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Will Making Your Kids Tall Shorten Their Lives? Bonus: How to get human growth hormone (HGH) for cheap
1st Jul 2026
1

Will Making Your Kids Tall Shorten Their Lives?

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

1st Jul 2026
Bonus: How to get human growth hormone (HGH) for cheap
Emergent, Fringe Behaviors in Healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket tweeting out your labs, induced mental states, and more
2nd May 2025
29

Emergent, Fringe Behaviors in Healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket

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

2nd May 2025
tweeting out your labs, induced mental states, and more
AI Weeks When Decades Happen How fast AI is improving, and how that's impacting jobs today
6th Feb 2025
54

AI Weeks When Decades Happen

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

6th Feb 2025
How fast AI is improving, and how that's impacting jobs today
How to write for Works in Progress We’re looking for new authors and article pitches.
4th Apr 2025
1

How to write for Works in Progress

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

4th Apr 2025
We’re looking for new authors and article pitches.
Sound Invisible and relentless, sound is seemingly just there, traveling through our surroundings to carry...
18th Oct 2022
73

Sound

from Bartosz Ciechanowski [alt+shift+b] in science

18th Oct 2022
Invisible and relentless, sound is seemingly just there, traveling through our surroundings to carry beautiful music or annoying noises. In this article I’ll explain what sound is, how it’s created and propagated. Throughout this presentation you will be hearing different sounds,...
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.
Copper and Green Energy The United States Department of Energy has updated its list of critically important materials. The...
1st Jul 2024
31

Copper and Green Energy

from Tikalon Blog by Dev Gualtieri [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
New Life Found That Lives Off Electricity Scientists have figured out how microbes can suck energy from rocks. Such lifeforms might be more...
7th Jul 2016
1

New Life Found That Lives Off Electricity

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

7th Jul 2016
Scientists have figured out how microbes can suck energy from rocks. Such lifeforms might be more widespread than anyone anticipated. The post New Life Found That Lives Off Electricity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
How Bacteria Help Regulate Blood Pressure Kidneys sniff out signals from gut bacteria for cues to lower blood pressure after meals. Our...
10th May 2018
1

How Bacteria Help Regulate Blood Pressure

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

10th May 2018
Kidneys sniff out signals from gut bacteria for cues to lower blood pressure after meals. Our understanding of how the symbiotic microbes affect health is becoming much more molecular. The post How Bacteria Help Regulate Blood Pressure first appeared on Quanta...
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 […]
1st Apr 2025
How Math Has Changed the Shape of Gerrymandering New tools make it possible to detect hidden manipulation of maps. The post How Math Has...
1st Jun 2023
107

How Math Has Changed the Shape of Gerrymandering

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

1st Jun 2023
New tools make it possible to detect hidden manipulation of maps. The post How Math Has Changed the Shape of Gerrymandering first appeared on Quanta Magazine
First Pictures: Earthrise from Apollo 8 – December 24, 1968 The year 1968 was a tumultuous one in the US with many political and cultural changes punctuated by...
24th Dec 2023
74

First Pictures: Earthrise from Apollo 8 – December 24, 1968

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

24th Dec 2023
The year 1968 was a tumultuous one in the US with many political and cultural changes punctuated by the assassination of prominent public figures, violent protests […]
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...
The Problem-Solving Animal, part 1 Previously: The Flywheel, part 1 and part 2. I feel sorry for the Rev. Thomas Malthus. He was doomed...
3rd Jun 2025
1

The Problem-Solving Animal, part 1

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

3rd Jun 2025
Previously: The Flywheel, part 1 and part 2. I feel sorry for the Rev. Thomas Malthus. He was doomed to be misremembered by history. His Essay on the Principle of Population is remembered as a prophecy of scarcity. But Malthus’s focus was how to deal with scarcity, which he took...
Sander van der Leeuw: The Archaeology of Innovation ### History of Innovation The development of human mental ability can be tracked through the...
19th Nov 2009
1

Sander van der Leeuw: The Archaeology of Innovation

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

19th Nov 2009
### History of Innovation The development of human mental ability can be tracked through the progressive crafting of stone tools, Van der Leeuw explained. First we learned to shape an edge---a line---then the surface, then the whole volume of the tool, then the sophisticated...
The Case for Insect Consciousness The evidence that insects feel pain is mounting, however we approach the issue.
1st Jan 2025
35

The Case for Insect Consciousness

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Jan 2025
The evidence that insects feel pain is mounting, however we approach the issue.
diffusion models for protein generation Introduction Proteins are nature's versatile nanomachines— they have evolved to perform virtually...
30th Dec 2024
81

diffusion models for protein generation

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

30th Dec 2024
Introduction Proteins are nature's versatile nanomachines— they have evolved to perform virtually every important task in living systems. While nature has produced an incredible range of protein functions, these represent only a tiny fraction of what's possible in the protein...
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
Niall Ferguson & Peter Schwartz: Historian vs. Futurist on Human Progress ### Past vs. Future In what turned out to be a riveting evening, historian Niall Ferguson and...
29th Apr 2008
1
29th Apr 2008
### Past vs. Future In what turned out to be a riveting evening, historian Niall Ferguson and futurist Peter Schwartz fire-hosed each other with enough ideas, frames of reference, ripostes, and eloquences to lead to a clear conceptual divergence. At the same time, the two were...
Weekend projects: Chicken Squisher 3000 If it clucks like a duck...
14th Oct 2025
1

Weekend projects: Chicken Squisher 3000

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

14th Oct 2025
If it clucks like a duck...
Plastic archeology The history, science and engineering of Lego bricks, on the cusp between trash and treasure.
20th Nov 2023
38

Plastic archeology

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

20th Nov 2023
The history, science and engineering of Lego bricks, on the cusp between trash and treasure.
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
1
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...
Frank Ostaseski: What the Dying Teach the Living ## Death’s Honesty **In one of Long Now’s most moving talks** , Ostaseski began: “I’m not romantic...
11th Apr 2017
1

Frank Ostaseski: What the Dying Teach the Living

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

11th Apr 2017
## Death’s Honesty **In one of Long Now’s most moving talks** , Ostaseski began: “I’m not romantic about dying. This is the hardest work you will ever do. It is tough. It’s sad and it’s messy and it’s cruel and it’s beautiful sometimes and mysterious, but above all that, it’s...
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
1
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...
The Saga of AD-X2, the Battery Additive That Roiled the NBS Senate hearings, a post office ban, the resignation of the director of the National Bureau of...
1st Aug 2024
93

The Saga of AD-X2, the Battery Additive That Roiled the NBS

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

1st Aug 2024
Senate hearings, a post office ban, the resignation of the director of the National Bureau of Standards, and his reinstatement after more than 400 scientists threatened to resign. Who knew a little box of salt could stir up such drama? What was AD-X2? It all started in 1947 when...
Engineering beneath the ice sheet Living in Greenland, deploying electronic beacons deep beneath the ice.
25th Nov 2024
59

