been very busy recently. Posting will hopefully pick up soon.
One brief item. Earlier this week, Rice hosted Gabi Kotliar for a distinguished lecture, and he gave a very nice, pedagogical talk about different approaches to electronic structure calculations. ...
nanoscale views
Materials characterization techniques – a brief glossary
Suppose someone has synthesized or found what they think is a new material. How do people studying...
11 months ago
Suppose someone has synthesized or found what they think is a new material. How do people studying materials (condensed matter physicists, materials scientists, materials chemists) figure out what they have and understand its properties? That's the puzzle-solving aspect of...
Math Is Still...
An Enormous Gravity ‘Hum’ Moves Through the Universe
Astronomers have found a background din of exceptionally long-wavelength gravitational waves...
a year ago
Astronomers have found a background din of exceptionally long-wavelength gravitational waves pervading the cosmos.
The post An Enormous Gravity ‘Hum’ Moves Through the Universe first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do
Researchers have shown that a problem relating to the energy of a quantum system is easy for quantum...
9 months ago
Researchers have shown that a problem relating to the energy of a quantum system is easy for quantum computers but hard for classical ones.
The post Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Roots of...
Developing a technology with safety in mind
If a technology may introduce catastrophic risks, how do you develop it?
It occurred to me that the...
a year ago
If a technology may introduce catastrophic risks, how do you develop it?
It occurred to me that the Wright Brothers’ approach to inventing the airplane might make a good case study.
The catastrophic risk for them, of course, was dying in a crash. This is exactly what happened...
Probably...
Superbolts
Probably Overthinking It is available to predorder now. You can get a 30% discount if you order from...
a year ago
Probably Overthinking It is available to predorder now. You can get a 30% discount if you order from the publisher and use the code UCPNEW. You can also order from Amazon or, if you want to support independent bookstores, from Bookshop.org. Recently I read a Scientific American...
Damn Interesting
The Anticipated Future of the Moon
When the Earth was young, shortly after the moon formed, our planet was spinning so fast that a day...
over a year ago
When the Earth was young, shortly after the moon formed, our planet was spinning so fast that a day was approximately five hours long. During the intervening billions of years, the dragging effect of the moon’s gravity slowed the Earth’s spin to the 24-hour day we now observe....
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
Image of tire tracks on Mars with an unusual green tone. . Taken by Perseverance on February 4th.
Math Is Still...
How the Higgs Field (Actually) Gives Mass to Elementary Particles
In this article adapted from his new book, "Waves in an Impossible Sea," physicist Matt Strassler...
3 months ago
In this article adapted from his new book, "Waves in an Impossible Sea," physicist Matt Strassler explains that the origin of mass in the universe has a lot to do with music.
The post How the Higgs Field (Actually) Gives Mass to Elementary Particles first appeared on...
Many Worlds
The Familiar, Yet So Different, Hydrocarbon Rivers of Titan
There are three planets or moons in our solar system known to now have, or once had, surface rivers,...
a year ago
There are three planets or moons in our solar system known to now have, or once had, surface rivers, lakes, deltas and a hydrologic system. There’s Earth, of course, Mars long ago when it was warmer and wetter, and the so different yet so similar rivers of hydrocarbons on...
Math Is Still...
Emmy Murphy Is a Mathematician Who Finds Beauty in Flexibility
The prize-winning geometer feels most fulfilled when exploring the fertile ground where constraint...
a year ago
The prize-winning geometer feels most fulfilled when exploring the fertile ground where constraint meets creation.
The post Emmy Murphy Is a Mathematician Who Finds Beauty in Flexibility first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
The Biggest Smallest Triangle Just Got Smaller
A new proof breaks a decades-long drought of progress on the problem of estimating the size of...
a year ago
A new proof breaks a decades-long drought of progress on the problem of estimating the size of triangles created by cramming points into a square.
The post The Biggest Smallest Triangle Just Got Smaller first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Uncharted...
Become a World-Class Communicator
I’m running a 2nd cohort of my course: How to Become a World-Class Communicator, starting in two...
2 months ago
I’m running a 2nd cohort of my course: How to Become a World-Class Communicator, starting in two weeks, on November 4th!
Math Is Still...
In the ‘Wild West’ of Geometry, Mathematicians Redefine the Sphere
High-dimensional spheres can have a much wider variety of structures than mathematicians thought...
a year ago
High-dimensional spheres can have a much wider variety of structures than mathematicians thought possible.
The post In the ‘Wild West’ of Geometry, Mathematicians Redefine the Sphere first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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
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...
Asterisk
You’re Invited to a Colonoscopy!
Colonoscopies are the first-line method for preventing colorectal cancer in America —and almost...
a year ago
Colonoscopies are the first-line method for preventing colorectal cancer in America —and almost nowhere else. But do they work? We finally have a comprehensive trial, but it’s left gastroenterologists with more questions than answers.
The Roots of...
What does it mean to “trust science”?
And this, my children, is why we do not say things like “I believe in science”. I mean, don’t get me...
a year ago
And this, my children, is why we do not say things like “I believe in science”. I mean, don’t get me wrong, science definitely exists—I’ve seen it. But not everything that calls itself science is science, and even good science sometimes gets wrong results. –Megan McArdle
Should...
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
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
Man Gets Pig Kidney Transplant
On March 16 surgeons transplanted a kidney taken from a pig into a human recipient, Rick Slayman. So...
9 months ago
On March 16 surgeons transplanted a kidney taken from a pig into a human recipient, Rick Slayman. So far the transplant is a success, but of course the real test will be how well the kidney functions and for how long. This is the first time such a transplant has been done into a...
NeuroLogica Blog
Science Communication About Controversial Issues
The world of science communication has changed dramatically over the last two decades, and it’s...
3 weeks ago
The world of science communication has changed dramatically over the last two decades, and it’s useful to think about those changes, both for people who generate and consume science communication. The big change, of course, is social media, which has disrupted journalism and...
Blog - Practical...
How French Drains Work
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
In February of 2017, one of...
4 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
In February of 2017, one of the largest spillways in the world, the one at Oroville Dam in northern California, was severely damaged during releases from heavy rain. You might remember this. I made a video...
Explorations of an...
Argentina!
Laura and I landed in Buenos Aires on the morning of January 9, a little bleary-eyed and feeling the...
a year ago
Laura and I landed in Buenos Aires on the morning of January 9, a little bleary-eyed and feeling the effects from the three flights and two layovers. But we had made it. Nearly six years had passed since I last visited Buenos Aires. It had been the final port of call on my...
Damn Interesting
Fifteen Years Forsaken
Editor’s Note: This article contains quotations from contemporaneous accounts which might be...
over a year ago
Editor’s Note: This article contains quotations from contemporaneous accounts which might be offensive for today’s readers.
The moon was new on the night of 31 July 1761, and the wide expanse of the Indian Ocean uniformly black. But Captain Jean de Lafargue of the French cargo...
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...
7 months 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 →
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: Representation and human history
Do shrunken heads belong in a museum?
over a year ago
Do shrunken heads belong in a museum?
wadertales
How do wader chicks respond to being handled?
Every wader researcher knows that their actions can have negative consequences for the birds they...
