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The Top 50 US Cities: Why Are They Where They Are? The geographic and historical reasons that have made some spots in the country the most populated...
8th Jan 2025
76

The Top 50 US Cities: Why Are They Where They Are?

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

8th Jan 2025
The geographic and historical reasons that have made some spots in the country the most populated ones
Weekend trivia: your process' memory is a file The underappreciated gem of /proc/ /mem
1st Jun 2026
1

Weekend trivia: your process' memory is a file

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

1st Jun 2026
The underappreciated gem of /proc/ /mem
Rusty Schweickart: The Asteroid Threat Over the Next 100,000 Years ### Asteroid threat report Schweickart filled the hall with some 240 at the Presidio Officers Club...
13th Mar 2004
1

Rusty Schweickart: The Asteroid Threat Over the Next 100,000 Years

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

13th Mar 2004
### Asteroid threat report Schweickart filled the hall with some 240 at the Presidio Officers Club and gave a dazzling lecture. He left the next day for Washington DC to lobby Congress to apply its will to making the Earth safe for the very long term. "For life to survive in...
Moult, captured on camera Autumn moult is an important part of the annual cycle of migratory shorebirds, typically squeezed in...
9th Oct 2025
25

Moult, captured on camera

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

9th Oct 2025
Autumn moult is an important part of the annual cycle of migratory shorebirds, typically squeezed in between chick-rearing and the onset of winter. The process of changing an individual’s feathers lasts as long as the whole of the breeding season but is far well less well...
Eukaryote Skips Town – why I’m leaving DC I’m hesitant to write this piece because it’s directly about my EA ambitions, and I’ve talked to a...
26th Mar 2025
63

Eukaryote Skips Town – why I’m leaving DC

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

26th Mar 2025
I’m hesitant to write this piece because it’s directly about my EA ambitions, and I’ve talked to a lot of EAs trying to get into biosecurity who want advice, and I have no idea what they should take away from my story or if any of this should be taken as any kind of advice.
Suhanya Raffel: World Art Through The Asian Perspective Coming to the fore in this century is Asian perspective on everything. A thrilling place to watch...
21st Oct 2019
1

Suhanya Raffel: World Art Through The Asian Perspective

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

21st Oct 2019
Coming to the fore in this century is Asian perspective on everything. A thrilling place to watch the shift is in art. Extraordinary contemporary art from all over the world, especially Asia, has been collected for the new world-class museum in Hong Kong called M+. The massive...
Lawrence Lessig: How Money Corrupts Congress and a Plan to Stop It ### Public Funding for Public Elections Larry Lessig gave a rousing performance for the 100th...
18th Jan 2012
1

Lawrence Lessig: How Money Corrupts Congress and a Plan to Stop It

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

18th Jan 2012
### Public Funding for Public Elections Larry Lessig gave a rousing performance for the 100th Seminar About Long-Term Thinking. In a lawyerly fashion he laid out evidence of a new type of corruption that is disrupting the American republic, and he offered a remedy for that...
Hypervelocity Macron Accelerators We look at the various ways of accelerating micro-scale projectiles up to hypervelocity (10-10,000...
27th Nov 2019
1

Hypervelocity Macron Accelerators

from ToughSF [alt+shift+b] in science

27th Nov 2019
We look at the various ways of accelerating micro-scale projectiles up to hypervelocity (10-10,000 km/s) and their use in space. Going small to go fast Macrons or macroscopic particles are tiny projectiles that sit on the border between the complex structures we see under a...
When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field The study of natural language processing, or NLP, dates back to the 1940s. It gave Stephen Hawking a...
29th Jul 2025
1

When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field

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

29th Jul 2025
The study of natural language processing, or NLP, dates back to the 1940s. It gave Stephen Hawking a voice, Siri a brain and social media companies another way to target us with ads. In less than five years, large language models broke NLP and made it anew. The Quanta Podcast,...
South Pole Water Infrastructure Fresh water from snow, at 70 below!
8th Jun 2024
146

South Pole Water Infrastructure

from brr [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Jun 2024
Fresh water from snow, at 70 below!
A Defense of Weird Research Government-funded scientific research may appear strange or impractical, but it has repeatedly...
5th Feb 2025
41

A Defense of Weird Research

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Feb 2025
Government-funded scientific research may appear strange or impractical, but it has repeatedly yielded scientific breakthroughs — and continues to pay for itself many times over.
Book review: Air-borne by Carl Zimmer Man, it’s embarrassing to be part of a field of study (biosecurity, in this case) that had such a...
15th Jun 2025
43

Book review: Air-borne by Carl Zimmer

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

15th Jun 2025
Man, it’s embarrassing to be part of a field of study (biosecurity, in this case) that had such a public moment of unambiguously whiffing it.
Notes on the Fermi Paradox I recently realized I hadn’t written much in this blog about the Fermi Paradox, though I do write...
3rd Mar 2026
1

Notes on the Fermi Paradox

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

3rd Mar 2026
I recently realized I hadn’t written much in this blog about the Fermi Paradox, though I do write about it elsewhere. So here is a quick note. The Fermi Paradox, sometimes paraphrased as “where are they?” is a question about the apparent lack of intelligent alien life in the...
A love letter to civilian OSINT What is civilian OSINT, and could it be used altruistically?
10th Jul 2020
63

A love letter to civilian OSINT

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

10th Jul 2020
What is civilian OSINT, and could it be used altruistically?
The call of the Whimbrel The seven-note whistle of the Whimbrel is a classic sound, welcomed by Icelanders at the end of a...
6th Feb 2025
71

The call of the Whimbrel

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Feb 2025
The seven-note whistle of the Whimbrel is a classic sound, welcomed by Icelanders at the end of a long, dark winter. These wonderful waders are responding badly to recent changes to Iceland’s landscape, such as the ever-expanding areas of non-native forestry and power...
Interacting collaborators reveal noninteracting fermions By day, I work as an experimentalist on laser-cooling molecules, but I’ve never fully surrendered my...
10th Aug 2026
1

Interacting collaborators reveal noninteracting fermions

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

10th Aug 2026
By day, I work as an experimentalist on laser-cooling molecules, but I’ve never fully surrendered my theoretical-physics license. I started as an undergraduate in Lincoln Carr’s group at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO. I learned from his … Continue reading →
Michael Tubbs: Upsetting the Setup: Creating a California for All Governance moves slow. The work of the politician and the public servant ought to inherently be...
16th Aug 2022
1

Michael Tubbs: Upsetting the Setup: Creating a California for All

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

16th Aug 2022
Governance moves slow. The work of the politician and the public servant ought to inherently be one of long-term thinking — of taking in concerns both urgent and longstanding and crafting solutions to them that will live on beyond any official’s term of office. As Mayor of...
Why do we need a Department of Government Efficiency? President Trump’s recent sweeping electoral victory is a clear mandate for change. There is some...
2nd Dec 2024
57

Why do we need a Department of Government Efficiency?

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

2nd Dec 2024
President Trump’s recent sweeping electoral victory is a clear mandate for change. There is some urgency, and Trump has assembled the early stages of a team and coalition that can deliver it. It’s not exactly a mystery what Elon and Vivek plan for The Department of Government...
How to share your data online with OSF The Open Science movement is here to stay. However, incorporating open practices like data sharing...
2nd Oct 2018
1

How to share your data online with OSF

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

2nd Oct 2018
The Open Science movement is here to stay. However, incorporating open practices like data sharing into your work flow can seem like a challenging task. If you have never made data available online before, the process can feel a bit daunting. Where should I put the data? What...
Paul Saffo: Embracing Uncertainty: the secret to effective forecasting ### Rules of Forecasting Reflecting on his 25 years as a forecaster, Paul Saffo pointed out that a...
12th Jan 2008
1
12th Jan 2008
### Rules of Forecasting Reflecting on his 25 years as a forecaster, Paul Saffo pointed out that a forecaster's job is not to predict outcomes, but to map the "cone of uncertainty" on a subject. Where are the edges of what might happen? (Uncertainty is cone-shaped because it...
Engineering for Slow Internet How to minimize user frustration in Antarctica.
31st May 2024
122

Engineering for Slow Internet

from brr [alt+shift+b] in science

31st May 2024
How to minimize user frustration in Antarctica.
Advancing antivenom Snakebites kill between 80,000 and 140,000 people every year. Better antivenom should be a high...
8th Dec 2022
1

Advancing antivenom

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

8th Dec 2022
Snakebites kill between 80,000 and 140,000 people every year. Better antivenom should be a high priority – thankfully new technology can help.
The Most Famous Paradox in Physics Nears Its End In a landmark series of calculations, physicists have proved that black holes can shed information. ...
4th Feb 2021
1

The Most Famous Paradox in Physics Nears Its End

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

4th Feb 2021
In a landmark series of calculations, physicists have proved that black holes can shed information. The post The Most Famous Paradox in Physics Nears Its End first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Haunted by the ghosts of materialism Is philosophy real? We sent our correspondent to find out.
3rd Oct 2026
1

Haunted by the ghosts of materialism

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

3rd Oct 2026
Is philosophy real? We sent our correspondent to find out.
Bacterial Complexity Revises Ideas About ‘Which Came First?’ Contrary to popular belief, bacteria have organelles too. Scientists are now studying them for...
7th May 2020
1

Bacterial Complexity Revises Ideas About ‘Which Came First?’