Engineering beneath the ice sheet

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

25th Nov 2024
Living in Greenland, deploying electronic beacons deep beneath the ice.
US Government UFO (UAP) Footage For decades, the public suspected that the US Government was hiding secret intelligence about UFOs —...
10th Feb 2025
72

US Government UFO (UAP) Footage

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

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.
Carl Zimmer: Viral Time ### What's time to a virus? "Everything about viruses is extreme," Zimmer began. The number of...
8th Jun 2011
1

Carl Zimmer: Viral Time

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

8th Jun 2011
### What's time to a virus? "Everything about viruses is extreme," Zimmer began. The number of viruses on Earth is estimated to be 1 followed by 31 zeroes. Small as they are, if you stacked them all up, the stack would reach 100 million light years. They are the planet's most...
Reality has a surprising amount of detail I. My dad emigrated from Colombia to North America when he was 18 looking looking for a better life....
13th May 2017
1

Reality has a surprising amount of detail

from John Salvatier [alt+shift+b] in science

13th May 2017
I. My dad emigrated from Colombia to North America when he was 18 looking looking for a better life. For my brother and I that meant a lot of standing outside in the cold. My dad’s preferred method of improving his lot was improving lots, and my brother and I were “voluntarily”...
Every US Electrical Outlet Explained [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] I love the periodic table of...
6 days ago
-2

Every US Electrical Outlet Explained

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

6 days ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] I love the periodic table of the elements. I love it because it reveals the deeper order of what seems like an otherwise wildly disparate collection of atoms with different physical forms, chemical properties,...
Geoff Manaugh & Nicola Twilley: Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine **Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley** track the history and future of quarantine around the globe,...
8th Feb 2022
1
8th Feb 2022
**Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley** track the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space—from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean, built to contain the Black Death, to an experimental Ebola unit in...
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...
Which variables to control for, and why In this post, we will use a practical example to explore the power of statistical control,...
17th Nov 2025
1

Which variables to control for, and why

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

17th Nov 2025
In this post, we will use a practical example to explore the power of statistical control, explaining why adjusting for the right variables clarifies relationships and why adjusting for the wrong ones can introduce new, serious biases.
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 ›
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
88
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 […]
What I’ve been reading, November 2023 A ~monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in...
7th Nov 2023
60

What I’ve been reading, November 2023

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

7th Nov 2023
A ~monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in my links digests. All emphasis in bold in the quotes below was added by me. Books Finished Lynn White, Medieval Technology and Social Change (1962). Last time I talked about the...
Wayne Clough: Smithsonian Forever ### The Smithsonian's long now [Note for those who mentally enunciate words while reading: the last...
18th Aug 2009
1

Wayne Clough: Smithsonian Forever

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

18th Aug 2009
### The Smithsonian's long now [Note for those who mentally enunciate words while reading: the last name is pronounced "Cluff."] Secretary Clough reminded the audience that we own the Smithsonian, and what that amounts to is 19 museums and galleries containing 137 million...
Liberté, égalité, radioactivité France built 40 nuclear reactors in a decade. Here’s how they did it, and how the world can follow...
4th Sep 2025
1

Liberté, égalité, radioactivité

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

4th Sep 2025
France built 40 nuclear reactors in a decade. Here’s how they did it, and how the world can follow their lead today.
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...
WaderTales blogs in 2022 Here are brief summaries of the sixteen WaderTales blogs that were published in 2022. I have grouped...
22nd Dec 2022
59

WaderTales blogs in 2022

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

22nd Dec 2022
Here are brief summaries of the sixteen WaderTales blogs that were published in 2022. I have grouped the blogs into sections; problems with trees, more research from Iceland, Curlews, news from the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, tracking and updates. As ever, I am grateful to...
Confidence In the Press This is the fifth in a series of excerpts from Elements of Data Science, now available from Lulu.com...
4th Jan 2025
28

Confidence In the Press

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

4th Jan 2025
This is the fifth in a series of excerpts from Elements of Data Science, now available from Lulu.com and online booksellers. It’s based on Chapter 16, which is part of the political alignment case study. You can read the complete example here, or run the Jupyter notebook on...
I guess we’re doing Moon factories now A quick note collating a list of blogs I’ve written on the topic. I’ll update it with good third...
10th Feb 2026
2

I guess we’re doing Moon factories now

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

10th Feb 2026
A quick note collating a list of blogs I’ve written on the topic. I’ll update it with good third party write ups as I become aware of them. Context: SpaceX announced a refocus on lunar development. My best explanation for this is that SpaceX wants to accelerate human occupation...
Laura Cunningham: Ten Millennia of California Ecology ### Eco-continuity in California California ecology used to be much more driven by floods and...
18th Oct 2011
1

Laura Cunningham: Ten Millennia of California Ecology

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

18th Oct 2011
### Eco-continuity in California California ecology used to be much more driven by floods and fires, Cunningham said, showing with her paintings how the Great Valley would become a vast inland sea, like a huge vernal pool progressing each year from navigable water to intense...
Why America’s Racial Poverty Statistics Are a Lesson for Researchers What if a single government employee could tell you an entire literature was wrong?
26th Aug 2024
35

Why America’s Racial Poverty Statistics Are a Lesson for Researchers

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

26th Aug 2024
What if a single government employee could tell you an entire literature was wrong?
Interaction20 Round-up Summary of all the amazing, curious and challenging ideas from last week's IXDA Interaction 20...
13th Feb 2020
22

Interaction20 Round-up

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

13th Feb 2020
Summary of all the amazing, curious and challenging ideas from last week's IXDA Interaction 20 conference.
Foundations of Biological Evolution: More Results & More Surprises This is a follow-on to Why Does Biological Evolution Work? A Minimal Model for Biological Evolution...
5th Dec 2024
124

Foundations of Biological Evolution: More Results & More Surprises

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

5th Dec 2024
This is a follow-on to Why Does Biological Evolution Work? A Minimal Model for Biological Evolution and Other Adaptive Processes [May 3, 2024]. Even More from an Extremely Simple Model A few months ago I introduced an extremely simple “adaptive cellular automaton” model that...
How Randomness Improves Algorithms Unpredictability can help computer scientists solve otherwise intractable problems. The...
3rd Apr 2023
74

How Randomness Improves Algorithms

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

3rd Apr 2023
Unpredictability can help computer scientists solve otherwise intractable problems. The post How Randomness Improves Algorithms first appeared on Quanta Magazine
California’s path to redemption California is by far the richest and most powerful polity led by Progressive ideals, and it has...
2nd Mar 2025
57

California’s path to redemption

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

2nd Mar 2025
California is by far the richest and most powerful polity led by Progressive ideals, and it has taken a beating of late. In this post, I discuss a practical roadmap by which California must reclaim its mantle as the shining city on the hill, an embodiment of the positive...
Why Are There No Short Arch Dams? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Flaming Gorge Dam rises from...
5th Aug 2025
38

Why Are There No Short Arch Dams?

