Works in Progress...
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
The secrets to extending human lifespans might lie in the animals that can already live for centuries.
Asterisk
The Art of Asking Questions
Everyone seems to agree that self-report questions are fraught with lies, biases, errors, and other...
1st Dec 2024
Everyone seems to agree that self-report questions are fraught with lies, biases, errors, and other inaccuracies. We all use them anyway. How can we ask them better?
Stephen Wolfram...
Instant Supercompute: Launching Wolfram Compute Services
To immediately enable Wolfram Compute Services in Version 14.3 Wolfram Desktop systems,...
2nd Dec 2025
To immediately enable Wolfram Compute Services in Version 14.3 Wolfram Desktop systems, run
RemoteBatchSubmissionEnvironment["WolframBatch"].
(The functionality is automatically available in the Wolfram Cloud.)
Scaling Up Your Computations
Let’s say you’ve done a computation in...
The Quanta Podcast
How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too
Computer scientists have come up with a bounded algorithm that can fairly divide a cake among any...
10th Nov 2016
Computer scientists have come up with a bounded algorithm that can fairly divide a cake among any number of people.
The post How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Apoorva Srinivasan
niceR code with functional programming
At the end of this blog post, you will be able to:
Describe functional programming concepts
Write...
15th Oct 2020
At the end of this blog post, you will be able to:
Describe functional programming concepts
Write functional programming code using purrr package in R
If you are anything like me, you probably focused primarily on learning statistics, machine learning and programming on a...
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 […]
NeuroLogica Blog
Was Jesus a Con Artist?
Let me start out by saying that I think the answer to that question is no – but this requires lots...
1st Aug 2024
Let me start out by saying that I think the answer to that question is no – but this requires lots of clarification. This was, however, the discussion here, while although poorly informed, does raise some interesting questions. This is a Tik Tok video of a popular podcast which...
Long Now
Paul Saffo: Embracing Uncertainty: the secret to effective forecasting
### Rules of Forecasting
Reflecting on his 25 years as a forecaster, Paul Saffo pointed out that a...
12th Jan 2008
### Rules of Forecasting
Reflecting on his 25 years as a forecaster, Paul Saffo pointed out that a forecaster's job is not to predict outcomes, but to map the "cone of uncertainty" on a subject. Where are the edges of what might happen? (Uncertainty is cone-shaped because it...
SubAnima
The Forgotten Piece of Evolutionary Theory
What if we took the 'struggle for life' seriously again?
22nd Jul 2023
What if we took the 'struggle for life' seriously again?
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 Works in...
Issue 17: No great stagnation in cruise ships
Plus: animals as chemical factories, how progress lost its glamour, and how Madrid built 120 miles...
5th Dec 2024
Plus: animals as chemical factories, how progress lost its glamour, and how Madrid built 120 miles of metro in twelve years.
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
Peter Calthorpe: Urban Planet
Throughout Peter Calthorpe's decade-spanning career in urban design, planning, and architecture, he...
6th Aug 2020
Throughout Peter Calthorpe's decade-spanning career in urban design, planning, and architecture, he has developed and practiced the key principles of [New Urbanism](https://www.cnu.org/resources/what-new-urbanism): that the most successful places are diverse in uses and users,...
Long Now
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
### 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...
Long Now
Neal Stephenson: Neal Stephenson - Fall, or Dodge in Hell
Neal Stephenson author of _Fall, or Dodge in Hell_ in conversation with Long Now Board Member, Kevin...
14th Aug 2019
Neal Stephenson author of _Fall, or Dodge in Hell_ in conversation with Long Now Board Member, Kevin Kelly.
Tickets included a signed copy of _Fall, or Dodge in Hell_.
[_Fall, or Dodge in Hell_](https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062458711/fall-or-dodge-in-hell/) is pure,...
Long Now
Sam Harris: The View from the End of the World
### On necessary heresy
With gentle demeanor and tight argument, Sam Harris carried an overflow...
10th Dec 2005
### On necessary heresy
With gentle demeanor and tight argument, Sam Harris carried an overflow audience into the core of one of the crucial issues of our time: What makes some religions lethal? How do they employ aggressive irrationality to justify threatening and controlling...
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...
Apoorva Srinivasan
what's happened since the human genome project
When the human genome project was deemed “complete” in 2003, it was met with incredible fanfare. The...
17th May 2022
When the human genome project was deemed “complete” in 2003, it was met with incredible fanfare. The entire project leading up to that moment had all the drama to keep its audience enthralled. Fierce rivalry between a public and private institution, multiple countries involved,...
Long Now
John Rendon: Long-term Policy to Make the War on Terror Short
### Only connect
John Rendon, head of The Rendon Group, is a senior communications consultant to...
15th Jul 2006
### Only connect
John Rendon, head of The Rendon Group, is a senior communications consultant to the White Houses and Departments of Defense. His subject in this talk is how to replace tactical, reactive response to terror with long-term strategic initative.
I think that people...
Conservation...
A climate ally needs support — but at what cost?
8th Jul 2025
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
Long Now
Phillip Longman: The Depopulation Problem
### The depopulation problem
Full PDF of the talk...
14th Aug 2004
### The depopulation problem
Full PDF of the talk [here](http://static.longnow.org/seminars/020040813-longman/salt-020040813-longman.pdf "PDF"), slideshow [here](https://media.longnow.org/salt-slides/Longman.html "The Depopulation Problem").
No need to summarize this time....
The Quanta Podcast
Mathematical Simplicity May Drive Evolution’s Speed
Some researchers are using a complexity framework thought to be purely theoretical to understand...
31st Oct 2019
Some researchers are using a complexity framework thought to be purely theoretical to understand evolutionary dynamics in biological and computational systems.
The post Mathematical Simplicity May Drive Evolution’s Speed first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Drew Ex Machina
The Promise of MIDAS: The First Experimental Early Warning Satellites
Today in the United States we almost take for granted the military’s ability to detect missile...
