Probably...
The mean of a Likert scale?
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous...
8 hours ago
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous installments are available from the Data Q&A landing page. likert_mean Likert scale analysis¶ Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics forum. I have collected data regarding how...
NeuroLogica Blog
Boeing Starliner Launches Soon
If all goes well, Boeing’s Starliner capsule will launch on Monday May 6th with two crew members...
10 hours ago
If all goes well, Boeing’s Starliner capsule will launch on Monday May 6th with two crew members aboard, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will be spending a week aboard the ISS. This is the last (hopefully) test of the new capsule, and if successful it will become officially...
Quanta Magazine
The Mystery of the Missing Multicellular Prokaryotes
Why have bacteria never evolved complex multicellularity? A new hypothesis suggests that it could...
yesterday
Why have bacteria never evolved complex multicellularity? A new hypothesis suggests that it could come down to how prokaryotic genomes respond to a small population size.
The post The Mystery of the Missing Multicellular Prokaryotes first appeared on Quanta...
NeuroLogica Blog
Understanding Jumbo Phage Viruses
Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, are the most abundant form of life on Earth. And yet...
yesterday
Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, are the most abundant form of life on Earth. And yet we know comparatively little about them. But in recent years phage research has taken off with renewed interest. This is partly driven by the availability of CRISPR-based tools for...
IEEE Spectrum
A Brief History of the World’s First Planetarium
In 1912, Oskar von Miller, an electrical engineer and founder of the Deutsches Museum, had an idea:...
2 days ago
In 1912, Oskar von Miller, an electrical engineer and founder of the Deutsches Museum, had an idea: Could you project an artificial starry sky onto a dome, as a way of demonstrating astronomical principles to the public?
It was such a novel concept that when von Miller approached...
Quanta Magazine
Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems
After years of false starts, a team of computer scientists has found a way to efficiently deduce the...
2 days ago
After years of false starts, a team of computer scientists has found a way to efficiently deduce the Hamiltonian of a physical system at any constant temperature.
The post Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Moiré and making superlattices
One of the biggest condensed matter trends in recent years has been the stacking of 2D materials and...
4 days ago
One of the biggest condensed matter trends in recent years has been the stacking of 2D materials and the development of moiré lattices. The idea is, take a layer of 2D material and stack it either (1) on itself but with a twist angle, or (2) on another material with a slightly...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Breaking Down Electronic Data Interchange, X12, and Stedi | Out-Of-Pocket
4 days ago
Quanta Magazine
How a NASA Probe Solved a Scorching Solar Mystery
The outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere are a blistering million degrees hotter than its surface....
4 days ago
The outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere are a blistering million degrees hotter than its surface. The hidden culprit? Magnetic activity.
The post How a NASA Probe Solved a Scorching Solar Mystery first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
AI-Fueled Scams
Digital life is getting more dangerous. Literally every day I have to fend off attempts at scamming...
4 days ago
Digital life is getting more dangerous. Literally every day I have to fend off attempts at scamming me in one way or another. I get texts trying to lure me into responding. I get e-mails hoping I will click a malicious link on a reflex. I get phone calls from people warning me...
Probably...
Testing Percentiles
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous...
5 days ago
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous installments are available from the Data Q&A landing page. test_percentile Testing percentiles¶ Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics forum. I have two different samples (about 100...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Physics of Flocks
Most people have watched large flocks of birds. They are fascinating, and have interested scientists...
a week ago
Most people have watched large flocks of birds. They are fascinating, and have interested scientists for a long time. How, exactly, do so many birds maintain their cohesion as a flock? It’s obviously a dynamic process, but what are the mechanisms? When I was young I was taught...
Quanta Magazine
Does AI Know What an Apple Is? She Aims to Find Out.
The computer scientist Ellie Pavlick is translating philosophical concepts such as “meaning” into...
a week ago
The computer scientist Ellie Pavlick is translating philosophical concepts such as “meaning” into concrete, testable ideas.
The post Does AI Know What an Apple Is? She Aims to Find Out. first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
“Mission-driven” should be more specific | Out-Of-Pocket
everything is a set of tradeoffs, let's be honest about that
a week ago
everything is a set of tradeoffs, let's be honest about that
Quanta Magazine
What Does Milk Do for Babies?
Human nutrition begins with milk, but the wondrous biofluid does much more than feed babies. In this...
a week ago
Human nutrition begins with milk, but the wondrous biofluid does much more than feed babies. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz speaks with molecular nutritionist Elizabeth Johnson about her research into the impact of human milk on a healthy microbiome.
The...
Quantum Frontiers
To thermalize, or not to thermalize, that is the question.
If Hamlet had been a system of noncommuting charges, his famous soliloquy may have gone like this…...
a week ago
If Hamlet had been a system of noncommuting charges, his famous soliloquy may have gone like this… To thermalize, or not to thermalize, that is the question:Whether ’tis more natural for the system to sufferThe large entanglement of thermalizing dynamics,Or … Continue reading →
Quanta Magazine
Ecologists Struggle to Get a Grip on ‘Keystone Species’
More than 50 years after Bob Paine’s experiment with starfish, hundreds of species have been...
a week ago
More than 50 years after Bob Paine’s experiment with starfish, hundreds of species have been pronounced “keystones” in their ecosystems. Has the powerful metaphor lost its mathematical meaning?
The post Ecologists Struggle to Get a Grip on ‘Keystone Species’ first...
The Works in...
Apply to come to Invisible College
Our new residential seminar for 18 to 22-year-olds, during August 2024
a week ago
Our new residential seminar for 18 to 22-year-olds, during August 2024
Quanta Magazine
AI Starts to Sift Through String Theory’s Near-Endless Possibilities
Using machine learning, string theorists are finally showing how microscopic configurations of extra...
a week ago
Using machine learning, string theorists are finally showing how microscopic configurations of extra dimensions translate into sets of elementary particles — though not yet those of our universe.
The post AI Starts to Sift Through String Theory’s Near-Endless...
NeuroLogica Blog
UFOs and SGU on John Oliver
The most recent episode of John Oliver, Last Week Tonight, featured a discussion of the UFO...
a week ago
The most recent episode of John Oliver, Last Week Tonight, featured a discussion of the UFO phenomenon. I’m always interested, and often disappointed, in how the mainstream media portrays skeptical topics. One interesting addition here is that Oliver actually referenced an SGU...
Quanta Magazine
Mathematicians Marvel at ‘Crazy’ Cuts Through Four Dimensions
Topologists prove two new results that bring some order to the confoundingly difficult study of...
a week ago
Topologists prove two new results that bring some order to the confoundingly difficult study of four-dimensional shapes.
The post Mathematicians Marvel at ‘Crazy’ Cuts Through Four Dimensions first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Indigenous Knowledge
I recently received the following question to the SGU e-mail: “I have had several conversations with...
a week ago
I recently received the following question to the SGU e-mail: “I have had several conversations with friends/colleagues lately regarding indigenous beliefs/stories. They assert that not believing these based on oral histories alone is morally wrong and ignoring a different...
Probably...
What does “strength” mean?
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous...
a week ago
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. Previous installments are available from the Data Q&A landing page. corr_trend What does “strength” mean?¶ Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics forum. I am currently doing a uni assignment...
IEEE Spectrum
Robert Kahn: The Great Interconnector
In the mid-1960s, Robert Kahn began thinking about how computers with different operating systems...
a week ago
In the mid-1960s, Robert Kahn began thinking about how computers with different operating systems could talk to each other across a network. He didn’t think much about what they would say to one another, though. He was a theoretical guy, on leave from the faculty of the...
The Works in...
How Israel turned homeowners into YIMBYs
A housing success story
2 weeks ago
Quanta Magazine
Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness, Experts Declare
A group of prominent biologists and philosophers announced a new consensus: There’s “a realistic...
2 weeks ago
A group of prominent biologists and philosophers announced a new consensus: There’s “a realistic possibility” that insects, octopuses, crustaceans, fish and other overlooked animals experience consciousness.
The post Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness,...
NeuroLogica Blog
New Generation of Electric Robots
Boston Dynamics (now owned by Hyundai) has revealed its electric version of its Atlas robot. These...
2 weeks ago
Boston Dynamics (now owned by Hyundai) has revealed its electric version of its Atlas robot. These robot videos always look impressive, but at the very least we know that we are seeing the best take. We don’t know how many times the robot failed to get the one great video. There...
IEEE Spectrum
50 Years Later, This Apollo-Era Antenna Still Talks to Voyager 2
For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they...
2 weeks ago
For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they explore our solar system and push into the beyond. The DSS-43 radio antenna, located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, near Canberra, Australia, keeps open the line...
Quanta Magazine
Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier
Researchers have shown how to find the simplest description of a data set faster than by simply ...
2 weeks ago
Researchers have shown how to find the simplest description of a data set faster than by simply checking every possibility.
The post Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Musings on CVS, two-way negotiation, and venture studios | Out-Of-Pocket
+ we're hosting another dinner! and courses ending!
2 weeks ago
+ we're hosting another dinner! and courses ending!
Quanta Magazine
Hopes of Big Bang Discoveries Ride on a Future Spacecraft
Physicists and cosmologists will have a new probe of primordial processes when Europe launches the...
2 weeks ago
Physicists and cosmologists will have a new probe of primordial processes when Europe launches the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) next decade.
The post Hopes of Big Bang Discoveries Ride on a Future Spacecraft first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Probably...
What does a confidence interval mean?
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. In general, I will...
2 weeks ago
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. In general, I will try to focus on practical problems, but this one is a little more philosophical. confidence What does a confidence interval mean?¶ Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics...
Wanderingspace
Eclipse 2024 from Space
https://twitter.com/ThePlanetaryGuy
2 weeks ago
https://twitter.com/ThePlanetaryGuy
Blog - Practical...
Connecting Solar to the Grid is Harder Than You Think
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
On June 4, 2022, a small piece...
2 weeks ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
On June 4, 2022, a small piece of equipment (called a lightning arrestor) at a power plant in Odessa, Texas failed, causing part of the plant to trip offline. It was a fairly typical fault that happens from...
Quanta Magazine
Pleasure or Pain? He Maps the Neural Circuits That Decide.
The work of the neuroscientist Ishmail Abdus-Saboor has opened up a world of insights into precisely...
2 weeks ago
The work of the neuroscientist Ishmail Abdus-Saboor has opened up a world of insights into precisely how much pleasure and pain animals experience during different forms of touch.
The post Pleasure or Pain? He Maps the Neural Circuits That Decide. first appeared on...
NeuroLogica Blog
Evolution and Copy-Paste Errors
Evolution deniers (I know there is a spectrum, but generally speaking) are terrible scientists and...
2 weeks ago
Evolution deniers (I know there is a spectrum, but generally speaking) are terrible scientists and logicians. The obvious reason is because they are committing the primary mortal sin of pseudoscience – working backwards from a desired conclusion rather than following evidence and...
nanoscale views
The future of the semiconductor industry, + The Mechanical Universe
Three items of interest:
This article is a nice review of present semiconductor memory...