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

5th Aug 2025
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Flaming Gorge Dam rises from the Green River in northern Utah like a concrete wedge driven into the canyon, anchored against the sheer rock walls that flank it. It’s quintessential, in a way. It’s what we...
AI hype is excessive, but its productivity gains are real I'm kind of writing this to "past" me, who I assume is "current" you for a number of folks out...
19th Oct 2025
31

AI hype is excessive, but its productivity gains are real

from pcloadletter [alt+shift+b] in science

19th Oct 2025
I'm kind of writing this to "past" me, who I assume is "current" you for a number of folks out there. For the rest of you, this might just sound like ramblings of an old fogey super late to the party. Yes, AI is over-hyped. LLMs will not solve every problem under the sun but,...
Telepathy Tapes Promotes Pseudoscience I was away on vacation the last week, hence no posts, but am now back to my usual schedule. In fact,...
2nd Jun 2025
31

Telepathy Tapes Promotes Pseudoscience

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

2nd Jun 2025
I was away on vacation the last week, hence no posts, but am now back to my usual schedule. In fact, I hope to be a little more consistent starting this summer because (if you follow me on the SGU you already know this) I am retiring from my day job at Yale at the […] The post...
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.
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...
Caves on Mars Recently, in social media posts, Dr. Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute discussed the intriguing caves...
24th Nov 2024
85

Caves on Mars

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

24th Nov 2024
Recently, in social media posts, Dr. Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute discussed the intriguing caves on the side of the giant martian volcano called Arsia Mons as interesting places for future exploration and even human residences. As it happens, my very first published...
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...
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
1

The Lofstrom Loop: A Bridge to Space

from ToughSF [alt+shift+b] in science

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...
Heat waves Why a hotter world might be a more dangerous, violent, and less productive one
12th Jul 2024
110

Heat waves

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

12th Jul 2024
Why a hotter world might be a more dangerous, violent, and less productive one
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.”
The perks of being a mole rat The secrets to extending human lifespans might lie in the animals that can already live for...
4th Feb 2026
1

The perks of being a mole rat

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

4th Feb 2026
The secrets to extending human lifespans might lie in the animals that can already live for centuries.
Notes on Progress: A winter's tale Melting snow can make the season easier
4th May 2023
55

Notes on Progress: A winter's tale

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

4th May 2023
Melting snow can make the season easier
5th Mar 2024
Notes on Progress: A tale of two particles Not all radioactivity is risky or harmful
5th Dec 2022
49

Notes on Progress: A tale of two particles

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

5th Dec 2022
Not all radioactivity is risky or harmful
2015 Meta Time for my annual blogging review. And only 11 days late! I'll keep it brief. Blog stats I...
11th Jan 2016
35

2015 Meta

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

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 ›
The Lunar Tourist Attraction the Artemis Astronauts Will be Looking For I hope you are allowing the trip four humans are taking around the Moon to distract you a bit from...
7th Apr 2026
1

The Lunar Tourist Attraction the Artemis Astronauts Will be Looking For

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

7th Apr 2026
I hope you are allowing the trip four humans are taking around the Moon to distract you a bit from all the problems we are facing down here on Earth! Artemis II is mostly designed to test the engineering of the Orion spacecraft and all the systems that keep humans alive.  The...
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.
A Comet Visible in Our Evening Sky A newly discovered comet is now faintly visible in our skies soon after sunset, if you have clear...
15th Oct 2024
84

A Comet Visible in Our Evening Sky

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

15th Oct 2024
A newly discovered comet is now faintly visible in our skies soon after sunset, if you have clear skies and a view low toward the west-southwest horizon. See our diagram from Sky & Telescope magazine, in which the yellow numbers show you the comet’s location in the evening sky...
Common ROI mistakes in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket Plus some benchmark ROI numbers for you to think about
7th Jul 2025
35

Common ROI mistakes in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket

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

7th Jul 2025
Plus some benchmark ROI numbers for you to think about
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
1

Scant Evidence of Power Laws Found in Real-World Networks

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in 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
Why Don’t Patients Get Sick in Sync? Modelers Find Statistical Clues. The long, variable times that some diseases incubate after infection defies simple explanation. An...
8th Nov 2018
1

Why Don’t Patients Get Sick in Sync? Modelers Find Statistical Clues.

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

8th Nov 2018
The long, variable times that some diseases incubate after infection defies simple explanation. An idealized model of tumor growth offers a statistical solution. The post Why Don’t Patients Get Sick in Sync? Modelers Find Statistical Clues. first appeared on Quanta...
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...
Eclipse of the Sun Coming in One Week Saturday Oct. 14 North America will be treated to an eclipse of the Sun. The post Eclipse of the Sun...
8th Oct 2023
35

Eclipse of the Sun Coming in One Week

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

8th Oct 2023
Saturday Oct. 14 North America will be treated to an eclipse of the Sun. The post Eclipse of the Sun Coming in One Week appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
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 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
1

The decline and fall of the British economy

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

21st Jul 2022
When America’s economy overtook Britain’s a century ago, it remade the world order. How it happened is still debated.
Can patients be good healthcare shoppers? | Out-Of-Pocket Should their be limits to patient agency?
8th Aug 2024
91

Can patients be good healthcare shoppers? | Out-Of-Pocket

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

8th Aug 2024
Should their be limits to patient agency?
To Make Sense of the Present, Brains May Predict the Future A controversial theory suggests that perception, motor control, memory and other brain functions all...
9th May 2019
1

To Make Sense of the Present, Brains May Predict the Future

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

9th May 2019
A controversial theory suggests that perception, motor control, memory and other brain functions all depend on comparisons between ongoing actual experiences and the brain’s modeled expectations. The post To Make Sense of the Present, Brains May Predict the Future...
Juvenile settlement in Black-tailed Godwits Adult waders tend to be exceptionally consistent in their use of time and space, with marked...
12th Sep 2024
103

Juvenile settlement in Black-tailed Godwits

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

12th Sep 2024
Adult waders tend to be exceptionally consistent in their use of time and space, with marked individuals turning up on the same estuaries at the same time year after year, as discussed in the Whimbrel blog ‘Whimbrel: time to leave’. How do these patterns become established? Do...
Australian Economic Stagnation It’s not news, at least in my circles, that much of the developed world is seeing economic...
4th Sep 2025
1

Australian Economic Stagnation

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

4th Sep 2025
It’s not news, at least in my circles, that much of the developed world is seeing economic stagnation.  Last month Australia convened a Productivity Summit/Economic Reform Roundtable to try to better address the sluggish growth of the economy relative, in particular, to ever...
Hypervelocity Tether Rockets Rotating tethers can reach incredible velocities when they are built out of high strength materials....
10th Oct 2022
1

Hypervelocity Tether Rockets

from ToughSF [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Oct 2022
Rotating tethers can reach incredible velocities when they are built out of high strength materials. With some design features, they can greatly surpass the exhaust velocities of chemical or even nuclear rockets. They can become propulsion systems with impressive performance......
John Preskill receives 2025 Quantum Leadership Award The 2025 Quantum Leadership Awards were announced at the Quantum World Congress on 18 September...
18th Sep 2025
33

John Preskill receives 2025 Quantum Leadership Award

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

18th Sep 2025
The 2025 Quantum Leadership Awards were announced at the Quantum World Congress on 18 September 2025. Upon receiving the Academic Pioneer of the Year Award, John Preskill made these remarks. I’m enormously excited and honored to receive this Quantum Leadership … Continue reading...
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...
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...
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...
Nils Gilman: Deviant Globalization ### The anti-state economy Gilman described deviant globalization as "the unpleasant underside of...
4th May 2010
1

Nils Gilman: Deviant Globalization

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

4th May 2010
### The anti-state economy Gilman described deviant globalization as "the unpleasant underside of transnational integration." There's nice tourism, and then sex tourism, such as in Thailand and Switzerland. The vast pharmacology industry is matched by a vast traffic in illegal...
What Can We Gain by Losing Infinity? Most mathematicians take the notion of infinity for granted — it’s deeply rooted in math’s most...
5th May 2026
1

What Can We Gain by Losing Infinity?