2 months ago
Every wader researcher knows that their actions can have negative consequences for the birds they are studying. Given that most shorebird species are in trouble or causing concern, conservation science is a tricky balancing act between ‘need to understand’ and ‘disturbance’. In...
Sean Carroll
Thanksgiving
This year we give thanks for Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. (We’ve previously given thanks for the...
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...
Drew Ex Machina
Star Way of Humanity: American Space Art
During the COVID-19 shutdown three years ago, I spent a lot of my time at home digging through my...
a year ago
During the COVID-19 shutdown three years ago, I spent a lot of my time at home digging through my archives discovering all sorts of items I […]
Math Is Still...
Dark Energy May Be Weakening, Major Astrophysics Study Finds
A generation of physicists has referred to the dark energy that permeates the universe as “the...
8 months ago
A generation of physicists has referred to the dark energy that permeates the universe as “the cosmological constant.” Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years.
The post Dark Energy May Be...
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...
2 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...
Probably...
Combining Risks
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous...
7 months ago
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous installments are available from the Data Q&A landing page. combine_risk Combining Risks¶ Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics forum. Bit of a weird one but I’m hoping you’re the...
Chris Grossack's...
Externalizing Some Simple Topos Statements
Hey all! It’s been a minute. I’ve been super busy with
the UC strike and honestly I haven’t done...
over a year ago
Hey all! It’s been a minute. I’ve been super busy with
the UC strike and honestly I haven’t done math in any
serious capacity for almost the past month. It’s been a
lot of hard work trying to get fair contracts out of the UC,
but I had a lot of travel plans this December to...
Asterisk
Rat Traps
Does the rationalist blogosphere need to update?
a month ago
Does the rationalist blogosphere need to update?
Articles - Chris...
My $500M Mars Rover Mistake: A Failure Story
Some mistakes feel worse than death.
a year ago
Some mistakes feel worse than death.
Asterisk
Moving Past Environmental Proceduralism
The foundations of modern environmental legislation were laid in the early ‘70s. Some of these laws...
8 months ago
The foundations of modern environmental legislation were laid in the early ‘70s. Some of these laws helped fix the ozone layer, clean up DDT, and fight lead pollution — while others are delaying the necessary transition to green energy. If the activists of fifty years ago had...
The Works in...
Lost Science
When discoveries are forgotten and then found
11 months ago
When discoveries are forgotten and then found
Math Is Still...
In the Milky Way’s Stars, a History of Violence
Our galaxy's stars keep a record of its past. By reading those stories, astronomers are learning...
a year ago
Our galaxy's stars keep a record of its past. By reading those stories, astronomers are learning more about how the Milky Way came to be — and about the galaxy we live in today.
The post In the Milky Way’s Stars, a History of Violence first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans
Researchers uncover striking parallels in the ways that humans and machine learning models acquire...
a year ago
Researchers uncover striking parallels in the ways that humans and machine learning models acquire language skills.
The post Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, July–August 2023
A quasi-monthly feature (I skipped it last month, so this is a double portion).
This is a longish...
a year ago
A quasi-monthly feature (I skipped it last month, so this is a double portion).
This is a longish post covering many topics; feel free to skim and skip around. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in my links digests.
These updates are less...
Asterisk
China’s Policy Failures
China’s experimental policy regime catalyzed the country’s economic ascent. Today, the system seems...
10 months ago
China’s experimental policy regime catalyzed the country’s economic ascent. Today, the system seems incapable of providing effective governance.
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
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...
Stephen Wolfram...
Ruliology of the “Forgotten” Code 10
My All-Time Favorite Science Discovery June 1, 1984—forty years ago today—is when it would be fair...
6 months ago
My All-Time Favorite Science Discovery June 1, 1984—forty years ago today—is when it would be fair to say I made my all-time favorite science discovery. Like with basically all significant science discoveries (despite the way histories often present them) it didn’t happen without...
Quantum Frontiers
The quantum gold rush
Even if you don’t recognize the name, you probably recognize the saguaro cactus. It’s the archetype...
9 months ago
Even if you don’t recognize the name, you probably recognize the saguaro cactus. It’s the archetype of the cactus, a column from which protrude arms bent at right angles like elbows. As my husband pointed out, the cactus emoji is … Continue reading →
Wanderingspace
COMET 67P/CG ANIMATED FROM ROSETTA STILLS
COMET #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO
INTERNATIONAL #ROSETTA MISSION
Date 18 jul 2015
Distance to...
over a year ago
COMET #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO
INTERNATIONAL #ROSETTA MISSION
Date 18 jul 2015
Distance to Target 182 km
Orange+Blue filtershttps://t.co/ZuYVehJOLx
ESA/Rosetta/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/J. Roger pic.twitter.com/Fg8rNmjbNy
— landru79 (@landru79) June 13, 2022
Hit...
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
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...
NeuroLogica Blog
Climate Sensitivity and Confirmation Bias
I love to follow kerfuffles between different experts and deep thinkers. It’s great for revealing...
9 months 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...
nanoscale views
Seeing through your head - diffuse imaging
From the medical diagnostic perspective (and for many other applications), you can understand why it...
2 weeks ago
From the medical diagnostic perspective (and for many other applications), you can understand why it might be very convenient to be able to perform some kind of optical imaging of the interior of what you'd ordinarily consider opaque objects. Even when a wavelength range is...
IEEE Spectrum
This 1920 Chess Automaton Was Wired to Win
The Mechanical Turk was a fraud. The chess-playing automaton, dressed in a turban and elaborate...
a year ago
The Mechanical Turk was a fraud. The chess-playing automaton, dressed in a turban and elaborate Ottoman robes, toured Europe in the closing decades of the 18th century accompanied by its inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen. The Turk wowed Austrian empress Maria Theresa, French emperor...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Neolithic Revolution
What was the greatest invention of human civilization? Arguably it was agriculture, which allowed...
5 months ago
What was the greatest invention of human civilization? Arguably it was agriculture, which allowed for civilization itself. Prior to agriculture humans were some combination of hunters, gatherers, scavengers, and fishers. We lived off the land, which was a full-time job. Many...
Light from Space
The Helping Hand of LDN 1355
LDN 1355 is a dark nebula in Cassiopeia, vaguely in the shape of an outstreched human hand—the dark...
over a year ago
LDN 1355 is a dark nebula in Cassiopeia, vaguely in the shape of an outstreched human hand—the dark dust obscuring the reflection nebula behind it.
Total exposure time: 58h 50' (211,800s)
Image resolution: 5,216 × 3,909px (1.924″/px)
Shot from my driveway
Apoorva Srinivasan
an experiment in navigating the knowledge frontier beyond search
Lately, I've been experimenting with interfaces for large language models (LLMs) in my free time....
a year ago
Lately, I've been experimenting with interfaces for large language models (LLMs) in my free time. The fruit of this labor is something I'm calling "curie," an exploratory and sense-making tool designed to navigate complex topics.
0:00
...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Eclipse of the Sun Coming in One Week
Saturday Oct. 14 North America will be treated to an eclipse of the Sun.
The post Eclipse of the Sun...
a year ago
Saturday Oct. 14 North America will be treated to an eclipse of the Sun.
The post Eclipse of the Sun Coming in One Week appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Interaction Magic -...
