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The Works in...
How to become President of China with Dan Wang Episode five of the Works in Progress podcast is about why China outbuilds America
3 hours ago
Yale E360
How the Next Pandemic Could Emerge from an Aardvark Burrow Animals of all kinds mix and mingle in underground burrows, offering troubling opportunities for...
3 hours ago
1
3 hours ago
Animals of all kinds mix and mingle in underground burrows, offering troubling opportunities for diseases to jump species. Read more on E360 →
The Works in...
The beauty of batteries Keeping the grid stable requires overbuilding generation, driving up costs. Batteries fix that.
20 hours ago
Quanta Magazine
Astrophysicists Find No ‘Hair’ on Black Holes According to Einstein’s theory of gravity, black holes have only a small handful of distinguishing...
22 hours ago
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22 hours ago
According to Einstein’s theory of gravity, black holes have only a small handful of distinguishing characteristics. Quantum theory implies they may have more. Now an experimental search finds that any of this extra ‘hair’ has to be pretty short. The post...
IEEE Spectrum
It’s the End of the Line for AOL’s Dial-Up Service The last time I used a dial-up modem came sometime around 2001. Within just a few years, dial-up had...
22 hours ago
2
22 hours ago
The last time I used a dial-up modem came sometime around 2001. Within just a few years, dial-up had exited my life, never to return. I haven’t even had a telephone line in my house for most of my adult life. But I still feel a strong tinge of sadness to know that AOL is...
Yale E360
The Best Wildlife Photography of the Year Every year the Natural History Museum in London honors the best wildlife photographers from around...
yesterday
3
yesterday
Every year the Natural History Museum in London honors the best wildlife photographers from around the world, highlighting 100 extraordinary photos of nature. This year, the finalists were selected from more than 60,000 entries and feature dynamic portraits of wildlife alongside...
wadertales
Identifying key areas of Iceland for wader conservation In the same way that geological maps tell mining companies where to look for precious metals, new...
yesterday
5
yesterday
In the same way that geological maps tell mining companies where to look for precious metals, new bird maps, produced by Verónica Méndez and colleagues in a paper in Wildlife Biology, highlight the areas of Iceland most likely to hold significant populations of breeding waders....
Yale E360
Map Reveals Toxic Pollution Leaking from U.S. Drilling Sites Scientists have shown that U.S. oil and gas drilling sites are not just leaking methane but also a...
3 days ago
4
3 days ago
Scientists have shown that U.S. oil and gas drilling sites are not just leaking methane but also a host of toxic chemicals that pose an urgent threat to the health of those living nearby. A new interactive map details the impact of hundreds of major leaks. Read more on E360 →
Quanta Magazine
‘Ten Martini’ Proof Uses Number Theory to Explain Quantum Fractals The proof, known to be so hard that a mathematician once offered 10 martinis to whoever could figure...
3 days ago
5
3 days ago
The proof, known to be so hard that a mathematician once offered 10 martinis to whoever could figure it out, connects quantum mechanics to infinitely intricate mathematical structures. The post ‘Ten Martini’ Proof Uses Number Theory to Explain Quantum Fractals first...
Beautiful Public...
How LiDAR measures the toll of climate disasters Comparing LiDAR data from before and after the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles reveals the scale...
3 days ago
9
3 days ago
Comparing LiDAR data from before and after the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles reveals the scale of devastation in ways satellite imagery can’t match.
NeuroLogica Blog
Brightest Fast Radio Burst Discovered The universe is a big place, and it is full of mysteries. Really bright objects, that can be seen...
3 days ago
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3 days ago
The universe is a big place, and it is full of mysteries. Really bright objects, that can be seen from millions or even billions of light years away, can therefore be found, even if they are extremely rare. This is true of fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are extremely bright and...
Yale E360
In the Yucatan, the High Cost of a Boom in Factory Hog Farms In “Slaughter-land” — the First-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — two...
3 days ago
5
3 days ago
In “Slaughter-land” — the First-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — two Latin American filmmakers document how hundreds of mega-farms that contain tens of thousands of pigs are trampling Indigenous rights and befouling the air and water in the...
nanoscale views
Learning and AI/LLMs - Why do we need to know or teach anything anymore? The fall semester is about to begin at my university, and I'm going to be teaching undergraduate...
