Long Now
Kara Platoni: Transforming Perception, One Sense at a Time
Kara Platoni, author and journalism professor at UC-Berkeley, set out to find the sensory pioneers...
3rd Jul 2017
Kara Platoni, author and journalism professor at UC-Berkeley, set out to find the sensory pioneers who are changing the way we experience the world. Her boot-strapped and crowd-sourced quest led her to laboratories and workshops around the world. In her book _[We Have The...
Confessions of a...
Shark Bay: a pristine template for marine ecosystems worldwide
Here in Western Australia, we are lucky to be in the global centre of seagrass diversity. As such,...
13th Aug 2013
Here in Western Australia, we are lucky to be in the global centre of seagrass diversity. As such, we have a coastline dominated by many different species of seagrasses – from large, temperate seagrasses like Posidonia australis to small, tropical species like Halodule...
Long Now
Jesse Ausubel: Nature is Rebounding
### Why nature is rebounding
Over the last 40 years, in nearly every field, human productivity has...
14th Jan 2015
### Why nature is rebounding
Over the last 40 years, in nearly every field, human productivity has _decoupled_ from resource use, Ausubel began. Even though our prosperity and population continue to increase, the trends show _decreasing_ use of energy, water, land, material...
The Roots of...
Do we get better or worse at adapting to change?
Verner Vinge, in a classic 1993 essay, described “the Singularity” as an era where progress becomes...
6th Apr 2023
Verner Vinge, in a classic 1993 essay, described “the Singularity” as an era where progress becomes “an exponential runaway beyond any hope of control.”
The idea that technological change might accelerate to a pace faster than we can keep up with is a common concern. Almost three...
Uncharted...
How AI Will Change Media
Work with me to make it happen
3rd Apr 2026
Work with me to make it happen
Long Now
David Rooney: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks
As with all Long Now Talks, David Rooney’s talk on Thursday, September 9, 02021 began with a few...
23rd Dec 2021
As with all Long Now Talks, David Rooney’s talk on Thursday, September 9, 02021 began with a few tones from Brian Eno’s January 07003: Bell Studies for The Clock of the Long Now, based on the original algorithm for the Clock’s ever-changing chimes designed by Danny Hillis. These...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How To (Properly) Text Patients | Out-Of-Pocket
Do’s and don’ts + tactical tips from an actual doctor
10th Apr 2024
Do’s and don’ts + tactical tips from an actual doctor
Quantum Frontiers
Announcing the quantum-steampunk creative-writing course!
Why not run a quantum-steampunk creative-writing course? Quantum steampunk, as Quantum Frontiers...
19th Sep 2024
Why not run a quantum-steampunk creative-writing course? Quantum steampunk, as Quantum Frontiers regulars know, is the aesthetic and spirit of a growing scientific field. Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction. In it, futuristic technologies invade Victorian-era settings:...
Quanta Magazine
Scientists Re-Create the Microbial Dance That Sparked Complex Life
Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent...
2nd Jan 2025
Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the first time, biologists made it happen in the lab.
The post Scientists Re-Create the Microbial Dance That Sparked Complex Life first appeared...
Long Now
Ken Dychtwald: The Consequences of Human Life Extension
### What long life means
Ken Dychtwald gave a terrific talk Friday evening to a standing-room...
4th Dec 2004
### What long life means
Ken Dychtwald gave a terrific talk Friday evening to a standing-room audience on "The Consequences of Human Life Extension."
The growing--and soon overwhelming--prevalence of the old in developed nations is leading to a "new old." Ken described meeting...
Yale E360
In Indonesia’s Rainforest, a Mega-Farm Project Is Plowing Ahead
The Indonesian government is fast-tracking a massive agricultural project that is turning 7 million...
2nd Sep 2025
The Indonesian government is fast-tracking a massive agricultural project that is turning 7 million acres of tropical forest into rice and sugarcane farms. Critics say it is the world’s largest deforestation project and would upend the lives of thousands of Indigenous...
Casey Handmer's blog
NASA Is Worth Saving
Casey Handmer June 2025 Download a printable PDF. NASA was founded in 1958 in response to Sputnik...
12th Jun 2025
Casey Handmer June 2025 Download a printable PDF. NASA was founded in 1958 in response to Sputnik and the emerging necessity of a robust, government supported space exploration and technology development program to safeguard US interests in space. NASA embodies the US ideals of...
Inverted Passion
[2025 review] Life is a holiday!
Ok, this was a phenomenal year for me. The vibe of the year is cleanly captured by what I had...
31st Dec 2025
Ok, this was a phenomenal year for me. The vibe of the year is cleanly captured by what I had scribbled on a whiteboard on Jan 3rd, 2025. To my amazement and giddiness, the feeling still holds up as the year wraps up. Let’s see what all kept this spirit alive. Brief interlude:...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
A Nice (Almost Total) Eclipse of the Moon Aug. 27
How to get information about viewing the eclipse of the Moon Aug. 27
The post A Nice (Almost Total)...
3 weeks ago
How to get information about viewing the eclipse of the Moon Aug. 27
The post A Nice (Almost Total) Eclipse of the Moon Aug. 27 appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Light from Space
The Soul of the Heart Nebula
A spectacular emission Nebula, the Heart Nebula is one of the classics of Northern Hemisphere...
5th Nov 2022
A spectacular emission Nebula, the Heart Nebula is one of the classics of Northern Hemisphere amateury astronomy.
In the gallery below, I've highlighted 3 very different areas of the image:
Left: Planetary Nebula WeBo-1
Middle: Melotte 15 in the... heart of the Heart...
Casey Handmer's blog
Sierras Projects
A short post where I collate some info related to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, various...
15th Aug 2025
A short post where I collate some info related to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, various aspirational objectives and questions. Table Mountain Traverse Table Mountain is at the north west edge of the Kern River basin. It has numerous third and fourth class routes. I...
IEEE Spectrum
Smalltalk Blew Steve Jobs’s Mind
Late in 1979, Steve Jobs and other colleagues from Apple visited the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center...
1st Mar 2023
Late in 1979, Steve Jobs and other colleagues from Apple visited the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). There they were introduced to the experimental Alto computer and the Smalltalk language and computing environment, developed by Alan Kay’s Learning Research Group....
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Weird health insurance concepts | Out-Of-Pocket
Intercompany eliminations, copay shenanigans, and reference-based pricing
6th Nov 2024
Intercompany eliminations, copay shenanigans, and reference-based pricing
Works in Progress...
Making energy too cheap to meter
The great slowdown began when we started rationing energy. Restarting progress means getting energy...
12th Oct 2022
The great slowdown began when we started rationing energy. Restarting progress means getting energy that is so abundant that it’s almost free.
SubAnima
The Problem With Richard Dawkins
How should we view The Selfish Gene 50 years on?
22nd Apr 2023
How should we view The Selfish Gene 50 years on?
The Works in...
Notes on Progress: A tale of two particles
Not all radioactivity is risky or harmful
5th Dec 2022
Not all radioactivity is risky or harmful
The Quanta Podcast
Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory
Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa’s lab is overturning old assumptions about how memories form, how...
7th Jun 2018
Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa’s lab is overturning old assumptions about how memories form, how recall works and whether lost memories might be restored from "silent engrams."
The post Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory first appeared on...