The last design you'll ever make
Designing from cradle to grave is no longer good enough. We need to postpone that grave as long as...
over a year ago
Designing from cradle to grave is no longer good enough. We need to postpone that grave as long as possible. This is how to design for a right to repair.
Willem Pennings
Home Assistant-compatible air quality sensor
I recently moved and our new home is equipped with a ventilation system that distributes fresh...
over a year ago
I recently moved and our new home is equipped with a ventilation system that distributes fresh (outside) air through the house and recoups heat from the air that is exhausted. There is a problem with this system, though. Sometimes, for example when a neighbour lights their wood...
Math Is Still...
‘A-Team’ of Math Proves a Critical Link Between Addition and Sets
A team of four prominent mathematicians, including two Fields medalists, proved a conjecture...
a year ago
A team of four prominent mathematicians, including two Fields medalists, proved a conjecture described as a “holy grail of additive combinatorics.”
The post ‘A-Team’ of Math Proves a Critical Link Between Addition and Sets first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Marine Madness
Penguin Problems: Are human-induced food shortages driving population declines?
We all love penguins. Clumsy and awkward on land, stealthy and precise underwater- these charismatic...
over a year ago
We all love penguins. Clumsy and awkward on land, stealthy and precise underwater- these charismatic creatures have captured our hearts ever since the release of March of the Penguins. Unfortunately, penguin populations across the globe (especially in South Africa and Antarctica)...
nanoscale views
What is a spin glass?
As mentioned previously, structural glasses are materials in which there is no periodic lattice (no...
a year ago
As mentioned previously, structural glasses are materials in which there is no periodic lattice (no long-range spatial order) and the building blocks get "stuck" in some configuration, kinetically unable to get to the true energetic minimum state which would almost certainly be a...
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2024, Day 3
My highlights today are a bit thin, because I was fortunate enough to spend time catching up with...
9 months ago
My highlights today are a bit thin, because I was fortunate enough to spend time catching up with collaborators and old friends, but here goes:
Pedram Roushan from Google gave an interesting talk about noisy intermediate-scale quantum experiments for simulation. He showed some...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Match Day and the Unmatched | Out-Of-Pocket
an underutilized workforce?
a year ago
an underutilized workforce?
Math Is Still...
The Best Qubits for Quantum Computing Might Just Be Atoms
In the search for the most scalable hardware to use for quantum computers, qubits made of individual...
9 months ago
In the search for the most scalable hardware to use for quantum computers, qubits made of individual atoms are having a breakout moment.
The post The Best Qubits for Quantum Computing Might Just Be Atoms first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Confessions of a...
My Teaching Philosophy
As mentioned previously, I need to complete a teaching portfolio over my year as a lecturing intern...
over a year ago
As mentioned previously, I need to complete a teaching portfolio over my year as a lecturing intern as part of the PTIS scheme. Central to this portfolio is a personal teaching philosophy, detailing why teaching is important to me, what my objectives are as a teacher, what...
Math Is Still...
Rogue Worlds Throw Planetary Ideas Out of Orbit
Scientists have recently discovered scores of free-floating worlds that defy classification. The new...
a year ago
Scientists have recently discovered scores of free-floating worlds that defy classification. The new observations have forced them to rethink their theories of star and planet formation.
The post Rogue Worlds Throw Planetary Ideas Out of Orbit first appeared on Quanta...
Stephen Wolfram...
When Exactly Will the Eclipse Happen? A Multimillennium Tale of Computation
Updated and expanded from a post for the eclipse of August 21, 2017. Preparing for April 8, 2024 On...
8 months ago
Updated and expanded from a post for the eclipse of August 21, 2017. Preparing for April 8, 2024 On April 8, 2024, there’s going to be a total eclipse of the Sun visible on a line across the US. But when exactly will the eclipse occur at a given location? Being able to predict...
ToughSF
Hypervelocity Tether Rockets
Rotating tethers can reach incredible velocities when they are built out of high strength materials....
over a year ago
Rotating tethers can reach incredible velocities when they are built out of high strength materials. With some design features, they can greatly surpass the exhaust velocities of chemical or even nuclear rockets. They can become propulsion systems with impressive performance......
Asterisk
All Aboard the Bureaucracy Train
The United States has the most expensive transportation infrastructure in the world. That’s because...
10 months ago
The United States has the most expensive transportation infrastructure in the world. That’s because we refuse to learn from experts, other countries, and our own history.
Asterisk
Salt, Sugar, Water, Zinc: How Scientists Learned to Treat the 20th Century’s Biggest Killer of...
Oral rehydration therapy is now the standard treatment for dehydration. It’s saved millions of...
a year ago
Oral rehydration therapy is now the standard treatment for dehydration. It’s saved millions of lives, and can be prepared at home in minutes. So why did it take so long to discover?
NeuroLogica Blog
Microbes Aboard the ISS
As I have written many times, including in yesterday’s post, people occupying space is hard. The...
11 months ago
As I have written many times, including in yesterday’s post, people occupying space is hard. The environment of space, or really anywhere not on Earth, is harsh and unforgiving. One of the issues, for example, rarely addressed in science fiction or even discussions of space...
Math Is Still...
The Experimental Cosmologist Hunting for the First Sunrise
To catch even a whiff of the universe’s earliest epochs — an age of darkness, and one of new light —...
a year ago
To catch even a whiff of the universe’s earliest epochs — an age of darkness, and one of new light — Cynthia Chiang builds her own equipment. Then she deploys it at the ends of the Earth.
The post The Experimental Cosmologist Hunting for the First Sunrise first...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Circular CO2 Economy
Big picture time – as I have discussed before, we have just passed 8 billion people on this planet...
a year ago
Big picture time – as I have discussed before, we have just passed 8 billion people on this planet and will likely top 10 billion before populations stabilize (which is quite possible, but that’s another story). What this means is that anything we collectively do is big. It...
NeuroLogica Blog
SpaceX Tests Super Heavy Booster
Last Thursday SpaceX successfully conducted the most significant test firing of its Heavy Booster...
a year ago
Last Thursday SpaceX successfully conducted the most significant test firing of its Heavy Booster rocket to date. The rocket sports 33 Raptor 2 engines. During the test, 31 of them fired. One engine failed, and one was shut down. According to SpaceX, even with 31 engines the...
Asterisk
Manufacturing Bliss
A growing community centered on the Bay Area is rediscovering the jhanas, a meditation technique...
8 months ago
A growing community centered on the Bay Area is rediscovering the jhanas, a meditation technique that practitioners claim could upend how we think about the brain — and transform our lives in the process.
NeuroLogica Blog
Moon Spacesuit Prototype Unveiled
Good spacesuits are deceptively difficult to design, even with today’s technology. NASA is planning...
a year ago
Good spacesuits are deceptively difficult to design, even with today’s technology. NASA is planning to return to the moon in 2025 (if all goes well) but the spacesuit the astronauts will wear is one piece to the puzzle they have not completed yet (the other being the lunar...
NeuroLogica Blog
Coal vs Natural Gas
In the last 18 years, since 2005, the US has decreased our CO2 emissions due to electricity...
a year ago
In the last 18 years, since 2005, the US has decreased our CO2 emissions due to electricity generation by 32%, 819 million metric tons of CO2 per year. Thirty percent of this decline can be attributed to renewable energy generation. But 65% is attributed to essentially replacing...