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

7th May 2020
Contrary to popular belief, bacteria have organelles too. Scientists are now studying them for insights into how complex cells evolved. The post Bacterial Complexity Revises Ideas About ‘Which Came First?’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine
A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order Scientists are exploring a mysterious pattern, found in birds’ eyes, boxes of marbles and other...
5th Aug 2016
1

A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order

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

5th Aug 2016
Scientists are exploring a mysterious pattern, found in birds’ eyes, boxes of marbles and other surprising places, that is neither regular nor random. The post A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Caroline Winterer: The Art and Science of Deep Time: Conceiving the Inconceivable in the 19th... The ambition to think on the scale of thousands, millions, even billion of years emerged in the 19th...
6th Feb 2020
1
6th Feb 2020
The ambition to think on the scale of thousands, millions, even billion of years emerged in the 19th century. Historian and author [Caroline Winterer](https://history.stanford.edu/people/caroline-winterer) chronicles how the concept of “deep time” has inspired and puzzled...
Words are minimum-viable coordination tools Words have a bewitching tendency as we assume they point to some deep essences. But, game...
4th Feb 2026
1

Words are minimum-viable coordination tools

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

4th Feb 2026
Words have a bewitching tendency as we assume they point to some deep essences. But, game theoretically speaking, words exist to get a job done so they operate at the level of coarse graining that’s sufficient to get the job done of the speaker. Evolution doesn’t like to waste...
Do you know what GDP is? I thought I knew! But the more I introspected, the hazy my understanding got. Is GDP amount of stuff...
1st May 2025
41

Do you know what GDP is?

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

1st May 2025
I thought I knew! But the more I introspected, the hazy my understanding got. Is GDP amount of stuff produced or consumed? Does it include imports or exports? What does it have to do with well being? Why does it keep increasing? So, I fired up Claude and started understanding...
USAF Project Able-1: The First Attempt to Reach the Moon In the years leading up to the beginning of the Space Age, there were many studies made in the West...
17th Aug 2022
47

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

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

17th Aug 2022
In the years leading up to the beginning of the Space Age, there were many studies made in the West about lunar missions which gripped the […]
The Dream: The First Probe to the Moon The past decade or so has seen a marked increase in interest to reach the Moon for exploration as...
2nd Jan 2024
47

The Dream: The First Probe to the Moon

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

2nd Jan 2024
The past decade or so has seen a marked increase in interest to reach the Moon for exploration as well as the potential exploitation of its […]
AMA | June 2026 Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded...
1st Jun 2026
1

AMA | June 2026

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

1st Jun 2026
Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who […]
Sci-fi and Hi-fi Many a technologist has been inspired by science fiction. Some have even built, or rebuilt, entire...
4th Mar 2024
66

Sci-fi and Hi-fi

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

4th Mar 2024
Many a technologist has been inspired by science fiction. Some have even built, or rebuilt, entire companies around an idea introduced in a story they read, as the founders of Second Life and Meta did, working from the metaverse as imagined by Neal Stephenson in his seminal 1992...
Stephen Pyne: Fire Slow, Fire Fast, Fire Deep ### Ecological wildfire “We are uniquely fire creatures,” Pyne began, “on a uniquely fire planet.”...
10th Feb 2016
1

Stephen Pyne: Fire Slow, Fire Fast, Fire Deep

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

10th Feb 2016
### Ecological wildfire “We are uniquely fire creatures,” Pyne began, “on a uniquely fire planet.” Life itself is a form of slow metabolic combustion—which eventually created oxygen and burnable vegetation that allowed fast combustion, ignited by lightning. Humans came along and...
David Rumsey: Mapping Time ### Maps and time David Rumsey's spectacularly illustrated lecture, "Mapping Time" is not just...
15th May 2004
1

David Rumsey: Mapping Time

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

15th May 2004
### Maps and time David Rumsey's spectacularly illustrated lecture, "Mapping Time" is not just about maps. It is the future of data and knowledge handling. People literally gasp at the things Rumsey shows can be done. I love it when techies, artists, and historians all gasp at...
Orientation Using Mahony & Madgwick to calibrate and process Arduino orientation data.
1st Jul 2018
25

Orientation

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

1st Jul 2018
Using Mahony & Madgwick to calibrate and process Arduino orientation data.
My very busy week I’m not sure who scheduled ODSC and PyConUS during the same week, but I am unhappy with their...
22nd May 2025
53

My very busy week

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

22nd May 2025
I’m not sure who scheduled ODSC and PyConUS during the same week, but I am unhappy with their decisions. Last Tuesday I presented a talk and co-presented a workshop at ODSC, and on Thursday I presented a tutorial at PyCon. If you would like to follow along with my very busy week,...
Scam Cities Criminal networks throughout Southeast Asia are demonstrating the dangers of making “the ultimate...
6th Oct 2025
1

Scam Cities

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Oct 2025
Criminal networks throughout Southeast Asia are demonstrating the dangers of making “the ultimate exit.”
5th Mar 2024
Dorie Clark: The Long Game: How to be a long-term thinker in a short-term world Personal goals need a long-term strategy too. Dorie Clark offers concrete practices to sharpen...
18th May 2022
1
18th May 2022
Personal goals need a long-term strategy too. Dorie Clark offers concrete practices to sharpen strategic thinking and incorporate a long-term perspective within a personal time scale. By reorienting ourselves to focus on the big picture, and using the power of small but...
DNA of Giant ‘Corpse Flower’ Parasite Surprises Biologists The bizarre genome of the world’s most mysterious flowering plants shows how far parasites will go...
5th Aug 2021
1

DNA of Giant ‘Corpse Flower’ Parasite Surprises Biologists

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

5th Aug 2021
The bizarre genome of the world’s most mysterious flowering plants shows how far parasites will go in stealing, deleting and duplicating DNA. The post DNA of Giant ‘Corpse Flower’ Parasite Surprises Biologists first appeared on Quanta Magazine
A Fully Renewable Grid? My long-stated position (although certainly modifiable in the face of any new evidence,...
2nd Feb 2026
0

A Fully Renewable Grid?

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

2nd Feb 2026
My long-stated position (although certainly modifiable in the face of any new evidence, technological advance, or good arguments) is that the optimal pathway to most rapidly decarbonize our electrical infrastructure is to pursue all low-carbon options. I have not heard anything...
Pit Bulls Part I: Identification Pit bull type dogs are readily identifiable
16th Jan 2026
1

Pit Bulls Part I: Identification

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

16th Jan 2026
Pit bull type dogs are readily identifiable
A World Without Clouds A state-of-the-art supercomputer simulation indicates that a feedback loop between global warming...
2nd Jan 2020
1

A World Without Clouds

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

2nd Jan 2020
A state-of-the-art supercomputer simulation indicates that a feedback loop between global warming and cloud loss can push Earth’s climate past a disastrous tipping point in as little as a century. The post A World Without Clouds first appeared on Quanta Magazine
How the Computer Graphics Industry Got Started at the University of Utah Animation has come a long way since 1900, when J. Stuart Blackton created The Enchanted Drawing, the...
9th Jun 2023
30

How the Computer Graphics Industry Got Started at the University of Utah

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

9th Jun 2023
Animation has come a long way since 1900, when J. Stuart Blackton created The Enchanted Drawing, the earliest known animated film. The 90-second movie was created using stop-motion techniques, as flat characters, props, and backgrounds were drawn on an easel or made from...
Nicole’s guide to navigating faculty-position offers It’s happening.  Your inbox registers an email from the chair of a faculty-hiring committee. With...
11th Mar 2026
1

Nicole’s guide to navigating faculty-position offers

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

11th Mar 2026
It’s happening.  Your inbox registers an email from the chair of a faculty-hiring committee. With trembling fingers, you click on the message. “We were very impressed…we’re delighted to offer…” Months of labor, soul-searching, strain, and anxiety give way to jubilation. …...
Four eggs or five? There is something pleasing about four wader eggs in a nest. They seem to fit so neatly, with their...
6th Mar 2026
1

Four eggs or five?