NeuroLogica Blog
Will AI Make Work Redundant?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming for your job. This, at least, is increasingly conventional...
6th Nov 2023
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming for your job. This, at least, is increasingly conventional wisdom, but I’m not so sure. In a recent interview, Elon Musk predicted that AI would “make paid work redundant.” I encountered the same opinion watching the latest season of...
Many Worlds
Many Worlds Archive is Available
I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column — sponsored by NASA’s NExSS...
14th Nov 2023
I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column — sponsored by NASA’s NExSS initiative and the Lunar & Planetary Institute — for almost eight years. But the run came to an end in October. Now an archive of the more than 400 columns is easily available at...
Beautiful Public...
Visualizing Ship Movements with AIS Data
Explore the beautiful, intricate paths of ships over a year—tracked from America's busiest ports to...
17th Sep 2024
Explore the beautiful, intricate paths of ships over a year—tracked from America's busiest ports to the open ocean via AIS marine tracking data.
Many Worlds
Preparing For The Habitable Worlds Observatory, Our Best Shot at Finding ET Life
In a solar system far, far away, life of some sort is just waiting to be found. Or so the world of...
17th Oct 2023
In a solar system far, far away, life of some sort is just waiting to be found. Or so the world of astrobiology sure hopes it is. The new player in the astrobiology world, now called the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), is planned to launch in the 2040s if all goes well. ...
Asterisk
The Illogic of Nuclear Escalation
How much is enough? It’s the most basic question in the nuclear arms race. For over sixty years, few...
1st Nov 2022
How much is enough? It’s the most basic question in the nuclear arms race. For over sixty years, few have asked it, and even fewer have received an answer.
Chris Grossack's...
Talk -- What is Algebraic Geometry and Why Should You Care?
So an embarrassing amount of time ago (Feburary 17?) I gave a talk for the
undergraduate math club...
1st May 2023
So an embarrassing amount of time ago (Feburary 17?) I gave a talk for the
undergraduate math club titled
“What is Algebraic Geometry, and Why Should You Care?”. I think it went quite
well, and the audience seemed like they had a good time. I really wanted to
have the talk...
IEEE Spectrum
This 1945 TV Console Showed Two Programs at Once
As I try to write this article, my friend and I have six different screens attached to three types...
3rd Jul 2025
As I try to write this article, my friend and I have six different screens attached to three types of devices. We’re working in the same room but on our own projects—separate yet together, a comfortable companionship.
I had never really thought of the proliferation of screens as...
The Quanta Podcast
How the 'Diamond of the Plant World' Helped Land Plants Evolve
Structural studies of the robust material called sporopollenin reveal how it made plants hardy...
9th Nov 2022
Structural studies of the robust material called sporopollenin reveal how it made plants hardy enough to reproduce on dry land. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Redwood Trail” by Audionautix.
Long Now
Rose McDermott: Ideology in our Genes: The Biological Basis for Political Traits
While traditionally social factors have been considered to have primary influence on political...
1st Dec 2017
While traditionally social factors have been considered to have primary influence on political behaviors and preferences, more recent research shows that there's also a strong heritable component to ideological attitudes. Rose McDermott, professor of International Relations at...
Quantum Frontiers
Astrobiology meets quantum computation?
The origin of life appears to share little with quantum computation, apart from the difficulty of...
23rd Oct 2023
The origin of life appears to share little with quantum computation, apart from the difficulty of achieving it and its potential for clickbait. Yet similar notions of complexity have recently garnered attention in both fields. Each topic’s researchers expect only … Continue...
NeuroLogica Blog
What Is Orbitronics
You have definitely heard of electronics. You may (if you are a tech nerd like me) have heard of...
1st Oct 2024
You have definitely heard of electronics. You may (if you are a tech nerd like me) have heard of spintronics and photonics. Now there is also the possibility of orbitronics. What do these cool-sounding words mean? Electronic technology is one of those core technologies that has...
Wanderingspace
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
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...
ToughSF
The Lofstrom Loop: A Bridge to Space
Imagine you could take a train ride to space. Tracks that slope up into the sky, higher and higher,...
9th Dec 2023
Imagine you could take a train ride to space. Tracks that slope up into the sky, higher and higher, until you reach a plateau above the planet where it’s a straight line up to orbital velocity.
That’s what’s possible with a Lofstrom Loop. But sending you into orbit is just one...
Quantum Frontiers
Little ray of sunshine
A common saying goes, you should never meet your heroes, because they’ll disappoint you. But you...
28th Jul 2025
A common saying goes, you should never meet your heroes, because they’ll disappoint you. But you shouldn’t trust every common saying; some heroes impress you more, the better you know them. Ray Laflamme was such a hero. I first heard … Continue reading →
Interaction Magic -...
Orientation
Using Mahony & Madgwick to calibrate and process Arduino orientation data.
1st Jul 2018
Using Mahony & Madgwick to calibrate and process Arduino orientation data.
Damn Interesting
A Blight on Soviet Science
On a hazy afternoon in March 1927, a Russian scientist was walking through the dense forests of...
4th Mar 2021
On a hazy afternoon in March 1927, a Russian scientist was walking through the dense forests of Abyssinia, ducking under low-hanging branches and stopping to inspect the wild coffee trees lining his path. Accompanied by a group of local guides, the young traveller had been hiking...
lcamtuf’s thing
Cursed circuits #5: capacitance multiplier
Capacitor vendors don't want you to know this! Save money on capacitors by spending more on other...
5th Jul 2026
Capacitor vendors don't want you to know this! Save money on capacitors by spending more on other components
Works in Progress...
The decline and fall of the British economy
When America’s economy overtook Britain’s a century ago, it remade the world order. How it happened...
21st Jul 2022
When America’s economy overtook Britain’s a century ago, it remade the world order. How it happened is still debated.
Cremieux Recueil
Will Making Your Kids Tall Shorten Their Lives?
Bonus: How to get human growth hormone (HGH) for cheap
1st Jul 2026
Bonus: How to get human growth hormone (HGH) for cheap
Peder M. Isager
What to Replicate?
Justifications of study choice from 85 replication studies.
9th Jun 2018
Justifications of study choice from 85 replication studies.
Works in Progress...
Watch men
Quartz helped Japan’s watchmakers nearly drive Switzerland’s watch industry out of business. But the...
2nd Dec 2025
Quartz helped Japan’s watchmakers nearly drive Switzerland’s watch industry out of business. But the Swiss fought back.
Conservation...
High seas treaty ‘a long time coming’
10th Jun 2025
NeuroLogica Blog
A Climate Debate Regarding Health Effects – Part III
Part 3 Hi Steve, and thank you for your timely response, and for even considering hosting this...
6th Mar 2023
Part 3 Hi Steve, and thank you for your timely response, and for even considering hosting this debate. There has been, and continues to be a “blackout” on almost all discussion regarding the science behind climate change. If “The science” is truly “settled”, it is a pretty shaky...
Stephen Wolfram...
The Ruliology of Lambdas
Click any diagram to get Wolfram Language code to reproduce it.
What Are Lambdas?
It’s a story of...
15th Sep 2025
Click any diagram to get Wolfram Language code to reproduce it.
What Are Lambdas?
It’s a story of pure, abstract computation. In fact, historically, one of the very first. But even though it’s something I for one have used in practice for nearly half a century, it’s not something...