19th Jul 2023
Today in the United States we almost take for granted the military’s ability to detect missile launches anywhere on the planet and quickly determine whether it […]
Conservation...
This El Niño is different. Here’s why
2 weeks ago
wadertales
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
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...
Inverted Passion
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
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...
Peder M. Isager
Meta-research at the Psychological Science Accelerator
Summary of unconference session at Tilburg Meta-research day 2019.
17th Dec 2019
Summary of unconference session at Tilburg Meta-research day 2019.
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2020, 1)
Internet Harvest is a selection of the most succulent links on the internet that I’ve recently...
1st Feb 2020
Internet Harvest is a selection of the most succulent links on the internet that I’ve recently plucked from its fruitful boughs.
Quantum Frontiers
Winners of the Quantum-Steampunk Short-Story Contest
During the past seven months, I’ve steamed across the Atlantic, sailed in a flying castle,...
1st May 2023
During the past seven months, I’ve steamed across the Atlantic, sailed in a flying castle, teleported across the globe, and shuttled forward and backward in time. Literarily, not literally—the Quantum-Steampunk Short-Story Contest began welcoming submissions in October 2022. We...
Conservation...
Climate Week: Money, nature and what really matters
14th May 2024
The Quanta Podcast
To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love....
2nd Mar 2017
The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them.
The post To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Long Now
Margaret Levi: The Organized Pursuit of Knowledge
The human quest to understand our world continues. The Director of Stanford’s [Center for Advanced...
18th Apr 2018
The human quest to understand our world continues. The Director of Stanford’s [Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS)](http://casbs.stanford.edu/) discusses how academics and researchers have organized the study of human action, society, and institutions...
lcamtuf’s thing
Approximation game
The number 22/7 and the pigeon flock of Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet.
28th Feb 2026
The number 22/7 and the pigeon flock of Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet.
The Roots of...
What I’ve been reading, March 2023
A new monthly feature, let me know what you think.
Books
Matt Ridley, How Innovation Works (2020)....
9th Mar 2023
A new monthly feature, let me know what you think.
Books
Matt Ridley, How Innovation Works (2020). About halfway through, lots of interesting case studies, very readable.
Vaclav Smil, Creating the Twentieth Century (2005). I read the first chapter; saving the rest of it for when...
Works in Progress...
Advancing antivenom
Snakebites kill between 80,000 and 140,000 people every year. Better antivenom should be a high...
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.
Quantum Frontiers
Quantum computing vs. Grubhub
pon receiving my speaking assignments for the Tucson Festival of Books, I mentally raised my...
3rd Apr 2023
pon receiving my speaking assignments for the Tucson Festival of Books, I mentally raised my eyebrows. I’d be participating in a panel discussion with Mike Evans, the founder of Grubhub? But I hadn’t created an app that’s a household name. I … Continue reading →
Conservation...
In the news: Climate change is scrambling food production
3rd Mar 2025
ToughSF
Nuclear Conversion for Starship
There has been much discussion about converting the SpaceX Starship to use nuclear propulsion. It...
14th Oct 2021
There has been much discussion about converting the SpaceX Starship to use nuclear propulsion. It would allow for a great increase in specific impulse and a massive extension of mission capabilities.
But is it actually worthwhile?
The image above is modified from...
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
Long Now
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
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...
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 […]
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Time Toxicity - A Real-World Example | Out-Of-Pocket
Being sick is already annoying, now I gotta spend time on the phone???
3rd Jan 2024
Being sick is already annoying, now I gotta spend time on the phone???
Wanderingspace
URANUS FROM THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE
This is not natural light, nothing is from Webb. The infrared image combines data from two filters...
21st Jul 2023
This is not natural light, nothing is from Webb. The infrared image combines data from two filters which are shown in blue and orange,. The planet displays a blue hue in the resulting representative-color image which is similar to the planet’s actual color. But in reality Uranus...
Long Now
Benjamin Barber: If Mayors Ruled the World
### City-based global governance
Sovereign nation states have conspicuously failed to cooperate...
6th Jun 2012
### City-based global governance
Sovereign nation states have conspicuously failed to cooperate well enough to deal with increasingly global problems such as climate change, environmental degradation, and organized crime, Barber said. Nations focus on their borders, which are...
lcamtuf’s thing
Sierpiński triangle? In my bitwise AND?
Exploring a peculiar bit-twiddling hack at the intersection of 1980s geek sensibilities.
10th May 2025
Exploring a peculiar bit-twiddling hack at the intersection of 1980s geek sensibilities.
The Roots of...
Where is the YIMBY movement for healthcare?
In the progress movement, some cause areas are about technical breakthroughs, such as fusion power...
10th May 2025
In the progress movement, some cause areas are about technical breakthroughs, such as fusion power or a cure for aging. In other areas, the problems are not technical, but social. Housing, for instance, is technologically a solved problem. We know how to build houses, but housing...
Long Now
Kevin Kelly: The Next 30 Digital Years
## Digital is just getting started
In Kevin Kelly’s view, a dozen “inevitable” trends will drive...
15th Jul 2016
## Digital is just getting started
In Kevin Kelly’s view, a dozen “inevitable” trends will drive the next 30 years of digital progress. Artificial smartnesses, for example, will be added to everything, all quite different from human intelligence and from each other. We will tap...
Long Now
Dmitry Orlov: Social Collapse Best Practices
### Managing social collapse
With vintage Russian black humor, Orlov described the social collapse...
14th Feb 2009
### Managing social collapse
With vintage Russian black humor, Orlov described the social collapse he witnessed in Russia in the 1990s and spelled out its practical lessons for the American social collapse he sees as inevitable. The American economy in the 1990s described itself...
The Works in...
The end of lead
How a single taxi ride saved millions of lives
3rd Jul 2025
How a single taxi ride saved millions of lives
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.
Quantum Frontiers
Interacting collaborators reveal noninteracting fermions
By day, I work as an experimentalist on laser-cooling molecules, but I’ve never fully surrendered my...