2 weeks ago
Three items of interest:
This article is a nice review of present semiconductor memory technology. The electron micrographs in Fig. 1 and the scaling history in Fig. 3 are impressive.
This article in IEEE Spectrum is a very interesting look at how some people think we will get...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Healthcare Ideas That Look Good But Are Bad | Out-Of-Pocket
clinical trial matching, "find a specialist", and more
2 weeks ago
clinical trial matching, "find a specialist", and more
Quanta Magazine
Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits
Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning...
2 weeks ago
Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning missions to far-off moons and planets.
The post Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Using AI To Create Virtual Environments
Generative AI applications seem to be on the steep part of the development curve – not only is the...
2 weeks ago
Generative AI applications seem to be on the steep part of the development curve – not only is the technology getting better, but people are finding more and more uses for it. It’s a new powerful tool with broad applicability, and so there are countless startups and researchers...
Quantum Frontiers
How I didn’t become a philosopher (but wound up presenting a named philosophy lecture anyway)
Many people ask why I became a theoretical physicist. The answer runs through philosophy—which I...
2 weeks ago
Many people ask why I became a theoretical physicist. The answer runs through philosophy—which I thought, for years, I’d left behind in college. My formal relationship with philosophy originated with Mr. Bohrer. My high school classified him as a religion … Continue reading →
Probably...
Standard deviation of a count
This post is part of a new project with the working title Data Q&A: Answering the real questions...
2 weeks ago
This post is part of a new project with the working title Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. In each installment, I’ll take a question from Reddit’s statistics forum and answer it, using Python code to demonstrate. My answer is in a Jupyter notebook — see the...
Eukaryote Writes...
Carl Sagan, nuking the moon, and not nuking the moon
Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the...
2 weeks ago
Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the moon.” The truth is that given a lot of power, a nuclear weapon, and a lot of extremely specific circumstances, we too might find ourselves thinking “I should nuke the moon.”
nanoscale views
Electronic structure and a couple of fun links
Real life has been very busy recently. Posting will hopefully pick up soon.
One brief item. ...
2 weeks ago
Real life has been very busy recently. Posting will hopefully pick up soon.
One brief item. Earlier this week, Rice hosted Gabi Kotliar for a distinguished lecture, and he gave a very nice, pedagogical talk about different approaches to electronic structure calculations. ...
Quanta Magazine
How Do Machines ‘Grok’ Data?
By apparently overtraining them, researchers have seen neural networks discover novel solutions to...
3 weeks ago
By apparently overtraining them, researchers have seen neural networks discover novel solutions to problems.
The post How Do Machines ‘Grok’ Data? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Works in...
Should you infect yourself with Zika?
What life is like in a challenge trial
3 weeks ago
What life is like in a challenge trial
Quanta Magazine
Can Information Escape a Black Hole?
Black holes are inescapable traps for most of what falls into them — but there can be exceptions....
3 weeks ago
Black holes are inescapable traps for most of what falls into them — but there can be exceptions. The theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind speaks with co-host Janna Levin about the black hole information paradox and how it has propelled modern physics.
The post Can...
NeuroLogica Blog
Reconductoring our Electrical Grid
Over the weekend when I was in Dallas for the eclipse, I ran into a local businessman who works in...
3 weeks ago
Over the weekend when I was in Dallas for the eclipse, I ran into a local businessman who works in the energy sector, mainly involved in new solar projects. This is not surprising as Texas is second only to California in solar installation. I asked him if he is experiencing a...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How To (Properly) Text Patients | Out-Of-Pocket
Do’s and don’ts + tactical tips from an actual doctor
3 weeks ago
Do’s and don’ts + tactical tips from an actual doctor
Quanta Magazine
Avi Wigderson, Complexity Theory Pioneer, Wins Turing Award
The prolific researcher found deep connections between randomness and computation and spent a career...
3 weeks ago
The prolific researcher found deep connections between randomness and computation and spent a career influencing cryptographers, complexity researchers and more.
The post Avi Wigderson, Complexity Theory Pioneer, Wins Turing Award first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Probably...
Data Q&A
Today I’m starting a new project with the working title Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with...
3 weeks ago
Today I’m starting a new project with the working title Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. In each installment, I’ll take a question from Reddit’s statistics forum and answer it, using Python code to demonstrate. The first installment is a question about the...
Beautiful Public...
Trademark Design Codes
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a system of 1,400 descriptive "design codes"...
3 weeks ago
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a system of 1,400 descriptive "design codes" allowing you to search for trademarks with “Rickshaws”, “Centaurs” or “Mechanical women”.
Quanta Magazine
Number of Distances Separating Points Has a New Bound
Mathematicians have struggled to prove Falconer’s Conjecture, a simple, but far-reaching, hypothesis...
3 weeks ago
Mathematicians have struggled to prove Falconer’s Conjecture, a simple, but far-reaching, hypothesis about the distances between points. They’re finally getting close.
The post Number of Distances Separating Points Has a New Bound first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Wanderingspace
Dust Storm On Mars
A dust storm in Olympia Planum's north polar dune fields was triggered by a late Martian summer cold...
3 weeks ago
A dust storm in Olympia Planum's north polar dune fields was triggered by a late Martian summer cold front. As the northern polar cap shrinks fast, it releases cold air that sometimes moves south, like on Earth. These cold fronts strengthen in late summer and early fall due to...
NeuroLogica Blog
Eclipse 2024
I am currently in Dallas Texas waiting to see, hopefully, the 2024 total solar eclipse. This would...
3 weeks ago
I am currently in Dallas Texas waiting to see, hopefully, the 2024 total solar eclipse. This would be my first total eclipse, and everything I have heard indicates that it is an incredible experience. Unfortunately, the weather calls for some clouds, although forecasts have been...
IEEE Spectrum
How Engineers at Digital Equipment Corp. Saved Ethernet
I’ve enjoyed reading magazine articles about Ethernet’s 50th anniversary, including one in the The...
3 weeks ago
I’ve enjoyed reading magazine articles about Ethernet’s 50th anniversary, including one in the The Institute. Invented by computer scientists Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs, Ethernet has been extraordinarily impactful. Metcalfe, an IEEE Fellow, received the 1996 IEEE Medal of...
Explorations of an...
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 6: A Long, Sketchy Drive To Find Atuen Antpittas (February 8, 2024)
One of the fun aspects of birding during this particular period of history is that our understanding...
4 weeks ago
One of the fun aspects of birding during this particular period of history is that our understanding of how birds are related to each other is changing rapidly. Back in the "old days", our collective knowledge of these topics was a bit more rudimentary. Species were grouped...
Quanta Magazine
How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science
The timing of the total eclipse on April 8, 2024, will be known to within a second, thousands of...
4 weeks ago
The timing of the total eclipse on April 8, 2024, will be known to within a second, thousands of years after fearful humans first started trying to anticipate these cosmic events.
The post How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science first...
IEEE Spectrum
The Rise and Fall of 3M’s Floppy Disk
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the...
a month ago
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the end of the long tail.
if you look on 3M’s own website, you will see no mention of this legacy—it’s a firm that sells abrasive materials, adhesive tapes, filters, films, personal...
Explorations of an...
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 5: The Marañón Valley (February 7, 2024)
February 7, 2024
The Marañón Valley is one of the most important biogeographical boundaries in the...
a month ago
February 7, 2024
The Marañón Valley is one of the most important biogeographical boundaries in the Andes. Situated in northwestern Peru, the valley follows the Marañón River which flows northward across plateaus in the Andes. After cutting through a very deep, heavily eroded...
Blog - Practical...
How Do Fish Ladders Work?
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Building a dam imparts a...
a month ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Building a dam imparts a stupendous change to the environment, and as with any change, there are winners and losers. The winners are usually us, people, through hydropower generation, protection from flooding,...
Quanta Magazine
Overexposure Distorted the Science of Mirror Neurons
After a decade out of the spotlight, the brain cells once alleged to explain empathy, autism and...
a month ago
After a decade out of the spotlight, the brain cells once alleged to explain empathy, autism and theory of mind are being refined and redefined.
The post Overexposure Distorted the Science of Mirror Neurons first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Works in...
Getting people to donate their organs
Too few people donate their organs, dead or alive. How can we make it easier?
a month ago
Too few people donate their organs, dead or alive. How can we make it easier?
NeuroLogica Blog
AI Designed Drugs
On a recent SGU live streaming discussion someone in the chat asked – aren’t frivolous AI...
a month ago
On a recent SGU live streaming discussion someone in the chat asked – aren’t frivolous AI applications just toys without any useful output? The question was meant to downplay recent advances in generative AI. I pointed out that the question is a bit circular – aren’t frivolous...
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...
a month ago
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
NeuroLogica Blog
What to Make of Havana Syndrome
I have not written before about Havana Syndrome, mostly because I have not been able to come to any...
a month ago
I have not written before about Havana Syndrome, mostly because I have not been able to come to any strong conclusions about it. In 2016 there was a cluster of strange neurological symptoms among people working at the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba. They would suddenly experience...
IEEE Spectrum
Why L. Ron Hubbard Patented His E-Meter
zombie mysteries, historical fiction, pirate adventure tales, and westerns.
science fiction. The...
a month ago
zombie mysteries, historical fiction, pirate adventure tales, and westerns.
science fiction. The publishers of Astounding Science Fiction approached Hubbard to write stories that focused on people, rather than robots and machines. His first story, “The Dangerous Dimension,” was...
nanoscale views
Thoughts on undergrad solid-state content
Figuring out what to include in an undergraduate introduction to solid-state physics course is...
a month ago
Figuring out what to include in an undergraduate introduction to solid-state physics course is always a challenge. Books like the present incarnation of Kittel are overstuffed with more content than can readily fit in a one-semester course, and because that book has grown...
Explorations of an...
A Quest Nature Tour Of Jamaica
The Caribbean island of Jamaica is a naturalist’s paradise. Situated south of eastern Cuba, east of...
a month ago
The Caribbean island of Jamaica is a naturalist’s paradise. Situated south of eastern Cuba, east of Honduras and north of Colombia, Jamaica has an interesting assemblage of species with different origins. Jamaica was never connected to the mainland throughout its long geological...
NeuroLogica Blog
Is Music Getting Simpler
I don’t think I know anyone personally who doesn’t have strong opinions about music – which genres...
a month ago
I don’t think I know anyone personally who doesn’t have strong opinions about music – which genres they like, and how the quality of music may have changed over time. My own sense is that music as a cultural phenomenon is incredibly complex, no one (in my social group) really...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Medical Tourism: A Tarpit Idea | Out-Of-Pocket
trust me, you're not the first to look into this
a month ago
trust me, you're not the first to look into this
Quanta Magazine
The Social Benefits of Getting Our Brains in Sync
Our brain waves can align when we work and play closely together. The phenomenon, known as...
a month ago
Our brain waves can align when we work and play closely together. The phenomenon, known as interbrain synchrony, suggests that collaboration is biological.