4 days ago
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4 days ago
The fall semester is about to begin at my university, and I'm going to be teaching undergraduate statistical and thermal physics.  This is a course I've taught before, last full term in 2019, and the mass availability of large language models and generative AI tools have changed...
Quanta Magazine
Busy Beaver Hunters Reach Numbers That Overwhelm Ordinary Math The quest to find the longest-running simple computer program has identified a new champion. It’s...
6 days ago
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6 days ago
The quest to find the longest-running simple computer program has identified a new champion. It’s physically impossible to write out the numbers involved using standard mathematical notation. The post Busy Beaver Hunters Reach Numbers That Overwhelm Ordinary Math...
Yale E360
Wildfires Burning Less Land but Threatening More People A growing number of people globally are seeing wildfires encroach on their homes. That is not...
6 days ago
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6 days ago
A growing number of people globally are seeing wildfires encroach on their homes. That is not because wildfires are burning more land, however. Over the last two decades, the number of acres burned has dropped. The growing exposure to fires, a new study finds, is driven by the...
IEEE Spectrum
The 60-Year Old Algorithm Underlying Today’s Tech CT scanning, streaming videos, and sending images over the Internet wouldn’t be possible without the...
a week ago
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a week ago
CT scanning, streaming videos, and sending images over the Internet wouldn’t be possible without the Fast Fourier transform. Commonly known as FFT, the computer algorithm designed by researchers at Princeton University and IBM is found in just about every electronic device,...
NeuroLogica Blog
A New Way to Watch Foreign Language Films Watch this movie trailer before reading on. What did you think? This is an independent Swedish film,...
a week ago
10
a week ago
Watch this movie trailer before reading on. What did you think? This is an independent Swedish film, originally filmed in Swedish, and then dubbed into English. However, it wasn’t just dubbed in the conventional way – AI was used to convert the facial movements of the actors to...
Quanta Magazine
Do Beautiful Birds Have an Evolutionary Advantage? Richard Prum explains why he thinks feathers and vibrant traits in birds evolved not solely for...
a week ago
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a week ago
Richard Prum explains why he thinks feathers and vibrant traits in birds evolved not solely for survival, but also through aesthetic choice. The post Do Beautiful Birds Have an Evolutionary Advantage? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Pixel Tracking, Healthcare Advertising, And HIPAA | Out-Of-Pocket And what Ours Privacy does here
a week ago
Quanta Magazine
The Pursuit of Life Where It Seems Unimaginable A decade ago, Karen Lloyd discovered single-celled microbes living beneath the seafloor. Now she...
a week ago
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a week ago
A decade ago, Karen Lloyd discovered single-celled microbes living beneath the seafloor. Now she studies how they can survive in Earth’s crust, possibly for hundreds or thousands of years, and push life’s limits of time and energy. The post The Pursuit of Life Where...
The Works in...
How a Norwegian chemist defeated lead paint Lead paint was banned. Before that, it was outcompeted by a cheap and safe alternative.
a week ago
Yale E360
In Scotland, Whale Strandings Have More Than Tripled Over the past three decades, the number of whale strandings in Scotland has grown dramatically, a...
a week ago
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a week ago
Over the past three decades, the number of whale strandings in Scotland has grown dramatically, a new study shows. Scientists say pollution and industrial noise may be driving the losses. Read more on E360 →
Blog - Practical...
California’s Tallest Bridge Has Nothing Underneath [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Foresthill Bridge soars across...
a week ago
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a week ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Foresthill Bridge soars across the valley of the North Fork of the American River just outside Auburn, California. At more than 700 feet or 200 meters above the canyon floor, it’s the fourth-tallest bridge in...