10th Aug 2026
By day, I work as an experimentalist on laser-cooling molecules, but I’ve never fully surrendered my theoretical-physics license. I started as an undergraduate in Lincoln Carr’s group at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO. I learned from his … Continue reading →
Long Now
Niall Ferguson: Networks and Power
“This time is different.”
Historians: “Ha.”
“The Net is net beneficial.”
Historian Niall...
13th Dec 2018
“This time is different.”
Historians: “Ha.”
“The Net is net beneficial.”
Historian Niall Ferguson: “Globalization is in crisis. Populism is on the march. Authoritarian states are ascendant. Technology meanwhile marches inexorably ahead, threatening to render most human beings...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
Two of My Science-Fiction Stories Published in May
View this email in your browser A Change of Pace from Astronomy News As you may know, I have been...
2nd Jun 2025
View this email in your browser A Change of Pace from Astronomy News As you may know, I have been writing science-fiction stories based on good astronomy as my retirement project. After a good number of rejections from the finest sci-fi magazines the world over, I am now...
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.
Drew Ex Machina
Memories of Project RAMOS (Russian American Observation Satellites) 1991 – 2004
During the course of my professional career, one of the more important projects I had the pleasure...
29th Sep 2023
During the course of my professional career, one of the more important projects I had the pleasure to work on was the joint US/Russian Federation (RF) […]
NeuroLogica Blog
The New TIGR-Tas Gene Editing System
Remember CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) – that new gene-editing...
3rd Mar 2025
Remember CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) – that new gene-editing system which is faster and cheaper than anything that came before it? CRISPR is derived from bacterial systems which uses guide RNA to target a specific sequence on a DNA strand....
Inverted Passion
The two views of rationality
This essay is part of the series in which I talk about my learnings and insights building a habit...
1st Mar 2026
This essay is part of the series in which I talk about my learnings and insights building a habit coaching app (Nintee) in 2024. It didn’t ultimately work out because an app has marginal influence in a human’s life (v/s that of friends, family, culture and immediate environment)....
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?
John Salvatier
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
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”...
Works in Progress...
Every grain of rice
As climate change threatens crop yields, we need a second Green Revolution – one that, this time, is...
22nd May 2023
As climate change threatens crop yields, we need a second Green Revolution – one that, this time, is driven by genetic engineering.
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.
Long Now
Edward O. Wilson: The Social Conquest of Earth
### The real creation story
“History makes no sense without prehistory,“ Wilson declared, “and...
21st Apr 2012
### The real creation story
“History makes no sense without prehistory,“ Wilson declared, “and prehistory makes no sense without biology.” He began by noting that every religion has a different creation story, all of them necessarily based on ignorance of what really happened in...
brr
South Pole Signage
Please close doors quietly!
23rd Jul 2023
Please close doors quietly!
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Transforming Healthcare Data with Tuva Health | Out-Of-Pocket
The nitty, gritty, and shitty of working with health data
1st Nov 2023
The nitty, gritty, and shitty of working with health data
Long Now
Jimmy Wales: Vision: Wikipedia and the Future of Free Culture
### Community-built content rules
Vision is one of the most powerful forms of long-term thinking....
15th Apr 2006
### Community-built content rules
Vision is one of the most powerful forms of long-term thinking. Jimmy Wales, founder and president of the all-embracing online encyclopedia Wikipedia, examines how vision drives and defines that project and its strategy-- and how it fits into...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
(Ethically dubious) ways to give patients more choice | Out-Of-Pocket
Do these ideas give you the ick? Or is there something interesting here
4th Sep 2025
Do these ideas give you the ick? Or is there something interesting here
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Some Common Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Angels | Out-Of-Pocket
With some real decks and emails!
21st Feb 2024
With some real decks and emails!
Peder M. Isager
Ganging Up on Psychological Science
Sometimes, the costs of doing good science outgrow the resources available to the individual...
31st Aug 2018
Sometimes, the costs of doing good science outgrow the resources available to the individual scientist. Large scale collaboration projects are quickly becoming our best tool for dealing with this problem in psychology.
Peder M. Isager
Four one-sided test of significance (FOST). Dear reader, does this make sense?
In this blog post I propose a four one-sided test of significance (FOST) that can be used to test...
24th May 2024
In this blog post I propose a four one-sided test of significance (FOST) that can be used to test whether an effect is smaller than OR larger than OR equivalent to the smallest effect size of interest. I lay out the general setup and interpretation of FOST, and ask readers to...
Stephen Wolfram...
What If We Had Bigger Brains? Imagining Minds beyond Ours
Cats Don’t Talk
We humans have perhaps 100 billion neurons in our brains. But what if we had many...
21st May 2025
Cats Don’t Talk
We humans have perhaps 100 billion neurons in our brains. But what if we had many more? Or what if the AIs we built effectively had many more? What kinds of things might then become possible? At 100 billion neurons, we know, for example, that compositional...
Quanta Magazine
In a ‘Dark Dimension,’ Physicists Search for the Universe’s Missing Matter
An idea derived from string theory suggests that dark matter is hiding in a (relatively) large extra...
1st Feb 2024
An idea derived from string theory suggests that dark matter is hiding in a (relatively) large extra dimension. The theory makes testable predictions that physicists are investigating now.
The post In a ‘Dark Dimension,’ Physicists Search for the Universe’s Missing...
Long Now
Ed Lu: Anthropocene Astronomy: Thwarting Dangerous Asteroids Begins with Finding Them
### The last killer asteroid
Kevin Kelly wrote the following about Ed Lu’s Seminar About Long-term...
19th Jun 2013
### The last killer asteroid
Kevin Kelly wrote the following about Ed Lu’s Seminar About Long-term Thinking (SALT) titled “Anthropocene Astronomy: Thwarting Dangerous Asteroids Begins with Finding Them”...
Last night's SALT talk was one of the most important ones we ever...