The post The Social Benefits of Getting Our Brains in Sync first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Drew Ex Machina
Drew Ex Machina 10th Anniversary: Top Ten Posts
I find it difficult to believe but, it was ten years ago today that I posted the first article on my...
a month ago
I find it difficult to believe but, it was ten years ago today that I posted the first article on my then-new website, Drew Ex Machina. […]
Chris Grossack's...
Talk -- What is Factorization Homology?
I was recently invited to speak at the AMS Sectional in
Tallahassee, Florida. In particular, at the...
a month ago
I was recently invited to speak at the AMS Sectional in
Tallahassee, Florida. In particular, at the special session on
Homotopy Theory and Category Theory in Interaction. The
conference was this weekend, and I’m typing this up on my
plane ride home. I had a great time, and...
Quanta Magazine
Topologists Tackle the Trouble With Poll Placement
Mathematicians are using topological abstractions to find places where it’s hard to vote. ...
a month ago
Mathematicians are using topological abstractions to find places where it’s hard to vote.
The post Topologists Tackle the Trouble With Poll Placement first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
The Experience Machine Thought Experiment
In 1974 Robert Nozick published the book, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, in which he posed the...
a month ago
In 1974 Robert Nozick published the book, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, in which he posed the following thought experiment: If you could be plugged into an “experience machine” (what we would likely call today a virtual reality or “Matrix”) that could perfectly replicate real-life...
Quanta Magazine
The Best Qubits for Quantum Computing Might Just Be Atoms
In the search for the most scalable hardware to use for quantum computers, qubits made of individual...
a month ago
In the search for the most scalable hardware to use for quantum computers, qubits made of individual atoms are having a breakout moment.
The post The Best Qubits for Quantum Computing Might Just Be Atoms first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Man Gets Pig Kidney Transplant
On March 16 surgeons transplanted a kidney taken from a pig into a human recipient, Rick Slayman. So...
a month ago
On March 16 surgeons transplanted a kidney taken from a pig into a human recipient, Rick Slayman. So far the transplant is a success, but of course the real test will be how well the kidney functions and for how long. This is the first time such a transplant has been done into a...
Quantum Frontiers
My experimental adventures in quantum thermodynamics
Imagine a billiard ball bouncing around on a pool table. High-school level physics enables us to...
a month ago
Imagine a billiard ball bouncing around on a pool table. High-school level physics enables us to predict its motion until the end of time using simple equations for energy and momentum conservation, as long as you know the initial conditions … Continue reading →
nanoscale views
Items of interest
The time since the APS meeting has been very busy, hence the lack of posting. A few items of...
a month ago
The time since the APS meeting has been very busy, hence the lack of posting. A few items of interest:
The present issue of Nature Physics has several articles about physics education that I really want to read.
This past week we hosted N. Peter Armitage for a really fun...
Chris Grossack's...
Proving Another "Real Theorem" with Topos Theory
Another day, another post that starts with “So I was on mse…”, lol.
Somebody asked whether...
a month ago
Another day, another post that starts with “So I was on mse…”, lol.
Somebody asked whether maximizing over a compact set is a continuous thing
to do. That is, given a continuous function $f : K \times X \to \mathbb{R}$ is the
function $x \mapsto \max_{k \in K} f(k,x)$...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
OOP Slack final reminder | Out-Of-Pocket
it's the final countdownnnnn
a month ago
it's the final countdownnnnn
Quanta Magazine
Math That Connects Where We’re Going to Where We’ve Been
Recursion builds bridges between ideas from across different math classes and illustrates the power...
a month ago
Recursion builds bridges between ideas from across different math classes and illustrates the power of creative mathematical thinking.
The post Math That Connects Where We’re Going to Where We’ve Been first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Damn Interesting
A Trail Gone Cold
Iceland is known to the rest of the world as the land of Vikings and volcanos, an island caught...
a month ago
Iceland is known to the rest of the world as the land of Vikings and volcanos, an island caught between continents at the extremities of the map. Remote and comparatively inhospitable, it was settled only as long ago as the 9th century, and has seen little additional in-migration...
IEEE Spectrum
The Story Behind Pixar’s RenderMan CGI Software
Watching movies and TV series that use digital visual effects to create fantastical worlds lets...
a month ago
Watching movies and TV series that use digital visual effects to create fantastical worlds lets people escape reality for a few hours. Thanks to advancements in computer-generated technology used to produce films and shows, those worlds are highly realistic. In many cases, it can...
Quanta Magazine
How Chain-of-Thought Reasoning Helps Neural Networks Compute
Large language models do better at solving problems when they show their work. Researchers are...
a month ago
Large language models do better at solving problems when they show their work. Researchers are beginning to understand why.
The post How Chain-of-Thought Reasoning Helps Neural Networks Compute first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Using CRISPR To Treat HIV
CRISPR has been big scientific news since it was introduced in 2012. The science actually goes back...
a month ago
CRISPR has been big scientific news since it was introduced in 2012. The science actually goes back to 1987, but the CRISPR/Cas9 system was patented in 2012, and the developers won the Noble Prize in Chemistry in 2020. The system gives researchers the ability to quickly and...
Quantum Frontiers
Noncommuting charges are much like Batman
Understanding a character’s origins enriches their narrative and motivates their actions. Take...
a month ago
Understanding a character’s origins enriches their narrative and motivates their actions. Take Batman as an example: without knowing his backstory, he appears merely as a billionaire who might achieve more by donating his wealth rather than masquerading as a bat … Continue...
Quanta Magazine
Michel Talagrand Wins Abel Prize for Work Wrangling Randomness
The French mathematician spent decades developing a set of tools now widely used for taming random...
a month ago
The French mathematician spent decades developing a set of tools now widely used for taming random processes.
The post Michel Talagrand Wins Abel Prize for Work Wrangling Randomness first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
How the Hawaiian Power Grid Works
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
In January of 2024, right on...
a month ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
In January of 2024, right on the heels of a serious drought across the state, a major storm slammed into the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Kauai. Severe winds caused damage to buildings, and heavy rain flooded...
Quanta Magazine
Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Explain Value of Shock Therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy is highly effective in treating major depressive disorder, but no one...
a month ago
Electroconvulsive therapy is highly effective in treating major depressive disorder, but no one knows why it works. New research suggests it may restore balance between excitation and inhibition in the brain.
The post Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Explain Value of...
NeuroLogica Blog
Energy Demand Increasing
For the last two decades electricity demand in the US has been fairly flat. While it has been...
a month ago
For the last two decades electricity demand in the US has been fairly flat. While it has been increasing overall, the increase has been very low. This has been largely attributed to the fact that as the use of electrical devices has increased, the efficiency of those devices has...
Quantum Frontiers
The quantum gold rush
Even if you don’t recognize the name, you probably recognize the saguaro cactus. It’s the archetype...
a month ago
Even if you don’t recognize the name, you probably recognize the saguaro cactus. It’s the archetype of the cactus, a column from which protrude arms bent at right angles like elbows. As my husband pointed out, the cactus emoji is … Continue reading →
NeuroLogica Blog
What Is a Grand Conspiracy?
Ah, the categorization question again. This is an endless, but much needed, endeavor within human...
a month ago
Ah, the categorization question again. This is an endless, but much needed, endeavor within human intellectual activity. We have the need to categorize things, if for no other reason than we need to communicate with each other about them. Often skeptics, like myself, talk about...
Quanta Magazine
Swirling Forces, Crushing Pressures Measured in the Proton
Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of...
a month ago
Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of energies, forces and pressures inside a subatomic particle for the first time.
The post Swirling Forces, Crushing Pressures Measured in the Proton first appeared on Quanta...
Eukaryote Writes...
Internet Harvest (2024, 1)
Free covid treatment for everyone in the US, a novel orthopox virus, a really big machine, cameras...
a month ago
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.
Quanta Magazine
Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do
Researchers have shown that a problem relating to the energy of a quantum system is easy for quantum...
a month ago
Researchers have shown that a problem relating to the energy of a quantum system is easy for quantum computers but hard for classical ones.
The post Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Explorations of an...
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 4: Hits And Misses With Rare Endemics (February 5 and 6, 2024)
February 5, 2024
Today's plan was to complete the drive to Cajamarca, stop for Unicolored Tapaculos...
a month ago
February 5, 2024
Today's plan was to complete the drive to Cajamarca, stop for Unicolored Tapaculos on the way, and then spend the rest of the day at a particular river valley where the Gray-bellied Comet is regularly seen. Therefore, since we did not have any early morning...
NeuroLogica Blog
Pentagon Report – No UFOs
In response to a recent surge in interest in alien phenomena and claims that the US government is...
a month ago
In response to a recent surge in interest in alien phenomena and claims that the US government is hiding what it knows about extraterrestrials, the Pentagon established a committee to investigate the question – the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). They have recently...
Quanta Magazine
Tiny Tweaks to Neurons Can Rewire Animal Motion
Altering a protein in the neurons that coordinate a rattlesnake’s movement made a slow slither...
a month ago
Altering a protein in the neurons that coordinate a rattlesnake’s movement made a slow slither neuron more like a speedy rattle neuron, showing one way evolution can generate new ways of moving.
The post Tiny Tweaks to Neurons Can Rewire Animal Motion first appeared...
NeuroLogica Blog
Mach Effect Thrusters Fail
When thinking about potential future technology, one way to divide possible future tech is into...
a month ago
When thinking about potential future technology, one way to divide possible future tech is into probable and speculative. Probable future technology involves extrapolating existing technology into the future, such as imaging what advanced computers might be like. This category...
The Roots of...
What is progress?
In one sense, the concept of progress is simple, straightforward, and uncontroversial. In another...
a month ago
In one sense, the concept of progress is simple, straightforward, and uncontroversial. In another sense, it contains an entire worldview.
The most basic meaning of “progress” is simply advancement along a path, or more generally from one state to another that is considered more...
Explorations of an...
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 3: Lush Forests of Casupe (February 4, 2024)
February 4, 2024
We said our goodbyes to the owner of Eco Camping Racarrumi and hit the road at 6 AM...
a month ago
February 4, 2024
We said our goodbyes to the owner of Eco Camping Racarrumi and hit the road at 6 AM sharp. We continued inland, away from the coast and towards the foothills, which is where we hoped to spend the morning birding. The landscape continued to change during our ~45...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
The Change Healthcare Debacle | Out-Of-Pocket
what are clearinghouses and do we still need them?
a month ago
what are clearinghouses and do we still need them?
Probably...
Think Python Goes to Production
Think Python has moved into production, on schedule for the official publication date in July — but...
a month ago
Think Python has moved into production, on schedule for the official publication date in July — but maybe earlier if things go well. To celebrate, I have posted the next batch of chapters on the new site, up through Chapter 12, which is about Markov text analysis and generation,...
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2024, Day 4 and wrap-up
Because of the timing of my flight back to Houston, I really only went to one session today, in...
a month ago
Because of the timing of my flight back to Houston, I really only went to one session today, in which my student spoke as did some collaborators. It was a pretty interesting collection of contributed talks.