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Mar 2026
There is something pleasing about four wader eggs in a nest. They seem to fit so neatly, with their pointed ends in the middle, as illiustrated in the Ringed Plover nest alongside. There has been an assumption that this is an optimum arrangement for incubation, with strong...
1
14th Mar 2017
## Doing Good Better [![](https://media.longnow.org/files/2/lomborghaiti520w.jpg)](https://media.longnow.org/files/2/lomborghaiti.jpg) **Lomborg opened with a photo from Haiti** , showing a young girl dressed for school wading through the muck and garbage of a slum, with pigs...
The Math of Democracy Never Quite Works Out The French mathematician Nicolas de Condorcet was a passionate believer in democracy, but he also...
a week ago
1

The Math of Democracy Never Quite Works Out

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

a week ago
The French mathematician Nicolas de Condorcet was a passionate believer in democracy, but he also discovered a frustrating paradox within it: A majority can sometimes vote itself into a logical loop. Mathematicians have now found that this “logical loop” maps onto a strange...
Americans Are Richer Than Everyone Else The U.S. is the place to be if you're ambitious, but not necessarily if you're poor
7th Aug 2026
2

Americans Are Richer Than Everyone Else

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

7th Aug 2026
The U.S. is the place to be if you're ambitious, but not necessarily if you're poor
A Taste of Italy In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian...
14th May 2021
30

A Taste of Italy

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

14th May 2021
In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian domination (a holdover from the Holy Roman Empire) and the other for unification. At the time, Europe’s boot was a curious conglomeration of separate states, not all of which got along....
Here Be Sermons I've long turned up my nose at sermons and related forms of mass moralizing. One reason, quite...
11th Sep 2017
42

Here Be Sermons

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

11th Sep 2017
I've long turned up my nose at sermons and related forms of mass moralizing. One reason, quite simply, is that they bore me. Honesty good. Violence bad. My eyes glaze over. Empathy, rah! Racism, boo! Please, don't we know this… Read more ›
Fifty ways to leave your model A method for calculating the number of alternative causal models, given a number of variables/nodes.
15th Feb 2020
1

Fifty ways to leave your model

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

15th Feb 2020
A method for calculating the number of alternative causal models, given a number of variables/nodes.
on edward jenner and creativity One common question that’s on everyone’s minds as we fiercely scrub our hands, pool our resources,...
20th May 2020
25

on edward jenner and creativity

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

20th May 2020
One common question that’s on everyone’s minds as we fiercely scrub our hands, pool our resources, conserve our consumption, stock up (but not hoard), invent calculus or write King Lear is: when will this end? Nobody knows what the answer to that question is but we
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 10: The Owlet Lodge (February 11 and 12, 2024) February 11, 2024 Laura and I were looking forward to our one-night visit to the Owlet Lodge. Up to...
20th Jul 2024
27

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

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

20th Jul 2024
February 11, 2024 Laura and I were looking forward to our one-night visit to the Owlet Lodge. Up to this point we had only stayed at cheap hotels, while we had also eaten simply, with at least two meals each day consisting of sandwiches/snacks that we prepared. For once, someone...
A New Twist Reveals Superconductivity’s Secrets An unexpected superconductor was beginning to look like a fluke, but a new theory and a second...
8th Jul 2021
1

A New Twist Reveals Superconductivity’s Secrets

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

8th Jul 2021
An unexpected superconductor was beginning to look like a fluke, but a new theory and a second discovery have revealed that emergent quasiparticles may be behind the effect. The post A New Twist Reveals Superconductivity’s Secrets first appeared on Quanta Magazine
South Pole Signage Please close doors quietly!
23rd Jul 2023
28

South Pole Signage

from brr [alt+shift+b] in science

23rd Jul 2023
Please close doors quietly!
Nadia Asparouhova: The Making and Maintenance of our Open Source Infrastructure Nadia Asparouhova is particularly interested in infrastructure, governance, and the economics of the...
10th Dec 2020
1
10th Dec 2020
Nadia Asparouhova is particularly interested in infrastructure, governance, and the economics of the internet - and how the dynamics of these subjects play out in software, online communities and generally living life online. Asparouhova, who interviewed hundreds of developers...
What Asian Development Can Teach the World The Magic Development of Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and China, and What That Tells Us about US...
7th Mar 2025
64

What Asian Development Can Teach the World

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

7th Mar 2025
The Magic Development of Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and China, and What That Tells Us about US Tariffs, China’s Future, EU Protectionism, Japan’s Zombie Debt, Argentina’s Arrested Development, and more
Don’t compete The Internet is full of people winning all the time. Someone is traveling to exotic locations,...
22nd Mar 2025
80

Don’t compete

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

22nd Mar 2025
The Internet is full of people winning all the time. Someone is traveling to exotic locations, someone else is raising funds, and another person is winning awards. Essentially, everyone around you is succeeding while you do spend your days as the nature intended – sleeping,...
"You Couldn't Replicate Our Study Because You're Ugly" Attractiveness rating studies shouldn't be taken too seriously
3rd Dec 2024
53

"You Couldn't Replicate Our Study Because You're Ugly"

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

3rd Dec 2024
Attractiveness rating studies shouldn't be taken too seriously
How TV learned to sell itself Sports solved a problem that nearly killed television.
11th Mar 2026
1

How TV learned to sell itself

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

11th Mar 2026
Sports solved a problem that nearly killed television.
The Symmetry That Makes Solving Math Equations Easy Learn why the quadratic formula works and why quadratics are easier to solve than cubics. ...
24th Mar 2023
92

The Symmetry That Makes Solving Math Equations Easy

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

24th Mar 2023
Learn why the quadratic formula works and why quadratics are easier to solve than cubics. The post The Symmetry That Makes Solving Math Equations Easy first appeared on Quanta Magazine
How mind bootstraps itself Daniel Dennett, who recently passed away, is an inspiration for people like me who love grand ideas...
1st Jun 2026
1

How mind bootstraps itself

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

1st Jun 2026
Daniel Dennett, who recently passed away, is an inspiration for people like me who love grand ideas that connect many different fields at a deep level (and be rigorous about that; well as rigorous as grand theories can be). His thinking is difficult to categorize: part...
The evolution of bacteria Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists...
5th Nov 2025
1

The evolution of bacteria

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

5th Nov 2025
Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists have watched evolution happen in real time, and it’s changed how we understand natural selection.
Issue 12: Houston, we have a solution Plus: How Mexico built its state, the causes of the Baby Boom, and the 141-year quest for a malaria...
7th Sep 2023
75

Issue 12: Houston, we have a solution

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

7th Sep 2023
Plus: How Mexico built its state, the causes of the Baby Boom, and the 141-year quest for a malaria vaccine.
Lichen as the common ancestor of all life on earth The alternate "Lichen as last universal common ancestor" model, which I will refer to for...
2nd Apr 2026
1

Lichen as the common ancestor of all life on earth

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

2nd Apr 2026
The alternate "Lichen as last universal common ancestor" model, which I will refer to for convenience as “Big Lichen”, does not expect so little of mother nature.
Weekend trivia: your process' memory is a file The underappreciated gem of /proc/ /mem
1st Jun 2026
1

Weekend trivia: your process' memory is a file

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

1st Jun 2026
The underappreciated gem of /proc/ /mem
Alexander Rose: Millennial Precedent Alexander Rose, Long Now Executive Director and project manager for the Clock of the Long Now,...
6th Apr 2011
1

Alexander Rose: Millennial Precedent

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

6th Apr 2011
Alexander Rose, Long Now Executive Director and project manager for the Clock of the Long Now, discussed lessons learned in multi-millennial site design. Rose covers his trip to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault as well as other sites and precedents like the Mormon Genealogical...
UK waders: “Into the Red” If you ask British birdwatchers to name the eleven wader species that are causing the most...
4th Oct 2022
55

UK waders: “Into the Red”

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Oct 2022
If you ask British birdwatchers to name the eleven wader species that are causing the most conservation concern in the UK, they would probably not include Dunlin. Curlew may well be top of their lists, even though the most recent population estimate is 58,500 breeding pairs, but...
James Nestor: Humanity and the Deep Ocean In _[DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells us about...
1st Feb 2018
1

James Nestor: Humanity and the Deep Ocean

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

1st Feb 2018
In _[DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells us about Ourselves](https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Freediving-Renegade-Science-Ourselves/dp/0547985525)_ James Nestor follows extreme athletes, adventurers, and scientists as they plumb the limits of the ocean's...
Why experiments are considered gold standard for answering causal questions In this blog post, I will briefly explain why experimental designs are considered so valuable by...
7th Aug 2025
1

Why experiments are considered gold standard for answering causal questions

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

7th Aug 2025
In this blog post, I will briefly explain why experimental designs are considered so valuable by scientists and why we often insist that randomized experiments are necessary for answering causal questions. I will use a practical example to illustrate this point. If you’re new to...
Reclaiming the roads Until recently, roads were shared between a messy mix of cyclists, stagecoaches, carts, horses, and...
21st Jul 2022
1

Reclaiming the roads

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

21st Jul 2022
Until recently, roads were shared between a messy mix of cyclists, stagecoaches, carts, horses, and pedestrians, with no dominant user.
Dust Storm On Mars A dust storm in Olympia Planum's north polar dune fields was triggered by a late Martian summer cold...
8th Apr 2024
79

Dust Storm On Mars

from Wanderingspace [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Apr 2024
A dust storm in Olympia Planum's north polar dune fields was triggered by a late Martian summer cold front. As the northern polar cap shrinks fast, it releases cold air that sometimes moves south, like on Earth. These cold fronts strengthen in late summer and early fall due to...
The USGS Cooperative National Geologic Map A new, colorful map from the USGS synthesizes decades of state and federal geologic surveys to...
1st Dec 2025
1

The USGS Cooperative National Geologic Map

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

1st Dec 2025
A new, colorful map from the USGS synthesizes decades of state and federal geologic surveys to create the most detailed visualization of the geology of the contiguous United States to date.
Stefan Kröpelin: Civilization’s Mysterious Desert Cradle ### The Sahara and civilization “Almost everything breaks in the desert,” Kröpelin began. He showed...
11th Jun 2014
1

Stefan Kröpelin: Civilization’s Mysterious Desert Cradle

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

11th Jun 2014
### The Sahara and civilization “Almost everything breaks in the desert,” Kröpelin began. He showed trucks mired in sand, one vehicle blown up by a land mine, and a Unimog with an impossibly, hopelessly broken axle. (Using the attached backhoe, it hunched its way 50 miles back...
Astrobiology meets quantum computation? The origin of life appears to share little with quantum computation, apart from the difficulty of...
23rd Oct 2023
86

Astrobiology meets quantum computation?