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 […]
Quanta Magazine
Microbes Gained Photosynthesis Superpowers From a ‘Proton Pump’
New research reveals how marine microbes use an extra membrane that once had digestive functions to...
5th Jul 2023
New research reveals how marine microbes use an extra membrane that once had digestive functions to boost their yield from photosynthesis.
The post Microbes Gained Photosynthesis Superpowers From a ‘Proton Pump’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Eukaryote Writes...
The rare, deadly virus lurking in the Southwest US, and the bigger picture
If you live in this one county in California, you might be more likely to die from Sin Nombre Virus...
14th Nov 2025
If you live in this one county in California, you might be more likely to die from Sin Nombre Virus than in a car crash.
The Quanta Podcast
A Math Theory for Why People Hallucinate
Psychedelic drugs can trigger characteristic hallucinations, which have long been thought to hold...
5th Jul 2019
Psychedelic drugs can trigger characteristic hallucinations, which have long been thought to hold clues about the brain’s circuitry. After nearly a century of study, a possible explanation is crystallizing.
The post A Math Theory for Why People Hallucinate first...
Works in Progress...
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
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...
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.
Asterisk
We’re All One Crisis Away From Taking Unlicensed Research Peptides
For health hackers, the risk is not experimenting.
3rd Jun 2026
For health hackers, the risk is not experimenting.
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 –...
“I Swallowed a Martian” and Water on Mars
The history of water on Mars allows us to wonder if the planet ever had life.
The post “I Swallowed...
14th Jul 2026
The history of water on Mars allows us to wonder if the planet ever had life.
The post “I Swallowed a Martian” and Water on Mars appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
Long Now
Geoffrey B West: Why Cities Keep on Growing, Corporations Always Die, and Life Gets Faster
### Superlinear Cities
"It's hard to kill a city," West began, "but easy to kill a company." The...
26th Jul 2011
### Superlinear Cities
"It's hard to kill a city," West began, "but easy to kill a company." The mean life of companies is 10 years. Cities routinely survive even nuclear bombs. And "cities are the crucible of civilization." They are the major source of innovation and wealth...
Damn Interesting
This is Dang Interesting
Happy New Year! This has nothing to do with the new year.
We at this website know, reluctantly, that...
2nd Jan 2023
Happy New Year! This has nothing to do with the new year.
We at this website know, reluctantly, that “d*mn” is not always a welcome word. Additionally, we are aware that we have a few articles sporting even saltier vocabularies (settle down, Colonel Sanders!). Countless school...
Cremieux Recueil
Storks Take Orders From the State
Pronatal benefits and economic booms lead to greater numbers of births
2nd May 2025
Pronatal benefits and economic booms lead to greater numbers of births
NeuroLogica Blog
Problems with the Institute Of Noetic Sciences
I was interviewed recently for a Daily Beast article on recent research involving the Institute of...
1st May 2023
I was interviewed recently for a Daily Beast article on recent research involving the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Overall the article is very good, and author Maddie Bender was fair and reasonable in how I was quoted. I can’t always take that as a given. No matter how...
The Quanta Podcast
Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover
Through exacting geometric calculations, Philip Gibbs has found the smallest known cover for any...
6th Sep 2019
Through exacting geometric calculations, Philip Gibbs has found the smallest known cover for any possible shape.
The post Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Interaction Magic -...
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
I built a custom energy dashboard for my house using this beautiful, 2-bit colour, e-paper display. Hardware, software, data and design.
Casey Handmer's blog
Dittemore’s Law
A quick note to formalize some observations on elite organization dysfunction. The Space Mirror...
17th Jan 2025
A quick note to formalize some observations on elite organization dysfunction. The Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center in Florida commemorates the 25 US astronauts who have died in flight. Ron Dittemore is the retired former Space Shuttle program manager who was...
Conservation...
How an extraordinary new effort is giving sharks ‘a fighting chance’
1st Nov 2024
Interaction Magic -...
Light Engineering
Exploring the physics and engineering of light pipes, where optics and mechanical design meet.
4th Jun 2020
Exploring the physics and engineering of light pipes, where optics and mechanical design meet.
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How Value-Based Care Contracting Works with Accorded | Out-Of-Pocket
With calculators and contracts you can see yourself
19th Sep 2023
With calculators and contracts you can see yourself
nanoscale views
What is the Aharonov-Bohm effect?
After seeing this latest extremely good video from Veritasium, and looking back through my posts, I...
1st Feb 2026
After seeing this latest extremely good video from Veritasium, and looking back through my posts, I realized that while I've referenced it indirectly, I've never explicitly talked about the Aharonov-Bohm effect. The video is excellent, and that wikipedia page is pretty good, but...
Cremieux Recueil
National IQs Are Valid
National IQ estimates are robust, reliable, and realistic
16th Jan 2025
National IQ estimates are robust, reliable, and realistic
NeuroLogica Blog
Tong Test for Artificial General Intelligence
Most readers are probably familiar with the Turing Test – a concept proposed by early computing...
2nd Oct 2023
Most readers are probably familiar with the Turing Test – a concept proposed by early computing expert Alan Turing in 1950, and originally called “The Imitation Game”. The original paper is enlightening to read. Turing was not trying to answer the question “can machines think”....
Quanta Magazine
Why Everything in the Universe Turns More Complex
A new suggestion that complexity increases over time, not just in living organisms but in the...
2nd Apr 2025
A new suggestion that complexity increases over time, not just in living organisms but in the nonliving world, promises to rewrite notions of time and evolution.
The post Why Everything in the Universe Turns More Complex first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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 →
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...
The Quanta Podcast
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
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
Long Now
Cory Doctorow: The Coming Century of War Against Your Computer
### Who governs digital trust?
Doctorow framed the question this way: "Computers are everywhere....
1st Aug 2012
### Who governs digital trust?
Doctorow framed the question this way: "Computers are everywhere. They are now something we put our whole bodies into---airplanes, cars---and something we put into our bodies---pacemakers, cochlear implants. They HAVE to be trustworthy."