The work that's been done on spin transport in multiferroic...
Quanta Magazine
New Breakthrough Brings Matrix Multiplication Closer to Ideal
By eliminating a hidden inefficiency, computer scientists have come up with a new way to multiply...
a month ago
By eliminating a hidden inefficiency, computer scientists have come up with a new way to multiply large matrices that’s faster than ever.
The post New Breakthrough Brings Matrix Multiplication Closer to Ideal first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Is the AI Singularity Coming?
Like it or not, we are living in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Recent advances in large...
a month ago
Like it or not, we are living in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Recent advances in large language models, like ChatGPT, have helped put advanced AI in the hands of the average person, who now has a much better sense of how powerful these AI applications can be (and...
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2024, Day 3
My highlights today are a bit thin, because I was fortunate enough to spend time catching up with...
a month ago
My highlights today are a bit thin, because I was fortunate enough to spend time catching up with collaborators and old friends, but here goes:
Pedram Roushan from Google gave an interesting talk about noisy intermediate-scale quantum experiments for simulation. He showed some...
Quanta Magazine
Cellular Self-Destruction May Be Ancient. But Why?
How did cells evolve a process to end their own lives? Recent research suggests that apoptosis, a...
a month ago
How did cells evolve a process to end their own lives? Recent research suggests that apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, first arose billions of years ago in bacteria with a primitive sociality.
The post Cellular Self-Destruction May Be Ancient. But Why? first...
Explorations of an...
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 2: Chiclayo area (February 3, 2024)
February 2, 2024
Traveling to Chiclayo in northern Peru isn't an easy endeavour. Luckily, we live...
a month ago
February 2, 2024
Traveling to Chiclayo in northern Peru isn't an easy endeavour. Luckily, we live less than an hour from a major international airport - Pearson Airport in Toronto - but there are few direct flights between Toronto and Lima (and none that were affordable for us...
The Works in...
The road from serfdom
Using opt-ins to reform Russia's backwards tsarist agricultural sector
a month ago
Using opt-ins to reform Russia's backwards tsarist agricultural sector
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2024, Day 2
A decent part of today was spent in conversation with friends and colleagues, but here are some high...
a month ago
A decent part of today was spent in conversation with friends and colleagues, but here are some high points of scientific talks:
The DMP prize session was excellent. The first talk was by Harold Hwang, this year's awardee of the McGroddy Prize. He gave a very compelling...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Things I’m watching in healthcare 2023 | Out-Of-Pocket
it's been a weird year
a month ago
Blog - Practical...
How Fish Survive Hydro Turbines
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Most of the largest dams in...
a month ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Most of the largest dams in the US were built before we really understood the impacts they would have on river ecosystems. Or at least they were built before we were conscientious enough to weigh those impacts...
Quanta Magazine
Elliptic Curve ‘Murmurations’ Found With AI Take Flight
Mathematicians are working to fully explain unusual behaviors uncovered using artificial...
a month ago
Mathematicians are working to fully explain unusual behaviors uncovered using artificial intelligence.
The post Elliptic Curve ‘Murmurations’ Found With AI Take Flight first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Explorations of an...
A Month In Northern Peru, Part 1: Introduction
Ever since wrapping up our extensive traveling last spring, Laura and I have been itching to get...
a month ago
Ever since wrapping up our extensive traveling last spring, Laura and I have been itching to get back on the road in Latin America. After returning to Ontario, finding a rental house and obtaining employment, our lives have been a little more grounded. I still have been on some...
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2024, Day 1
There is no question that the meeting venue in Minneapolis is superior in multiple ways to last...
a month ago
There is no question that the meeting venue in Minneapolis is superior in multiple ways to last year's meeting in Las Vegas. The convention center doesn't feel scarily confining, and it also doesn't smell like a combination of cigarettes and desperation.
Here are a few...
IEEE Spectrum
Sci-fi and Hi-fi
Many a technologist has been inspired by science fiction. Some have even built, or rebuilt, entire...
2 months ago
Many a technologist has been inspired by science fiction. Some have even built, or rebuilt, entire companies around an idea introduced in a story they read, as the founders of Second Life and Meta did, working from the metaverse as imagined by Neal Stephenson in his seminal 1992...
Quanta Magazine
Fresh X-Rays Reveal a Universe as Clumpy as Cosmology Predicts
By mapping the largest structures in the universe in X-rays, cosmologists have found striking...
2 months ago
By mapping the largest structures in the universe in X-rays, cosmologists have found striking agreement with their standard theoretical model of how the universe evolves.
The post Fresh X-Rays Reveal a Universe as Clumpy as Cosmology Predicts first appeared on Quanta...
NeuroLogica Blog
Climate Sensitivity and Confirmation Bias
I love to follow kerfuffles between different experts and deep thinkers. It’s great for revealing...
2 months ago
I love to follow kerfuffles between different experts and deep thinkers. It’s great for revealing the subtleties of logic, science, and evidence. Recently there has been an interesting online exchange between a physicists science communicator (Sabine Hossenfelder) and some...
nanoscale views
APS March Meeting 2024 - coming soon
This week I'm going to be at the APS March Meeting in Minneapolis. As I've done in past years, I...
2 months ago
This week I'm going to be at the APS March Meeting in Minneapolis. As I've done in past years, I will try to write up some highlights of talks that I am able to see, though it may be hit-or-miss. If readers have suggestions for sessions or talks that they think will be...
NeuroLogica Blog
Virtual Walking
When I use my virtual reality gear I do practical zero virtual walking – meaning that I don’t have...
2 months ago
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...
Quanta Magazine
Mollusk Eyes Reveal How Future Evolution Depends on the Past
The visual systems of an obscure group of mollusks provide a rare natural example of path-dependent...
2 months ago
The visual systems of an obscure group of mollusks provide a rare natural example of path-dependent evolution, in which a critical fork in the creatures’ past determined their evolutionary futures.
The post Mollusk Eyes Reveal How Future Evolution Depends on the Past...
IEEE Spectrum
This Clock Made Power Grids Possible
On 23 October 1916, an engineer named Henry E. Warren quietly revolutionized power transmission by...
2 months ago
On 23 October 1916, an engineer named Henry E. Warren quietly revolutionized power transmission by installing an electric clock in the L Street generating station of Boston’s Edison Electric Illuminating Co. This master station clock kept a very particular type of time: It used a...
Quanta Magazine
What Is the Nature of Time?
Time is all around us: in the language we use, in the memories we revisit and in our predictions of...
2 months ago
Time is all around us: in the language we use, in the memories we revisit and in our predictions of the future. But what exactly is it? The physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek joins Steve Strogatz to discuss the fundamental hallmarks of time.
The post What Is...
IEEE Spectrum
What If the Worst AI Fear Is AI Fear Itself?
It’s been just about a year now—a nonprofit called the Future of Life Institute posted an open...
2 months ago
It’s been just about a year now—a nonprofit called the Future of Life Institute posted an open letter reflecting people’s darkest fears about artificial intelligence.
“Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks,” it said. It called for a pause in...
NeuroLogica Blog
Frozen Embryos Are Not People
Amid much controversy, the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children. They...
2 months ago
Amid much controversy, the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children. They did not support their decision with compelling logic, with cited precedence (their decision is literally unprecedented), with practical considerations, or with sound ethical...
Bartosz Ciechanowski
Airfoil
The dream of soaring in the sky like a bird has captivated the human mind for ages. Although many...
2 months ago
The dream of soaring in the sky like a bird has captivated the human mind for ages. Although many failed, some eventually succeeded in achieving that goal. These days we take air transportation for granted, but the physics of flight can still be puzzling.
In this article we’ll...
The Works in...
Britain’s interwar apartment boom
A decade of Art Deco densification
2 months ago
A decade of Art Deco densification
Quanta Magazine
A Quantum Trick Implied Eternal Stability. Now the Idea May Be Falling Apart.
A series of advances seemed to promise the impossible: the existence of quantum states that would...
2 months ago
A series of advances seemed to promise the impossible: the existence of quantum states that would never, ever fall into disarray. But physicists are now discovering that the pull of disorder may not be so easily overcome.
The post A Quantum Trick Implied Eternal...
nanoscale views
2024 version: Advice on choosing a graduate school
It's been four years since I posted the previous version of this, so it feels like the time is right...
2 months ago
It's been four years since I posted the previous version of this, so it feels like the time is right for an update.
This is written on the assumption that you have already decided, after careful consideration, that you want to get an advanced degree (in physics, though much of...
The Roots of...
Why you, personally, should want a larger human population
What is the ideal size of the human population?
One common answer is “much smaller.” Paul Ehrlich,...
2 months ago
What is the ideal size of the human population?
One common answer is “much smaller.” Paul Ehrlich, co-author of The Population Bomb (1968), has as recently as 2018 promoted the idea that “the world’s optimum population is less than two billion people,” a reduction of the current...
Quanta Magazine
Never-Repeating Tiles Can Safeguard Quantum Information
Two researchers have proved that Penrose tilings, famous patterns that never repeat, are...
2 months ago
Two researchers have proved that Penrose tilings, famous patterns that never repeat, are mathematically equivalent to a kind of quantum error correction.
The post Never-Repeating Tiles Can Safeguard Quantum Information first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Odysseus Lands on the Moon
December 11, 1972, Apollo 17 soft landed on the lunar surface, carrying astronauts Gene Cernan and...
2 months ago
December 11, 1972, Apollo 17 soft landed on the lunar surface, carrying astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. This was the last time anything American soft landed on the moon, over 50 years ago. It seems amazing that it’s been that long. On February 22, 2024, the Odysseus...
Quanta Magazine
A New Agenda for Low-Dimensional Topology
This past October, dozens of mathematicians gathered in Pasadena to create the third version of...
2 months ago
This past October, dozens of mathematicians gathered in Pasadena to create the third version of “Kirby’s list” — a compendium of the most important unsolved problems in the field.
The post A New Agenda for Low-Dimensional Topology first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
AI Video
Recently OpenAI launched a website showcasing their latest AI application, Sora. This app, based on...
2 months ago
Recently OpenAI launched a website showcasing their latest AI application, Sora. This app, based on prompts similar to what you would use for ChatGPT or the image creation applications, like Midjourney or Dalle-2, creates a one minute photorealistic video without sound. Take a...
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...
2 months ago
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...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Some Common Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Angels | Out-Of-Pocket
With some real decks and emails!
2 months ago
With some real decks and emails!
Quanta Magazine
A Multitalented Scientist Seeks the Origins of Multicellularity
The pathbreaking geneticist Cassandra Extavour pursues the secrets of multicellular life while...
2 months ago
The pathbreaking geneticist Cassandra Extavour pursues the secrets of multicellular life while balancing careers in both science and singing.
The post A Multitalented Scientist Seeks the Origins of Multicellularity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
How To Install a Pipeline Under a Railroad
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
This is the Union Pacific...
2 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
This is the Union Pacific Railroad’s Austin Subdivision in central Texas. It’s a busy corridor that moves both freight and passengers north and south between Austin and San Antonio… But it’s mostly freight....