Melting Asphalt
Crony Beliefs
[Note: if you prefer audio, you can listen to this essay narrated by Grognor on his excellent...
2nd Nov 2016
[Note: if you prefer audio, you can listen to this essay narrated by Grognor on his excellent podcast Second Enumerations. —Ed.] Credits up front: This essay draws heavily from Overcoming Bias, Less Wrong, Slate Star Codex, Robert Kurzban, Robert…
Read more ›
Conservation...
To save coffee's future, 100 million trees — and counting
1st Apr 2026
Works in Progress...
The first non-opioid painkiller
For nearly two centuries, pain relief meant effective but addictive opioids. Scientists have finally...
6th Oct 2025
For nearly two centuries, pain relief meant effective but addictive opioids. Scientists have finally made something better.
Conservation...
3 things our experts loved in May
26th Jun 2024
Cremieux Recueil
Your Allergies Are Probably Fake
You might be avoiding medications that don't do anything to you
4th Feb 2026
You might be avoiding medications that don't do anything to you
Quanta Magazine
Evolution: Fast or Slow? Lizards Help Resolve a Paradox.
Why does natural selection appear to happen slowly on long timescales and quickly on short ones? A...
2nd Jan 2024
Why does natural selection appear to happen slowly on long timescales and quickly on short ones? A multigenerational study of four lizard species addresses biology’s “paradox of stasis.”
The post Evolution: Fast or Slow? Lizards Help Resolve a Paradox. first appeared...
Uncharted...
Iran: The Day After
What's going to happen in the coming days and weeks?
3rd Mar 2026
What's going to happen in the coming days and weeks?
Beautiful Public...
US Government UFO (UAP) Footage
For decades, the public suspected that the US Government was hiding secret intelligence about UFOs —...
10th Feb 2025
For decades, the public suspected that the US Government was hiding secret intelligence about UFOs — (now known as UAPs). Turns out…it kind of was.
Long Now
Ray Kurzweil: Kurzweil's Law
### Escape velocity
Attempts to think long term, Ray Kurzweil began, keep making the mistake of...
24th Sep 2005
### Escape velocity
Attempts to think long term, Ray Kurzweil began, keep making the mistake of imagining that the pace of the future is like the pace of the past. Pondering the next ten years, we usually begin by studying the last ten years. He recommends studying the last...
Conservation...
A rare eagle returns to Colombia’s coffee country
2nd Dec 2025
nanoscale views
Brief items - Static electricity, quantum geometry, Hubbard model, + news
It's been a busy time that has cut into my blogging, but I wanted to point out some links from the...
8th Aug 2025
It's been a busy time that has cut into my blogging, but I wanted to point out some links from the past couple of weeks.
Physics Today has a cover article this past issue about what is colloquially known as static electricity, but what is more technically described as...
NeuroLogica Blog
New Whale Fossil – Possibly Heaviest Animal Ever
The largest and heaviest animal to ever live on the Earth, as far as we know, is the blue whale,...
3rd Aug 2023
The largest and heaviest animal to ever live on the Earth, as far as we know, is the blue whale, which is extant today. The blue whale is larger than any dinosaur, even the giant sauropods. The average weight of a blue whale is 160 tons, with the largest specimen being 190 tons,...
The Quanta Podcast
Scant Evidence of Power Laws Found in Real-World Networks
A new study challenges one of the most celebrated and controversial ideas in network science. ...
11th Oct 2018
A new study challenges one of the most celebrated and controversial ideas in network science.
The post Scant Evidence of Power Laws Found in Real-World Networks first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Works in...
The road from serfdom
Using opt-ins to reform Russia's backwards tsarist agricultural sector
6th Mar 2024
Using opt-ins to reform Russia's backwards tsarist agricultural sector
The Quanta Podcast
Interspecies Hybrids Play a Vital Role in Evolution
Hybrids, once treated as biological misfits, play a vital role in the evolution of many animal...
18th Jan 2018
Hybrids, once treated as biological misfits, play a vital role in the evolution of many animal species. Now conservationists are trying to reconcile that truth with policies.
The post Interspecies Hybrids Play a Vital Role in Evolution first appeared on Quanta...
brr
Brr Wants A Job
8 months post-ice, it's time for something new!
22nd Jul 2024
8 months post-ice, it's time for something new!
The Quanta Podcast
Grand Unification Dream Kept at Bay
Physicists have failed to find disintegrating protons, throwing into limbo the beloved theory that...
2nd Feb 2017
Physicists have failed to find disintegrating protons, throwing into limbo the beloved theory that the forces of nature were unified at the beginning of time.
The post Grand Unification Dream Kept at Bay first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Melting Asphalt
Social Status II: Cults and Loyalty
So my previous post on social status was recently treated to a review/critique by Scott Alexander...
2nd Nov 2015
So my previous post on social status was recently treated to a review/critique by Scott Alexander over at Slate Star Codex. I expect most of my readers are already big fans of Scott's blog (as am I). But for those…
Read more ›
IEEE Spectrum
Lord Kelvin and His Analog Computer
William Thomson, mourning the death of his wife and flush with cash from various patents related to...
2nd Jun 2024
William Thomson, mourning the death of his wife and flush with cash from various patents related to the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, decided to buy a yacht. His schooner, the Lalla Rookh, became Thomson’s summer home and his base for hosting scientific...
SubAnima
How A Single Metaphor Transformed Biology
René Descartes kinda ruined biology
13th Sep 2022
René Descartes kinda ruined biology
Yale E360
The Pilgrimage to Mecca Is Becoming More Dangerous as Mideast Warms
Global heating has “fundamentally altered” the climate of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is exposing...
1st Jun 2026
Global heating has “fundamentally altered” the climate of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is exposing millions of hajj pilgrims to extreme and dangerous heat even in months outside summer, a new analysis has found.
Read more on E360 →
Quanta Magazine
The Hidden Connection That Changed Number Theory
Quadratic reciprocity lurks around many corners in mathematics. By proving it, number theorists...
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
Explorations of an...
Colombia: Santa Marta Mountains And Caribbean Coast
I have recently returned from an excellent tour of northern Colombia for Quest Nature Tours. This...
4th Apr 2026
I have recently returned from an excellent tour of northern Colombia for Quest Nature Tours. This was my fourth time guiding for Quest here, in the birdiest country in the world. Birdiest may be a bold claim, but eBird shows 1,956 species recorded for Colombia, while the...
Probably...
New Book!
I am working on a new book called You Would Choose Now: Measuring America’s Progress Toward Fairness...
2 weeks ago
I am working on a new book called You Would Choose Now: Measuring America’s Progress Toward Fairness and Tolerance. It’s a data-driven exploration of progress (or not) in public opinion and civil rights. I posted the first two chapters as an Early Access edition on LeanPub (a...
Works in Progress...
Watch men
Quartz helped Japan’s watchmakers nearly drive Switzerland’s watch industry out of business. But the...
2nd Dec 2025
Quartz helped Japan’s watchmakers nearly drive Switzerland’s watch industry out of business. But the Swiss fought back.
Yale E360
In Decade Since Paris Agreement, Climate Outlook Has Improved Dramatically
A new report finds that the world is headed for around 2.8 degrees C of warming by the end of this...
3rd Nov 2025
A new report finds that the world is headed for around 2.8 degrees C of warming by the end of this century, far less than was forecast before the Paris Climate Agreement. Still, countries remain far off track from the international target of 2 degrees C.