IEEE Spectrum
When IBM Built a War Room for Executives
Computer History Museum’s collection has a biography of sorts—a life before CHM, a tale about how it...
a week ago
Computer History Museum’s collection has a biography of sorts—a life before CHM, a tale about how it came to us, and a life within the museum. The chapters of that biography include the uses made of it, and the historical and interpretive stories it can be made to tell. This then...
Quantum Frontiers
Let the great world spin
I first heard the song “Fireflies,” by Owl City, shortly after my junior year of college. During the...
a year ago
I first heard the song “Fireflies,” by Owl City, shortly after my junior year of college. During the refrain, singer Adam Young almost whispers, “I’d like to make myself believe / that planet Earth turns slowly.” Goosebumps prickled along my … Continue reading →
Asterisk
Intelligence Testing
Everyone agrees that AIs are getting smarter — but it’s surprisingly difficult to measure by how...
a year ago
Everyone agrees that AIs are getting smarter — but it’s surprisingly difficult to measure by how much.
symmetry magazine
A collaboration pairs Fermilab with fashion students
Fashion students at the College of DuPage successfully designed gear to protect Fermilab’s SPOT...
a year ago
Fashion students at the College of DuPage successfully designed gear to protect Fermilab’s SPOT robot from radioactive dust.
In a recent demonstration for Engineers Week in Chicago, an engineering physicist took the stage accompanied by an unusual guest: a...
Sean Carroll
Proposed Closure of the Dianoia Institute at Australian Catholic University
Just a few years ago, Australian Catholic University (ACU) established a new Dianoia Institute of...
a year ago
Just a few years ago, Australian Catholic University (ACU) established a new Dianoia Institute of Philosophy. They recruited a number of researchers and made something of a splash, leading to a noticeable leap in ACU’s rankings in philosophy — all the way to second among Catholic...
pcloadletter
Surely dark UX doesn't work in the long run
I was just feeling pretty good—I published my article about RSS and it's being pretty...
10 months ago
I was just feeling pretty good—I published my article about RSS and it's being pretty well-received.
I decided a fitting way to celebrate was to head on over to Feedly and catch up on some reading! I clicked on an engineers blog feed to check out here latest couple posts. I...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Silly little rules in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket
The industry is chock full of ‘em, here's 3
6 months ago
The industry is chock full of ‘em, here's 3
Damn Interesting
The Unceasing Cessna Hacienda
Warren “Doc” Bayley was a man of the people. When he and his wife Judy opened their Las Vegas resort...
over a year ago
Warren “Doc” Bayley was a man of the people. When he and his wife Judy opened their Las Vegas resort in 1956, Bayley had no plans to compete with the flashier, corporate casinos at the center of the Strip. Instead, the Hacienda Hotel catered to families, as well as to locals who...
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, April 2023
A monthly feature. Note that I generally don’t include very recent writing here, such as the latest...
a year ago
A monthly feature. Note that I generally don’t include very recent writing here, such as the latest blog posts (for those, see my Twitter digests); this is for my deeper research.
AI
First, various historical perspectives on AI, many of which were quite prescient:
Alan Turing,...
NeuroLogica Blog
Artificial Diamond Boom
The history of aluminum, and what is now happening in the artificial diamond market, may tell us...
a year ago
The history of aluminum, and what is now happening in the artificial diamond market, may tell us something about a post-scarcity world. Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust. However, it like to form with other elements and therefore it was very difficulty to...
NeuroLogica Blog
How We Determine What to Believe as True
Psychologists have been studying a very basic cognitive function that appears to be of increasing...
a year ago
Psychologists have been studying a very basic cognitive function that appears to be of increasing importance – how do we choose what to believe as true or false? We live in a world awash in information, and access to essentially the world’s store of knowledge is now a trivial...
The Roots of...
The Commission for Stopping Further Improvements
On May 24, 1847, a bridge over the Dee River in Chester, England, collapsed. A passenger train...
a year ago
On May 24, 1847, a bridge over the Dee River in Chester, England, collapsed. A passenger train plunged into the river; five people were killed and nine seriously injured.
The subsequent investigation blamed the bridge’s cast iron girders. Cast iron, like concrete but unlike...
NeuroLogica Blog
Reading The Mind with fMRI and AI
This is pretty exciting neuroscience news – Semantic reconstruction of continuous language from...
a year ago
This is pretty exciting neuroscience news – Semantic reconstruction of continuous language from non-invasive brain recordings. What this means is that researchers have been able to, sort of, decode the words that subjects were thinking of simply by reading their fMRI scan. They...
Math Is Still...
What Makes Life Tick? Mitochondria May Keep Time for Cells
Every species develops at its own unique tempo, leaving scientist to wonder what governed their...
a year ago
Every species develops at its own unique tempo, leaving scientist to wonder what governed their timing. A suite of new findings suggests that cells use basic metabolic processes as clocks.
The post What Makes Life Tick? Mitochondria May Keep Time for Cells first...
Probably...
Migration and Population Growth
On a recent run I was talking with a friend from Spain about immigration in Europe. We speculated...
6 months ago
On a recent run I was talking with a friend from Spain about immigration in Europe. We speculated about whether the population of Spain would be growing or shrinking if there were no international migration. I thought it might be shrinking, but we were not sure. Fortunately, Our...
Drew Ex Machina
First Pictures: View of the Earth from NASA’s Explorer 6 – August 14, 1959
Today we take for granted that we can instantly access images of almost any part of the Earth taken...
4 months ago
Today we take for granted that we can instantly access images of almost any part of the Earth taken from space using an ever growing collection […]
Math Is Still...
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
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
Math Is Still...
Tiny Jets on the Sun Power the Colossal Solar Wind
A new analysis argues that ubiquitous eruptions in the sun’s corona explain the vast flow of charged...
a year ago
A new analysis argues that ubiquitous eruptions in the sun’s corona explain the vast flow of charged particles seen streaming out through the solar system.
The post Tiny Jets on the Sun Power the Colossal Solar Wind first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Explorations of an...
Parque Nacional Calilegua
Parque Nacional Calilegua protects around 76,000 hectares of east-slope yungas forest, making it the...
a year ago
Parque Nacional Calilegua protects around 76,000 hectares of east-slope yungas forest, making it the largest national park in northwestern Argentina. It would, therefore, feature prominently on our trip. Laura and I arrived in the general area during the afternoon of January 25,...
Blog - Practical...
How Flood Tunnels Work
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
This is Waterloo Park in...
a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
This is Waterloo Park in downtown Austin, Texas, just a couple of blocks away from the state capitol building. It’s got walking trails, an ampitheater, Waller Creek runs right through the center, and it has...
Math Is Still...
Evolution: Fast or Slow? Lizards Help Resolve a Paradox.
Why does natural selection appear to happen slowly on long timescales and quickly on short ones? A...
11 months ago
Why does natural selection appear to happen slowly on long timescales and quickly on short ones? A multigenerational study of four lizard species addresses biology’s “paradox of stasis.”
The post Evolution: Fast or Slow? Lizards Help Resolve a Paradox. first appeared...