Quanta Magazine
Inside Scientists’ Life-Saving Prediction of the Iceland Eruption
The Reykjanes Peninsula has entered a new volcanic era. Innovative efforts to map and monitor the...
2 months ago
The Reykjanes Peninsula has entered a new volcanic era. Innovative efforts to map and monitor the subterranean magma are saving lives.
The post Inside Scientists’ Life-Saving Prediction of the Iceland Eruption first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Scammers on the Rise
Good rule of thumb – assume it’s a scam. Anyone who contacts you, or any unusual encounter, assume...
2 months ago
Good rule of thumb – assume it’s a scam. Anyone who contacts you, or any unusual encounter, assume it’s a scam and you will probably be right. Recently I was called on my cell phone by someone claiming to be from Venmo. They asked me to confirm if I had just made two fund...
Quantum Frontiers
A classical foreshadow of John Preskill’s Bell Prize
Editor’s Note: This post was co-authored by Hsin-Yuan Huang (Robert) and Richard Kueng. John...
2 months ago
Editor’s Note: This post was co-authored by Hsin-Yuan Huang (Robert) and Richard Kueng. John Preskill, Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, has been named the 2024 John Stewart Bell Prize recipient. The prize honors John’s contributions in … Continue...
NeuroLogica Blog
Fake Fossils
In 1931 a fossil lizard was recovered from the Italian Alps, believed to be a 280 million year old...
2 months ago
In 1931 a fossil lizard was recovered from the Italian Alps, believed to be a 280 million year old specimen. The fossil was also rare in that it appeared to have some preserved soft tissue. It was given the species designation Tridentinosaurus antiquus and was thought to be part...
Quantum Frontiers
The rain in Portugal
My husband taught me how to pronounce the name of the city where I’d be presenting a talk late last...
2 months ago
My husband taught me how to pronounce the name of the city where I’d be presenting a talk late last July: Aveiro, Portugal. Having studied Spanish, I pronounced the name as Ah-VEH-roh, with a v partway to a hard b. … Continue reading →
Probably...
The Gender Gap in Political Beliefs Is Small
In previous articles (here, here, and here) I’ve looked at evidence of a gender gap in political...
2 months ago
In previous articles (here, here, and here) I’ve looked at evidence of a gender gap in political alignment (liberal or conservative), party affiliation (Democrat or Republican), and policy preferences. Using data from the GSS, I found that women are more likely to say they are...
Chris Grossack's...
Internal Group Actions as Enriched Functors
Earlier today this month on the Category Theory Zulip, Bernd Losert asked an
extremely natural...
2 months ago
Earlier today this month on the Category Theory Zulip, Bernd Losert asked an
extremely natural question about how we might study topological group
actions via the functorial approach beloved by category theorists.
The usual story is to treat a group $G$ as a one-object...
The Works in...
Issue 14: A peasant surprise
Plus: Giving yourself the Zika virus, cut-and-cover railway tunnels, and more reasons to donate your...
2 months ago
Plus: Giving yourself the Zika virus, cut-and-cover railway tunnels, and more reasons to donate your organs.
Quanta Magazine
Quanta Relaunches Hyperjumps Math Game
Explore a universe of numbers and arithmetic in our new and improved interactive math game,...
2 months ago
Explore a universe of numbers and arithmetic in our new and improved interactive math game, Hyperjumps!
The post Quanta Relaunches Hyperjumps Math Game first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Biofrequency Gadgets are a Total Scam
I was recently asked what I thought about the Solex AO Scan. The website for the product includes...
2 months ago
I was recently asked what I thought about the Solex AO Scan. The website for the product includes this claim: AO Scan Technology by Solex is an elegant, yet simple-to-use frequency technology based on Tesla, Einstein, and other prominent scientists’ discoveries. It uses delicate...
Probably...
Think Python third edition!
I am happy to announce the third edition of Think Python, which will be published by O’Reilly Media...
2 months ago
I am happy to announce the third edition of Think Python, which will be published by O’Reilly Media later this year. You can read the online version of the book here. I’ve posted the Preface and the first four chapters — more on the way soon! You can read the Early Release and...
Quanta Magazine
Unfolding the Mysteries of Polygonal Billiards
The surprisingly subtle geometry of a familiar game shows how quickly math gets complicated. ...
2 months ago
The surprisingly subtle geometry of a familiar game shows how quickly math gets complicated.
The post Unfolding the Mysteries of Polygonal Billiards first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Using AI and Social Media to Measure Climate Change Denial
A recent study finds that 14.8% of Americans do not believe in global climate change. This number is...
2 months ago
A recent study finds that 14.8% of Americans do not believe in global climate change. This number is roughly in line with what recent survey have found, such as this 2024 Yale study which put the figure at 16%. In 2009, by comparison, the figure was at 33% (although this was a...
Quanta Magazine
A ‘Lobby’ Where a Molecule Mob Tells Genes What to Do
Highly repetitive regions of junk DNA may be the key to a newly discovered mechanism for gene...
2 months ago
Highly repetitive regions of junk DNA may be the key to a newly discovered mechanism for gene regulation.
The post A ‘Lobby’ Where a Molecule Mob Tells Genes What to Do first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Continuing Studies course, take 2
A year and a half ago, I mentioned that I was going to teach a course through Rice's Glasscock...
2 months ago
A year and a half ago, I mentioned that I was going to teach a course through Rice's Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, trying to give a general audience introduction to some central ideas in condensed matter physics. Starting in mid-March, I'm doing this again. Here is a...
NeuroLogica Blog
Flow Batteries – Now With Nanofluids
Battery technology has been advancing nicely over the last few decades, with a fairly predictable...
2 months ago
Battery technology has been advancing nicely over the last few decades, with a fairly predictable incremental increase in energy density, charging time, stability, and lifecycle. We now have lithium-ion batteries with a specific energy of 296 Wh/kg – these are in use in existing...
IEEE Spectrum
100 Years Ago, IBM Was Born
Happy birthday, IBM! You’re 100 years old! Or are you?
It’s true that the businesses that formed IBM...
2 months ago
Happy birthday, IBM! You’re 100 years old! Or are you?
It’s true that the businesses that formed IBM began in the late 1800s. But it’s also true that a birth occurred in February 1924, with the renaming of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. as the International Business...
Quanta Magazine
To See Black Holes in Stunning Detail, She Uses ‘Echoes’ Like a Bat
The astrophysicist Erin Kara measures time lags in black holes’ X-ray glows, which reveal the...
2 months ago
The astrophysicist Erin Kara measures time lags in black holes’ X-ray glows, which reveal the complexity of the objects’ closest surroundings.
The post To See Black Holes in Stunning Detail, She Uses ‘Echoes’ Like a Bat first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
The Exoplanet Radius Gap
As of this writing, there are 5,573 confirmed exoplanets in 4,146 planetary systems. That is enough...
2 months ago
As of this writing, there are 5,573 confirmed exoplanets in 4,146 planetary systems. That is enough exoplanets, planets around stars other than our own sun, that we can do some statistics to describe what’s out there. One curious pattern that has emerged is a relative gap in the...
Probably...
The Political Gender Gap is Not Growing
In a previous article, I used data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to see if there is a growing...
2 months ago
In a previous article, I used data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to see if there is a growing gender gap among young people in political alignment, party affiliation, or political attitudes. So far, the answer is no. Ryan Burge has done a similar analysis with data from...
The Works in...
The Power of the Earth
On the future of geothermal energy
2 months ago
On the future of geothermal energy
NeuroLogica Blog
JET Fusion Experiment Sets New Record
Don’t get excited. It’s always nice to see incremental progress being made with the various fusion...
2 months ago
Don’t get excited. It’s always nice to see incremental progress being made with the various fusion experiments happening around the world, but we are still a long way off from commercial fusion power, and this experiment doesn’t really bring us any close, despite the headlines....
Quanta Magazine
Scientists Find Optimal Balance of Data Storage and Time
Seventy years after the invention of a data structure called a hash table, theoreticians have found...
2 months ago
Seventy years after the invention of a data structure called a hash table, theoreticians have found the most efficient possible configuration for it.
The post Scientists Find Optimal Balance of Data Storage and Time first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
A couple of links + a thought experiment about spin
A couple of interesting things to read:
As someone interested in lost ancient literature and also...
2 months ago
A couple of interesting things to read:
As someone interested in lost ancient literature and also science, I really liked this news article from Nature about progress in reading scrolls excavated from Herculaneum. The area around the Bay of Naples was a quite the spot for posh...
Quanta Magazine
Maze Proof Establishes a ‘Backbone’ for Statistical Mechanics
Four mathematicians have estimated the chances that there’s a clear path through a random maze. ...
2 months ago
Four mathematicians have estimated the chances that there’s a clear path through a random maze.
The post Maze Proof Establishes a ‘Backbone’ for Statistical Mechanics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
Why Locomotives Don't Have Tires
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Formula 1 is, by many...
2 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Formula 1 is, by many accounts, the pinnacle of car racing. F1 cars are among the fastest in the world, particularly around the tight corners of the various paved tracks across the globe. Drivers can experience...
Wanderingspace
Goodbye Ingenuity
Mission completed. Ingenuity is left alone on Mars after damage to one of its blades renders it...
2 months ago
Mission completed. Ingenuity is left alone on Mars after damage to one of its blades renders it inoperable..
Quanta Magazine
Radio Maps May Reveal the Universe’s Biggest Magnetic Fields
A controversial technique has produced detailed maps of the magnetic fields in colossal galaxy...
2 months ago
A controversial technique has produced detailed maps of the magnetic fields in colossal galaxy clusters. If confirmed, the approach could be used to reveal where cosmic magnetic fields come from.
The post Radio Maps May Reveal the Universe’s Biggest Magnetic Fields...
Quantum Frontiers
Discoveries at the Dibner
This past summer, our quantum thermodynamics research group had the wonderful opportunity to visit...
2 months ago
This past summer, our quantum thermodynamics research group had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Dibner Rare Book Library in D.C. Located in a small corner of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, tucked away behind flashier exhibits, the Dibner is … Continue...
NeuroLogica Blog
Weaponized Pedantry and Reverse Gish Gallop
Have you ever been in a discussion where the person with whom you disagree dismisses your position...
2 months ago
Have you ever been in a discussion where the person with whom you disagree dismisses your position because you got some tiny detail wrong or didn’t know the tiny detail? This is a common debating technique. For example, opponents of gun safety regulations will often use the...
Quanta Magazine
What Your Brain Is Doing When You’re Not Doing Anything
When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network is active. Its discovery 20 years...
2 months ago
When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network is active. Its discovery 20 years ago inspired a raft of research into networks of brain regions and how they interact with each other.
The post What Your Brain Is Doing When You’re Not Doing Anything...
NeuroLogica Blog
Did They Find Amelia Earhart’s Plane
Is this sonar image taken at 16,000 feet below the surface about 100 miles from Howland island, that...