Read more on E360 →
Uncharted...
6 Questions You Asked Yourself about Solar
How fast will it take over, how fast are costs shrinking, why is it so cheap, what industries will...
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?
Beautiful Public...
Utah Highway LiDAR Scans
Utah's Department of Transportation uses state-of-the-art 3-D laser scanners to capture the surfaces...
3rd Oct 2022
Utah's Department of Transportation uses state-of-the-art 3-D laser scanners to capture the surfaces and area surrounding 15,000 miles of its roads.
Long Now
Ralph Cavanagh & Peter Schwartz: Nuclear Power, Climate Change and the Next 10,000 Years
### Climate change and nuclear prospects
Given the power to decide who would go first-- anti-nuke...
14th Jan 2006
### Climate change and nuclear prospects
Given the power to decide who would go first-- anti-nuke Ralph Cavanagh from Natural Resources Defense Counsel or pro-nuke Peter Schwartz from Global Business Network-- the large audience Friday night voted for Schwartz to make the...
Explorations of an...
Borneo: Ridiculous Mothing At Trus Madi Entomology Camp
When doing research on the few possible "lifer" birds that I could find on this trip to Sabah, and...
14th Dec 2024
When doing research on the few possible "lifer" birds that I could find on this trip to Sabah, and in particular, looking for sites to find the Bornean Frogmouth, I read about the Trus Madi Entomology Camp. This piqued my interest, as there is almost nothing I like more than...
brr
Sunset
Hunkering down for the winter!
9th Apr 2023
Hunkering down for the winter!
The Works in...
Fertility on demand
Technology could allow women to have it all
1st May 2025
Technology could allow women to have it all
NeuroLogica Blog
Using Sound to Modulate the Brain
The technique is called holographic transcranial ultrasound neuromodulation – which sounds like a...
6th Oct 2025
The technique is called holographic transcranial ultrasound neuromodulation – which sounds like a mouthful but just means using multiple sound waves in the ultrasonic frequency to affect brain function. Most people know about ultrasound as an imaging technique, used, for example,...
The Quanta Podcast
Dark Matter Recipe Calls for One Part Superfluid
A different kind of dark matter could help to resolve an old celestial conundrum.
The...
25th Aug 2017
A different kind of dark matter could help to resolve an old celestial conundrum.
The post Dark Matter Recipe Calls for One Part Superfluid first appeared on Quanta Magazine
wadertales
UK waders: “Into the Red”
If you ask British birdwatchers to name the eleven wader species that are causing the most...
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...
The Quanta Podcast
What Actually Causes Lightning?
Thunderstorms have captivated humanity for millennia, and yet their inner workings remain deeply...
2nd Jun 2026
Thunderstorms have captivated humanity for millennia, and yet their inner workings remain deeply mysterious. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, guest host and Quanta senior editor Hannah Waters speaks with staff writer Charlie Wood about the new technologies that are helping...
The Roots of...
The Unlimited Horizon, part 2
Previously: The Unlimited Horizon, part 1.
Is there really that much more progress to be made in the...
27th Aug 2025
Previously: The Unlimited Horizon, part 1.
Is there really that much more progress to be made in the future? How many problems are left to solve? How much better could life really get?
After all, we are pretty comfortable today. We have electricity, clean running water, heating...
Works in Progress...
Just bury your trash
What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?
2 weeks ago
What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?
Long Now
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
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...
Chris Grossack's...
$\mathsf{B}\text{Diff}(\Sigma)$ Classifies $\Sigma$-bundles
I’ve been trying to learn all about topological (quantum) field theories, the
cobordism hypothesis,...
21st Dec 2024
I’ve been trying to learn all about topological (quantum) field theories, the
cobordism hypothesis, and how to use $(\infty,n)$-categories. This is all
in service of some stuff I’m doing with skein algebras (which are part of a
“$3+1$ TQFT” often named after Crane–Yetter, but...
NeuroLogica Blog
Hydrogen Tech
I often get questions like the one below:
“I live part time in Japan. Everyone sees hydrogen powered...
3rd Jul 2026
I often get questions like the one below:
“I live part time in Japan. Everyone sees hydrogen powered generators, trains, trucks, etc regularly. High density population means it’s easy to get enough synergy to justify the infrastructure. So sad we aren’t doing more to utilize this...
nanoscale views
Vortices everywhere
The 2026 APS Oliver E. Buckley Prize in condensed matter physics was announced this week, and it's a...
8th Nov 2025
The 2026 APS Oliver E. Buckley Prize in condensed matter physics was announced this week, and it's a really interesting combination of topics that, to a lay person, may seem to be completely unrelated.
Fig. 1 from this follow-up PRB.
On the one hand, John Reppy (at age 94!)...
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, October 2023
A ~monthly feature. Last month was busy for me with a lot of travel and a lot of focus on The Roots...
11th Oct 2023
A ~monthly feature. Last month was busy for me with a lot of travel and a lot of focus on The Roots of Progress as a nonprofit organization, so I haven’t had as much time as I prefer for research and writing. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find...
Interaction Magic -...
Hacking the terrorist timepiece
The hardest part of building hardware interfaces is not having the right tools to prototype, test...
15th Aug 2022
The hardest part of building hardware interfaces is not having the right tools to prototype, test and validate ideas. A behind the scenes look at my prototyping process, on a project to re-invent the famous Casio F-91W watch.
Inverted Passion
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
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...
Works in Progress...
The beauty of concrete
Why are buildings today simple and austere, while buildings of the past were ornate and elaborately...
17th May 2024
Why are buildings today simple and austere, while buildings of the past were ornate and elaborately ornamented? The answer is not the cost of labor.
Beautiful Public...
WWII Japanese Mass Incarceration collections
Haunting photos and documents document a shameful chapter of America’s history—the forced...
18th Mar 2025
Haunting photos and documents document a shameful chapter of America’s history—the forced displacement and incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.
Quantum Frontiers
My friend Mark Wise
Mark Wise, the John A. McCone Professor of High Energy Physics at Caltech, passed away on July 10 at...
18th Jul 2026
Mark Wise, the John A. McCone Professor of High Energy Physics at Caltech, passed away on July 10 at age 72. At a recent memorial service, John Preskill made these remarks. I’m John Preskill, Mark’s colleague on the Caltech physics … Continue reading →
Peder M. Isager
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
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...
Sean Carroll
AMA | June 2026
Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded...
1st Jun 2026
Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who […]
Long Now
Orville Schell: China Thinks Long-term, But Can It Relearn to Act Long-term?
### Giant contradictions
“China is the most unresolved nation of consequence in the world,” Orville...
23rd Sep 2006
### Giant contradictions
“China is the most unresolved nation of consequence in the world,” Orville Schell began. It is defined by its massive contradictions. And by its massiveness— China’s population is estimated to be 1.25 to 1.3 billion; the margin of error in the estimate...
Explorations of an...
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
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...
Quanta Magazine
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
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
The Quanta Podcast
Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex Life
A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial...
12th Nov 2015
A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial mysteries in evolution — how simple microbes transformed into the complex cells that produced animals, plants and fungi.
The post Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex...
Works in Progress...
There was no great stagnation
We may not have flying cars but we do have incredible information technology. We’re mismeasuring the...