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

23rd Oct 2023
The origin of life appears to share little with quantum computation, apart from the difficulty of achieving it and its potential for clickbait. Yet similar notions of complexity have recently garnered attention in both fields. Each topic’s researchers expect only … Continue...
5th Feb 2026
1

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

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

5th Feb 2026
Otherwise prices will keep going up?
4th Nov 2025
13

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

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

4th Nov 2025
Our first print edition ships in two weeks.
How LiDAR measures the toll of climate disasters Comparing LiDAR data from before and after the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles reveals the scale...
25th Aug 2025
36

How LiDAR measures the toll of climate disasters

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

25th Aug 2025
Comparing LiDAR data from before and after the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles reveals the scale of devastation in ways satellite imagery can’t match.
Kim Carson: Inspired by Intelligence What if AI is not here actually to replace us, but to remind us who we actually are? That was the...
13th Jun 2025
1

Kim Carson: Inspired by Intelligence

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

13th Jun 2025
What if AI is not here actually to replace us, but to remind us who we actually are? That was the question at the heart of Kim Carson’s Long Now Talk. In _Inspired by Intelligence: Purpose and Creativity in the AI Era_, Carson challenged us to avoid the easy narratives of...
New Support for Alternative Quantum View An experiment claims to have invalidated a decades-old criticism against pilot-wave theory, an...
2nd Jun 2016
1

New Support for Alternative Quantum View

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

2nd Jun 2016
An experiment claims to have invalidated a decades-old criticism against pilot-wave theory, an alternative formulation of quantum mechanics that eliminates the most baffling features of the subatomic universe. The post New Support for Alternative Quantum View first...
Why I refrain from infosec punditry If you know about my professional background, the most puzzling aspect of this Substack must be that...
16th Apr 2026
1

Why I refrain from infosec punditry

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

16th Apr 2026
If you know about my professional background, the most puzzling aspect of this Substack must be that I don’t use it to talk about my primary field of expertise: information security.
The First Ever Real-Time Video from Another Planet When you watch this video, if you find yourself thinking of the Apollo moon landings— here is why:...
5th Mar 2021
45

The First Ever Real-Time Video from Another Planet

from Wanderingspace [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Mar 2021
When you watch this video, if you find yourself thinking of the Apollo moon landings— here is why: this is the first real-time video taken from another world since 1972, and this is the first ever taken on another planet. Most “video” you see from other planetary missions are...
Happy 200th birthday, Carnot’s theorem! In Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows, a Mole meets a Water Rat who lives on a...
28th Nov 2024
103

Happy 200th birthday, Carnot’s theorem!

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

28th Nov 2024
In Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows, a Mole meets a Water Rat who lives on a River. The Rat explains how the River permeates his life: “It’s brother and sister to me, and aunts, and company, … Continue reading →
Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa’s lab is overturning old assumptions about how memories form, how...
7th Jun 2018
1

Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory

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

7th Jun 2018
Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa’s lab is overturning old assumptions about how memories form, how recall works and whether lost memories might be restored from "silent engrams." The post Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory first appeared on...
Blaise Agüera y Arcas: What is Intelligence? Blaise Agüera y Arcas’s talk took us on a journey through What is Intelligence?, his groundbreaking...
9th Oct 2025
1

Blaise Agüera y Arcas: What is Intelligence?

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

9th Oct 2025
Blaise Agüera y Arcas’s talk took us on a journey through What is Intelligence?, his groundbreaking new work connecting the evolutionary dots between life, computation, and symbiogenesis. He explores how, in our symbiotic world, things combine to make larger things all the...
Escape to the country What makes a successful New Town?
1st Aug 2024
79

Escape to the country

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

1st Aug 2024
What makes a successful New Town?
Outbreak Harry Stevens at The Washington Post recently published a very elegant simulation of how a disease...
17th Mar 2020
47

Outbreak

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

17th Mar 2020
Harry Stevens at The Washington Post recently published a very elegant simulation of how a disease like COVID-19 spreads. If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking it out. Today I want to follow up with something I've been working… Read more ›
The Kingpin of Shanghai Respectable heads of state rarely admit to keeping company with gangsters. But in April 1927, about...
26th Aug 2021
78

The Kingpin of Shanghai

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

26th Aug 2021
Respectable heads of state rarely admit to keeping company with gangsters. But in April 1927, about 15 years after the collapse of the last imperial dynasty, Chiang Kai-shek and China were at a crossroads. Chiang had followed a murky path to leadership of the Chinese Nationalist...
Kind of Cool Image of Io from Juno Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI The brightest spot is a radiation signature, but all the...
18th Aug 2021
45

Kind of Cool Image of Io from Juno

from Wanderingspace [alt+shift+b] in science

18th Aug 2021
Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI The brightest spot is a radiation signature, but all the rest are thought to be active volcanos on the Io surface. The moons are not a primary target of the Juno mission, but they do occasionally take a peek to try and monitor such...
Let gravity do its work One day, early this spring, I found myself in a hotel elevator with three other people. The cohort...
13th May 2024
147

Let gravity do its work

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

13th May 2024
One day, early this spring, I found myself in a hotel elevator with three other people. The cohort consisted of two theoretical physicists, one computer scientist, and what appeared to be a normal person. I pressed the elevator’s 4 button, … Continue reading →
The first non-opioid painkiller For nearly two centuries, pain relief meant effective but addictive opioids. Scientists have finally...
6th Oct 2025
1

The first non-opioid painkiller

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

6th Oct 2025
For nearly two centuries, pain relief meant effective but addictive opioids. Scientists have finally made something better.
2024 (Part 2 of 2) June and July I always sound like a broken record each year when discussing June and July. I was...
1st Jan 2025
37

2024 (Part 2 of 2)

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

1st Jan 2025
June and July I always sound like a broken record each year when discussing June and July. I was fortunate to have a lot of field work in 2024 which kept me occupied for most of these two months. But it's one of the best jobs in the world as I spend each and every day outside,...
Spencer Beebe: Very Long-term Very Large-scale Biomimicry ### The rainforests of home Spencer Beebe is founder and head of Ecotrust, the Portland-based...
12th Mar 2005
1

Spencer Beebe: Very Long-term Very Large-scale Biomimicry

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

12th Mar 2005
### The rainforests of home Spencer Beebe is founder and head of Ecotrust, the Portland-based organization that is setting in motion a permanently prosperous conservation economy for the entire Pacific Coast from San Francisco north to Alaska-- the temperate rain forest also...
We’re All One Crisis Away From Taking Unlicensed Research Peptides For health hackers, the risk is not experimenting.
3rd Jun 2026
1
3rd Jun 2026
For health hackers, the risk is not experimenting.
Will We Ever Be Able To Forecast Volcanic Eruptions Like Weather? Volcano forecasting can save countless lives. But most of the time warnings are more like educated...
7th Jul 2026
2

Will We Ever Be Able To Forecast Volcanic Eruptions Like Weather?

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

7th Jul 2026
Volcano forecasting can save countless lives. But most of the time warnings are more like educated guesses. How close are we to forecasting volcano behavior the way we forecast the weather? On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Hannah Waters speaks with writer and volcano...
Some stories from healthcare founders | Out-Of-Pocket Titles matter, you can change regulation, how M&A happens
5th Aug 2025
36

Some stories from healthcare founders | Out-Of-Pocket

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

5th Aug 2025
Titles matter, you can change regulation, how M&A happens
Louis Hyman: The New Deal You Don't Know Historian Louis Hyman's work focuses on the history of American capitalism. In his book _[Borrow:...
2nd Jan 2018
1

Louis Hyman: The New Deal You Don't Know

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

2nd Jan 2018
Historian Louis Hyman's work focuses on the history of American capitalism. In his book _[Borrow: The American Way of Debt](https://www.amazon.com/Borrow-American-Debt-Vintage-Original/dp/0307741680/)_ , he examines in detail how the evolution of personal debt has not only...
How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too Computer scientists have come up with a bounded algorithm that can fairly divide a cake among any...
10th Nov 2016
1

How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too

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

10th Nov 2016
Computer scientists have come up with a bounded algorithm that can fairly divide a cake among any number of people. The post How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too first appeared on Quanta Magazine
New Theory Cracks Open the Black Box of Deep Learning A new idea is helping to explain the puzzling success of today’s artificial-intelligence algorithms...
1st Mar 2018
1

New Theory Cracks Open the Black Box of Deep Learning

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

1st Mar 2018
A new idea is helping to explain the puzzling success of today’s artificial-intelligence algorithms — and might also explain how human brains learn. The post New Theory Cracks Open the Black Box of Deep Learning first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Transition to Agriculture It is generally accepted that the transition from hunter-gatherer communities to agriculture was the...
3rd Apr 2025
38

The Transition to Agriculture

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

3rd Apr 2025
It is generally accepted that the transition from hunter-gatherer communities to agriculture was the single most important event in human history, ultimately giving rise to all of civilization. The transition started to take place around 12,000 years ago in the Middle East,...
Is a Random Perfect Group Nontrivial? So it’s finals season, and earlier today some of the younger grad students were asking me for...
20th Mar 2026
1

Is a Random Perfect Group Nontrivial?