Blog - Practical...
Every Kind of Bridge Explained in 15 Minutes
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
The Earth is pretty cool and...
7 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
The Earth is pretty cool and all, but many of its most magnificent features make it tough for us to get around. When the topography is too wet, steep, treacherous, or prone to disaster, sometimes the only way...
The Works in...
Links in Progress: What are children for?
And how the UN’s birth rate forecasts keep getting it wrong
a month ago
And how the UN’s birth rate forecasts keep getting it wrong
Out-of-Pocket Blog
"AI sucks", Quantifying EMR burden, and Loneliness | Out-Of-Pocket
3 interesting papers I like
a year ago
3 interesting papers I like
NeuroLogica Blog
Accusation of Mental Illness as a Political Strategy
I am not the first to say this but it bears repeating – it is wrong to use the accusation of a...
3 months ago
I am not the first to say this but it bears repeating – it is wrong to use the accusation of a mental illness as a political strategy. It is unfair, stigmatizing, and dismissive. Thomas Szasz (let me say straight up – I am not a Szaszian) was a psychiatrist who made it his...
Casey Handmer's blog
Solar and batteries for generic use cases
A brief note on using solar and batteries as generic power sources. Over the last few years of work...
a month ago
A brief note on using solar and batteries as generic power sources. Over the last few years of work at Terraform Industries, we’ve developed several useful heuristics to understand how rapid progress in solar and battery costs will change industry. This includes the bifurcation...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Galaxy Without Dark Matter
Dark matter is one of the greatest current scientific mysteries. It’s a fascinating story playing...
a year ago
Dark matter is one of the greatest current scientific mysteries. It’s a fascinating story playing out in real time, although over years, so you have to be patient. Future generations might be able to binge the dark matter show, but not us. We have to wait for each episode to...
Asterisk
The Next Revolution in Animal Agriculture
The technologies of precision livestock farming could reshape animal agriculture. How will that go...
5 months ago
The technologies of precision livestock farming could reshape animal agriculture. How will that go for the animals?
NeuroLogica Blog
Indigenous Knowledge
I recently received the following question to the SGU e-mail: “I have had several conversations with...
8 months ago
I recently received the following question to the SGU e-mail: “I have had several conversations with friends/colleagues lately regarding indigenous beliefs/stories. They assert that not believing these based on oral histories alone is morally wrong and ignoring a different...
The Roots of...
Do we get better or worse at adapting to change?
Verner Vinge, in a classic 1993 essay, described “the Singularity” as an era where progress becomes...
a year ago
Verner Vinge, in a classic 1993 essay, described “the Singularity” as an era where progress becomes “an exponential runaway beyond any hope of control.”
The idea that technological change might accelerate to a pace faster than we can keep up with is a common concern. Almost three...
NeuroLogica Blog
Everything Will Evaporate
What will be the ultimate fate of our universe? There are a number of theories and possibilities,...
a year ago
What will be the ultimate fate of our universe? There are a number of theories and possibilities, but at present the most likely scenario seems to be that the universe will continue to expand, most mass will eventually find its way into a black hole, and those black holes will...
NeuroLogica Blog
GMOs and Butterflies
Are attitudes towards genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our agriculture softening? Back in...
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...
Probably...
The Gender Gap in Political Beliefs Is Small
In previous articles (here, here, and here) I’ve looked at evidence of a gender gap in political...
10 months ago
In previous articles (here, here, and here) I’ve looked at evidence of a gender gap in political alignment (liberal or conservative), party affiliation (Democrat or Republican), and policy preferences. Using data from the GSS, I found that women are more likely to say they are...
NeuroLogica Blog
Categorization and What’s In a Name
Categorization is critical in science, but it is also very tricky, often deceptively so. We need to...
11 months ago
Categorization is critical in science, but it is also very tricky, often deceptively so. We need to categorize things to help us organize our knowledge, to understand how things work and relate to each other, and to communicate efficiently and precisely. But categorization can...
NeuroLogica Blog
AI Designed Drugs
On a recent SGU live streaming discussion someone in the chat asked – aren’t frivolous AI...
8 months ago
On a recent SGU live streaming discussion someone in the chat asked – aren’t frivolous AI applications just toys without any useful output? The question was meant to downplay recent advances in generative AI. I pointed out that the question is a bit circular – aren’t frivolous...
Chris Grossack's...
A Quick Application of Model Categories
Almost exactly a year ago (time flies!) I was thinking really hard about
model categories in...
a year ago
Almost exactly a year ago (time flies!) I was thinking really hard about
model categories in preparation for the HoTTEST summer school. I learned
a TON doing this, but I’ve just today seen a really nice (and somewhat concrete)
reason to care about the whole endeavor! I’d love...
brr
South Pole Signage
Please close doors quietly!
a year ago
Please close doors quietly!
Math Is Still...
Complexity Theory’s 50-Year Journey to the Limits of Knowledge
How hard is it to prove that problems are hard to solve? Meta-complexity theorists have been asking...
a year ago
How hard is it to prove that problems are hard to solve? Meta-complexity theorists have been asking questions like this for decades. A string of recent results has started to deliver answers.
The post Complexity Theory’s 50-Year Journey to the Limits of Knowledge...
Math Is Still...
Most Life on Earth is Dormant, After Pulling an ‘Emergency Brake’
Many microbes and cells are in deep sleep, waiting for the right moment to activate. Biologists...
6 months ago
Many microbes and cells are in deep sleep, waiting for the right moment to activate. Biologists discovered a widespread protein that abruptly shuts down a cell’s activity — and turns it back on just as fast.
The post Most Life on Earth is Dormant, After Pulling an...
Math Is Still...
Why Locusts Swarm, Humans Do Good and Time Marches On
The Joy of Why podcast returns for a third season, with two co-hosts, 24 brilliant guests and 24...
11 months ago
The Joy of Why podcast returns for a third season, with two co-hosts, 24 brilliant guests and 24 all-new episodes.
The post Why Locusts Swarm, Humans Do Good and Time Marches On first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Quantum Frontiers
Announcing the quantum-steampunk short-story contest!
The year I started studying calculus, I took the helm of my high school’s literary magazine....
over a year ago
The year I started studying calculus, I took the helm of my high school’s literary magazine. Throughout the next two years, the editorial board flooded campus with poetry—and poetry contests. We papered the halls with flyers, built displays in the … Continue reading →
The Works in...
Issue 11: Nuclear sandboxes
Plus: Why Britain can’t seem to fix its housing market, gene-edited super-rice, and one weird trick...
a year ago
Plus: Why Britain can’t seem to fix its housing market, gene-edited super-rice, and one weird trick to reverse climate change.
pcloadletter
RSS is still pretty great
I think a lot about information and information consumption. The way the Internet made information...
10 months ago
I think a lot about information and information consumption. The way the Internet made information readily available is phenomenal. Sadly, the signal-to-noise ratio here is pretty low. For me, consuming RSS feeds[1] offers the best way to read the kind of high-quality information...
Asterisk
The “TESCREAL” Bungle
The TESCREAL “bundle of ideologies” is purportedly essential to understand the race to build...