12th Oct 2022
We may not have flying cars but we do have incredible information technology. We’re mismeasuring the huge benefits it is bringing.
Cremieux Recueil
Just Pay Them Off
The International Longshoremen's Association is protecting people whose jobs are no longer...
2nd Oct 2024
The International Longshoremen's Association is protecting people whose jobs are no longer necessary. Stop fighting and just pay them so they go away.
Quantum Frontiers
A (quantum) complex legacy
Early in the fourth year of my PhD, I received a most John-ish email from John Preskill, my PhD...
30th Jan 2023
Early in the fourth year of my PhD, I received a most John-ish email from John Preskill, my PhD advisor. The title read, “thermodynamics of complexity,” and the message was concise the way that the Amazon River is damp: “Might … Continue reading →
Quantum Frontiers
Can AI Predict the Quantum Universe?
AI promises to revolutionize the way we do science, which raises a central technological question of...
11th Dec 2025
AI promises to revolutionize the way we do science, which raises a central technological question of our time: Can classical AI understand all natural phenomena, or are some fundamentally beyond its reach? Many proponents of artificial intelligence argue that any … Continue...
Melting Asphalt
A Natural History of Beauty
A mashup of ideas from David Deutsch, Geoffrey Miller, and Richard Prum, with a little César Hidalgo...
30th Oct 2018
A mashup of ideas from David Deutsch, Geoffrey Miller, and Richard Prum, with a little César Hidalgo thrown in for good measure. —— Of all the problems that can plague a discussion of beauty — and there are several — perhaps…
Read more ›
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Announcing…DATA CAMP 2026!!! | Out-Of-Pocket
It’s back…with a vengeance. Or just back normally.
3rd Apr 2026
It’s back…with a vengeance. Or just back normally.
Marine Madness
Book Club: ‘How To Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea’
In this absolute must-have for all walkers, sailors, swimmers, divers, photographers, and nature...
1st Mar 2022
In this absolute must-have for all walkers, sailors, swimmers, divers, photographers, and nature lovers, Natural Navigator Tristan Gooley shares his knowledge and skills to help you navigate and interpret the water around you. Combining elements of natural navigation history,...
Drew Ex Machina
Pioneer 3: JPL’s First Moonshot Attempt
With the new push by the United States and other space faring powers to renew the exploration of the...
6th Dec 2022
With the new push by the United States and other space faring powers to renew the exploration of the Moon, miniaturized spacecraft have been made part […]
Works in Progress...
The story of Viktor Zhdanov
Although Viktor Zhdanov’s name is little known today, he spearheaded one of the greatest projects in...
20th Aug 2020
Although Viktor Zhdanov’s name is little known today, he spearheaded one of the greatest projects in history. Who was he and what did he do?
The Quanta Podcast
Graduate Student's Side Project Proves Prime Number Conjecture
Jared Duker Lichtman, 26, has proved a longstanding conjecture relating prime numbers to a broad...
14th Sep 2022
Jared Duker Lichtman, 26, has proved a longstanding conjecture relating prime numbers to a broad class of “primitive” sets. To his adviser, it came as a “complete shock.” Read more at quantamagazine.org. Music is “Thought Bot” by Audionautix.
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Renewable Energy Updates
I came across a few news items that I could possibly write about today and couldn’t decide which to...
4th May 2026
I came across a few news items that I could possibly write about today and couldn’t decide which to cover, so I will write about all of them, since they all relate to renewable energy. The first is a new study comparing direct air capture (DAC) to installing new wind and solar....
Conservation...
‘Surf and turf’ can have carbon footprint of cross-country road trip: study
16th Jan 2024
NeuroLogica Blog
Virtual Walking
When I use my virtual reality gear I do practical zero virtual walking – meaning that I don’t have...
1st Mar 2024
When I use my virtual reality gear I do practical zero virtual walking – meaning that I don’t have my avatar walk while I am not walking. I general play standing up which means I can move around the space in my office mapped by my VR software – so I am physically walking to...
The Quanta Podcast
Physicists Find a Way to See the ‘Grin’ of Quantum Gravity
A recently proposed experiment would confirm that gravity is a quantum force.
The post...
6th Dec 2018
A recently proposed experiment would confirm that gravity is a quantum force.
The post Physicists Find a Way to See the ‘Grin’ of Quantum Gravity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
IEEE Spectrum
Chips Need to Chill Out
Diamonds, lasers, and oil aren’t the first things you may think of when considering ways to keep...
1st Nov 2025
Diamonds, lasers, and oil aren’t the first things you may think of when considering ways to keep chips and computers cool. But as modern chip designs pack and stack more transistors into ever smaller spaces, heat has emerged as a critical problem.
To solve it, the semiconductor...
Eukaryote Writes...
Carl Sagan, nuking the moon, and not nuking the moon
Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the...
13th Apr 2024
Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the moon.” The truth is that given a lot of power, a nuclear weapon, and a lot of extremely specific circumstances, we too might find ourselves thinking “I should nuke the moon.”
Long Now
Stewart Brand: Rethinking Green
### Globalizing Green
Brand built his case for rethinking environmental goals and methods on two...
10th Oct 2009
### Globalizing Green
Brand built his case for rethinking environmental goals and methods on two major changes going on in the world. The one that most people still don't take into consideration is that power is shifting to the developing world, where 5 out of 6 people live,...
Long Now
Larry Brilliant, Richard Rockefeller, & Katherine Fulton: The Deeper News About the New...
### Philanthropic stamina
10,000 families in the US, Katherine Fulton reported, have assets of $100...
4th Nov 2006
### Philanthropic stamina
10,000 families in the US, Katherine Fulton reported, have assets of $100 million or more. That's up from 7,000 just a couple years ago. Most of that money is "on the sidelines." The poor and the middle class are far more generous in their philanthropy,...
The Quanta Podcast
Tiny Galaxies Reveal Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes
Dwarf galaxies weren’t supposed to have big black holes. Their surprise discovery has revealed clues...
8th Jun 2022
Dwarf galaxies weren’t supposed to have big black holes. Their surprise discovery has revealed clues about how the universe’s biggest black holes could have formed. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.
Drew Ex Machina
NASA’s Explorer 18: The First Interplanetary Monitoring Platform
Among the greatest scientific achievements of the opening years of the Space Age was the...
27th Nov 2023
Among the greatest scientific achievements of the opening years of the Space Age was the characterization of Earth’s magnetic field and the discovery of what became […]
Long Now
Richard Kurin: American History in 101 Objects
### American objects
Figuratively holding up one museum item after another, Kurin spun tales from...
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...
pcloadletter
The Monty Hall Problem, a side-by-side simulation
I saw a cool version of the Monty Hall game here recently: https://monty.donk.systems.
This is...
1st Jan 2026
I saw a cool version of the Monty Hall game here recently: https://monty.donk.systems.
This is really cool! But I had an itch I wanted to scratch: rather than manually test out the probabilities, I wanted to run two games side-by-side: one where a switch happened and one where a...
Quanta Magazine
At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery
After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at...
1st Aug 2025
After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture.
The post At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Eukaryote Writes...
Learn to write well BEFORE you have something worth saying
Lessons learned from trip reports and journal articles.
29th Dec 2024
Lessons learned from trip reports and journal articles.
Uncharted...