Sometimes...
wadertales
Moult, captured on camera
Autumn moult is an important part of the annual cycle of migratory shorebirds, typically squeezed in...
9th Oct 2025
Autumn moult is an important part of the annual cycle of migratory shorebirds, typically squeezed in between chick-rearing and the onset of winter. The process of changing an individual’s feathers lasts as long as the whole of the breeding season but is far well less well...
Inverted Passion
Don’t compete
The Internet is full of people winning all the time. Someone is traveling to exotic locations,...
22nd Mar 2025
The Internet is full of people winning all the time. Someone is traveling to exotic locations, someone else is raising funds, and another person is winning awards. Essentially, everyone around you is succeeding while you do spend your days as the nature intended – sleeping,...
Casey Handmer's blog
Anti-aging tech fixes demographic collapse
With the latest studies on GLP-1 drugs showing not just a drop in all-cause mortality but also an...
2nd Sep 2024
With the latest studies on GLP-1 drugs showing not just a drop in all-cause mortality but also an apparent slowing of aging, I thought I’d write a quick note on how I think this technology, if it replicates, can drastically improve our lives. It’s hard to believe I’m writing...
Eukaryote Writes...
Lichen as the common ancestor of all life on earth
The alternate "Lichen as last universal common ancestor" model, which I will refer to for...
2nd Apr 2026
The alternate "Lichen as last universal common ancestor" model, which I will refer to for convenience as “Big Lichen”, does not expect so little of mother nature.
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Climate Change Trends and Thoughts
Climate change is a challenging issue on multiple levels – it’s challenging for scientists to...
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...
Beautiful Public...
All of the 8,291 License Plates in America
States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations,...
21st Aug 2023
States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations, professions, sports teams, causes and other groups.
Quantum Frontiers
My favorite rocket scientist
Whenever someone protests, “I’m not a rocket scientist,” I think of my friend Jamie Rankin. Jamie is...
8th Jul 2024
Whenever someone protests, “I’m not a rocket scientist,” I think of my friend Jamie Rankin. Jamie is a researcher at Princeton University, and she showed me her lab this June. When I first met Jamie, she was testing instruments to … Continue reading →
Andrew Fraknoi –...
128 New Moons Found Around Saturn
An international team of astronomers announced recently that they had discovered 128 new, small...
9th Apr 2025
An international team of astronomers announced recently that they had discovered 128 new, small moons orbiting the planet Saturn. That brings the total number of moons known around the ringed planet to 274, breaking all planetary records. Jupiter, the runner-up, has “only” 95...
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.
Peder M. Isager
Bakeoff
Formspree makes it easy to receive submissions from HTML forms on your static website. Functional...
1st Jul 2019
Formspree makes it easy to receive submissions from HTML forms on your static website. Functional Form This theme has a form-to-email feature built in, thanks to the simple Formspree integration. All you need to activate the form is a valid recipient email address saved in the...
Quanta Magazine
A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness
“Anomalous” heat flow, which at first appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, gives...
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
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The New Wave of Concierge Medicine | Out-Of-Pocket
This episode of Out-Of-Pocket is brought to you by…
9th Jul 2024
This episode of Out-Of-Pocket is brought to you by…
Conservation...
To save coffee's future, 100 million trees — and counting
1st Apr 2026
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Patient Messaging Conundrum pt. 2 | Out-Of-Pocket
Some thoughts from an academic, a behavioral scientist, a patient, and more
3rd Oct 2023
Some thoughts from an academic, a behavioral scientist, a patient, and more
The Quanta Podcast
Pentagon Tiling Proof Solves Century-Old Math Problem
A French mathematician has completed the classification of all convex pentagons, and therefore all...
21st Sep 2017
A French mathematician has completed the classification of all convex pentagons, and therefore all convex polygons, that tile the plane.
The post Pentagon Tiling Proof Solves Century-Old Math Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Works in Progress...
Why Japan has such good railways
Japan’s railways are the finest in the world. Other countries can copy its formula.
7th Apr 2026
Japan’s railways are the finest in the world. Other countries can copy its formula.
Peder M. Isager
Choosing what to replicate - Efficient study selection in the modern age.
1st May 2020
wadertales
Inland feeding by coastal godwits
Species such as Dunlin and Knot are well-served by conservation measures that aim to protect...
10th Nov 2022
Species such as Dunlin and Knot are well-served by conservation measures that aim to protect estuaries but the same is not necessarily true for Black-tailed Godwits. In a 2022 paper in the journal Wader Study, Clément Jourdan and colleagues describe the movements of ten tagged...
The Quanta Podcast
A Zombie Gene Protects Elephants From Cancer
Elephants did not evolve to become huge animals until after they turned a bit of genetic junk into a...
12th Apr 2018
Elephants did not evolve to become huge animals until after they turned a bit of genetic junk into a unique defense against inevitable tumors.
The post A Zombie Gene Protects Elephants From Cancer first appeared on Quanta Magazine
SubAnima
You've Been Lied To About Genetics
Should we give Mendel's peas a chance? Nah, we've moved on.
20th Jan 2023
Should we give Mendel's peas a chance? Nah, we've moved on.
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2024, 1)
Free covid treatment for everyone in the US, a novel orthopox virus, a really big machine, cameras...
13th Mar 2024
Free covid treatment for everyone in the US, a novel orthopox virus, a really big machine, cameras used for good and evil, ant heaven now, and more.
IEEE Spectrum
Saving the Big Bang (Antenna)
The antenna that discovered a cosmic microwave background coming from all directions in...
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...
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...
The Quanta Podcast
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
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...
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.
Quantum Frontiers
Watch out for geese! My summer in Waterloo
It’s the beginning of another summer, and I’m looking forward to outdoor barbecues, swimming in...