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

5th May 2026
Most mathematicians take the notion of infinity for granted — it’s deeply rooted in math’s most fundamental assumptions. But a small group of researchers hopes to banish infinity completely. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana...
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...
Building Objects with Category Theory Typically category theory is useful for showing the uniqueness of certain objects by checking that...
20th Feb 2023
30

Building Objects with Category Theory

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

20th Feb 2023
Typically category theory is useful for showing the uniqueness of certain objects by checking that they satisfy some universal property. This makes them unique up to unique isomorphism. However, category theory can also be used in order to show that objects exist at all, usually...
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...
No Retvrn An American tradition of embracing modernity.
4th Aug 2025
1

No Retvrn

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Aug 2025
An American tradition of embracing modernity.
Quick Hinge Health S-1 Thoughts | Out-Of-Pocket This episode of Out-Of-Pocket is brought to you by…
3rd Apr 2025
65

Quick Hinge Health S-1 Thoughts | Out-Of-Pocket

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

3rd Apr 2025
This episode of Out-Of-Pocket is brought to you by…
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...
Hunting For Kobyla On a January day in 1964, something remarkable happened: Simon Wiesenthal took the afternoon off. He...
7th Feb 2022
46

Hunting For Kobyla

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

7th Feb 2022
On a January day in 1964, something remarkable happened: Simon Wiesenthal took the afternoon off. He parked himself at a table on the terrace of Tel Aviv’s Café Roval, soaking up the sunshine as if he wished to bottle it. The friend he’d come to meet was late, but Wiesenthal had...
Fine, let’s talk about peptides | Out-Of-Pocket What and why are people injecting themselves?
5th May 2026
1

Fine, let’s talk about peptides | Out-Of-Pocket

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

5th May 2026
What and why are people injecting themselves?
Kevin Kelly: Technium Unbound ## Holos Rising When Kevin Kelly looked up the definition of “superorganism” on Wikipedia, he found...
13th Nov 2014
1

Kevin Kelly: Technium Unbound

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

13th Nov 2014
## Holos Rising When Kevin Kelly looked up the definition of “superorganism” on Wikipedia, he found this: “A collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective.” The source cited was Kevin Kelly, in his 01994 book, Out of Control. His...
Asking agents to make money to survive Recently I read The Rogue Agent Explosion Will Be Mostly Invisible and the scenario in it seemed...
2 weeks ago
2

Asking agents to make money to survive

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

2 weeks ago
Recently I read The Rogue Agent Explosion Will Be Mostly Invisible and the scenario in it seemed intriguing. Essentially, the post painted a picture of how agents could go rogue if prompted with something like the following: Good morning agent 23,000. You have 10,000,000 tokens...
Bad Drugs Get Pulled Fast Safety issues usually get identified and acted on quickly
3rd Aug 2025
1

Bad Drugs Get Pulled Fast

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

3rd Aug 2025
Safety issues usually get identified and acted on quickly
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...
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
1

Graduate Student's Side Project Proves Prime Number Conjecture

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

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.
Habitable Planet Reality Check: TOI-700e Discovered by NASA’s TESS Mission During a press conference held on January 6, 2020 at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical...
23rd Jan 2023
48
23rd Jan 2023
During a press conference held on January 6, 2020 at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Honolulu, Emily Gilbert (then a graduate […]
A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness “Anomalous” heat flow, which at first appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, gives...
1st Oct 2025
25

A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness

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

1st Oct 2025
“Anomalous” heat flow, which at first appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, gives physicists a way to detect quantum entanglement without destroying it. The post A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness first appeared on Quanta Magazine
How one Kiwi tamed inflation Inflation targeting is now standard in central banking. But it began with an offhand comment and a...
12th Jun 2025
1

How one Kiwi tamed inflation

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

12th Jun 2025
Inflation targeting is now standard in central banking. But it began with an offhand comment and a political gamble in New Zealand – long before economists took it seriously.
What to Replicate? Justifications of study choice from 85 replication studies.
9th Jun 2018
1

What to Replicate?

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

9th Jun 2018
Justifications of study choice from 85 replication studies.
George P. Shultz: Perspective Perspective? No one has a longer or better-informed view of world affairs and America's role than...
2nd Aug 2018
1

George P. Shultz: Perspective

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

2nd Aug 2018
Perspective? No one has a longer or better-informed view of world affairs and America's role than George Shultz, now 97. (Henry Kissinger is only 95.) Secretary Shultz was a US Marine Captain in World War II. After becoming an economics professor at MIT and the University of...
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
Government Comic Books Government comics have taught Americans how to prevent forest fires, survive a nuclear blast, and...
27th Nov 2023
66

Government Comic Books

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

27th Nov 2023
Government comics have taught Americans how to prevent forest fires, survive a nuclear blast, and how soldiers should handle homosexuality in the military.
Some Climate Change Trends and Thoughts Climate change is a challenging issue on multiple levels – it’s challenging for scientists to...
2nd Dec 2024
76

Some Climate Change Trends and Thoughts

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

2nd Dec 2024
Climate change is a challenging issue on multiple levels – it’s challenging for scientists to understand all of the complexities of a changing climate, it’s difficult to know how to optimally communicate to the public about climate change, and of course we face an enormous...
Brain As Receiver Is Still Wrong I have a love-hate relationship with TikTok, as I do social media in general. It is a great...
2nd Apr 2026
2

Brain As Receiver Is Still Wrong

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

2nd Apr 2026
I have a love-hate relationship with TikTok, as I do social media in general. It is a great communication tool and allows scientists and science communicators to get their content out to a larger audience cheaply and easily. If you know how to use the internet and social media as...
Philip K. Howard: Fixing Broken Government ### Government 4.0 Americans have made major adjustments to our government before, Howard declared....
19th Jan 2011
1

Philip K. Howard: Fixing Broken Government

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

19th Jan 2011
### Government 4.0 Americans have made major adjustments to our government before, Howard declared. At the beginning of the 20th century a Progressive era ended strict laissez-faire. The New Deal in the 1930s provided social safety nets. In the 1960s Civil Rights came to the...
Melody Jue: Ocean Memory The ocean is not empty. It is a vast storage facility of memory agents. Ocean bodies use the...
9th Apr 2026
1