6 months ago
The TESCREAL “bundle of ideologies” is purportedly essential to understand the race to build artificial intelligence, the ethical milieu of those building it, and the philosophical underpinnings behind Silicon Valley as a whole. But does the label actually tell us anything?
NeuroLogica Blog
Let’s Talk About Cement
Industry is responsible for 23% of carbon emissions, close to the amount of electricity production...
6 months ago
Industry is responsible for 23% of carbon emissions, close to the amount of electricity production (25%) and transportation (28%). We talk a lot about transportation and energy, but industrial carbon is a harder nut to crack. Also, the 23% is direct carbon release from industrial...
nanoscale views
What is the thermal Hall effect?
One thing that physics and mechanical engineering students learn early on is that there are often...
a year ago
One thing that physics and mechanical engineering students learn early on is that there are often analogies between charge flow and heat flow, and this is reflected in the mathematical models we use to describe charge and heat transport. We use Ohm's law,...
NeuroLogica Blog
Neuralink Implants Chip in Human
Elon Musk has announced that his company, Neuralink, has implanted their first wireless computer...
10 months ago
Elon Musk has announced that his company, Neuralink, has implanted their first wireless computer chip into a human. The chip, which they plan on calling Telepathy (not sure how I feel about that) connects with 64 thin hair-like electrodes, is battery powered and can be recharged...
NeuroLogica Blog
Germany and Nuclear Power
Germany has been thrown around a lot as an example of both what to do and what not to do in terms of...
a year ago
Germany has been thrown around a lot as an example of both what to do and what not to do in terms of addressing global warming by embracing green energy technology. It’s possible to look back now and review the numbers, to see what the effect was of its decision to embrace...
Probably...
Rip-off ETF?
An article in a recent issue of The Economist suggests, right in the title, “Investors should avoid...
3 months ago
An article in a recent issue of The Economist suggests, right in the title, “Investors should avoid a new generation of rip-off ETFs”. An ETF is an exchange-traded fund, which holds a collection of assets and trades on an exchange like a single stock. For example, the SPDR S&P...
Math Is Still...
New Clues for What Will Happen When the Sun Eats the Earth
Recent observations of an aging, alien planetary system are helping to answer the question: What...
a year ago
Recent observations of an aging, alien planetary system are helping to answer the question: What will happen to our planet when the sun dies?
The post New Clues for What Will Happen When the Sun Eats the Earth first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
Which Is Easier To Pull? (Railcars vs. Road Cars)
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Imagine the room you’re in...
a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Imagine the room you’re in right now was filled to the top with gravel. (I promise I’m headed somewhere with this.) I don’t know the size of the room you’re in, but if it’s anywhere near an average-sized...
Beautiful Public...
Utah Highway LiDAR Scans
Utah's Department of Transportation uses state-of-the-art 3-D laser scanners to capture the surfaces...
over a year ago
Utah's Department of Transportation uses state-of-the-art 3-D laser scanners to capture the surfaces and area surrounding 15,000 miles of its roads.
Math Is Still...
Grad Students Find Inevitable Patterns in Big Sets of Numbers
A new proof marks the first progress in decades on a problem about how order emerges from disorder. ...
4 months ago
A new proof marks the first progress in decades on a problem about how order emerges from disorder.
The post Grad Students Find Inevitable Patterns in Big Sets of Numbers first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
How the Human Brain Contends With the Strangeness of Zero
Zero, which was invented late in history, is special among numbers. New studies are uncovering how...
2 months ago
Zero, which was invented late in history, is special among numbers. New studies are uncovering how the brain creates something out of nothing.
The post How the Human Brain Contends With the Strangeness of Zero first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Math Is Still...
Math That Lets You Think Locally but Act Globally
Knowing a little about the local connections on flight maps and other networks can reveal a lot...
a year ago
Knowing a little about the local connections on flight maps and other networks can reveal a lot about a system’s global structure.
The post Math That Lets You Think Locally but Act Globally first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Medical Tourism: A Tarpit Idea | Out-Of-Pocket
trust me, you're not the first to look into this
8 months ago
trust me, you're not the first to look into this
Blog - Practical...
How Bridge Engineers Design Against Ship Collisions
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
On March 26, 2024 (just a few...
7 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
On March 26, 2024 (just a few weeks ago, if you're watching this as it comes out), a large container ship struck one of the main support piers of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, collapsing...
Explorations of an...
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 8: Pale-billed Antpittas In The Elfin Forest (February 10, 2024)
February 10, 2024
The Pale-billed Antpitta is a large, fancy-looking Grallaria antpitta only found...
6 months ago
February 10, 2024
The Pale-billed Antpitta is a large, fancy-looking Grallaria antpitta only found in the high Andes of northern Peru. Because of its proclivity towards dense forest with an abundance of bamboo, there are few places where this species can be easily found. These...
Math Is Still...
The Question of What’s Fair Illuminates the Question of What’s Hard
Computational complexity theorists have discovered a surprising new way to understand what makes...
6 months ago
Computational complexity theorists have discovered a surprising new way to understand what makes certain problems hard.
The post The Question of What’s Fair Illuminates the Question of What’s Hard first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Inverted Passion
Why time seems to pass faster as we age
1/ I’ve been mega-obsessed with this feeling. A year as a 36-year-old seems so much shorter as...
9 months ago
1/ I’ve been mega-obsessed with this feeling. A year as a 36-year-old seems so much shorter as compared to when I was a kid or even as a teen. It seems cosmically unfair – we have fewer years to live, and each year flies by faster. 2/ But, why is that happening? My tentative...
Damn Interesting
A Taste of Italy
In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian...
over a year ago
In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian domination (a holdover from the Holy Roman Empire) and the other for unification. At the time, Europe’s boot was a curious conglomeration of separate states, not all of which got along....
The Works in...
The Maintenance Race was just the beginning
A new book from Stewart Brand, serialized on Works in Progress
a year ago
A new book from Stewart Brand, serialized on Works in Progress
Math Is Still...
Magnetism May Have Given Life Its Molecular Asymmetry
The preferred “handedness” of biomolecules could have emerged from biased interactions between...
a year ago
The preferred “handedness” of biomolecules could have emerged from biased interactions between electrons and magnetic surfaces, new research suggests.
The post Magnetism May Have Given Life Its Molecular Asymmetry 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?
a year ago
Moore’s law may be coming to an end. What happens to AI progress if it does?
The Works in...
Issue 14: A peasant surprise
Plus: Giving yourself the Zika virus, cut-and-cover railway tunnels, and more reasons to donate your...
10 months ago
Plus: Giving yourself the Zika virus, cut-and-cover railway tunnels, and more reasons to donate your organs.
Math Is Still...
What Is Analog Computing?
You don’t need 0s and 1s to perform computations, and in some cases it’s better to avoid them. ...
4 months ago
You don’t need 0s and 1s to perform computations, and in some cases it’s better to avoid them.
The post What Is Analog Computing? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Podcast Pseudoscience
A recent BBC article highlights some of the risk of the new age of social media we have crafted for...
a week ago
A recent BBC article highlights some of the risk of the new age of social media we have crafted for ourselves. The BBC investigated the number one ranked UK podcast, Diary of a CEO with host Steven Bartlett, for the accuracy of the medical claims recently made on the show. While...