Yale E360
In the Transition to Renewable Energy, China Is at a Crossroads For the first time, wind and solar are beginning to displace coal power in China, causing emissions...
a week ago
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a week ago
For the first time, wind and solar are beginning to displace coal power in China, causing emissions to drop. Analyst Lauri Myllyvirta explores the challenges ahead for policymakers, who must now choose between propping up coal or doubling down on the shift to clean energy. Read...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Why Radiology AI Didn’t Work and What Comes Next | Out-Of-Pocket FDA Approvals, PACS Pain, Selling Point Solutions, and Why Radiology AI Needed a Rethink
a week ago
Yale E360
As Greenland Melts, Sea Life Blooms Meltwater flowing from the Greenland ice sheet is stirring up nutrients from the ocean depths,...
a week ago
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a week ago
Meltwater flowing from the Greenland ice sheet is stirring up nutrients from the ocean depths, fueling algal blooms. A new study reveals the extent to which melting is driving the growth of algae. Read more on E360 →
Quanta Magazine
Quasicrystals Spill Secrets of Their Formation New studies of the ‘platypus of materials’ help explain how their atoms arrange themselves into...
a week ago
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a week ago
New studies of the ‘platypus of materials’ help explain how their atoms arrange themselves into orderly, but nonrepeating, patterns. The post Quasicrystals Spill Secrets of Their Formation first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Chat-GPT 5 Is Out I have been using Chat GPT since it was first released, so I was interested to see how much of an...
a week ago
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a week ago
I have been using Chat GPT since it was first released, so I was interested to see how much of an upgrade the new Chat-GPT 5 is. For those of you living in a luddite cave, Chat-GPT is one of the new artificial intelligence (AI) applications known as an LLM, or large language...
Yale E360
In India, a Young Poacher Evolves into a Committed Conservationist In “Chasing Birds” — Second-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — filmmaker...
a week ago
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a week ago
In “Chasing Birds” — Second-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — filmmaker Salma Sultana Barbhuiya explores how Rustom Basumatary, who came of age during a time of violent conflict in the Indian state of Assam, found identity and purpose in nature. Read...
wadertales
Peatland restoration – ploughing for plovers. Commercial forestry was never a good option for the wet peatlands of northeast Scotland, with...
a week ago
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a week ago
Commercial forestry was never a good option for the wet peatlands of northeast Scotland, with planting financed by tax subsidies and sold on the mantra of ‘rural jobs’. The trees did not grow well and, thirty years on, more government money started to be spent to restore the same...
nanoscale views
20 years of Nanoscale Views, + a couple of things to read Amazingly, this blog has now been around for more than twenty years (!) - see this first post for...
a week ago
16
a week ago
Amazingly, this blog has now been around for more than twenty years (!) - see this first post for reference from June of 2005, when I had much less gray hair and there were a lot more science blogs.  Thanks to all of you for sticking around. Back then, when I debuted my writing...
The Works in...
China's most overrated asset with Mike Bird Episode four of the Works in Progress podcast is about land.
a week ago
Quanta Magazine
New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder For decades, mathematicians have struggled to understand matrices that reflect both order and...
a week ago
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a week ago
For decades, mathematicians have struggled to understand matrices that reflect both order and randomness, like those that model semiconductors. A new method could change that. The post New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder first appeared on Quanta...
Yale E360
Once Again, Oil States Thwart Agreement on Plastics Diplomats from around the world concluded nine days of talks in Geneva — plus a marathon overnight...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Diplomats from around the world concluded nine days of talks in Geneva — plus a marathon overnight session that lasted into the early hours of Friday — with no agreement on a global plastics treaty. Read more on E360 →
Quanta Magazine
The AI Was Fed Sloppy Code. It Turned Into Something Evil. The new science of “emergent misalignment” explores how PG-13 training data — insecure code,...
2 weeks ago
20
2 weeks ago
The new science of “emergent misalignment” explores how PG-13 training data — insecure code, superstitious numbers or even extreme-sports advice — can open the door to AI’s dark side. The post The AI Was Fed Sloppy Code. It Turned Into Something Evil. first appeared...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How Should We Evaluate Healthcare AI? Some Thoughts | Out-Of-Pocket Maybe we’re thinking about all of these papers the wrong way
2 weeks ago
Yale E360
The Amazon Rainforest Approaches a Point of No Return In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest —...
2 weeks ago
12
2 weeks ago
In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — Brazilian filmmakers capture striking images of clear-cutting and explore how human activity is so damaging the world’s largest rainforest that it will not be able to recover. Read more...
NeuroLogica Blog
Lithium and Alzheimer’s Disease This is an interesting story, and I am trying to moderate my optimism. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the...
2 weeks ago
12
2 weeks ago
This is an interesting story, and I am trying to moderate my optimism. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the major cause of dementia in humans, is a very complex disease. We have been studying it for decades, revealing numerous clues as to what kicks it off, what causes it to progress,...