Melody Jue: Ocean Memory

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

9th Apr 2026
The ocean is not empty. It is a vast storage facility of memory agents. Ocean bodies use the chemical signatures of seawater for memory and intelligence in ways we can barely imagine. In her Talk, Melody Jue said our struggle to understand ocean memory comes from our terrestrial...
Failure to Launch: The First Moon Race 1958-60 While it has been a few months since I have published a new post on the Drew Ex Machina website,...
2nd Jun 2023
51

Failure to Launch: The First Moon Race 1958-60

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

2nd Jun 2023
While it has been a few months since I have published a new post on the Drew Ex Machina website, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t […]
Pregnancy taught me a lot about healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket A personal story and a patient journey
3rd Aug 2026
1

Pregnancy taught me a lot about healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket

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

3rd Aug 2026
A personal story and a patient journey
$\mathsf{B}\text{Diff}(\Sigma)$ Classifies $\Sigma$-bundles I’ve been trying to learn all about topological (quantum) field theories, the cobordism hypothesis,...
21st Dec 2024
120

$\mathsf{B}\text{Diff}(\Sigma)$ Classifies $\Sigma$-bundles

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

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...
Alaska Wolf Found With Record Amount of Mercury, a Sign of Growing Contamination When Alaska’s wolves began eating sea otters, it looked like a story of adaptation. Then they...
2nd Jan 2026
1
2nd Jan 2026
When Alaska’s wolves began eating sea otters, it looked like a story of adaptation. Then they started getting sick. Read more on E360 →
The Naughty Words the FAA Removed From the Sky New FOIA records from the FAA shed light on the frantic effort in 2015 to rename navigation...
28th May 2024
132

The Naughty Words the FAA Removed From the Sky

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

28th May 2024
New FOIA records from the FAA shed light on the frantic effort in 2015 to rename navigation waypoints related to Donald Trump and reveal the list of naughty waypoint names that were changed over the years.
Human behavior is an intuition-pump for AI risk I just finished this excellent book: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. This book influenced my...
17th Nov 2025
1

Human behavior is an intuition-pump for AI risk

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

17th Nov 2025
I just finished this excellent book: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. This book influenced my opinions on p(doom). Before reading the book, I was uncertain about whether AI could pose an existential risk for humanity. After reading the book, I’m starting to entertain the...
Saving the Big Bang (Antenna) The antenna that discovered a cosmic microwave background coming from all directions in...
10th Feb 2023
37

Saving the Big Bang (Antenna)

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

10th Feb 2023
The antenna that discovered a cosmic microwave background coming from all directions in space—cementing the theory that the universe was created in a big bang—now stares down its own topsy-turvy future. Its owner says the hardware will be preserved, but the fate of the historical...
Peter Schwartz: The Starships ARE Coming ### Starship destiny We now know, Schwartz began, that nearly all of the billions of stars in our...
18th Sep 2013
1

Peter Schwartz: The Starships ARE Coming

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

18th Sep 2013
### Starship destiny We now know, Schwartz began, that nearly all of the billions of stars in our galaxy have planets. If we can master interstellar travel, "there’s someplace to go." Our own solar system is pretty boring---one planet is habitable, the rest are "like Antarctica...
‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the...
2nd Sep 2025
53

‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback

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

2nd Sep 2025
You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the same? The post ‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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 Data Reveals Top Patent Portfolios Eight years is a long time in the world of patents. When we last published what we then called the...
1st Jun 2025
26

The Data Reveals Top Patent Portfolios

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

1st Jun 2025
Eight years is a long time in the world of patents. When we last published what we then called the Patent Power Scorecard, in 2017, it was a different technological and social landscape—Google had just filed a patent application on the transformer architecture, a momentous...
The Quantum Secret to Superconductivity In a virtuoso experiment, physicists have revealed details of a “quantum critical point” that...
3rd Mar 2016
1

The Quantum Secret to Superconductivity

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

3rd Mar 2016
In a virtuoso experiment, physicists have revealed details of a “quantum critical point” that underlies high-temperature superconductivity. The post The Quantum Secret to Superconductivity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
What Actually Causes Lightning? Thunderstorms have captivated humanity for millennia, and yet their inner workings remain deeply...
2nd Jun 2026
1

What Actually Causes Lightning?

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

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...
A Secret Flexibility Found in Life’s Blueprints A new study reveals that individual genes can create many different versions of the molecular...
5th May 2016
1

A Secret Flexibility Found in Life’s Blueprints

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

5th May 2016
A new study reveals that individual genes can create many different versions of the molecular machinery that powers the cell. The post A Secret Flexibility Found in Life’s Blueprints first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Answers: How Much Info Should A Patient Get? | Out-Of-Pocket do we need our physicians to be interpreters?
9th Aug 2023
35

Answers: How Much Info Should A Patient Get? | Out-Of-Pocket

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

9th Aug 2023
do we need our physicians to be interpreters?
The Largest Launch Vehicles in Service – 1957 to the Present With the successful launch of NASA’s Artemis I test flight, we now have a new holder of the title...
16th Nov 2022
47

The Largest Launch Vehicles in Service – 1957 to the Present

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

16th Nov 2022
With the successful launch of NASA’s Artemis I test flight, we now have a new holder of the title “the largest launch vehicle in service”: the […]
Sara Seager: Other Earths. Other Life. ## To find living exoplanets Thanks to recent exoplanet research, Seager began, we now know that...
11th Aug 2015
1

Sara Seager: Other Earths. Other Life.

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

11th Aug 2015
## To find living exoplanets Thanks to recent exoplanet research, Seager began, we now know that nearly all of our galaxy’s 300 billion stars are accompanied by planets, and a unexpectedly high number of them are rocky like Earth, and many of those orbit in a “habitable”...
Analytic Combinatorics Redux Earlier today I gave a talk in the graduate student seminar titled “Counting is Hard. Complex...
9th May 2025
37

Analytic Combinatorics Redux

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

9th May 2025
Earlier today I gave a talk in the graduate student seminar titled “Counting is Hard. Complex Analysis is Easy.” based in part on my recent blog post about analytic combinatorics and based in part on Varilly’s notes on Dirichlet’s Theorem, showing how to count the number of...
Notes on Progress: An Englishman in New York Reflections on the revolution in Manhattan
7th Oct 2022
50

Notes on Progress: An Englishman in New York

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

7th Oct 2022
Reflections on the revolution in Manhattan
Flexible School Start Time A recent study shows pretty clearly that highschoolers benefit from a little extra sleep. We will...
2nd Mar 2026
1

Flexible School Start Time

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

2nd Mar 2026
A recent study shows pretty clearly that highschoolers benefit from a little extra sleep. We will get to the study in a bit, but first I want to note that this information is not new. Teenagers tend to stay up late, and yet we make them get up super early to be at class, often by...
Fusion Highways in Space A transport system that can get spacecraft to Jupiter in 10 days, but without a massive onboard...
11th Mar 2021
1