Never Bet Against America
Why the US Is Overpowered
4th Sep 2025
Why the US Is Overpowered
Long Now
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
### 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...
SubAnima
Can Biology Be Reduced To Physics?
"Physics is the most fundamental and all-inclusive of the sciences." Or is it?
11th Nov 2022
"Physics is the most fundamental and all-inclusive of the sciences." Or is it?
IEEE Spectrum
Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years
The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California has spawned many pioneering computer technologies...
16th Nov 2023
The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California has spawned many pioneering computer technologies including the Alto—the first personal computer to use a graphical user interface—and the first laser printer.
The PARC facility also is known for the invention of Ethernet, a...
SubAnima
Why do bees die when they sting you?
Suicide is a truly bizarre evolutionary strategy. Why does it exist?
4th Oct 2021
Suicide is a truly bizarre evolutionary strategy. Why does it exist?
Works in Progress...
Local warming
Gas heating is bad for the environment. But home-built heat pumps aren’t perfect either.
21st Apr 2022
Gas heating is bad for the environment. But home-built heat pumps aren’t perfect either.
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Enjoy the Coming Leap Day: Some Thoughts about the Calendar
This year February will have an extra day -- we discuss why?
The post Enjoy the Coming Leap Day: ...
12th Feb 2024
This year February will have an extra day -- we discuss why?
The post Enjoy the Coming Leap Day: Some Thoughts about the Calendar appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Bartosz Ciechanowski
Mechanical Watch
In the world of modern portable devices, it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the...
4th May 2022
In the world of modern portable devices, it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the most convenient way to keep track of time was a mechanical watch. Unlike their quartz and smart siblings, mechanical watches can run without using any batteries or other...
Long Now
Brewster Kahle: Universal Access to All Knowledge
### All knowledge, to all people, for all time, for free
Universal access to all knowledge, Kahle...
1st Dec 2011
### All knowledge, to all people, for all time, for free
Universal access to all knowledge, Kahle declared, will be one of humanity's greatest achievements. We are already well on the way. "We're building the Library of Alexandria, version 2. We can one-up the Greeks!"
Start...
Uncharted...
Things I Learned at the 2025 Progress Conference
Neural Implants with Actual Neurons, Drone Delivery, Freedom of Speech and AI, Fact-Checking...
3rd Dec 2025
Neural Implants with Actual Neurons, Drone Delivery, Freedom of Speech and AI, Fact-Checking Tech, When AI Will Manage Entire Companies, Ecoterrorists Could Stop Global Warming, and more
The Quanta Podcast
How the Brain Compresses Our Noisy World
If you are well rested and full, your brain tells you that a bruised overripe apple is a piece of...
2 weeks ago
If you are well rested and full, your brain tells you that a bruised overripe apple is a piece of subpar fruit to be passed over. However, if you are exhausted and hungry, an overripe apple is categorized as much-needed food. But how is the brain able to categorize that same...
The Quanta Podcast
Brightest-Ever Space Explosion Reveals Possible Hints of Dark Matter
A recent gamma-ray burst known as the BOAT — “brightest of all time” — appears to have produced a...
1st Mar 2023
A recent gamma-ray burst known as the BOAT — “brightest of all time” — appears to have produced a high-energy particle that shouldn’t exist. For some, dark matter provides the explanation. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.
Long Now
Kevin Kelly: The Next 100 Years of Science: Long-term Trends in the Scientific Method.
### Recursion drives science
The co-founding editor of “Wired” magazine and author of _Out of...
11th Mar 2006
### Recursion drives science
The co-founding editor of “Wired” magazine and author of _Out of Control_ is working on a new book on “what technology wants.” His research led to the first-ever history of scientific methodology. Starting from this long-term view of science’s past...
Quantum Frontiers
Sculpting quantum steampunk
In 2020, many of us logged experiences that we’d never anticipated. I wrote a nonfiction book and...
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 →
Long Now
Drew Endy & Jim Thomas: Synthetic Biology Debate
### Terms of Biocontainment
"I want to develop tools that make biology easy to engineer," Drew Endy...
18th Nov 2008
### Terms of Biocontainment
"I want to develop tools that make biology easy to engineer," Drew Endy began. The first purpose is better understanding fundamental biological mechanisms through "learning by building." The toolkit of Synthetic Biology starts with DNA construction...
Stephen Wolfram...
Yet More New Ideas and New Functions: Launching Version 14.1 of Wolfram Language & Mathematica
For the 36th Time… the Latest from Our R&D Pipeline There’s Now a Unified Wolfram App Vector...
31st Jul 2024
For the 36th Time… the Latest from Our R&D Pipeline There’s Now a Unified Wolfram App Vector Databases and Semantic Search RAGs and Dynamic Prompting for LLMs Connect to Your Favorite LLM Symbolic Arrays and Their Calculus Binomials and Pitchforks: Navigating Mathematical...
IEEE Spectrum
Fakes: Not an Internet Thing, a Human Thing
Every day, as the Internet becomes more indispensable to modern life, the drawbacks of deep...
15th Dec 2023
Every day, as the Internet becomes more indispensable to modern life, the drawbacks of deep engagement with the virtual realm capture as much attention as the wide-ranging benefits. On the Internet, of course, anyone can in all too many forums pretty much say anything—regardless...
Long Now
George Dyson, Freeman Dyson, & Esther Dyson: The Difficulty of Looking Far Ahead
### Finessing the future
Instead of one podium there were four chairs on the stage of Wednesday's...
6th Oct 2005
### Finessing the future
Instead of one podium there were four chairs on the stage of Wednesday's seminar. In three seats, three Dysons: Esther, George and Freeman. They were appearing together on stage for the first time. The fourth held Stewart Brand who led the three through...
Wanderingspace
Mars Express is Still Making Great Images 20 Years Later
Mars Express was launched by the European Space Agency in 2003, and is ESA’s first Mars mission. In...
4th Sep 2024
Mars Express was launched by the European Space Agency in 2003, and is ESA’s first Mars mission. In one shot, you can see Mars as a half-lit disk, with Phobos, its tiny moon, hovering above. Right below Phobos is Olympus Mons, the solar system's largest volcano, towering 22 km...
Eukaryote Writes...
Eukaryote in Asterisk Magazine + New Patreon Per-post setup
Eukaryote elsewhere I have an article in the latest issue of Asterisk Magazine. After you get really...
14th Apr 2023
Eukaryote elsewhere I have an article in the latest issue of Asterisk Magazine. After you get really deep into the weeds of invertebrate sentience and fish welfare and the scale of factory farming, what do you do with that information vis-a-vis what you feel comfortable eating?...
Long Now
Iqbal Quadir: Technology Empowers the Poorest
### Making Money WITH the Poor
When Iqbal Quadir applied to US colleges from his home town in...
22nd May 2008
### Making Money WITH the Poor
When Iqbal Quadir applied to US colleges from his home town in Bangladesh he was surprised to discover that not all American universities were found in Washington, DC. That's how it was in Bangladesh, where everything of importance was centralized...
Tikalon Blog by Dev...
Copper and Green Energy
The United States Department of Energy has updated its list of critically important materials. The...
1st Jul 2024
The United States Department of Energy has updated its list of critically important materials. The current list of 54 materials includes elements that are presently critical to a transition to green energy, such as the rare earth elements important to turbine generators, and...
Chris Grossack's...