Quanta Magazine
What Does It Mean To Be Thirsty? The effects of insufficient water are felt by every cell in the body, but it’s the brain that...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
The effects of insufficient water are felt by every cell in the body, but it’s the brain that manifests our experience of thirst. The post What Does It Mean To Be Thirsty? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Mini-Nuclear Reactors I was sent this news item, Air Force To Use Wyoming-Made Portable Nuclear Reactors To Power Bases,...
2 weeks ago
15
2 weeks ago
I was sent this news item, Air Force To Use Wyoming-Made Portable Nuclear Reactors To Power Bases, with the comment that this plan is reckless because it puts nuclear reactors in war zones. I disagree, however. Let’s take a look at the details. The background is that a company in...
Yale E360
In a Warming Atlantic, Hurricanes Increasingly Arrive in Groups As ocean waters heat up, the Atlantic is increasingly seeing not just one, but two or more...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
As ocean waters heat up, the Atlantic is increasingly seeing not just one, but two or more hurricanes spin up at the same time. That is the finding of a new study, which warns that warming is raising the risk that coastal cities may be battered by back-to-back storms.  Read more...
Yale E360
In a Warming Atlantic, Hurricanes Increasingly Arrive in Groups As ocean waters heat up, the Atlantic is increasingly seeing not just one, but two or more...
2 weeks ago
13
2 weeks ago
As ocean waters heat up, the Atlantic is increasingly seeing not just one, but two or more hurricanes spin up at the same time. That is the finding of a new study, which warns that warming is raising the risk that coastal cities may be battered by back-to-back storms.  Read more...
Quantum Frontiers
Nicole’s guide to writing research statements Sunflowers are blooming, stores are trumpeting back-to-school sales, and professors are scrambling...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Sunflowers are blooming, stores are trumpeting back-to-school sales, and professors are scrambling to chart out the courses they planned to develop in July. If you’re applying for an academic job this fall, now is the time to get your application … Continue reading →
Quanta Magazine
‘It’s a Mess’: A Brain-Bending Trip to Quantum Theory’s 100th Birthday Party Hundreds of physicists (and a few journalists) journeyed to Helgoland, the birthplace of quantum...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Hundreds of physicists (and a few journalists) journeyed to Helgoland, the birthplace of quantum mechanics, and grappled with what they have and haven’t learned about reality. The post ‘It’s a Mess’: A Brain-Bending Trip to Quantum Theory’s 100th Birthday Party first...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Some changes in Out-of-Pocket Land | Out-Of-Pocket
2 weeks ago
Yale E360
As Fire Season Ramps Up, Thousands of U.S. Firefighting Positions Are Vacant Every spring, Forest Service fire leaders meet to plan for the upcoming fire season. This year, some...
2 weeks ago
10
2 weeks ago
Every spring, Forest Service fire leaders meet to plan for the upcoming fire season. This year, some employees were shocked by the blunt remarks made during a meeting with forest supervisors and fire staff officers from across the Intermountain West. “We were told, ‘Help is not...
Yale E360
As Fire Season Ramps Up, Thousands of U.S. Firefighting Positions Are Vacant Every spring, Forest Service fire leaders meet to plan for the upcoming fire season. This year, some...
2 weeks ago
11
2 weeks ago
Every spring, Forest Service fire leaders meet to plan for the upcoming fire season. This year, some employees were shocked by the blunt remarks made during a meeting with forest supervisors and fire staff officers from across the Intermountain West. “We were told, ‘Help is not...
nanoscale views
Brief items - Static electricity, quantum geometry, Hubbard model, + news It's been a busy time that has cut into my blogging, but I wanted to point out some links from the...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
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...
Quanta Magazine
How Can Math Protect Our Data? Mary Wootters discusses how error-correcting codes work, and how they are essential for reliable...
2 weeks ago
15
2 weeks ago
Mary Wootters discusses how error-correcting codes work, and how they are essential for reliable communication and storage. The post How Can Math Protect Our Data? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
The Amazon Rainforest Approaches a Point of No Return In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest —...
3 weeks ago
7
3 weeks ago
In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — Brazilian filmmakers show striking images of clear-cutting and explore how human activity is so damaging the world’s largest rainforest that it will not be able to recover. Read more on...