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

20th Mar 2026
So it’s finals season, and earlier today some of the younger grad students were asking me for help studying for their topology finals. One of their practice problems was to build a cell complex with one 0-cell, two 1-cells, and two 2-cells which has nontrivial $\pi_1$ but...
Can we “cure” cancer? In an excellent recent essay on “big visions for biology,” Sam Rodriques writes: Ask most biologists...
1st Feb 2023
61

Can we “cure” cancer?

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

1st Feb 2023
In an excellent recent essay on “big visions for biology,” Sam Rodriques writes: Ask most biologists about the cure for cancer, and they will tell you it doesn’t exist: cancer is many diseases that are mostly unrelated to each other, and that all have to be cured one at a...
getting started with bayesian inference In my previous post, we spoke about hypothesis testing from a frequentist perspective. This is the...
27th Jun 2020
23

getting started with bayesian inference

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

27th Jun 2020
In my previous post, we spoke about hypothesis testing from a frequentist perspective. This is the method that is commonly taught in STAT101 classes. But for many decades, some statisticians have argued for another approach to conduct statistical analysis based on bayes...
A Domesticated Dingo? No, but Some Are Getting Less Wild Near an Australian desert mining camp, wild dingoes are losing their fear of humans. Their genetic...
9th Aug 2018
1

A Domesticated Dingo? No, but Some Are Getting Less Wild

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

9th Aug 2018
Near an Australian desert mining camp, wild dingoes are losing their fear of humans. Their genetic and behavioral changes may echo those from the domestication of dogs. The post A Domesticated Dingo? No, but Some Are Getting Less Wild first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Book club: ‘Being Salmon Being Human’ by Martin Lee Mueller Encountering the Wild in Us and Us in the Wild Norwegian and Pacific Northwest salmon industries...
1st Jun 2021
63

Book club: ‘Being Salmon Being Human’ by Martin Lee Mueller

from Marine Madness [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Jun 2021
Encountering the Wild in Us and Us in the Wild Norwegian and Pacific Northwest salmon industries remain largely overlooked and Martin Lee Mueller cleverly weaves the stories of artificially inseminated and reared salmon to highlight the long-standing notion of human...
Joline Blais & Jon Ippolito: At the Edge of Art ### Artibodies Art, like the antibodies in our immune system, creates alien forces in service of...
15th Dec 2007
1

Joline Blais & Jon Ippolito: At the Edge of Art

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

15th Dec 2007
### Artibodies Art, like the antibodies in our immune system, creates alien forces in service of the whole. It anticipates threats and models them. It is a diversity agent. Two forms of that process were explained and shown by Ippolito and Blais: perversion, and execution. One...
Good Meteor Shower This Week Wednesday evening and Thursday morning (Dec. 13-14) is the peak time for one of the best meteor...
10th Dec 2023
30

Good Meteor Shower This Week

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

10th Dec 2023
Wednesday evening and Thursday morning (Dec. 13-14) is the peak time for one of the best meteor showers of the year – the Geminids.  The post Good Meteor Shower This Week appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
What is progress? In one sense, the concept of progress is simple, straightforward, and uncontroversial. In another...
9th Mar 2024
156

What is progress?

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

9th Mar 2024
In one sense, the concept of progress is simple, straightforward, and uncontroversial. In another sense, it contains an entire worldview. The most basic meaning of “progress” is simply advancement along a path, or more generally from one state to another that is considered more...
Rachel Sussman: The World's Oldest Living Organisms ### The Missing Science of Biological Longevity Creative photographer Sussman showed beautiful...
16th Nov 2010
1

Rachel Sussman: The World's Oldest Living Organisms

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

16th Nov 2010
### The Missing Science of Biological Longevity Creative photographer Sussman showed beautiful slides of very elderly organisms. The captions were as crucial as the images---naming the species, the place, and the approximate age. You can see many of them here:...
Planning for your midlife crisis Yesterday I presented a talk at ODSC East 2026, called “Counterfactual Analysis with Bayesian...
1st May 2026
3

Planning for your midlife crisis

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

1st May 2026
Yesterday I presented a talk at ODSC East 2026, called “Counterfactual Analysis with Bayesian Models: What Drives the Life Expectancy Gap?” Here’s the abstract Across nearly every country in the world, women live longer than men—but the size of this gap varies from about two...
The golden age of vaccine development The first vaccine was a lucky accident. Now we can design new vaccines in weeks, atom by atom.
7th Jan 2026
1

The golden age of vaccine development

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

7th Jan 2026
The first vaccine was a lucky accident. Now we can design new vaccines in weeks, atom by atom.
A Newfound Source of Cellular Order in the Chemistry of Life Inside cells, droplets of biomolecules called condensates merge, divide and dissolve. Their dance...
1st Apr 2021
1

A Newfound Source of Cellular Order in the Chemistry of Life

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

1st Apr 2021
Inside cells, droplets of biomolecules called condensates merge, divide and dissolve. Their dance may regulate vital processes. The post A Newfound Source of Cellular Order in the Chemistry of Life first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Scaling Career and Family: Systems Thinking, Public School, Home Enrichment Originally posted on November 29, 2025 by Dr. Christine Corbett Moran When asked on The Cheeky Pint...
3rd Dec 2025
1

Scaling Career and Family: Systems Thinking, Public School, Home Enrichment

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

3rd Dec 2025
Originally posted on November 29, 2025 by Dr. Christine Corbett Moran When asked on The Cheeky Pint podcast how we educate our children, my husband Casey Handmer replied “benign neglect.” It’s a cheeky answer that captures something real: we’re neither tiger nor helicopter...
Anne Neuberger: Inside the NSA ## The NSA reaches out Of her eight great-grandparents, seven were murdered at Auschwitz. “So my...
7th Aug 2014
1

Anne Neuberger: Inside the NSA

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

7th Aug 2014
## The NSA reaches out Of her eight great-grandparents, seven were murdered at Auschwitz. “So my family’s history burned into me a fear of what occurs when the power of a state is turned against its people or other people.” Seeking freedom from threats like that brought her...
Mark Lynas: The Nine Planetary Boundaries ### The Quantified Planet “About 74,000 years ago,” Lynas began, “a volcanic event nearly wiped out...
7th Mar 2012
1

Mark Lynas: The Nine Planetary Boundaries

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

7th Mar 2012
### The Quantified Planet “About 74,000 years ago,” Lynas began, “a volcanic event nearly wiped out humanity. We were down to just a thousand or so embattled breeding pairs. We’ve made a bit of a comeback since then. We’re over seven billion strong. In half a million years we’ve...
Can Thermodynamics Resolve the Measurement Problem? At the recent Quantum Thermodynamics conference in Vienna (coming next year to the University of...
10th Sep 2023
69

Can Thermodynamics Resolve the Measurement Problem?

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

10th Sep 2023
At the recent Quantum Thermodynamics conference in Vienna (coming next year to the University of Maryland!), during an expert panel Q&A session, one member of the audience asked “can quantum thermodynamics address foundational problems in quantum theory?” That stuck with …...
Fish Have a Brain Microbiome. Could Humans Have One Too? The discovery that other vertebrates have healthy, microbial brains is fueling the still...
2nd Dec 2024
67

Fish Have a Brain Microbiome. Could Humans Have One Too?

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

2nd Dec 2024
The discovery that other vertebrates have healthy, microbial brains is fueling the still controversial possibility that we might have them as well. The post Fish Have a Brain Microbiome. Could Humans Have One Too? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
George Dyson: There's Plenty of Room at the Top: Long-term Thinking About Large-scale Computing ### Long-term thinking about large-scale computing Ever since his 1997 breakthrough book, _Darwin...
10th Jan 2004
1
10th Jan 2004
### Long-term thinking about large-scale computing Ever since his 1997 breakthrough book, _Darwin Among the Machines_ , Dyson has become regarded as a leading historian and interpreter of computer science, bringing a rigorous and unconventional perspective. Thus his willingness...
There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically) Dendronization – Evolving into a tree-like morphology. (In the style of “carcinization".) From...
3rd May 2021
64

There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically)

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

3rd May 2021
Dendronization – Evolving into a tree-like morphology. (In the style of “carcinization".) From 'dendro', the ancient Greek root for tree.
DOE experimental condensed matter PI meeting, + other items This week I am attending the every-two-years DOE Experimental Condensed Matter Physics PI meeting. ...
8th Sep 2025
1

DOE experimental condensed matter PI meeting, + other items

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

8th Sep 2025
This week I am attending the every-two-years DOE Experimental Condensed Matter Physics PI meeting.  Previously I have written up highlights of these meetings (see here, here, here, here, here), though two years I was unable to do so because I was attending virtually.  I will do...
Sculpting quantum steampunk In 2020, many of us logged experiences that we’d never anticipated. I wrote a nonfiction book and...
28th Oct 2024
81