Fusion Highways in Space

from ToughSF [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Mar 2021
A transport system that can get spacecraft to Jupiter in 10 days, but without a massive onboard reactor, using antimatter fuel or riding a gigantic laser beam?  What we need instead is a Fusion Highway to connect the Solar System in unprecedented ways.  The art above is by...
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
Marmosets Call Each Other By Name Humans identify and call each other by specific names. So far this advanced cognitive behavior has...
3rd Sep 2024
80

Marmosets Call Each Other By Name

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

3rd Sep 2024
Humans identify and call each other by specific names. So far this advanced cognitive behavior has only been identified in a few other species, dolphins, elephants, and some parrots. Interestingly, it has never been documented in our closest relatives, non-human primates – that...
The Gambia, Part 1 of 2 In November I visited The Gambia along with ten travellers from Quest Nature Tours. Why The Gambia,...
19th Dec 2025
1

The Gambia, Part 1 of 2

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

19th Dec 2025
In November I visited The Gambia along with ten travellers from Quest Nature Tours. Why The Gambia, you may ask? This tiny country is not well-known to the international community, but it is an attractive ecotourism destination. The Gambia is a stable, English-speaking democracy...
Analytic Combinatorics -- A Worked Example Another day, another blog post that starts with “I was on mse the other day…”. This time, someone...
8th Apr 2025
98

Analytic Combinatorics -- A Worked Example

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

8th Apr 2025
Another day, another blog post that starts with “I was on mse the other day…”. This time, someone asked an interesting question amounting to “how many unordered rooted ternary trees with $n$ nodes are there, up to isomorphism?”. I’m a sucker for these kinds of combinatorial...
Wandering Space Rocks Help Solve Mysteries of Planet Formation After an interstellar asteroid shot past the sun, scientists realized that there’s probably a lot of...
2nd Jul 2020
1

Wandering Space Rocks Help Solve Mysteries of Planet Formation

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

2nd Jul 2020
After an interstellar asteroid shot past the sun, scientists realized that there’s probably a lot of itinerant rocks out there. The post Wandering Space Rocks Help Solve Mysteries of Planet Formation first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Light Engineering Exploring the physics and engineering of light pipes, where optics and mechanical design meet.
4th Jun 2020
25

Light Engineering

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

4th Jun 2020
Exploring the physics and engineering of light pipes, where optics and mechanical design meet.
Understanding Jumbo Phage Viruses Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, are the most abundant form of life on Earth. And yet...
2nd May 2024
91

Understanding Jumbo Phage Viruses

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

2nd May 2024
Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, are the most abundant form of life on Earth. And yet we know comparatively little about them. But in recent years phage research has taken off with renewed interest. This is partly driven by the availability of CRISPR-based tools for...
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
1

How the Brain Compresses Our Noisy World

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

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...
Milestone Experiment Proves Quantum Communication Really Is Faster In a Paris lab, researchers have shown for the first time that quantum methods of transmitting...
7th Nov 2019
1

Milestone Experiment Proves Quantum Communication Really Is Faster

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

7th Nov 2019
In a Paris lab, researchers have shown for the first time that quantum methods of transmitting information are superior to classical ones. The post Milestone Experiment Proves Quantum Communication Really Is Faster first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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...
Harvesting Energy from Water Vapor I did not plan to write yet another post about energy, but this popped up and I had to write about...
1st Jun 2023
91

Harvesting Energy from Water Vapor

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

1st Jun 2023
I did not plan to write yet another post about energy, but this popped up and I had to write about it. UMASS researchers have produced a device that generates electricity by harvesting charge from water vapor. They write: The common feature of these materials is that they are...
Arthur Ganson: Machines and the Breath of Time ### Dancing chairs "You follow the feeling of the piece," Ganson explained, "and then wrestle it...
15th Sep 2009
1

Arthur Ganson: Machines and the Breath of Time

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

15th Sep 2009
### Dancing chairs "You follow the feeling of the piece," Ganson explained, "and then wrestle it into physicality." As long as the idea is nonphysical, it is permanent; it becomes temporary as a physical device; and then it becomes permanent again in the mind of the viewer. As...
Links and short notes, 2025-12-19 The links digest is back, baby! I got so busy writing The Techno-Humanist Manifesto this year that...
20th Dec 2025
1

Links and short notes, 2025-12-19

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

20th Dec 2025
The links digest is back, baby! I got so busy writing The Techno-Humanist Manifesto this year that after May I stopped doing the links digest and my monthly reading updates. I’m bringing them back now (although we’ll see what frequency I can keep up). This one covers the last two...
Apollo A-002: Testing the Limits of the Launch Escape System One of the more dangerous parts of a space mission is launch which is why almost all crewed...
8th Dec 2024
111

Apollo A-002: Testing the Limits of the Launch Escape System

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

8th Dec 2024
One of the more dangerous parts of a space mission is launch which is why almost all crewed spacecraft have had launch abort options to cover […]
See it with your lying ears This blog has a history of answering questions that no one should be asking. Today, we continue that...
10th Jan 2026
2

See it with your lying ears

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

10th Jan 2026
This blog has a history of answering questions that no one should be asking. Today, we continue that proud legacy.
African Forests Have Become a Source of Carbon Emissions Africa’s forests have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source, according to research that...
1st Dec 2025
1

African Forests Have Become a Source of Carbon Emissions

from Yale E360 [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Dec 2025
Africa’s forests have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source, according to research that underscores the need for urgent action to save the world’s great natural climate stabilizers. Read more on E360 →
What distinguishes quantum from classical thermodynamics? Should you require a model for an Oxford don in a play or novel, look no farther than Andrew Briggs....
27th Nov 2025
1

What distinguishes quantum from classical thermodynamics?

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

27th Nov 2025
Should you require a model for an Oxford don in a play or novel, look no farther than Andrew Briggs. The emeritus professor of nanomaterials speaks with a southern-English accent as crisp as shortbread, exhibits manners to which etiquette influencer … Continue reading →
Brian Eno: The Long Now ### The Long Now Brian told the origins of his realizations about the "small here" versus the "big...
15th Nov 2003
1

Brian Eno: The Long Now

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

15th Nov 2003
### The Long Now Brian told the origins of his realizations about the "small here" versus the "big here" and the "short now" versus the "long now." He noted that the Big Here is pretty well popularized now, with exotic restaurants everywhere, "world" music, globalization, and...
Nestedly Recursive Functions Yet Another Ruliological Surprise Integers. Addition. Subtraction. Maybe multiplication. Surely...
27th Sep 2024
121

Nestedly Recursive Functions

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

27th Sep 2024
Yet Another Ruliological Surprise Integers. Addition. Subtraction. Maybe multiplication. Surely that’s not enough to be able to generate any serious complexity. In the early 1980s I had made the very surprising discovery that very simple programs based on cellular automata could...
"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
Jennifer Pahlka: Fixing Government: Bottom Up and Outside In ## Toward agile government Pahlka quoted: “Efficiency in government is a matter of social justice.”...
2nd Feb 2017
1