6th Jun 2024
It’s the beginning of another summer, and I’m looking forward to outdoor barbecues, swimming in lakes and pools, and sharing my home-made ice cream with friends and family. One thing that I won’t encounter this summer, but I did last … Continue reading →
Long Now
Jane Langdale: Radical Ag: C4 Rice and Beyond
## Revolutionary rice
Feeding the world (and saving nature) in this populous century, Jane Langdale...
15th Mar 2016
## Revolutionary rice
Feeding the world (and saving nature) in this populous century, Jane Langdale began, depends entirely on agricultural efficiency—the ability to turn a given amount of land and sunlight into ever more food. And that depends on three forms of efficiency in...
Eukaryote Writes...
Recommendation: reports on the search for missing hiker Bill Ewasko
How to find someone who has died in the wilderness.
31st Jul 2024
How to find someone who has died in the wilderness.
Conservation...
News spotlight: Study buoys hope for rare axolotls
1st May 2025
The Roots of...
Event, Feb 29: “Towards a New Philosophy of Progress” in Boston and on Zoom
On Thursday, February 29, I’ll be giving my talk “Towards a New Philosophy of Progress” to the New...
21st Feb 2024
On Thursday, February 29, I’ll be giving my talk “Towards a New Philosophy of Progress” to the New England Legal Foundation, for their Economic Liberty Speaker Series. The talk will be held over breakfast at NELF’s offices in Boston, and will also be livestreamed over Zoom. See...
Andrew Fraknoi –...
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
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...
Cremieux Recueil
The Making of an Elite: Japanese Christians
Why are Japanese elites so likely to be Christian when Japan is a 99% non-Christian country?
7th Nov 2025
Why are Japanese elites so likely to be Christian when Japan is a 99% non-Christian country?
Long Now
Jenny Odell: Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock
Jenny Odell describes _Saving Time_, her second book and the inspiration for her first Long Now...
14th Apr 2023
Jenny Odell describes _Saving Time_, her second book and the inspiration for her first Long Now Talk, as a “panoramic assault on nihilism.”
The particular nihilism that Odell confronts is rooted in what she calls “Clock Time.” While the rigid, regular progression of clock time...
Many Worlds
Getting To Know Rogue Planets
In our Earthling minds, planets exist in solar systems with a Sun in the middle and objects large...
11th Aug 2023
In our Earthling minds, planets exist in solar systems with a Sun in the middle and objects large and small orbiting around it. This is hardly surprising since planets are pretty much exclusively illustrated in solar systems and, until the onset of the 21st century, no other...
IEEE Spectrum
A Cold War Kit for Surviving a Nuclear Attack
On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. Over the next year...
1st Aug 2025
On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. Over the next year and a half, U.S. President Harry S. Truman resurrected the Office of Civilian Defense (which had been abolished at the end of World War II) and signed into law the Federal Civil...
Asterisk
The State of American Science Funding (For the Next Five Minutes)
A comprehensive but nowhere near exhaustive overview of how the Trump Administration is impacting...
1st Jul 2025
A comprehensive but nowhere near exhaustive overview of how the Trump Administration is impacting American science.
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...
Long Now
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
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...
The Quanta Podcast
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
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...
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...
ToughSF
Hypervelocity Macron Accelerators
We
look at the various ways of accelerating micro-scale projectiles up to hypervelocity
(10-10,000...
27th Nov 2019
We
look at the various ways of accelerating micro-scale projectiles up to hypervelocity
(10-10,000 km/s) and their use in space.
Going
small to go fast
Macrons
or macroscopic particles are tiny projectiles that sit on the border between
the complex structures we see under a...
Works in Progress...
The ultimate horse
Selective breeding has pushed horses to the limits of biology. But at what cost?
5th Aug 2026
Selective breeding has pushed horses to the limits of biology. But at what cost?
Asterisk
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
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?
Casey Handmer's blog
How to build a lunar mass driver
Casey Handmer May 2026 What? Elon has recently (late 2025, early 2026) been talking about building...
8th May 2026
Casey Handmer May 2026 What? Elon has recently (late 2025, early 2026) been talking about building many terawatts of orbital AI compute and launching some components from Moon factories with a mass driver. This is an old idea, enabled by …
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.
Andrew Fraknoi –...
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
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...
Interaction Magic -...
Think outside the screen
Nobody likes stroking a pane of glass, so why do we love touchscreens so much? Let's build...
10th Nov 2018
Nobody likes stroking a pane of glass, so why do we love touchscreens so much? Let's build distributed interfaces that work.
Quantum Frontiers
The sequel
This October, fantasy readers are devouring a sequel: the final installment in Philip Pullman’s...
27th Oct 2025
This October, fantasy readers are devouring a sequel: the final installment in Philip Pullman’s trilogy The Book of Dust. The series follows student Lyra Silvertongue as she journeys from Oxford to the far east. Her story features alternate worlds, souls … Continue reading →
Quanta Magazine
Merging Fields, Mathematicians Go the Distance On Old Problem
Mathematicians have illuminated what sets of points can look like if the distances between them are...
1st Apr 2024
Mathematicians have illuminated what sets of points can look like if the distances between them are all whole numbers.
The post Merging Fields, Mathematicians Go the Distance On Old Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Conservation...
‘A profound loss’: Conservation world mourns Jane Goodall
1st Oct 2025
Stephen Wolfram...
Can AI Solve Science?
Note: Click any diagram to get Wolfram Language code to reproduce it. Wolfram Language code for...
5th Mar 2024
Note: Click any diagram to get Wolfram Language code to reproduce it. Wolfram Language code for training the neural nets used here is also available (requires GPU). Won’t AI Eventually Be Able to Do Everything? Particularly given its recent surprise successes, there’s a somewhat...
Long Now
Michael West: The Prospects of Human Life Extension
### Ever longer life
Our germline cells (eggs and sperm) are already immortal. What if the rest of...