Sculpting quantum steampunk

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

28th Oct 2024
In 2020, many of us logged experiences that we’d never anticipated. I wrote a nonfiction book and got married outside the Harvard Faculty Club (because nobody was around to shoo us away). Equally unexpectedly, I received an invitation to collaborate … Continue reading →
Watch out for geese! My summer in Waterloo It’s the beginning of another summer, and I’m looking forward to outdoor barbecues, swimming in...
6th Jun 2024
127

Watch out for geese! My summer in Waterloo

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

6th Jun 2024
It’s the beginning of another summer, and I’m looking forward to outdoor barbecues, swimming in lakes and pools, and sharing my home-made ice cream with friends and family. One thing that I won’t encounter this summer, but I did last … Continue reading →
A Climate Debate Regarding Health Effects – Part III Part 3 Hi Steve, and thank you for your timely response, and for even considering hosting this...
6th Mar 2023
57

A Climate Debate Regarding Health Effects – Part III

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

6th Mar 2023
Part 3 Hi Steve, and thank you for your timely response, and for even considering hosting this debate. There has been, and continues to be a “blackout” on almost all discussion regarding the science behind climate change. If “The science” is truly “settled”, it is a pretty shaky...
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 18: Wattled Curassows at Muyuna Lodge (February 26, 2024) February 26, 2024 As dawn broke, Laura, Moises and I slowly cruised along a quiet watercourse. The...
4th Apr 2025
52

A Month In Northern Peru, Part 18: Wattled Curassows at Muyuna Lodge (February 26, 2024)

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

4th Apr 2025
February 26, 2024 As dawn broke, Laura, Moises and I slowly cruised along a quiet watercourse. The dawn chorus was active and included species like Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Zimmer's Woodcreeper and Black-tailed Antbird, but I stayed focused on the treeline, hoping that a...
Daniel Everett: Endangered languages, lost knowledge and the future ### Language Revolution The Piraha tribe in the heart of the Amazon numbers only 360, spread in...
21st Mar 2009
1
21st Mar 2009
### Language Revolution The Piraha tribe in the heart of the Amazon numbers only 360, spread in small groups over 300 miles. An exceptionally cheerful people, they live with a focus on immediacy, empiricism, and physical rigor that has shaped their unique language, claims...
Australia will run an overt command economy by 2040 Australia’s Fiscal Point of No Return Last September I wrote about Australian economic stagnation —...
16th Apr 2026
1

Australia will run an overt command economy by 2040

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

16th Apr 2026
Australia’s Fiscal Point of No Return Last September I wrote about Australian economic stagnation — how taxation past the Laffer curve’s point of peak growth, zero public sector productivity improvement since 2001, and the systematic eradication of manufacturing and ICT from the...
How Poor Maintenance Loses Wars - 2022, Ukraine Maintains A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
2nd Nov 2023
69

How Poor Maintenance Loses Wars - 2022, Ukraine Maintains

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

2nd Nov 2023
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
Tracing the Hidden Hand of Magnetism in the Galaxy Susan Clark is helping to unravel the mysterious workings of the Milky Way’s magnetic field, a...
1st Jul 2024
102

Tracing the Hidden Hand of Magnetism in the Galaxy

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

1st Jul 2024
Susan Clark is helping to unravel the mysterious workings of the Milky Way’s magnetic field, a critical missing piece of the galactic puzzle. The post Tracing the Hidden Hand of Magnetism in the Galaxy first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The ChatGPT wrapper product boom is an uncanny valley hellscape Here we go again: I'm so tired of crypto web3 LLMs. I'm positive there are wonderful applications...
20th May 2024
153

The ChatGPT wrapper product boom is an uncanny valley hellscape

from pcloadletter [alt+shift+b] in science

20th May 2024
Here we go again: I'm so tired of crypto web3 LLMs. I'm positive there are wonderful applications for LLMs. The ChatGPT web UI seems great for summarizing information from various online sources (as long as you're willing to verify the things that you learn). But a lot fo the "AI...
Culture Club: Time to let the cetaceans in? Up until recently, culture has been thought of as a primarily human characteristic. However, recent...
29th Jul 2021
51

Culture Club: Time to let the cetaceans in?

from Marine Madness [alt+shift+b] in science

29th Jul 2021
Up until recently, culture has been thought of as a primarily human characteristic. However, recent studies shine a light on the fact that non-human animals including Cetaceans (dolphins and whales), may also possess it. They live in tightly-knit social communities, exhibit...
James Carse: Religious War In Light of the Infinite Game ### Finite and infinite games Countless readers have been hooked by the opening line of James P....
15th Jan 2005
1

James Carse: Religious War In Light of the Infinite Game

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

15th Jan 2005
### Finite and infinite games Countless readers have been hooked by the opening line of James P. Carse's [_Finite and Infinite Games_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345341848/qid=1105811409/lono0a-20) -- "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be...
Learning from their elders A 2026 paper in Animal Behaviour examines how quickly juvenile Black-tailed Godwits(right, with...
5th Feb 2026
1

Learning from their elders

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Feb 2026
A 2026 paper in Animal Behaviour examines how quickly juvenile Black-tailed Godwits(right, with juvenile Redshanks) acquire the feeding skills they will need to get them through their first winter. Josh Nightingale followed the same migration route taken by young birds, as they...
Richard Kurin: American History in 101 Objects ### American objects Figuratively holding up one museum item after another, Kurin spun tales from...
19th Nov 2013
1

Richard Kurin: American History in 101 Objects

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

19th Nov 2013
### American objects Figuratively holding up one museum item after another, Kurin spun tales from them. (The Smithsonian has 137 million objects; he displayed just thirty or so.) The Burgess Shale shows fossilized soft-tissue creatures ("very early North Americans") from 500...
OMB proposed rule changes - act now For non-US folks, feel free to skip.  For US folks:  The Office of Management and Budget, which for...
6th Jul 2026
1

OMB proposed rule changes - act now

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

6th Jul 2026
For non-US folks, feel free to skip.  For US folks:  The Office of Management and Budget, which for much of its history has been a comparatively uncontroversial element of the executive branch, has set rules and guidelines for how many executive-branch agencies conduct business...
A New World’s Extraordinary Orbit Points to Planet Nine Astronomers argue that there’s an undiscovered giant planet far beyond the orbit of Neptune. A newly...
14th Mar 2019
1

A New World’s Extraordinary Orbit Points to Planet Nine

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

14th Mar 2019
Astronomers argue that there’s an undiscovered giant planet far beyond the orbit of Neptune. A newly discovered rocky body has added evidence to the circumstantial case for it. The post A New World’s Extraordinary Orbit Points to Planet Nine first appeared on Quanta...
Potentially undervalued companies I am routinely solicited for my technical opinion on new and interesting technologies and companies...
30th Aug 2024
40

Potentially undervalued companies

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

30th Aug 2024
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...
A Debate Over the Physics of Time According to our best theories of physics, the universe is a fixed block where time only appears to...
8th Sep 2016
1

A Debate Over the Physics of Time

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

8th Sep 2016
According to our best theories of physics, the universe is a fixed block where time only appears to pass. The post A Debate Over the Physics of Time first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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...
5th Jul 2023
53

If you wish to make an apple pie, you must first become dictator of the universe

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

5th Jul 2023
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...
San Diego Photologs from the 1970s A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored...
23rd Jun 2026
1

San Diego Photologs from the 1970s

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

23rd Jun 2026
A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored cars and whimsical signage.
A Whimbrel’s year There’s a lot to fit into twelve months if you’re a Whimbrel. In the last paper from his PhD, Camilo...
22nd Sep 2022
65

A Whimbrel’s year

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

22nd Sep 2022
There’s a lot to fit into twelve months if you’re a Whimbrel. In the last paper from his PhD, Camilo Carneiro assesses whether Icelandic Whimbrel can always manage to complete the annual cycle of migrate-breed-fatten-migrate-moult-fatten in just 365 days. What happens if a pair...
Vernor Vinge: What If the Singularity Does NOT Happen? ### Non-Singularity scenarios Vinge began by declaring that he still believes that a Singularity...
16th Feb 2007
1

Vernor Vinge: What If the Singularity Does NOT Happen?

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

16th Feb 2007
### Non-Singularity scenarios Vinge began by declaring that he still believes that a Singularity event in the next few decades is the most likely outcome-- meaning that self-accelerating technologies will speed up to the point of so profound a transformation that the other side...
Geoffrey B West: Why Cities Keep on Growing, Corporations Always Die, and Life Gets Faster ### Superlinear Cities "It's hard to kill a city," West began, "but easy to kill a company." The...
26th Jul 2011
1
26th Jul 2011
### Superlinear Cities "It's hard to kill a city," West began, "but easy to kill a company." The mean life of companies is 10 years. Cities routinely survive even nuclear bombs. And "cities are the crucible of civilization." They are the major source of innovation and wealth...
370 | Daniel Akerib on a Faint Hint of Dark Matter One reason it's been so hard to directly detect the dark matter is that we're not sure what it is....
5th Oct 2026
1

370 | Daniel Akerib on a Faint Hint of Dark Matter

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

5th Oct 2026
One reason it's been so hard to directly detect the dark matter is that we're not sure what it is. […]
A Math Theory for Why People Hallucinate Psychedelic drugs can trigger characteristic hallucinations, which have long been thought to hold...
5th Jul 2019
1

A Math Theory for Why People Hallucinate

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

5th Jul 2019
Psychedelic drugs can trigger characteristic hallucinations, which have long been thought to hold clues about the brain’s circuitry. After nearly a century of study, a possible explanation is crystallizing. The post A Math Theory for Why People Hallucinate first...
What Will Happen to Indian IT? The past and future of the “world’s back office.”
6th Oct 2026
1

What Will Happen to Indian IT?