Wanderingspace
Space-X Looking Like 2001 Space Odyssey
Amazing shot. Looks like a movie.
a year ago
Amazing shot. Looks like a movie.
Quantum Frontiers
Quantum Frontiers salutes an English teacher
If I ever mention a crazy high-school English teacher to you, I might be referring to Mr. Lukacs....
6 months ago
If I ever mention a crazy high-school English teacher to you, I might be referring to Mr. Lukacs. One morning, before the first bell rang, I found him wandering among the lockers, wearing a white beard and a mischievous grin. … Continue reading →
Math Is Still...
Why Insect Memories May Not Survive Metamorphosis
The reshuffling of neurons during fruit fly metamorphosis suggests that larval memories don’t...
a year ago
The reshuffling of neurons during fruit fly metamorphosis suggests that larval memories don’t persist in adults.
The post Why Insect Memories May Not Survive Metamorphosis first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Beautiful Public...
Aerial Glacier Photographs
A collection of 100,000 striking high-resolution aerial photos of glaciers, photographed over 40...
6 months ago
A collection of 100,000 striking high-resolution aerial photos of glaciers, photographed over 40 years with a 63-pound WW II surveillance camera.
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
[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...
Math Is Still...
Number of Distances Separating Points Has a New Bound
Mathematicians have struggled to prove Falconer’s Conjecture, a simple, but far-reaching, hypothesis...
8 months ago
Mathematicians have struggled to prove Falconer’s Conjecture, a simple, but far-reaching, hypothesis about the distances between points. They’re finally getting close.
The post Number of Distances Separating Points Has a New Bound first appeared on Quanta Magazine
IEEE Spectrum
100 Years Ago, IBM Was Born
Happy birthday, IBM! You’re 100 years old! Or are you?
It’s true that the businesses that formed IBM...
10 months ago
Happy birthday, IBM! You’re 100 years old! Or are you?
It’s true that the businesses that formed IBM began in the late 1800s. But it’s also true that a birth occurred in February 1924, with the renaming of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. as the International Business...
Casey Handmer's blog
Potentially undervalued companies
I am routinely solicited for my technical opinion on new and interesting technologies and companies...
3 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...
nanoscale views
Scientific travel
Particularly in these post-pandemic, climate-change-addled, zoom-enabled times, I appreciate the...
a year ago
Particularly in these post-pandemic, climate-change-addled, zoom-enabled times, I appreciate the argument that it's always worth asking, "Is this trip really necessary?" We are in the age of remote work and zoom seminars that are attended by people from all over the world. Is...
Math Is Still...
He Seeks Mystery Magnetic Fields With His Quantum Compass
Alex Sushkov is updating an old technology with new quantum tricks in hopes of sensing the magnetic...
7 months ago
Alex Sushkov is updating an old technology with new quantum tricks in hopes of sensing the magnetic influence of dark matter.
The post He Seeks Mystery Magnetic Fields With His Quantum Compass first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How To Self-Publish A Children's Book and How Much You Can Expect To Make | Out-Of-Pocket
spoiler: you will make very little lol
a year ago
spoiler: you will make very little lol
NeuroLogica Blog
Diamond Batteries Again
Why does news reporting of science and technology have to be so terrible at baseline? I know the...
a week ago
Why does news reporting of science and technology have to be so terrible at baseline? I know the answers to this question – lack of expertise, lack of a business model to support dedicated science news infrastructure, the desire for click-bait and sensationalism – but it is still...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Special Edition - WoW | Out-Of-Pocket
World Of Warcraft vs. COVID-19
a year ago
World Of Warcraft vs. COVID-19
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Redox and The Future Of Integrations | Out-Of-Pocket
Actually...what is an integration lol
a year ago
Actually...what is an integration lol
ToughSF
Thermal Decomposition of CO2 with Nuclear Heat
A lot of
effort must and will be put into combating climate change. We can however
directly attack...
over a year ago
A lot of
effort must and will be put into combating climate change. We can however
directly attack the root cause of it by reducing the amount of CO2 that we have released
into the atmosphere.
We can enlist the help of
ultra-high-temperature nuclear reactors to do this rapidly...
Explorations of an...
Borneo, October 2022
Borneo, the third largest island in the world behind Greenland and New Guinea, is home to some of...
a year ago
Borneo, the third largest island in the world behind Greenland and New Guinea, is home to some of the planet’s oldest rainforests, containing a stunning array of biodiversity. The conditions in Borneo forests have stimulated the evolution of many different organisms that are...
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2024, 1)
Free covid treatment for everyone in the US, a novel orthopox virus, a really big machine, cameras...
9 months ago
Free covid treatment for everyone in the US, a novel orthopox virus, a really big machine, cameras used for good and evil, ant heaven now, and more.
Light from Space
The Space Lobster
Not well known to observers in the Northern Hemisphere, the Lobster Nebula (NGC 6357) in Cepheus...
over a year ago
Not well known to observers in the Northern Hemisphere, the Lobster Nebula (NGC 6357) in Cepheus shows a complex pattern of Hydrogen alpha and Oxygen-III regions.
It's quite far south in the sky at a declination of −34° 20′ and here in Tucson it barely
Math Is Still...
The Computer Scientist Who Builds Big Pictures From Small Details
To better understand machine learning algorithms, Lenka Zdeborová treats them like physical...
2 months ago
To better understand machine learning algorithms, Lenka Zdeborová treats them like physical materials.
The post The Computer Scientist Who Builds Big Pictures From Small Details first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Lots to read, including fab for quantum and "Immaterial Science"
Sometimes there are upticks in the rate of fun reading material. In the last few days:
A...
3 months ago
Sometimes there are upticks in the rate of fun reading material. In the last few days:
A Nature paper has been published by a group of authors predominantly from IMEC in Belgium, in which they demonstrate CMOS-compatible manufacturing of superconducting qubit hardware...
The Works in...
How Poor Maintenance Loses Wars - 2022, Ukraine Maintains
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
a year ago
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
Marine Madness
Farming Fiasco: The world’s first commercial octopus breeding programme
It seems ironic that shortly after an amendment to the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill stating...
over a year ago
It seems ironic that shortly after an amendment to the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill stating octopuses to be ‘sentient beings’ capable of a range of human-like emotions such as joy, pleasure, excitement, as well as pain, distress, and harm, plans of the word’s first commercial...
Beautiful Public...
The Naughty Words the FAA Removed From the Sky
New FOIA records from the FAA shed light on the frantic effort in 2015 to rename navigation...
6 months ago
New FOIA records from the FAA shed light on the frantic effort in 2015 to rename navigation waypoints related to Donald Trump and reveal the list of naughty waypoint names that were changed over the years.
Math Is Still...
How Can Math Help Beat Cancer?
Cancer treatment has come a long way in recent decades. But finding the best course of treatment for...
2 months ago
Cancer treatment has come a long way in recent decades. But finding the best course of treatment for each case of this diverse, dynamic disease remains a challenge. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz speaks with computational biologist Franziska Michor about how math,...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How should physicians get paid? | Out-Of-Pocket
Should money and care be separate?
a year ago
Should money and care be separate?
Probably...
We Have a Book!