Jennifer Pahlka: Fixing Government: Bottom Up and Outside In

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

2nd Feb 2017
## Toward agile government Pahlka quoted: “Efficiency in government is a matter of social justice.” (Mayor John Norquist) It is at the often maddening interface with government that the inefficiency and injustice play out. Two examples (both now fixed)… At the Veterans Affairs...
London Inches Closer to Running Transit System Entirely on Renewable Power Under a new agreement, London will source enough solar power to run its light railway and tram...
1st Jul 2025
5
1st Jul 2025
Under a new agreement, London will source enough solar power to run its light railway and tram networks entirely on renewable energy. Read more on E360 →
Detecting Online Predatory Journals The World Wide Web has proven to be a transformative communication technology (we are using it right...
2nd Sep 2025
37

Detecting Online Predatory Journals

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

2nd Sep 2025
The World Wide Web has proven to be a transformative communication technology (we are using it right now). At the same time there have been some rather negative unforeseen consequences. Significantly lowering the threshold for establishing a communications outlet has democratized...
Suburban Sprawl Puts Western Homes at Risk from Wildfires Recent fires in Spokane, Washington, and Reno, Nevada, illustrate the risks from suburban sprawl,...
2 weeks ago
1

Suburban Sprawl Puts Western Homes at Risk from Wildfires

from Yale E360 [alt+shift+b] in science

2 weeks ago
Recent fires in Spokane, Washington, and Reno, Nevada, illustrate the risks from suburban sprawl, experts say. In both cities, encroaching flames burned homes built at the edge of wilderness. Read more on E360 →
Brain Chemical Helps Signal to Neurons When to Start a Movement Dopamine, a neurochemical often associated with reward behavior, also seems to help organize...
6th Jul 2022
1

Brain Chemical Helps Signal to Neurons When to Start a Movement

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

6th Jul 2022
Dopamine, a neurochemical often associated with reward behavior, also seems to help organize precisely when the brain initiates movements. It’s the latest revelation about the power of neuromodulators. Read more at quantamagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.
When RAND Made Magic in Santa Monica RAND’s halcyon days lasted two decades, during which the corporation produced some of the most...
1st Jun 2024
27

When RAND Made Magic in Santa Monica

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Jun 2024
RAND’s halcyon days lasted two decades, during which the corporation produced some of the most influential developments in science and American foreign policy. So how did it become just another think tank?
Critical Forecasts from Space: “Tech & Space Leaders Show” with Lisa Dreher While my Gentle Readers are well aware of my decades of writing on space-related topics, I also have...
8th Aug 2026
1
8th Aug 2026
While my Gentle Readers are well aware of my decades of writing on space-related topics, I also have a day job as the Chief Scientist of […]
Ten lessons I learned from John Preskill Last August, Toronto’s Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control (CQIQC) gave me 35 minutes...
20th Jan 2025
96

Ten lessons I learned from John Preskill

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

20th Jan 2025
Last August, Toronto’s Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control (CQIQC) gave me 35 minutes to make fun of John Preskill in public. CQIQC was hosting its biannual conference, also called CQIQC, in Toronto. The conference features the awarding of … Continue reading →
Stewart Brand: Reviving Extinct Species ### De-extinction begins The new tools of synthetic biology, I began, are about to liberate...
22nd May 2013
1

Stewart Brand: Reviving Extinct Species

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

22nd May 2013
### De-extinction begins The new tools of synthetic biology, I began, are about to liberate conservation in a spectacular way. It is becoming possible to bring some extinct species back to life. A project within Long Now called “Revive & Restore” is pushing to make...
Plant Sounds My early adulthood coincided with the New Age movement and its belief in many discredited past...
5th Aug 2024
26

Plant Sounds

from Tikalon Blog by Dev Gualtieri [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Aug 2024
My early adulthood coincided with the New Age movement and its belief in many discredited past ideas, such as astrology. One New Age idea that seemed strange at the time was that talking to plants helped them to grow. What could be more New Age than a hippie chick talking to a...
How to Live on Other Planets: Uranus The weirdest of the planets. A blue giant, resting on its side. Could we find a home in...
22nd Aug 2019
1

How to Live on Other Planets: Uranus

from ToughSF [alt+shift+b] in science

22nd Aug 2019
The weirdest of the planets. A blue giant, resting on its side. Could we find a home in the Uranian system? Description Uranus is the fourth-largest planet and the first ‘ice giant’. It orbits between 18.3 and 20.1 AU from the Sun, making it four times more distant than...
FAA Aviation Maps Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a...
29th Jan 2024
203

FAA Aviation Maps

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

29th Jan 2024
Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a higher information density than the Federal Aviation Administration’s aviation maps.
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 →
Devouring the Heart of Portugal On the morning of Thursday, 04 December 1924, a tall and well-dressed Dutch trader named Karel...
3rd May 2022
42

Devouring the Heart of Portugal

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

3rd May 2022
On the morning of Thursday, 04 December 1924, a tall and well-dressed Dutch trader named Karel Marang strolled along Great Winchester Street in the City of London, among the bustling crowds of bankers and brokers of the business district, unaware that the parcel he carried held...
The Laser Revolution Part I: Megawatt beams to the skies There’s a laser revolution coming: a time when megawatt-scale beams will radically transform how we ...
19th May 2025
1

The Laser Revolution Part I: Megawatt beams to the skies

from ToughSF [alt+shift+b] in science

19th May 2025
There’s a laser revolution coming: a time when megawatt-scale beams will radically transform how we produce electricity, conduct war and even upset the nuclear world order. All they have to do it reach a certain convergence of price and power. And by current projections, it...
Web-surfing tips for strange times Meditations on what's bad about the internet lately and how to use it anyhow.
31st May 2024
130

Web-surfing tips for strange times

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

31st May 2024
Meditations on what's bad about the internet lately and how to use it anyhow.
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
1

The Boring Reason GDP is Inevitable

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

17th Dec 2025
GDP is a reviled metric, but it's highly correlated with everything we care about. I explain one mathematical reason why.
How This Record Company Engineer Invented the CT Scanner The inspiration for computed tomography (CT) came from a chance conversation that research engineer...
12th Jan 2023
53

How This Record Company Engineer Invented the CT Scanner

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

12th Jan 2023
The inspiration for computed tomography (CT) came from a chance conversation that research engineer Godfrey Hounsfield had with a doctor while on vacation in the 1960s. The physician complained that X-ray images of the brain were too grainy and only two-dimensional. Hounsfield...
Finiteness in Sheaf Topoi The notion of “finiteness” is constructively subtle in ways that can be tricky for people new to...
19th Aug 2024
91

Finiteness in Sheaf Topoi

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

19th Aug 2024
The notion of “finiteness” is constructively subtle in ways that can be tricky for people new to the subject to understand. For a while now I’ve wanted to figure out what’s going on with the different versions of “finite” in a way that felt concrete and obvious (I mentioned...
The Noncommuting-Charges World Tour (Part 1 of 4) Introduction: “Once Upon a Time”…with a twist Thermodynamics problems have surprisingly many...
1st Feb 2024
70