13th Nov 2004
### Ever longer life
Our germline cells (eggs and sperm) are already immortal. What if the rest of the cells of our body could acquire the same ability? Tissue by tissue, one degenerative disease after another, it could gradually happen in the course of one or two human...
Interaction Magic -...
The last design you'll ever make
Designing from cradle to grave is no longer good enough. We need to postpone that grave as long as...
7th Dec 2021
Designing from cradle to grave is no longer good enough. We need to postpone that grave as long as possible. This is how to design for a right to repair.
Long Now
Ramez Naam: Enhancing Humans, Advancing Humanity
### Enhancing humans and humanity
Beginning with the accelerating pace of biotech tools for human...
23rd Jul 2015
### Enhancing humans and humanity
Beginning with the accelerating pace of biotech tools for human health and enhancement, Naam noted that health issues such as disease prevention will be drastically easier to implement than enhancement. Preventing some hereditary diseases can be...
Quanta Magazine
How Randomness Improves Algorithms
Unpredictability can help computer scientists solve otherwise intractable problems.
The...
3rd Apr 2023
Unpredictability can help computer scientists solve otherwise intractable problems.
The post How Randomness Improves Algorithms first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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
The Quanta Podcast
The Grand Unified Theory of Rogue Waves
Rogue waves — enigmatic giants of the sea — were thought to be caused by two different mechanisms....
5th Nov 2020
Rogue waves — enigmatic giants of the sea — were thought to be caused by two different mechanisms. But a new idea that borrows from the hinterlands of probability theory has the potential to predict them all.
The post The Grand Unified Theory of Rogue Waves first...
Inverted Passion
How mind bootstraps itself
Daniel Dennett, who recently passed away, is an inspiration for people like me who love grand ideas...
1st Jun 2026
Daniel Dennett, who recently passed away, is an inspiration for people like me who love grand ideas that connect many different fields at a deep level (and be rigorous about that; well as rigorous as grand theories can be). His thinking is difficult to categorize: part...
Drew Ex Machina
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
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 […]
Eukaryote Writes...
Good posts from the Inkhaven blogging residency
Cannot stress this enough: literally everyone at the writing residency was good at this. Maybe...
28th Feb 2026
Cannot stress this enough: literally everyone at the writing residency was good at this. Maybe you'll find a new favorite blog among these.
Long Now
Sylvia Earle & Tierney Thys: Oceanic
### Oceans alive
Neither of them eats fish.
Both marine biologists applaud the improved regulation...
21st May 2014
### Oceans alive
Neither of them eats fish.
Both marine biologists applaud the improved regulation of American fishing and the resulting recovery of important fisheries, but they note that 90% of our seafood is imported, and one-third of that is caught illegally. Two-thirds of...
Long Now
Rip Anderson & Gwyneth Cravens: Power to Save the World
### Nuclear Footprint
In the early 1980s Gwyneth Cravens was one of the protesters against the...
15th Sep 2007
### Nuclear Footprint
In the early 1980s Gwyneth Cravens was one of the protesters against the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant on Long Island, and also participated in ban-the-bomb rallies. After 15 years of deepening familiarity with nuclear power, she says she still would ban the...
Cremieux Recueil
Viagra for Life Extension
Does it work? I'm doubtful
1st Jun 2026
Does it work? I'm doubtful
The Works in...
Issue 12: Houston, we have a solution
Plus: How Mexico built its state, the causes of the Baby Boom, and the 141-year quest for a malaria...
7th Sep 2023
Plus: How Mexico built its state, the causes of the Baby Boom, and the 141-year quest for a malaria vaccine.
Cremieux Recueil
Why America’s Racial Poverty Statistics Are a Lesson for Researchers
What if a single government employee could tell you an entire literature was wrong?
26th Aug 2024
What if a single government employee could tell you an entire literature was wrong?
Quantum Frontiers
Eight highlights from publishing a science book for the general public
What’s it like to publish a book? I’ve faced the question again and again this year, as my book...
19th Dec 2022
What’s it like to publish a book? I’ve faced the question again and again this year, as my book Quantum Steampunk hit bookshelves in April. Two responses suggest themselves. On the one hand, I channel the Beatles: It’s a hard … Continue reading →
Cremieux Recueil
How To Get Cheap Ozempic
Or other, more effective GLP-1 drugs
12th Mar 2025
Or other, more effective GLP-1 drugs
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...
Long Now
James Fallows: Civilization's Infrastructure
### Infrastructure investment tricks
All societies under-invest in their infrastructure—in the...
7th Oct 2015
### Infrastructure investment tricks
All societies under-invest in their infrastructure—in the systems that allow them to thrive. There is hardware infrastructure: clean water, paved roads, sewer systems, airports, broadband; and, Fallows suggested, software infrastructure:...
Probably...
Bayesian Decision Analysis
At PyData Global 2025 I presented a workshop on Bayesian Decision Analysis with PyMC. The video is...
9th Jan 2026
At PyData Global 2025 I presented a workshop on Bayesian Decision Analysis with PyMC. The video is available now. This workshop is based on the first session of the Applied Bayesian Modeling Workshop I teach along with my colleagues at PyMC Labs. If you would like to learn more,...
Asterisk
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart AIs Are?
Scientists have repeatedly failed to recognize the complexity of animal cognition. Will we make the...
1st Jun 2023
Scientists have repeatedly failed to recognize the complexity of animal cognition. Will we make the same mistakes with AI?
Conservation...
Despite dire headlines, ‘it would be a mistake to write off tropical forests’
19th Feb 2024
The Quanta Podcast
A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order
Scientists are exploring a mysterious pattern, found in birds’ eyes, boxes of marbles and other...
5th Aug 2016
Scientists are exploring a mysterious pattern, found in birds’ eyes, boxes of marbles and other surprising places, that is neither regular nor random.
The post A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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...
Quantum Frontiers
Mo’ heights mo’ challenges – Climbing mount grad school
My wife’s love of mountain hiking and my interest in quantum thermodynamics collided in Telluride,...