2 months ago
Is this sonar image taken at 16,000 feet below the surface about 100 miles from Howland island, that of a downed Lockheed Model 10-E Electra plane? Tony Romeo hopes it is. He spent $9 million to purchase an underwater drone, the Hugan 6000, then hired a crew and scoured 5,200...
Probably...
Political Alignment, Affiliation, and Attitudes
Is there a growing gender gap in the U.S? Alignment A recent article in the Financial Times suggests...
2 months ago
Is there a growing gender gap in the U.S? Alignment A recent article in the Financial Times suggests that among young people there is a growing gender gap in political alignment on a spectrum from liberal to conservative. In last week’s post, I tried to replicate this result...
Articles - Chris...
Moved to tears
20 years ago, on January 15 2004, a little before 2 AM Pacific time, was
the payoff.
It was...
3 months ago
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.
nanoscale views
Large magnetic fields as a scientific tool
When I was at Berkeley at the beginning of the week to give a seminar, I was fortunate enough to...
3 months ago
When I was at Berkeley at the beginning of the week to give a seminar, I was fortunate enough to overlap with their departmental physics colloquium by Greg Boebinger, an accomplished scientist who is also an extremely engaging and funny speaker. Since 2004 he has been the...
NeuroLogica Blog
How To Prove Prevention Works
Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm. Lisa: That’s specious...
3 months ago
Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm. Lisa: That’s specious reasoning, Dad. Homer: Thank you, dear. Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away. Homer: Oh, how does it work? Lisa: It doesn’t work. Homer: Uh-huh. Lisa:...
IEEE Spectrum
What Is an Electronic Sackbut?
If you, like me, think of musical synthesizers as an artifact of 1970s rock and disco, then you,...
3 months ago
If you, like me, think of musical synthesizers as an artifact of 1970s rock and disco, then you, like me, will be surprised to learn that the first electronic synthesizer predates those genres by several decades
In 1945, Hugh Le Caine, a physicist at Canada’s National Research...
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...
3 months ago
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...
The Works in...
Upzoning New Zealand
How a small country started building a lot of homes
3 months ago
How a small country started building a lot of homes
Quanta Magazine
What Makes for ‘Good’ Mathematics?
Terence Tao, who has been called the “Mozart of Mathematics,” wrote an essay in 2007 about the...
3 months ago
Terence Tao, who has been called the “Mozart of Mathematics,” wrote an essay in 2007 about the common ingredients in “good” mathematical research. In this episode, the Fields Medalist joins Steven Strogatz to revisit the topic.
The post What Makes for ‘Good’...
Probably...
Extremes, outliers, and GOATS
The video from my PyData Global 2023 talk, Extremes, outliers, and GOATS, is available now: The...
3 months ago
The video from my PyData Global 2023 talk, Extremes, outliers, and GOATS, is available now: The slides are here. There are two Jupyter notebooks that contain the analysis I presented: Here’s the abstract: The fastest runners are much faster than we expect from a Gaussian...
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Future Tech Possibilities
It’s difficult to pick winners and losers in the future tech game. In reality you just have to see...
3 months ago
It’s difficult to pick winners and losers in the future tech game. In reality you just have to see what happens when you try out a new technology in the real world with actual people. Many technologies that look good on paper run into logistical problems, difficulty scaling, fall...
Quantum Frontiers
The Noncommuting-Charges World Tour (Part 1 of 4)
Introduction: “Once Upon a Time”…with a twist Thermodynamics problems have surprisingly many...
3 months ago
Introduction: “Once Upon a Time”…with a twist Thermodynamics problems have surprisingly many similarities with fairy tales. For example, most of them begin with a familiar opening. In thermodynamics, the phrase “Consider an isolated box of particles” serves a similar purpose …...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Start your healthcare company outside of the US | Out-Of-Pocket
Gotta start somewhere...else?
3 months ago
Gotta start somewhere...else?
IEEE Spectrum
The Battle for Better, Broader, More Inclusive AI
AI’s inclusivity problem is no secret. According to the ACLU, AI systems can perpetuate housing...
3 months ago
AI’s inclusivity problem is no secret. According to the ACLU, AI systems can perpetuate housing discrimination and bias in the justice system, among other harms. Bias in the data an AI model relies on is reproduced in its results.
Large Language Models (LLMs) share this problem;...
Quanta Magazine
Plants Find Light Using Gaps Between Their Cells
A mutant seedling revealed how plant tissues scatter incoming light, allowing plants to sense its...
3 months ago
A mutant seedling revealed how plant tissues scatter incoming light, allowing plants to sense its direction and move toward it.
The post Plants Find Light Using Gaps Between Their Cells first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Neuralink Implants Chip in Human
Elon Musk has announced that his company, Neuralink, has implanted their first wireless computer...
3 months ago
Elon Musk has announced that his company, Neuralink, has implanted their first wireless computer chip into a human. The chip, which they plan on calling Telepathy (not sure how I feel about that) connects with 64 thin hair-like electrodes, is battery powered and can be recharged...
Quanta Magazine
How to Build an Origami Computer
Two mathematicians have shown that origami can, in principle, be used to perform any possible...
3 months ago
Two mathematicians have shown that origami can, in principle, be used to perform any possible computation.
The post How to Build an Origami Computer first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Drew Ex Machina
Accurate Characterization of 3D Winds Using Stereographic Observations from the Hurricane Hunter...
The teams at Tropical Weather Analytics (TWA) and Canada Weather Analytics (CWA), where this author...
3 months ago
The teams at Tropical Weather Analytics (TWA) and Canada Weather Analytics (CWA), where this author is the Chief Scientist, had the honor of having our abstract […]
Quanta Magazine
Researchers Approach New Speed Limit for Seminal Problem
Integer linear programming can help find the answer to a variety of real-world problems. Now...
3 months ago
Integer linear programming can help find the answer to a variety of real-world problems. Now researchers have found a much faster way to do it.
The post Researchers Approach New Speed Limit for Seminal Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Beautiful Public...
FAA Aviation Maps
Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a...
3 months ago
Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a higher information density than the Federal Aviation Administration’s aviation maps.
NeuroLogica Blog
Controlling the Narrative with AI
There is an ongoing battle in our society to control the narrative, to influence the flow of...
3 months ago
There is an ongoing battle in our society to control the narrative, to influence the flow of information, and thereby move the needle on what people think and how they behave. This is nothing new, but the mechanisms for controlling the narrative are evolving as our communication...
Probably...
Is the Ideology Gap Growing?
This tweet from John Burn-Murdoch links to an article in the Financial Times (FT), “A new global...
3 months ago
This tweet from John Burn-Murdoch links to an article in the Financial Times (FT), “A new global gender divide is emerging”, which includes this figure: The article claims: In the US, Gallup data shows that after decades where the sexes were each spread roughly equally across...
nanoscale views
Generative AI and scientific images/diagrams
Generative AI for image generation is a controversial topic for many reasons. Still, as someone who...
3 months ago
Generative AI for image generation is a controversial topic for many reasons. Still, as someone who doesn't have a staff of graphic artists on hand to help make scientific illustrations, it has certainly been tempting to see whether it might be a useful tool. My brief...
Quanta Magazine
The Quest to Decode the Mandelbrot Set, Math’s Famed Fractal
For decades, a small group of mathematicians has patiently unraveled the mystery of what was once...
3 months ago
For decades, a small group of mathematicians has patiently unraveled the mystery of what was once math’s most popular picture. Their story shows how technology transforms even the most abstract mathematical landscapes.
The post The Quest to Decode the Mandelbrot Set,...
The Roots of...
Making every researcher seek grants is a broken model
When Galileo wanted to study the heavens through his telescope, he got money from those legendary...
3 months ago
When Galileo wanted to study the heavens through his telescope, he got money from those legendary patrons of the Renaissance, the Medici. To win their favor, when he discovered the moons of Jupiter, he named them the Medicean Stars. Other scientists and inventors offered flashy...
The Works in...
The entrepreneurial state
How state competition – through war – can drive institutional progress
3 months ago
How state competition – through war – can drive institutional progress
NeuroLogica Blog
How Humans Can Adapt to Space
My recent article on settling Mars has generated a lot of discussion, some of it around the basic...
3 months ago
My recent article on settling Mars has generated a lot of discussion, some of it around the basic concept of how difficult it is for humans to live anywhere but a thin envelope of air hugging the surface of the Earth. This is undoubtedly true, as I have discussed before – we...
Quanta Magazine
The Surprisingly Simple Math Behind Puzzling Matchups
If Anna beats Benji in a game and Benji beats Carl, will Anna beat Carl?
The post The...
3 months ago
If Anna beats Benji in a game and Benji beats Carl, will Anna beat Carl?
The post The Surprisingly Simple Math Behind Puzzling Matchups first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
DNA Directed Assembly of Nanomaterials
Arguably the type of advance that has the greatest impact on technology is material science....
3 months ago
Arguably the type of advance that has the greatest impact on technology is material science. Technology can advance by doing more with the materials we have, but new materials can change the game entirely. It is no coincidence that we mark different technological ages by the...
Quanta Magazine
The Best Neighborhoods for Starting a Life in the Galaxy
Some neighborhoods in the Milky Way may be better suited for making habitable planets than others. ...
3 months ago
Some neighborhoods in the Milky Way may be better suited for making habitable planets than others.
The post The Best Neighborhoods for Starting a Life in the Galaxy first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Microbes Aboard the ISS
As I have written many times, including in yesterday’s post, people occupying space is hard. The...
3 months ago
As I have written many times, including in yesterday’s post, people occupying space is hard. The environment of space, or really anywhere not on Earth, is harsh and unforgiving. One of the issues, for example, rarely addressed in science fiction or even discussions of space...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Clinical Pharmacists, Generative AI, and InpharmD | Out-Of-Pocket
Going under the hood of a generative AI product
3 months ago
Going under the hood of a generative AI product
Quanta Magazine
New Theory Suggests Chatbots Can Understand Text
Far from being “stochastic parrots,” the biggest large language models seem to learn enough skills...
3 months ago
Far from being “stochastic parrots,” the biggest large language models seem to learn enough skills to understand the words they’re processing.
The post New Theory Suggests Chatbots Can Understand Text first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Is Mars the New Frontier?
In the excellent sci fi show, The Expanse, which takes place a couple hundred years in the future,...
3 months ago
In the excellent sci fi show, The Expanse, which takes place a couple hundred years in the future, Mars has been settled and is an independent self-sustaining society. In fact, Mars is presented as the most scientifically and technologically advanced society of humans in the...
Quantum Frontiers
Colliding the familiar and the anti-familiar at CERN
toise me at CERN was a box of chocolates. CERN is a multinational particle-physics collaboration....
3 months ago
toise me at CERN was a box of chocolates. CERN is a multinational particle-physics collaboration. Based in Geneva, CERN is famous for having “the world’s largest and most powerful accelerator,” according to its website. So a physicist will take for … Continue reading →
Eukaryote Writes...
Book Review: Cuisine and Empire
Things people nigh-universally like to eat: salt, fat, sugar, starch, sauces, meat, drugs...