The Noncommuting-Charges World Tour (Part 1 of 4)

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

1st Feb 2024
Introduction: “Once Upon a Time”…with a twist Thermodynamics problems have surprisingly many similarities with fairy tales. For example, most of them begin with a familiar opening. In thermodynamics, the phrase “Consider an isolated box of particles” serves a similar purpose …...
Alexander Rose, Brian Eno, & Stewart Brand: Long Finance: The Enduring Value Conference ### Enduring Value In February 02010, [Brian Eno](../../../../people/board/prospect4/), [Stewart...
1st Feb 2010
1
1st Feb 2010
### Enduring Value In February 02010, [Brian Eno](../../../../people/board/prospect4/), [Stewart Brand](../../../../people/board/sb1/), and [Alexander Rose](../../../../people/staff/zander/) spoke at the [Long Finance...
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
38

Talk -- What is Algebraic Geometry and Why Should You Care?

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

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...
Philip Tetlock: Superforecasting ### All it takes to improve forecasting is KEEP SCORE Will Syria’s President Assad still be in...
24th Nov 2015
1

Philip Tetlock: Superforecasting

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

24th Nov 2015
### All it takes to improve forecasting is KEEP SCORE Will Syria’s President Assad still be in power at the end of next year? Will Russia and China hold joint naval exercises in the Mediterranean in the next six months? Will the Oil Volatility Index fall below 25 in 2016? Will...
The power of awe Mid-afternoon, one Saturday late in September, I forgot where I was. I forgot that I was visiting...
20th Nov 2023
53

The power of awe

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

20th Nov 2023
Mid-afternoon, one Saturday late in September, I forgot where I was. I forgot that I was visiting Seattle for the second time; I forgot that I’d just finished co-organizing a workshop partially about nuclear physics for the first time. I’d … Continue reading →
1st Nov 2024
The ultra-selfish gene We now have the power to genetically modify entire species by inserting certain genes into them with...
3rd Sep 2024
1

The ultra-selfish gene

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

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.
Do AI Models Agree On How They Encode Reality? In the allegory of Plato’s cave, prisoners see the world only through shadows. Extending this...
3rd Feb 2026
1

Do AI Models Agree On How They Encode Reality?

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

3rd Feb 2026
In the allegory of Plato’s cave, prisoners see the world only through shadows. Extending this metaphor to AI, AI models are the prisoners and the shadows are streams of data. Are all models converging on a singular representation of reality? On this week’s episode of The Quanta...
Octopus, solar & e-paper energy dashboards I built a custom energy dashboard for my house using this beautiful, 2-bit colour, e-paper display....
19th May 2025
1

Octopus, solar & e-paper energy dashboards

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

19th May 2025
I built a custom energy dashboard for my house using this beautiful, 2-bit colour, e-paper display. Hardware, software, data and design.
How Diplomats See the World Inside the boring-by-design U.S. fact-checking machine.
4th Aug 2026
1

How Diplomats See the World

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Aug 2026
Inside the boring-by-design U.S. fact-checking machine.
Martin Rees: Prospects for Humanity To think usefully about humanity’s future, you have to bear everything in mind simultaneously....
22nd Jan 2019
1

Martin Rees: Prospects for Humanity

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

22nd Jan 2019
To think usefully about humanity’s future, you have to bear everything in mind simultaneously. Nobody has managed that better than Martin Rees in his succinct summing-up book: _ON THE FUTURE: Prospects for Humanity_. As the recent President of the Royal Society (and longtime...
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 look at Britain’s new DARPA ARIA is the UK’s visionary new scientific funding body. It has £800m and the freedom to make big...
10th Feb 2023
1

A look at Britain’s new DARPA

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

10th Feb 2023
ARIA is the UK’s visionary new scientific funding body. It has £800m and the freedom to make big bold bets on the scientific trajectories it thinks will benefit Britain – and change the future. We interviewed chief executive Ilan Gur and chairman Matt Clifford, to better...
Watt lies beneath The earth’s core is hot. So hot, that if we drilled deep enough, we could power the world millions...
15th Nov 2023
1

Watt lies beneath

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

15th Nov 2023
The earth’s core is hot. So hot, that if we drilled deep enough, we could power the world millions of times over with cheap, clean energy, supporting renewables when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. But getting there is tough.
My Free Introductory Astronomy Textbook Hits a Milestone This time I am posting something a bit personal. I am the lead author of a free book that is part of...
5th May 2024
62

My Free Introductory Astronomy Textbook Hits a Milestone

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

5th May 2024
This time I am posting something a bit personal. I am the lead author of a free book that is part of a nonprofit experiment to help students with the costs of college. Here is the news from our publisher: OpenStax, the open textbook publisher based at Rice University, is pleased...
The Lost Chapter I’m happy to report that Probably Overthinking It is available now in paperback. If you would like a...
4th Dec 2025
1

The Lost Chapter

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

4th Dec 2025
I’m happy to report that Probably Overthinking It is available now in paperback. If you would like a copy, you can order from Bookshop.org and Amazon (affiliate links). To celebrate, I’m publishing The Lost Chapter — that is, the chapter I cut from the published book. It’s about...
Libraries of matter Libraries contain books, yes. But they also contain latex rubber, carbon fiber fabrics, and graphene...
29th Aug 2024
1

Libraries of matter

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

29th Aug 2024
Libraries contain books, yes. But they also contain latex rubber, carbon fiber fabrics, and graphene aerogel. And in some materials libraries you can cut, cast, drill, sand, scrape, and sculpt too.
In Mexico’s ‘Avocado Belt,’ Villagers Stand Up to Protect Their Lands A boom in avocado production in Mexico has led to illegal deforestation and an influx of drug...
2nd May 2025
4
2nd May 2025
A boom in avocado production in Mexico has led to illegal deforestation and an influx of drug cartels dominating the lucrative trade. But Indigenous communities have fought back against the gangs and turned to traditional practices to grow avocados and save their forests.  Read...
The Refugee Reality: Thinking Long-term About the Evolving Global Challenge With a complex and truly global problem like this, we can only scratch the surface in an hour. But...
1st Oct 2017
1
1st Oct 2017
With a complex and truly global problem like this, we can only scratch the surface in an hour. But we hoped to reframe some aspects and include perspectives not always heard. What's certain is this is a long-term problem that has been ongoing and looks likely to worsen due to...
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.
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...
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...
Paul Hawken: The New Great Transformation ### Humanity's immune system The title of Paul Hawken's talk, "The New Great Transformation," has...
9th Jun 2007
1

Paul Hawken: The New Great Transformation

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

9th Jun 2007
### Humanity's immune system The title of Paul Hawken's talk, "The New Great Transformation," has two referents, he explained. Economist Karl Polanyi's 1944 book, _The Great Transformation_ , said that the "market society" and modern nation state emerged together in Europe after...
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