My copy of Probably Overthinking It has arrived! If you want a copy for yourself, you can get a 30%...
a year ago
My copy of Probably Overthinking It has arrived! If you want a copy for yourself, you can get a 30% discount if you order from the publisher and use the code UCPNEW. You can also order from Amazon or, if you want to support independent bookstores, from Bookshop.org. The official...
NeuroLogica Blog
Ghosts Are Not Real
It’s Halloween, so there are a lot of fluff pieces about ghosts and similar phenomena circulating in...
a year ago
It’s Halloween, so there are a lot of fluff pieces about ghosts and similar phenomena circulating in the media. There are some good skeptical pieces as well, which is always nice to see. For this piece I did not want to frame the headline as a question, which I think is...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Scaling Organizations, Patient Payments, and Collections with Lora Rosenblum | Out-Of-Pocket
Why am I getting bills 6 months later, Lora pls help
a year ago
Why am I getting bills 6 months later, Lora pls help
Math Is Still...
Is Perpetual Motion Possible at the Quantum Level?
A new phase of matter called a “time crystal” plays with our expectations of thermodynamics. The...
a year ago
A new phase of matter called a “time crystal” plays with our expectations of thermodynamics. The physicist Vedika Khemani talks with Steven Strogatz about its surprising quantum behavior.
The post Is Perpetual Motion Possible at the Quantum Level? first appeared on...
wadertales
Curlew nest survival
The Eurasian Curlew is designated as ‘Near-Threatened’ by IUCN/BirdLife. It is Red-listed in the UK,...
a year ago
The Eurasian Curlew is designated as ‘Near-Threatened’ by IUCN/BirdLife. It is Red-listed in the UK, largely due to a rapid decline in breeding numbers. In this context, the fact that there are a few pink squares (indicating increased numbers) on the map showing breeding...
NeuroLogica Blog
Will AI Make Work Redundant?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming for your job. This, at least, is increasingly conventional...
a year ago
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming for your job. This, at least, is increasingly conventional wisdom, but I’m not so sure. In a recent interview, Elon Musk predicted that AI would “make paid work redundant.” I encountered the same opinion watching the latest season of...
Math Is Still...
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
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
Math Is Still...
Why the Human Brain Perceives Small Numbers Better
Neuroscientists recently discovered that small numbers have a different neural signature than larger...
a year ago
Neuroscientists recently discovered that small numbers have a different neural signature than larger ones, offering a new look into the brain’s number system and its connections to memory and mathematics.
The post Why the Human Brain Perceives Small Numbers Better...
Uncharted...
6 Questions You Asked Yourself about Solar
How fast will it take over, how fast are costs shrinking, why is it so cheap, what industries will...
a month ago
How fast will it take over, how fast are costs shrinking, why is it so cheap, what industries will it birth, how much surface will it take up, where will it appear first?
NeuroLogica Blog
Spotting Misinformation
There is an interesting disconnect in our culture recently. About 90% of people claim that they...
7 months ago
There is an interesting disconnect in our culture recently. About 90% of people claim that they verify information they encounter in the news and on social media, and 96% of Americans say that we need to limit the spread of misinformation online. And yet, the spread of...
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...
6 months 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...
Asterisk
Is Cultivated Meat For Real?
Cultivated meat faces a wall of scientific skepticism, but investors haven’t been deterred. A decade...
a year ago
Cultivated meat faces a wall of scientific skepticism, but investors haven’t been deterred. A decade in, how close are we to seeing it on our plates?
nanoscale views
Noise in a strange metal - pushing techniques into new systems
Over the holiday weekend, we had a paper come out in which we report the results of measuring charge...
a year ago
Over the holiday weekend, we had a paper come out in which we report the results of measuring charge shot noise (see here also) in a strange metal. Other write-ups of the work (here and especially this nice article in Quanta here) do a good job of explaining what we saw, but I...
Math Is Still...
The Two Faces of Space-Time
A mysterious phenomenon known as duality often leads to new discoveries in physics. This time,...
2 months ago
A mysterious phenomenon known as duality often leads to new discoveries in physics. This time, space-time itself can sometimes be two things at once.
The post The Two Faces of Space-Time first appeared on Quanta Magazine
brr
Polar Night
Surreal and otherworldly.
a year ago
Surreal and otherworldly.
Explorations of an...
Araucaria Forests near San Pedro
February 9 - 11, 2023
The Brazilian Araucaria is a tree that seems more suited to the pages of a Dr....
a year ago
February 9 - 11, 2023
The Brazilian Araucaria is a tree that seems more suited to the pages of a Dr. Seuss book than the rolling hills of the Atlantic forests of southern Brazil and northeastern Argentina. Stands of Araucaria angustifolia are peculiar looking, with massive trunks...
NeuroLogica Blog
Passive Solar Water Desalination
I know we are supposed to be worried about the world supply of fresh water. I have been hearing that...
a year ago
I know we are supposed to be worried about the world supply of fresh water. I have been hearing that at least for the last 40 years, and the statistics are alarming. According to the Global Commission on the Economics of Water: “We are seeing the consequences not of freak events,...
Chris Grossack's...
Life in Johnstone's Topological Topos 1 -- Fundamentals
I’ve been thinking a lot about the internal logic of topoi again, and I
want to have more examples...
5 months ago
I’ve been thinking a lot about the internal logic of topoi again, and I
want to have more examples of topoi that I understand well enough to
externalize some statements. There’s more to life than just a localic
$\mathsf{Sh}(B)$, and since I’m starting to feel like I understand...
Quantum Frontiers
Film noir and quantum thermo
In four months, I’ll embark on the adventure of a lifetime—fatherhood. To prepare, I’ve been honing...
7 months ago
In four months, I’ll embark on the adventure of a lifetime—fatherhood. To prepare, I’ve been honing a quintessential father skill—storytelling. If my son inherits even a fraction of my tastes, he’ll soon develop a passion for film noir detective stories. … Continue reading →
The Works in...
How Poor Maintenance Loses Wars: 1973, Israel Maintains
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
a year ago
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
Blog - Practical...
Was Starship’s Stage Zero a Bad Pad?
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
On April 20, 2023, SpaceX...
a year ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
On April 20, 2023, SpaceX launched it’s first orbital test flight of its Starship spacecraft from Boca Chica on the gulf coast of Texas. You probably saw this, if not live, at least in the stunning videos that...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
An Eclipse of the Sun Coming to N. America April 8th
A rare eclipse of the Sun will be visible all over North America on April 8th.
The post An Eclipse...
9 months ago
A rare eclipse of the Sun will be visible all over North America on April 8th.
The post An Eclipse of the Sun Coming to N. America April 8th appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Math Is Still...
How Did Altruism Evolve?
If evolution favors the survival of the fittest, where did the impulse to help others come from?...
10 months 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...
Cremieux Recueil
Grading the World's Shortest Manifesto
It gets an F and the student has earned the death penalty
a week ago
It gets an F and the student has earned the death penalty
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How To (Properly) Text Patients | Out-Of-Pocket
Do’s and don’ts + tactical tips from an actual doctor
8 months ago
Do’s and don’ts + tactical tips from an actual doctor
Full Width 
Shortcuts 
Sign Up 
Log In 
Articles 
Reading List 