3 months ago
Things people nigh-universally like to eat: salt, fat, sugar, starch, sauces, meat, drugs...
Quanta Magazine
Clashing Cosmic Numbers Challenge Our Best Theory of the Universe
As measurements of distant stars and galaxies become more precise, cosmologists are struggling to...
3 months ago
As measurements of distant stars and galaxies become more precise, cosmologists are struggling to make sense of sparring values.
The post Clashing Cosmic Numbers Challenge Our Best Theory of the Universe first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Works in...
Lost Science
When discoveries are forgotten and then found
3 months ago
When discoveries are forgotten and then found
NeuroLogica Blog
Why Do Species Evolve to Get Bigger or Smaller
Have you heard of Cope’s Rule or Foster’s Rule? American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope first...
3 months ago
Have you heard of Cope’s Rule or Foster’s Rule? American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope first noticed a trend in the fossil record that certain animal lineages tend to get bigger over evolutionary time. Most famously this was noticed in the horse lineage, beginning with small...
brr
Redeployment Part Three
Off-continent after 446 days!
3 months ago
Off-continent after 446 days!
Quanta Magazine
Math’s ‘Game of Life’ Reveals Long-Sought Repeating Patterns
John Conway’s Game of Life, a famous cellular automaton, has been found to have periodic patterns of...
3 months ago
John Conway’s Game of Life, a famous cellular automaton, has been found to have periodic patterns of every possible length.
The post Math’s ‘Game of Life’ Reveals Long-Sought Repeating Patterns first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Converting CO2 to Carbon Nanofibers
One of the dreams of a green economy where the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is stable, and not...
3 months ago
One of the dreams of a green economy where the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is stable, and not slowly increasing, is the ability to draw CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it to a solid form. Often referred to as carbon capture, some form of this is going to be necessary...
Quanta Magazine
The Quest for Simple Rules to Build a Microbial Community
Microbiologists are searching for a universal theory of how bacteria form communities based not on...
3 months ago
Microbiologists are searching for a universal theory of how bacteria form communities based not on their species but on the roles they play.
The post The Quest for Simple Rules to Build a Microbial Community first appeared on Quanta Magazine
IEEE Spectrum
The Man Who Coined The Word "Robot" Defends Himself
You’re familiar with Karel Čapek, right? If not, you should be—he’s the guy who (along with his...
3 months ago
You’re familiar with Karel Čapek, right? If not, you should be—he’s the guy who (along with his brother Josef) invented the word “robot.” Čapek introduced robots to the world in 1921, when his play “R.U.R.” (subtitled “Rossum’s Universal Robots”) was first performed in Prague. It...
nanoscale views
Materials characterization techniques – a brief glossary
Suppose someone has synthesized or found what they think is a new material. How do people studying...
3 months ago
Suppose someone has synthesized or found what they think is a new material. How do people studying materials (condensed matter physicists, materials scientists, materials chemists) figure out what they have and understand its properties? That's the puzzle-solving aspect of...
Blog - Practical...
How The Channel Tunnel Works
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
2024 marks thirty years since...
3 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
2024 marks thirty years since the opening of the channel tunnel, or chunnel, or as they say in Calais, Le tunnel sous la Manche. This underground/undersea railroad tunnel connects England with France, crossing...
Quanta Magazine
How to Guarantee the Safety of Autonomous Vehicles
As computer-driven cars and planes become more common, the key to preventing accidents, researchers...
3 months ago
As computer-driven cars and planes become more common, the key to preventing accidents, researchers show, is to know what you don’t know.
The post How to Guarantee the Safety of Autonomous Vehicles first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Betavoltaic Batteries
In 1964 Isaac Asimov, asked to imagine the world 50 years in the future, wrote: “The appliances of...
3 months ago
In 1964 Isaac Asimov, asked to imagine the world 50 years in the future, wrote: “The appliances of 2014 will have no electric cords, of course, for they will be powered by long- lived batteries running on radioisotopes. The isotopes will not be expensive for they will be by-...
nanoscale views
Dye-sensitized solar cells - an idea whose time has finally come?
Dyes are generally small molecules that have electronic transitions with energies corresponding...
3 months ago
Dyes are generally small molecules that have electronic transitions with energies corresponding to the visible spectrum of light (around 1-3 eV). Around 35 years ago, the idea was put forward, particularly by Michael Grätzel and Brian O'Regan, to couple dye molecules to...
brr
Redeployment Part Two
Station opening, and my flight out of Pole!
3 months ago
Station opening, and my flight out of Pole!
Quanta Magazine
The Mathematician Who Finds the Poetry in Math and the Math in Poetry
The links between math, music and art have been explored for thousands of years. Sarah Hart is now...
3 months ago
The links between math, music and art have been explored for thousands of years. Sarah Hart is now turning a mathematical eye to literature.
The post The Mathematician Who Finds the Poetry in Math and the Math in Poetry first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Light from Space
The Fossil Footprint Nebula
A rarely imaged target as it is very dim. This image took me over 50h of total exposure time.
Total...
3 months ago
A rarely imaged target as it is very dim. This image took me over 50h of total exposure time.
Total exposure time: 52h 40'
Image resolution: 4,490 × 4,552px (0.96″/px)
Shot from my driveway near Tucson, AZ in late 2023
Telescope: William Optics RedCat
Probably...
Probably Overthinking It Notebooks
To celebrate one month since the launch of Probably Overthinking It, I’m releasing the Jupyter...
3 months ago
To celebrate one month since the launch of Probably Overthinking It, I’m releasing the Jupyter notebooks I used to create the book. There’s one per chapter, and they contain all of the code I used to do the analysis and generate the figures. So if you are curious about the...
NeuroLogica Blog
Big Ring Challenges Cosmological Principle
University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) PhD student Alexia Lopez, who two years ago discovered a...
3 months ago
University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) PhD student Alexia Lopez, who two years ago discovered a giant arc of galaxy clusters in the distant universe, has now discovered a Big Ring. This (if real) is one of the largest structures in the observable universe at 1.3 billion light...
The Works in...
The asbestos times
How asbestos saved cities, before we realized its risks
3 months ago
How asbestos saved cities, before we realized its risks
Quanta Magazine
New Kind of Magnetism Spotted in an Engineered Material
In an atomically thin stack of semiconductors, a mechanism unseen in any natural substance causes...
3 months ago
In an atomically thin stack of semiconductors, a mechanism unseen in any natural substance causes electrons’ spins to align.
The post New Kind of Magnetism Spotted in an Engineered Material first appeared on Quanta Magazine
nanoscale views
Items of interest
For the first post of the new calendar year, here are a few items that I thought were...
3 months ago
For the first post of the new calendar year, here are a few items that I thought were interesting:
Here is a feature article in Science that talks about the experimental quest for detecting Majorana fermions in solid state systems, bookended by the story of Majorana's...
brr
Redeployment Part One
Emerging from winter and preparing for our first flight!
3 months ago
Emerging from winter and preparing for our first flight!
Quanta Magazine
‘Magical’ Error Correction Scheme Proved Inherently Inefficient
Locally correctable codes need barely any information to fix errors, but they’re extremely long. Now...
3 months ago
Locally correctable codes need barely any information to fix errors, but they’re extremely long. Now we know that the simplest versions can’t get any shorter.
The post ‘Magical’ Error Correction Scheme Proved Inherently Inefficient first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Categorization and What’s In a Name
Categorization is critical in science, but it is also very tricky, often deceptively so. We need to...
3 months ago
Categorization is critical in science, but it is also very tricky, often deceptively so. We need to categorize things to help us organize our knowledge, to understand how things work and relate to each other, and to communicate efficiently and precisely. But categorization can...
Eukaryote Writes...
Defending against hypothetical moon life during Apollo 11
This is how a completely abstract argument about alien germs was taken seriously and mitigated at...
3 months ago
This is how a completely abstract argument about alien germs was taken seriously and mitigated at great effort and expense during the 1969 Apollo landing.
IEEE Spectrum
How Tech Automated the January 6 Investigations
Josh Coker’s Facebook page doesn’t show any MAGA memes or Trump quotes. He wasn’t live-streaming on...
3 months ago
Josh Coker’s Facebook page doesn’t show any MAGA memes or Trump quotes. He wasn’t live-streaming on 6 January 2021, and no one has ever stepped forward to identify him as one of the mob that stormed the US Capitol that day.
Oregon, Ohio, with five counts connected to the failed...
Quanta Magazine
Mathematicians Identify the Best Versions of Iconic Shapes
Researchers are discovering the shortest knots and fattest Möbius strips, among other “optimal...
3 months ago
Researchers are discovering the shortest knots and fattest Möbius strips, among other “optimal shapes.”
The post Mathematicians Identify the Best Versions of Iconic Shapes first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Roots of...
Cellular reprogramming, pneumatic launch systems, and terraforming Mars
In December, I went to the Foresight Institute’s Vision Weekend 2023 in San Francisco. I had a lot...
4 months ago
In December, I went to the Foresight Institute’s Vision Weekend 2023 in San Francisco. I had a lot of fun talking to a bunch of weird and ambitious geeks about the glorious abundant technological future. Here are few things I learned about (with the caveat that this is mostly...
Quanta Magazine
Deep Beneath Earth’s Surface, Clues to Life’s Origins
Last spring, scientists retrieved a trove of mantle rocks from underneath the Atlantic seafloor — a...
4 months ago
Last spring, scientists retrieved a trove of mantle rocks from underneath the Atlantic seafloor — a bounty that could help write the first chapter of life's story on Earth.
The post Deep Beneath Earth’s Surface, Clues to Life’s Origins first appeared on Quanta...
Probably...
The Center Moves Faster Than You
In May 2022, Elon Musk tweeted this cartoon: The creator of the cartoon, Colin Wright, explained it...
4 months ago
In May 2022, Elon Musk tweeted this cartoon: The creator of the cartoon, Colin Wright, explained it like this: At the outset, I stand happily beside ‘my fellow liberal,’ who is slightly to my left. In 2012 he sprints to the left, dragging out the left end of the political...
NeuroLogica Blog
Oxygen As A Technosignature
This is one of the biggest thought experiments in science today – as we look for life elsewhere in...
4 months ago
This is one of the biggest thought experiments in science today – as we look for life elsewhere in the universe, what should we be looking for, exactly? Other stellar systems are too far away to examine directly, and even our most powerful telescopes can only resolve points of...
Quanta Magazine
The ‘Accidental Activist’ Who Changed the Face of Mathematics
Throughout her 60-year career, Lenore Blum has developed new perspectives on logic and computation...
4 months ago
Throughout her 60-year career, Lenore Blum has developed new perspectives on logic and computation while championing women in mathematics and computer science. Now consciousness is on her mind.
The post The ‘Accidental Activist’ Who Changed the Face of Mathematics...
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???
4 months ago
Being sick is already annoying, now I gotta spend time on the phone???
Quanta Magazine
Evolution: Fast or Slow? Lizards Help Resolve a Paradox.