Where Do Those Undergraduate Divisibility Problems Come From?
Oftentimes in your “intro to proofs” class or your first “discrete math” class
or something...
16th Jan 2025
Oftentimes in your “intro to proofs” class or your first “discrete math” class
or something similar, you’ll be shown problems of the form “prove that for
$n^6 + n^3 + 2n^2 + 2n$ is a multiple of $6$ for every $n$”… But where do
these problems come from? And have you ever...
Yale E360
A Home Battery Revolution Is Reshaping the Power Grid
As residential batteries have become more energy dense, cheaper, and smaller, more households are...
1st Jul 2026
As residential batteries have become more energy dense, cheaper, and smaller, more households are storing their excess solar power. Now, utilities and energy companies in dozens of countries are buying up those electrons, bundling them together, and using them to balance the...
Works in Progress...
Against the survival of the prettiest
Many modern buildings put up today seem uglier than traditional ones around them. Some say this is...
21st Jan 2022
Many modern buildings put up today seem uglier than traditional ones around them. Some say this is because we’ve torn down the ugly old buildings, and only see the survivors. Are they right?
NeuroLogica Blog
The Race Question
As a scientific concept – does race exist? Is it a useful construct, or is it more misleading than...
5th May 2025
As a scientific concept – does race exist? Is it a useful construct, or is it more misleading than useful? I wrote about this question in 2016, and my thinking has evolved a bit since then. My bottom line conclusion has not changed – the answer is, it depends. There is no fully...
Beautiful Public...
Mapping the Sea Floor
USGS research vessels equipped with cameras, sonar and scanners created a map of 125 square miles of...
29th Dec 2022
USGS research vessels equipped with cameras, sonar and scanners created a map of 125 square miles of the sea floor off Cape Ann, MA.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Emergent, Fringe Behaviors in Healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket
tweeting out your labs, induced mental states, and more
2nd May 2025
tweeting out your labs, induced mental states, and more
IEEE Spectrum
Chuck E. Cheese’s Animatronics Band Bows Out
That may have been the last time I entered a Chuck E. Cheese pizzeria. And yet, when I heard that...
2nd Dec 2024
That may have been the last time I entered a Chuck E. Cheese pizzeria. And yet, when I heard that the company was phasing out the animatronic bands from all but five locations by the end of this year, I felt a twinge of nostalgia. Much to my surprise, I was truly sad that the...
NeuroLogica Blog
Clickbait and Misinformation
Which is worse – clickbaity headlines for news articles that are factually correct, but may be...
3rd Jun 2024
Which is worse – clickbaity headlines for news articles that are factually correct, but may be playing up a sensational angle, or straight-up misinformation? It depends on what you mean by “worse”. A new study tries to address this information, with some interesting findings....
Damn Interesting
The Rube’s Dilemma
It all started with a hat. A straw boater, to be precise, with a flat, round brim and brightly...
28th Oct 2022
It all started with a hat. A straw boater, to be precise, with a flat, round brim and brightly colored ribbon tied around the crown. Originally popularized by gondoliers in Venice, this jaunty accessory had reached the height of American couture by the turn of the 20th century....
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Pregnancy taught me a lot about healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket
A personal story and a patient journey
3rd Aug 2026
A personal story and a patient journey
Cremieux Recueil
The Boring Reason GDP is Inevitable
GDP is a reviled metric, but it's highly correlated with everything we care about. I explain one...
17th Dec 2025
GDP is a reviled metric, but it's highly correlated with everything we care about. I explain one mathematical reason why.
The Quanta Podcast
What Happens When Lakes Stop Mixing
Every summer since 1983, scientists at Crater Lake National Park have gathered data about the lake’s...
2nd Dec 2025
Every summer since 1983, scientists at Crater Lake National Park have gathered data about the lake’s famous clarity. This past summer, Quanta contributing writer Rachel Nuwer journeyed with them as they conducted their annual tests. On this week’s episode, Nuwer and host Samir...
Works in Progress...
The ultra-selfish gene
We now have the power to genetically modify entire species by inserting certain genes into them with...
3rd Sep 2024
We now have the power to genetically modify entire species by inserting certain genes into them with brute force. Doing this to malaria-carrying mosquitoes could allow us to wipe out humanity’s most deadly killer.
Long Now
John Brockman: Possible Minds
John Brockman's newly released book [_Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at...
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...
Works in Progress...
Why we didn’t get a malaria vaccine sooner
Hundreds of thousands of people die from malaria each year, but it took 141 years to develop a...
7th Sep 2023
Hundreds of thousands of people die from malaria each year, but it took 141 years to develop a vaccine for it. Advance market commitments could speed things up next time.
Marine Madness
Which countries eat the most seafood per person?
The top 10 seafood-consuming nations in the world, plus trends among the world’s richest countries....
11th Dec 2021
The top 10 seafood-consuming nations in the world, plus trends among the world’s richest countries. Seafood is a vital food group and form of income for millions of people around the world. The seafood industry has more than quadrupled in the last 50 years and is estimated to be...
Drew Ex Machina
Drew Ex Machina 10th Anniversary: Top Ten Posts
I find it difficult to believe but, it was ten years ago today that I posted the first article on my...
27th Mar 2024
I find it difficult to believe but, it was ten years ago today that I posted the first article on my then-new website, Drew Ex Machina. […]
The Quanta Podcast
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
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
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Silly little rules in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket
The industry is chock full of ‘em, here's 3
3rd Jun 2024
The industry is chock full of ‘em, here's 3
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Heads Up: Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming March 3
Information on the total eclipse of the Moon coming the morning of March 3
The post Heads Up: Total...
25th Feb 2026
Information on the total eclipse of the Moon coming the morning of March 3
The post Heads Up: Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming March 3 appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Long Now
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
### 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...
The Works in...
From MANUALS to YOUTUBE
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
14th Aug 2023
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
Long Now
Neil Gaiman: How Stories Last
## How stories last
Stories are alive. The ones that last, Gaiman said, outcompete other stories by...
10th Jun 2015
## How stories last
Stories are alive. The ones that last, Gaiman said, outcompete other stories by changing over time. They make it from medium to medium—from oral to written to film and beyond. They lose uninteresting elements but hold on to the most compelling bits or even...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Let patients control their prescriptions | Out-Of-Pocket
A walkthrough of how a digital prescription works and what Photon does to let patients control...
2 weeks ago
A walkthrough of how a digital prescription works and what Photon does to let patients control prescriptions themselves
The Quanta Podcast
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
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...
Works in Progress...
The golden age of vaccine development
The first vaccine was a lucky accident. Now we can design new vaccines in weeks, atom by atom.
7th Jan 2026
The first vaccine was a lucky accident. Now we can design new vaccines in weeks, atom by atom.
Quantum Frontiers
What does it mean to create a topological qubit?
I’ve worked on topological quantum computation, one of Alexei Kitaev’s brilliant innovations, for...
6th Mar 2025
I’ve worked on topological quantum computation, one of Alexei Kitaev’s brilliant innovations, for around 15 years now. It’s hard to find a more beautiful physics problem, combining spectacular quantum phenomena (non-Abelian anyons) with the promise of transformative...
Asterisk
The Case for Insect Consciousness
The evidence that insects feel pain is mounting, however we approach the issue.