4th Oct 2022
My wife’s love of mountain hiking and my interest in quantum thermodynamics collided in Telluride, Colorado. We spent ten days in Telluride, where I spoke at the Information Engines at the Frontiers of Nanoscale Thermodynamics workshop. Telluride is a gorgeous … Continue reading...
lcamtuf’s thing
How much of HN is AI?
TL;DR: As of June 2026, ~50% of daily top stories are about AI or generated by AI.
12th Mar 2026
TL;DR: As of June 2026, ~50% of daily top stories are about AI or generated by AI.
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
wadertales
When mates behave differently
Iceland’s 40,000 Oystercatchers are an interesting mix of resident birds and migrants, providing an...
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...
Long Now
James Carse: Religious War In Light of the Infinite Game
### Finite and infinite games
Countless readers have been hooked by the opening line of James P....
15th Jan 2005
### Finite and infinite games
Countless readers have been hooked by the opening line of James P. Carse's [_Finite and Infinite Games_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345341848/qid=1105811409/lono0a-20) -- "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be...
Probably...
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
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...
Long Now
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
### 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...
Long Now
Wade Davis: The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World
### Native guidance
What does it mean to be human and alive?
The thousands of different cultures...
14th Jan 2010
### Native guidance
What does it mean to be human and alive?
The thousands of different cultures and languages on Earth have compellingly different answers to that question. "We are a wildly imaginative and creative species," Davis declared, and then proved it with his accounts...
Uncharted...
Warm Countries’ Poverty & Mountains: Responses to Your Comments
Geographic arguments against the theory: Switzerland, Austria, Colorado, India, Cambodia, Indonesia,...
1st Oct 2025
Geographic arguments against the theory: Switzerland, Austria, Colorado, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, China…Has race had any role in warm countries’ poverty?Does this disregard colonialism?
Asterisk
The Perplexing Appeal of <i>The Telepathy Tapes</i>
The Telepathy Tapes claims that autistic children have the ability to read minds. Where do their...
6th Nov 2025
The Telepathy Tapes claims that autistic children have the ability to read minds. Where do their claims come from — and why do so many people believe them?
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.
Quanta Magazine
Alan Turing and the Power of Negative Thinking
Mathematical proofs based on a technique called diagonalization can be relentlessly contrarian, but...
5th Sep 2023
Mathematical proofs based on a technique called diagonalization can be relentlessly contrarian, but they help reveal the limits of algorithms.
The post Alan Turing and the Power of Negative Thinking first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Articles - Chris...
Moved to tears
20 years ago, on January 15 2004, a little before 2 AM Pacific time, was
the payoff.
It was...
3rd Feb 2024
20 years ago, on January 15 2004, a little before 2 AM Pacific time, was
the payoff.
It was cause for celebration. But first, I wept.
Inverted Passion
How to coach someone
This essay is part of the series in which I talk about my learnings and insights building a habit...
5th Apr 2026
This essay is part of the series in which I talk about my learnings and insights building a habit coaching app (Nintee) in 2024. It didn’t ultimately work out because an app has marginal influence in a human’s life (v/s that of friends, family, culture and immediate environment)....
Stephen Wolfram...
On the Nature of Time
The Computational View of Time Time is a central feature of human experience. But what actually is...
8th Oct 2024
The Computational View of Time Time is a central feature of human experience. But what actually is it? In traditional scientific accounts it’s often represented as some kind of coordinate much like space (though a coordinate that for some reason is always systematically...
Damn Interesting
The Kingpin of Shanghai
Respectable heads of state rarely admit to keeping company with gangsters. But in April 1927, about...
26th Aug 2021
Respectable heads of state rarely admit to keeping company with gangsters. But in April 1927, about 15 years after the collapse of the last imperial dynasty, Chiang Kai-shek and China were at a crossroads. Chiang had followed a murky path to leadership of the Chinese Nationalist...
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!
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 ›
Probably...
Think DSP second edition
I have started work on a second edition of Think DSP! You can see the current draft here. I started...
4th Nov 2025
I have started work on a second edition of Think DSP! You can see the current draft here. I started this project in part because of this announcement: Once in a while, a few of the Scicloj friends will meet to learn about signal processing, following the Think DSP book by Allen...
Long Now
Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco, 5
### Lives of San Francisco
"You are the soundtrack," Prelinger told the capacity audience at the...
17th Dec 2010
### Lives of San Francisco
"You are the soundtrack," Prelinger told the capacity audience at the Herbst Theater, and they responded to his mostly silent archival films by calling out locations, questions, comments, and jokes.
They saw footage of a 1941 Market Street parade of...
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...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Common healthcare questions I get | Out-Of-Pocket
Some of your FAQs finally answered
4th Dec 2024
Some of your FAQs finally answered
Uncharted...
Should You Be Able to Experiment on Your Own Cancer?
A researcher in virology and immunotherapy got bad news: Her cancer was back with a vengeance; the...
26th Sep 2024
A researcher in virology and immunotherapy got bad news: Her cancer was back with a vengeance; the treatments weren’t working. She decided to treat it herself.
lcamtuf’s thing
Weekend projects: Chicken Squisher 3000
If it clucks like a duck...
14th Oct 2025
If it clucks like a duck...
The Quanta Podcast
A Long-Sought Proof, Found and Almost Lost
When a German retiree proved a famous long-standing mathematical conjecture, the response was...
1st Jun 2017
When a German retiree proved a famous long-standing mathematical conjecture, the response was underwhelming.
The post A Long-Sought Proof, Found and Almost Lost first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Eukaryote Writes...
Who invented knitting? The plot thickens
Last time on Eukaryote Writes Blog: You learned about knitting history. You thought you were done...
4th Feb 2023
Last time on Eukaryote Writes Blog: You learned about knitting history. You thought you were done learning about knitting history? You fool. You buffoon. I wanted to double check some things in the last post and found out that the origins of knitting are even weirder than I...
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