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Oct 2026
The past and future of the “world’s back office.”
Why we duel Duels can be brutal and even lethal. But duels emerged in societies around the world for an...
21st Apr 2022
1

Why we duel

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

21st Apr 2022
Duels can be brutal and even lethal. But duels emerged in societies around the world for an important reason: to control and manage violence, not just to celebrate it.
1st Apr 2025
Weird health insurance concepts | Out-Of-Pocket Intercompany eliminations, copay shenanigans, and reference-based pricing
6th Nov 2024
69

Weird health insurance concepts | Out-Of-Pocket

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

6th Nov 2024
Intercompany eliminations, copay shenanigans, and reference-based pricing
Let patients control their prescriptions | Out-Of-Pocket A walkthrough of how a digital prescription works and what Photon does to let patients control...
1st Sep 2026
1

Let patients control their prescriptions | Out-Of-Pocket

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

1st Sep 2026
A walkthrough of how a digital prescription works and what Photon does to let patients control prescriptions themselves
Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe's First Stars Theory has it that “Population III” stars brought light to the cosmos. The James Webb Space...
12th Apr 2023
1

Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe's First Stars

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

12th Apr 2023
Theory has it that “Population III” stars brought light to the cosmos. The James Webb Space Telescope may have just glimpsed them. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.
Think Linear Algebra I have published the first five chapters of Think Linear Algebra! You can read them here or follow...
22nd Sep 2025
19

Think Linear Algebra

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

22nd Sep 2025
I have published the first five chapters of Think Linear Algebra! You can read them here or follow these links to run the notebooks on Colab. Here are the chapters I have so far: Chapter 1: The Power of Linear AlgebraIntroduces matrix multiplication and eigenvectors through a...
Geoffrey B West: The Universal Laws of Growth and Pace ## Why cities live forever **West focussed on cities** in his discussion of the newly discovered...
24th May 2017
1

Geoffrey B West: The Universal Laws of Growth and Pace

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

24th May 2017
## Why cities live forever **West focussed on cities** in his discussion of the newly discovered exponential scaling laws that govern everything alive. “We live,” he said, “in an exponentially expanding socio-economic universe.” Global urbanization has reached the point that...
All of the 8,291 License Plates in America States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations,...
21st Aug 2023
119

All of the 8,291 License Plates in America

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

21st Aug 2023
States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations, professions, sports teams, causes and other groups.
How A Single Metaphor Transformed Biology René Descartes kinda ruined biology
13th Sep 2022
21

How A Single Metaphor Transformed Biology

from SubAnima [alt+shift+b] in science

13th Sep 2022
René Descartes kinda ruined biology
Brightest-Ever Space Explosion Reveals Possible Hints of Dark Matter A recent gamma-ray burst known as the BOAT — “brightest of all time” — appears to have produced a...
1st Mar 2023
1

Brightest-Ever Space Explosion Reveals Possible Hints of Dark Matter

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

1st Mar 2023
A recent gamma-ray burst known as the BOAT — “brightest of all time” — appears to have produced a high-energy particle that shouldn’t exist. For some, dark matter provides the explanation. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.
The forgotten formula for lovable cities Camillo Sitte’s blueprint for making beautiful cities seized the imagination of the world before...
a week ago
1

The forgotten formula for lovable cities

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

a week ago
Camillo Sitte’s blueprint for making beautiful cities seized the imagination of the world before falling into obscurity in the twentieth century. Here is his forgotten formula.
Recollections of NASA’s Apollo 11 Mission Like a lot of kids who grew up during the ‘60s and ‘70s, I had a fascination with spaceflight. This...
20th Jul 2024
99

Recollections of NASA’s Apollo 11 Mission

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

20th Jul 2024
Like a lot of kids who grew up during the ‘60s and ‘70s, I had a fascination with spaceflight. This interest started honestly enough back around […]
The Frog Puzzle Here’s a probability puzzle from a TED-Ed video called Can you solve the frog riddle? by Derek...
4th Jun 2026
1

The Frog Puzzle

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

4th Jun 2026
Here’s a probability puzzle from a TED-Ed video called Can you solve the frog riddle? by Derek Abbott. It came up recently in this Reddit thread: You’re stranded in a rainforest after accidentally eating a poisonous mushroom. To survive the poison, you need to lick a certain...
Fertility on demand Technology could allow women to have it all
1st May 2025
19

Fertility on demand

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

1st May 2025
Technology could allow women to have it all
Why AI agents aren’t adopted widely Hint: managing someone is actually hard, and most times not worth it. Most people don’t use AI...
5th Aug 2026
1

Why AI agents aren’t adopted widely

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

5th Aug 2026
Hint: managing someone is actually hard, and most times not worth it. Most people don’t use AI agents daily because delegation (to another human) is a learned skill. Using AI agents is actually a lot like doing natural language programming: specifying requirements, verifying...
Modelling my brain A 22 hour medical experiment breathing 12% oxygen, and the 7000 images of my brain that came out of...
29th Mar 2021
31

Modelling my brain

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

29th Mar 2021
A 22 hour medical experiment breathing 12% oxygen, and the 7000 images of my brain that came out of it.
Two of My Science-Fiction Stories Published in May View this email in your browser A Change of Pace from Astronomy News  As you may know, I have been...
2nd Jun 2025
37

Two of My Science-Fiction Stories Published in May

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

2nd Jun 2025
View this email in your browser A Change of Pace from Astronomy News  As you may know, I have been writing science-fiction stories based on good astronomy as my retirement project.  After a good number of rejections from the finest sci-fi magazines the world over, I am now...
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...
7th Dec 2021
23

The last design you'll ever make

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

7th Dec 2021
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.
When mates behave differently Iceland’s 40,000 Oystercatchers are an interesting mix of resident birds and migrants, providing an...
7th Aug 2022
65

When mates behave differently

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Aug 2022
Iceland’s 40,000 Oystercatchers are an interesting mix of resident birds and migrants, providing an ideal system in which to study the costs and benefits of the two options, and to try to work out what influences whether an individual becomes a ‘resident’ or a ‘migrant’. I’ve...
The Hidden Engineering of Liquid Dampers in Skyscrapers [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] There’s a new trend in...
1st Jul 2025
54

The Hidden Engineering of Liquid Dampers in Skyscrapers

from Blog - Practical Engineering [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Jul 2025
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] There’s a new trend in high-rise building design. Maybe you’ve seen this in your city. The best lots are all taken, so developers are stretching the limits to make use of space that isn’t always ideal for...
How much of HN is AI? I have a complicated relationship with Hacker News. The site is the most important aggregator of...
12th Mar 2026
1

How much of HN is AI?

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

12th Mar 2026
I have a complicated relationship with Hacker News. The site is the most important aggregator of geek news and a major source of traffic to this blog. At the same time, it has a fair number of toxic commenters, making it a dependable source of insults hurled in my general...
John Brockman: Possible Minds John Brockman's newly released book [_Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at...
13th Mar 2019
1

John Brockman: Possible Minds

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

13th Mar 2019
John Brockman's newly released book [_Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI_](https://smile.amazon.com/Possible-Minds-Twenty-Five-Ways-Looking-ebook/dp/B07D6C1X3X/ref=sr_1_1) is the springboard for this Seminar on Artificial Intelligence. Brockman will interview...
Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex Life A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial...
12th Nov 2015
1

Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex Life

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

12th Nov 2015
A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial mysteries in evolution — how simple microbes transformed into the complex cells that produced animals, plants and fungi. The post Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex...
The Hidden Connection That Changed Number Theory Quadratic reciprocity lurks around many corners in mathematics. By proving it, number theorists...
1st Nov 2023
70

The Hidden Connection That Changed Number Theory

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

1st Nov 2023
Quadratic reciprocity lurks around many corners in mathematics. By proving it, number theorists reimagined their whole field. The post The Hidden Connection That Changed Number Theory first appeared on Quanta Magazine
James Fallows: Civilization's Infrastructure ### Infrastructure investment tricks All societies under-invest in their infrastructure—in the...
7th Oct 2015
1

James Fallows: Civilization's Infrastructure

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

7th Oct 2015
### Infrastructure investment tricks All societies under-invest in their infrastructure—in the systems that allow them to thrive. There is hardware infrastructure: clean water, paved roads, sewer systems, airports, broadband; and, Fallows suggested, software infrastructure:...
Julia Galef: Soldiers and Scouts: Why our minds weren't built for truth, and how we can change that An expert on rationality, judgement, and strategy, Julia Galef notes that "our capacity for reason...
19th Sep 2018
1
19th Sep 2018
An expert on rationality, judgement, and strategy, Julia Galef notes that "our capacity for reason evolved to serve two very different purposes that are often at odds with each other. On the one hand, reason helps us figure out what’s true; on the other hand, it also helps us...
Jill Tarter: The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence: Necessarily a Long-term Strategy ### The long search "The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence: Necessarily a Long-term...
10th Jul 2004
1
10th Jul 2004
### The long search "The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence: Necessarily a Long-term Strategy" is the title for Jill Tarter's Seminar About Long-term Thinking this Friday. There's no deeper question than "Are we alone in the universe?" And there's no quick way to answer...
Why frontier labs are scaling-pilled Investors underwrite scaling laws because the alternative (having an Einstein discover better...
14th Jul 2026
1