Why does natural selection appear to happen slowly on long timescales and quickly on short ones? A...
4 months ago
Why does natural selection appear to happen slowly on long timescales and quickly on short ones? A multigenerational study of four lizard species addresses biology’s “paradox of stasis.”
The post Evolution: Fast or Slow? Lizards Help Resolve a Paradox. first appeared...
NeuroLogica Blog
2023 Hottest Year on Record
What everyone knew was coming is now official – 2023 was the warmest year on record. This means we...
4 months ago
What everyone knew was coming is now official – 2023 was the warmest year on record. This means we can also say that the last 10 years are the hottest decade on record. 2023 dethrones 2016 as the previous warmest year and bumps 2010 out of the top 10. Further, in the last half of...
Drew Ex Machina
The Dream: The First Probe to the Moon
The past decade or so has seen a marked increase in interest to reach the Moon for exploration as...
4 months ago
The past decade or so has seen a marked increase in interest to reach the Moon for exploration as well as the potential exploitation of its […]
nanoscale views
Very brief end of the year round-up
It's hard to believe that it's already the end of 2023. It's been a busy year for condensed matter;...
4 months ago
It's hard to believe that it's already the end of 2023. It's been a busy year for condensed matter; it's unfortunate that two of the biggest stories (problems with high pressure superconductivity papers; the brief excitement about LK99, the not-actually-a-superconductor) were...
Explorations of an...
2023 Part 5: Late Summer To Early Winter In Ontario
August and September
In the middle of August, I traveled to Letchworth State Park in New York for a...
4 months ago
August and September
In the middle of August, I traveled to Letchworth State Park in New York for a weekend with some of my family. It was wonderful to spend time with everyone, as well as to get in some hiking and find some species that I haven't seen before in Ontario (mostly...
The Roots of...
2023 in review
2023 was another big year for me and The Roots of Progress.
It was a year when ROP as an...
4 months ago
2023 was another big year for me and The Roots of Progress.
It was a year when ROP as an organization really started to take off. Even though the org itself was formed in 2021, at first it was just a vehicle for my own intellectual work, plus a few side projects. Last year we...
Drew Ex Machina
Top Ten Posts of 2023
Now that we are at the end of 2023, it is time to look back at this year’s material published on...
4 months ago
Now that we are at the end of 2023, it is time to look back at this year’s material published on Drew Ex Machina and see […]
Explorations of an...
2023 Part 4: Indonesia and Ecuador
September
The island of Sulawesi must be on the bucket list for any naturalist with a strong...
4 months ago
September
The island of Sulawesi must be on the bucket list for any naturalist with a strong interest in biogeography. Though Borneo is situated only a few hundred kilometers to the west, and the Moluccas are not far to the east, the species composition of Sulawesi is...
IEEE Spectrum
The Cheesy Charm of the Clapper
“Clap on! Clap off! Clap on! Clap off! The Clapper!” This 1980s earworm of a jingle touted a gadget...
4 months ago
“Clap on! Clap off! Clap on! Clap off! The Clapper!” This 1980s earworm of a jingle touted a gadget to turn your lights, your TV, or any other electrical device on or off with the clap of your hands. If you watched any amount of American television back then, you probably saw the...
Probably...
How Many Books?
If you like this article, you can read more about this kind of Bayesian analysis in Think Bayes....
4 months ago
If you like this article, you can read more about this kind of Bayesian analysis in Think Bayes. Recently I found a copy of Probably Overthinking It at a local bookstore and posted a picture on Twitter. Aubrey Clayton replied with this question: It’s a great question with what...
Explorations of an...
2023 Part 3: Spring And Summer In Ontario
April (continued)
Laura and I returned to Ontario in late April and I immediately jumped back into...
4 months ago
April (continued)
Laura and I returned to Ontario in late April and I immediately jumped back into the local birding/naturalist scene. Spring is such a dynamic time of year and I tried to maximize every opportunity. In late April I spent a couple of days on Manitoulin Island,...
Quantum Frontiers
What geckos have to do with quantum computing
When my brother and I were little, we sometimes played video games on weekend mornings, before our...
4 months ago
When my brother and I were little, we sometimes played video games on weekend mornings, before our parents woke up. We owned a 3DO console, which ran the game Gex. Gex is named after its main character, a gecko. Stepping … Continue reading →
Explorations of an...
2023 Part 2: Early March through April (Brazil)
March
On March 4, Laura and I landed in São Paulo. It was our first time in Brazil. Even though we...
4 months ago
March
On March 4, Laura and I landed in São Paulo. It was our first time in Brazil. Even though we had planned to spend much of the next two months exploring Brazil, the country is so large that we could only see a small portion of it. We restricted our route to only include...
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...
4 months ago
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 […]
Quanta Magazine
The Year in Math
Landmark results in Ramsey theory and a remarkably simple aperiodic tile capped a year of...
4 months ago
Landmark results in Ramsey theory and a remarkably simple aperiodic tile capped a year of mathematical delight and discovery.
The post The Year in Math first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Works in...
Works in Progress: 2023 Wrapped
Our most read work of the year
4 months ago
Our most read work of the year
Explorations of an...
Day Five And Six At Río Bigal - The Last Hurrah
November 6, 2023
Somehow, it was already my final full day at Río Bigal. I am not sure where the...
4 months ago
November 6, 2023
Somehow, it was already my final full day at Río Bigal. I am not sure where the time all went, but now the end was in sight. Hoping to maximize my final day, I arranged for a packed lunch and planned for an earlier breakfast so that I could hit the trails ahead...
nanoscale views
New paper - plasmons, excitons, and steering energy
We have a new paper out in Nano Letters (arxiv version here), and I wanted to explain a bit about it...
4 months ago
We have a new paper out in Nano Letters (arxiv version here), and I wanted to explain a bit about it and why I think it's a really cool result.
I've written before about the Purcell Effect. When we study quantum mechanics, we learn that the rates of processes, like the...
Quanta Magazine
The Year in Physics
From the smallest scales to the largest, the physical world provided no shortage of surprises this...
4 months ago
From the smallest scales to the largest, the physical world provided no shortage of surprises this year.
The post The Year in Physics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Out-of-Pocket Blog
But actually good 2024 predictions | Out-Of-Pocket
I know, enough predictions. But these are good!
4 months ago
I know, enough predictions. But these are good!
NeuroLogica Blog
Science News in 2023
This is not exactly a “best of” because I don’t know how that applies to science news, but here are...
4 months ago
This is not exactly a “best of” because I don’t know how that applies to science news, but here are what I consider to be the most impactful science news stories of 2023 (or at least the ones that caught by biased attention). This was a big year for medical breakthroughs. We are...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Actually good 2024 healthcare predictions | Out-Of-Pocket
I know, enough predictions. But these are good!
4 months ago
I know, enough predictions. But these are good!
Quanta Magazine
The Year in Computer Science
Artificial intelligence learned how to generate text and art better than ever before, while computer...
4 months ago
Artificial intelligence learned how to generate text and art better than ever before, while computer scientists developed algorithms that solved long-standing problems.
The post The Year in Computer Science first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Blog - Practical...
How Engineers Straightened the Leaning Tower of Pisa
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Long ago, maybe upwards of 1-2...
4 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Long ago, maybe upwards of 1-2 million years ago, a river in the central part of what’s now Italy, emptied into what’s now the Ligurian Sea. It still does, by the way, but it did back then too. As the sea rose...
Quanta Magazine
How This Marine Worm Can Tell Moonglow From Sunbeams
For the first time, scientists have decoded the molecular structure of a protein that helps to sync...
4 months ago
For the first time, scientists have decoded the molecular structure of a protein that helps to sync a biological clock to the phases of the moon.
The post How This Marine Worm Can Tell Moonglow From Sunbeams first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
An Earth-like Climate is Fragile
One of the biggest questions of exoplanet astronomy is how many potentially habitable planets are...
4 months ago
One of the biggest questions of exoplanet astronomy is how many potentially habitable planets are out there in the galaxy. By one estimate the answer is 6 billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way. But of course we have to set parameters and make estimates, so this number can...
Probably...
What are the odds?
Whenever something unlikely happens, it is tempting to ask, “What are the odds?” In some very...
4 months ago
Whenever something unlikely happens, it is tempting to ask, “What are the odds?” In some very limited cases, we can answer that question. For example, if someone deals you five cards from a well-shuffled deck, and you want to know the odds of getting a royal flush, we can answer...
Quanta Magazine
A Close-Up View Reveals the ‘Melting’ Point of an Infinite Graph
Just as ice melts to water, graphs undergo phase transitions. Two mathematicians showed that they...
4 months ago
Just as ice melts to water, graphs undergo phase transitions. Two mathematicians showed that they can pinpoint such transitions by examining only local structure.
The post A Close-Up View Reveals the ‘Melting’ Point of an Infinite Graph first appeared on Quanta...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Conversation Gets it Wrong on GMOs
Even high quality media outlets will get it wrong from time to time. I notice this tends to happen...
4 months ago
Even high quality media outlets will get it wrong from time to time. I notice this tends to happen when there is a mature and sophisticated propaganda campaign that has had enough time and reach to essentially gaslight a major portion of the public, and further where a particular...
IEEE Spectrum
35 Years Ago, Researchers Used Brain Waves to Control a Robot
Using the brain to directly control an object was long the stuff of science fiction, and in 1988 the...
4 months ago
Using the brain to directly control an object was long the stuff of science fiction, and in 1988 the vision became a reality.
IEEE Life Senior Member Stevo Bozinovski and Members Mihail Sestakov and Dr. Liljana Bozinovska used a student volunteer’s electroencephalogram (EEG)...
Explorations of an...
Day Four At Río Bigal - Birding The Interior Trails
November 5, 2023
Sunday began overcast, but unlike the previous day there did not seem to be the...
4 months ago
November 5, 2023
Sunday began overcast, but unlike the previous day there did not seem to be the same threat of rain looming over everything. Therefore, yesterday's plan shifted to today. Natalia made me a packed lunch and I prepared for a day on my own on the long PNS trail. I...
IEEE Spectrum
Fakes: Not an Internet Thing, a Human Thing
Every day, as the Internet becomes more indispensable to modern life, the drawbacks of deep...
4 months ago
Every day, as the Internet becomes more indispensable to modern life, the drawbacks of deep engagement with the virtual realm capture as much attention as the wide-ranging benefits. On the Internet, of course, anyone can in all too many forums pretty much say anything—regardless...
NeuroLogica Blog
Solution Aversion Fallacy
I like to think deeply about informal logical fallacies. I write about them a lot, and even have an...
4 months ago
I like to think deeply about informal logical fallacies. I write about them a lot, and even have an occasional segment of the SGU dedicated to them. They are a great way to crystalize our thinking about the many ways in which logic can go wrong. Formal logic deals with arguments...
The Works in...
Fermenting revolution
The Victorian fight against bad bread and its role in women’s liberation
4 months ago
The Victorian fight against bad bread and its role in women’s liberation
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