1st Jan 2025
The evidence that insects feel pain is mounting, however we approach the issue.
Long Now
Will Wright & Brian Eno: Playing with Time
### Generative play
In a dazzling duet Will Wright and Brian Eno gave an intense clinic on the joys...
27th Jun 2006
### Generative play
In a dazzling duet Will Wright and Brian Eno gave an intense clinic on the joys and techniques of "generative" creation.
Back in the 1970s both speakers got hooked by cellular automata such as Conway's "Game of Life," where just a few simple rules could...
Drew Ex Machina
First Pictures: Color View of the Earth & A Tropical Depression from Space – October 5, 1954
While today we are inundated with color images of the Earth, our earliest views from space were...
5th Oct 2024
While today we are inundated with color images of the Earth, our earliest views from space were confined to monochromatic or black and white images (see […]
The Quanta Podcast
Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real
Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming...
14th Oct 2021
Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming energy. Physicists claim to have built this new phase of matter inside a quantum computer.
The Quanta Podcast
The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View
Astronomers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date...
3rd Dec 2020
Astronomers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date back to the Big Bang, they could solve a major cosmological mystery.
The post The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View first appeared on Quanta Magazine
pcloadletter
Generative AI will probably make blogs better
Generative AI will probably make blogs better.
Have you ever searched for something on Google and...
30th May 2025
Generative AI will probably make blogs better.
Have you ever searched for something on Google and found the first one, two, or three blog posts to be utter nonsense? That's because these blog posts have been optimized not for human consumption, but rather to entertain the search...
Interaction Magic -...
Interaction20 Round-up
Summary of all the amazing, curious and challenging ideas from last week's IXDA Interaction 20...
13th Feb 2020
Summary of all the amazing, curious and challenging ideas from last week's IXDA Interaction 20 conference.
Chris Grossack's...
A truly incredible fact about the number 37
So I was on math stackexchange the other day, and I saw a cute post
looking for a book which lists,...
8th Nov 2023
So I was on math stackexchange the other day, and I saw a cute post
looking for a book which lists, for many many integers, facts that Ramanujan
could have told Hardy if he’d taken a cab other than 1729. A few days ago
OP answered their own question, saying that the book in...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
2026 Healthcare Predictions Part 2 | Out-Of-Pocket
[add]
5th Jan 2026
Eukaryote Writes...
Speciesquest 2026
A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
31st Dec 2025
A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
Chris Grossack's...
Estimating a Difference of Products
Wow, it’s been a long time! Both since my last blog post, and since my last
quick analysis trick....
28th Aug 2023
Wow, it’s been a long time! Both since my last blog post, and since my last
quick analysis trick. But I’ve been itching to
write more blog posts lately, and I thought that something quick and easy like
this would be a good way to get back into it without the kind of effort...
The Quanta Podcast
The Math of Catastrophe
Around 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a lush grassland. Then, as if a switch flipped, it began to...
14th Oct 2025
Around 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a lush grassland. Then, as if a switch flipped, it began to dry out, becoming the desert that we know today. Tipping points are moments in Earth’s history where gradual change suddenly becomes rapid and forms a new equilibrium.
They’re one...
The Quanta Podcast
New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory
Researchers have mapped hundreds of semantic categories to the tiny bits of the cortex that...
11th May 2022
Researchers have mapped hundreds of semantic categories to the tiny bits of the cortex that represent them in our thoughts and perceptions. What they discovered might change our view of memory.
The post New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory first...
Long Now
Kim Stanley Robinson: How Climate Will Evolve Government and Society
Humanity’s adaptation to climate change will require novel, global cooperation and societal...
1st Aug 2017
Humanity’s adaptation to climate change will require novel, global cooperation and societal evolution. The award-winning science fiction author of _2312_ , the _Mars_ Trilogy, and _Aurora_ shares his vision for how the world must change in advance of his 02017 novel _New York...
Drew Ex Machina
First Pictures: View of the Earth from NASA’s Explorer 6 – August 14, 1959
Today we take for granted that we can instantly access images of almost any part of the Earth taken...
14th Aug 2024
Today we take for granted that we can instantly access images of almost any part of the Earth taken from space using an ever growing collection […]
Cremieux Recueil
"Nutrition Science's Most Preposterous Result" is False
There's no mysterious health benefit to eating ice cream
2nd Apr 2026
There's no mysterious health benefit to eating ice cream
Many Worlds
After Seven Years Away Exploring an Asteroid, OSIRIS-REx is Landing Soon with Precious Samples
Bits of pebbles and dust from the asteriod Bennu that were collected during the long journey of the...
11th Sep 2023
Bits of pebbles and dust from the asteriod Bennu that were collected during the long journey of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft should be landing in the Utah desert later this month. The delivery will be a first for NASA — its first sample return from an asteroid and one of a very...
Long Now
Brian Fagan: We Are Not the First to Suffer Through Climate Change
### Catastrophic drought is coming back
There are two kinds of historians, Brian Fagan says,...
10th Mar 2007
### Catastrophic drought is coming back
There are two kinds of historians, Brian Fagan says, parachutists and truffle hunters. Parachutists command an overview of the landscape, while truffle hunters dig deeply to uncover marvelous treasures. Fagan is a parachutist. In his talk...
NeuroLogica Blog
AC vs DC and other Power Questions
I was away last week, first at CSICON and then at a conference in Dubai. I was invited to give a 9...
4th Nov 2024
I was away last week, first at CSICON and then at a conference in Dubai. I was invited to give a 9 hour seminar on scientific skepticism for the Dubai Future Foundation. That sounds like a lot of time, but it isn’t. It was a good reminder of the vast body of knowledge that is...
IEEE Spectrum
How the Designer of the First Hydrogen Bomb Got the Gig
Richard Garwin is one of the most decorated and successful engineers of the 20th century. The IEEE...
2nd Sep 2024
Richard Garwin is one of the most decorated and successful engineers of the 20th century. The IEEE Life Fellow has won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, France’s La Grande Médaille de l’Académie des Sciences, and is one of just a handful of people...
IEEE Spectrum
What Is an Electronic Sackbut?
If you, like me, think of musical synthesizers as an artifact of 1970s rock and disco, then you,...
1st Feb 2024
If you, like me, think of musical synthesizers as an artifact of 1970s rock and disco, then you, like me, will be surprised to learn that the first electronic synthesizer predates those genres by several decades
In 1945, Hugh Le Caine, a physicist at Canada’s National Research...
Quantum Frontiers
Can Thermodynamics Resolve the Measurement Problem?
At the recent Quantum Thermodynamics conference in Vienna (coming next year to the University of...
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 …...
The Quanta Podcast
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
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
Melting Asphalt
2015 Meta
Time for my annual blogging review. And only 11 days late! I'll keep it brief. Blog stats I...
11th Jan 2016
Time for my annual blogging review. And only 11 days late! I'll keep it brief. Blog stats I published a paltry six full essays this year. Don't get me wrong: I'm proud of them. But still, six. It would be…
Read more ›
Many Worlds
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
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...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Good Meteor Shower This Week
Wednesday evening and Thursday morning (Dec. 13-14) is the peak time for one of the best meteor...
10th Dec 2023
Wednesday evening and Thursday morning (Dec. 13-14) is the peak time for one of the best meteor showers of the year – the Geminids.
The post Good Meteor Shower This Week appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
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