Why frontier labs are scaling-pilled

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

14th Jul 2026
Investors underwrite scaling laws because the alternative (having an Einstein discover better algorithms) is high variance What would it take to make progress towards general intelligence, where general stands for any problem that might arise in our world? Since our world is big...
The Makeup of Red Dwarf Solar Systems May Seriously Limit the Formation of Habitable Planets Jupiter is often described as the “big brother” planet of our solar system that made the formation...
7th Jun 2023
38
7th Jun 2023
Jupiter is often described as the “big brother” planet of our solar system that made the formation and evolution of Earth possible. In the early days of the solar system, massive Jupiter helped the planet grow rapidly while serving as a gravity well that shielded the planet from...
In praise of questions Prende y se apaga sola, sale después de hora. CHARLY GARCÍA La máquina de ser feliz I’ve learned to...
8th Oct 2026
1

In praise of questions

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

8th Oct 2026
Prende y se apaga sola, sale después de hora. CHARLY GARCÍA La máquina de ser feliz I’ve learned to tolerate them, and sometimes even like them, but Zoom meetings are weird. Even in familiar contexts: I have weekly check-ins with … Continue reading →
Quantum Algorithms: A Call To Action Quantum computing finds itself in a peculiar situation. The number one question asked about quantum...
21st Apr 2025
67

Quantum Algorithms: A Call To Action

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

21st Apr 2025
Quantum computing finds itself in a peculiar situation. The number one question asked about quantum computers by outsiders is very common sensical: What are they good for? The honest answer reveals an elephant in the room: We don’t fully know yet. For theorists like me, it’s an...
How to Beat Cancer with Viruses: An Interview with Beata Halassy How viruses kill cancers, which viruses to use, how many injections, at what stage of the cancer,...
1st Oct 2024
44

How to Beat Cancer with Viruses: An Interview with Beata Halassy

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

1st Oct 2024
How viruses kill cancers, which viruses to use, how many injections, at what stage of the cancer, and much more
A 1-Day Virtual Symposium on Future of Astronomy For those of you with a deeper interest in astronomy and how we learn about the universe, this may...
8th Aug 2025
19

A 1-Day Virtual Symposium on Future of Astronomy

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

8th Aug 2025
For those of you with a deeper interest in astronomy and how we learn about the universe, this may be of interest.  There is a good discount if you register before Aug. 10. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific Presents: Eyes on the Cosmos: Cutting Edge Instruments and Ideas in...
Esther Dyson: The Short Now: What Addiction, Day Trading, and Most of Society’s Ills Have in Common Long Now board member Esther Dyson shares her ongoing work to move communities away from short-term...
9th Jan 2020
1
9th Jan 2020
Long Now board member Esther Dyson shares her ongoing work to move communities away from short-term thinking and into health. In conversation with previous Interval speaker [Kara Platoni](http://www.karaplatoni.com/), she discusses how short-term desire is addiction, affecting...
Andy Weir: The Red Planet for Real Before Andy Weir's self-published novel _The Martian_ became a _New York Times_ bestseller and a...
9th Jun 2017
1

Andy Weir: The Red Planet for Real

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

9th Jun 2017
Before Andy Weir's self-published novel _The Martian_ became a _New York Times_ bestseller and a blockbuster film, it began as a series of blog posts. Those posts, and the online conversation they sparked, reflect Andy's lifelong love of space and his detailed research into how...
How the Higgs Field (Actually) Gives Mass to Elementary Particles In this article adapted from his new book, "Waves in an Impossible Sea," physicist Matt Strassler...
3rd Sep 2024
64

How the Higgs Field (Actually) Gives Mass to Elementary Particles

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

3rd Sep 2024
In this article adapted from his new book, "Waves in an Impossible Sea," physicist Matt Strassler explains that the origin of mass in the universe has a lot to do with music. The post How the Higgs Field (Actually) Gives Mass to Elementary Particles first appeared on...
The first non-opioid painkiller For nearly two centuries, pain relief meant effective but addictive opioids. Scientists have finally...
6th Oct 2025
1

The first non-opioid painkiller

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

6th Oct 2025
For nearly two centuries, pain relief meant effective but addictive opioids. Scientists have finally made something better.
Douglas Coupland: The Extreme Present ### Future now **“The present and the future** now coexist at the same time,” Coupland began. “It’s...
2nd Nov 2016
1

Douglas Coupland: The Extreme Present

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

2nd Nov 2016
### Future now **“The present and the future** now coexist at the same time,” Coupland began. “It’s why time doesn’t feel like time any more. We’re inside the future.” He wondered if the constant acceleration of acceleration that we experience might lead to some kind of...
Gavin Newsom & Stewart Brand: Cities and Time ### Sustainable Cities Mayor Newsom began with how moved he was by hosting the UN's World...
9th Apr 2009
1

Gavin Newsom & Stewart Brand: Cities and Time

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

9th Apr 2009
### Sustainable Cities Mayor Newsom began with how moved he was by hosting the UN's World Environment Day in San Francisco in 2005. For that event, which was called "Green Cities - Plan for the Planet!", he invited 120 mayors from around the world. Days of intense discussion...
The Expanse's Epstein Drive We aim to take a fictional propulsion technology from The Expanse, and apply the appropriate science...
5th Oct 2019
1

The Expanse's Epstein Drive

from ToughSF [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Oct 2019
We aim to take a fictional propulsion technology from The Expanse, and apply the appropriate science to explain its features in a realistic manner. This also applies to other SciFi settings that want a similar engine for their own spacecraft. The Epstein Drive Title art...
Paul Ehrlich: The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment ### Becoming a Benign Dominant To track how humans became Earth's dominant animal, Ehrlich began...
28th Jun 2008
1
28th Jun 2008
### Becoming a Benign Dominant To track how humans became Earth's dominant animal, Ehrlich began with a photo of a tarsier in a tree. The little primate had a predator's binocular vision and an insect-grabber's fingers. When (possibly) climate change drove some primates out of...
Sierras Projects A short post where I collate some info related to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, various...
15th Aug 2025
1

Sierras Projects

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

15th Aug 2025
A short post where I collate some info related to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, various aspirational objectives and questions. Table Mountain Traverse Table Mountain is at the north west edge of the Kern River basin. It has numerous third and fourth class routes. I...
WWII Tank, Aircraft, and Ship Identification guides How do you tell friend from foe in a split second? These beautifully designed WWII guides used...
21st Sep 2026
1

WWII Tank, Aircraft, and Ship Identification guides

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

21st Sep 2026
How do you tell friend from foe in a split second? These beautifully designed WWII guides used silhouettes and vehicle details into a system for recognizing tanks, planes, and ships on sight.
Silly little rules in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket The industry is chock full of ‘em, here's 3
3rd Jun 2024
125

Silly little rules in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket

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

3rd Jun 2024
The industry is chock full of ‘em, here's 3
Towards a Computational Formalization for Foundations of Medicine A Theory of Medicine? As it’s practiced today, medicine is almost always about particulars: “this...
3rd Feb 2025
92

Towards a Computational Formalization for Foundations of Medicine

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

3rd Feb 2025
A Theory of Medicine? As it’s practiced today, medicine is almost always about particulars: “this has gone wrong; this is how to fix it”. But might it also be possible to talk about medicine in a more general, more abstract way—and perhaps to create a framework in which one can...
Congratulations, class of 2025! Words from a new graduate Editor’s note (Nicole Yunger Halpern): Jade LeSchack, the Quantum Steampunk Laboratory’s first...
10th Jun 2025
36

Congratulations, class of 2025! Words from a new graduate

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

10th Jun 2025
Editor’s note (Nicole Yunger Halpern): Jade LeSchack, the Quantum Steampunk Laboratory’s first undergraduate, received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland this spring. Kermit the Frog presented the valedictory address, but Jade gave the following speech at the...
Aerial Glacier Photographs A collection of 100,000 striking high-resolution aerial photos of glaciers, photographed over 40...
18th Jun 2024
132

Aerial Glacier Photographs

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

18th Jun 2024
A collection of 100,000 striking high-resolution aerial photos of glaciers, photographed over 40 years with a 63-pound WW II surveillance camera.
The Thoughts of a Spiderweb Spiders appear to offload cognitive tasks to their webs, making them one of a number of species with...
13th Jul 2017
1

The Thoughts of a Spiderweb

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

13th Jul 2017
Spiders appear to offload cognitive tasks to their webs, making them one of a number of species with a mind that isn’t fully confined within the head. The post The Thoughts of a Spiderweb first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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...
2nd Nov 2024
43

6 Questions You Asked Yourself about Solar

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

2nd Nov 2024
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?
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