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wadertales
Peatland restoration – ploughing for plovers. Commercial forestry was never a good option for the wet peatlands of northeast Scotland, with...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
Commercial forestry was never a good option for the wet peatlands of northeast Scotland, with planting financed by tax subsidies and sold on the mantra of ‘rural jobs’. The trees did not grow well and, thirty years on, more government money started to be spent to restore the same...
nanoscale views
20 years of Nanoscale Views, + a couple of things to read Amazingly, this blog has now been around for more than twenty years (!) - see this first post for...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
Amazingly, this blog has now been around for more than twenty years (!) - see this first post for reference from June of 2005, when I had much less gray hair and there were a lot more science blogs.  Thanks to all of you for sticking around. Back then, when I debuted my writing...
The Works in...
China's most overrated asset with Mike Bird Episode four of the Works in Progress podcast is about land.
3 weeks ago
Quanta Magazine
New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder For decades, mathematicians have struggled to understand matrices that reflect both order and...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
For decades, mathematicians have struggled to understand matrices that reflect both order and randomness, like those that model semiconductors. A new method could change that. The post New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder first appeared on Quanta...
Yale E360
Once Again, Oil States Thwart Agreement on Plastics Diplomats from around the world concluded nine days of talks in Geneva — plus a marathon overnight...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
Diplomats from around the world concluded nine days of talks in Geneva — plus a marathon overnight session that lasted into the early hours of Friday — with no agreement on a global plastics treaty. Read more on E360 →
Quanta Magazine
The AI Was Fed Sloppy Code. It Turned Into Something Evil. The new science of “emergent misalignment” explores how PG-13 training data — insecure code,...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
The new science of “emergent misalignment” explores how PG-13 training data — insecure code, superstitious numbers or even extreme-sports advice — can open the door to AI’s dark side. The post The AI Was Fed Sloppy Code. It Turned Into Something Evil. first appeared...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
How Should We Evaluate Healthcare AI? Some Thoughts | Out-Of-Pocket Maybe we’re thinking about all of these papers the wrong way
3 weeks ago
Yale E360
The Amazon Rainforest Approaches a Point of No Return In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest —...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — Brazilian filmmakers capture striking images of clear-cutting and explore how human activity is so damaging the world’s largest rainforest that it will not be able to recover. Read more...
NeuroLogica Blog
Lithium and Alzheimer’s Disease This is an interesting story, and I am trying to moderate my optimism. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
This is an interesting story, and I am trying to moderate my optimism. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the major cause of dementia in humans, is a very complex disease. We have been studying it for decades, revealing numerous clues as to what kicks it off, what causes it to progress,...
Quanta Magazine
What Does It Mean To Be Thirsty? The effects of insufficient water are felt by every cell in the body, but it’s the brain that...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
The effects of insufficient water are felt by every cell in the body, but it’s the brain that manifests our experience of thirst. The post What Does It Mean To Be Thirsty? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
NeuroLogica Blog
Mini-Nuclear Reactors I was sent this news item, Air Force To Use Wyoming-Made Portable Nuclear Reactors To Power Bases,...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
I was sent this news item, Air Force To Use Wyoming-Made Portable Nuclear Reactors To Power Bases, with the comment that this plan is reckless because it puts nuclear reactors in war zones. I disagree, however. Let’s take a look at the details. The background is that a company in...
Yale E360
In a Warming Atlantic, Hurricanes Increasingly Arrive in Groups As ocean waters heat up, the Atlantic is increasingly seeing not just one, but two or more...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
As ocean waters heat up, the Atlantic is increasingly seeing not just one, but two or more hurricanes spin up at the same time. That is the finding of a new study, which warns that warming is raising the risk that coastal cities may be battered by back-to-back storms.  Read more...
Quantum Frontiers
Nicole’s guide to writing research statements Sunflowers are blooming, stores are trumpeting back-to-school sales, and professors are scrambling...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
Sunflowers are blooming, stores are trumpeting back-to-school sales, and professors are scrambling to chart out the courses they planned to develop in July. If you’re applying for an academic job this fall, now is the time to get your application … Continue reading →
Quanta Magazine
‘It’s a Mess’: A Brain-Bending Trip to Quantum Theory’s 100th Birthday Party Hundreds of physicists (and a few journalists) journeyed to Helgoland, the birthplace of quantum...
4 weeks ago
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4 weeks ago
Hundreds of physicists (and a few journalists) journeyed to Helgoland, the birthplace of quantum mechanics, and grappled with what they have and haven’t learned about reality. The post ‘It’s a Mess’: A Brain-Bending Trip to Quantum Theory’s 100th Birthday Party first...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Some changes in Out-of-Pocket Land | Out-Of-Pocket
4 weeks ago
Yale E360
As Fire Season Ramps Up, Thousands of U.S. Firefighting Positions Are Vacant Every spring, Forest Service fire leaders meet to plan for the upcoming fire season. This year, some...
a month ago
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a month ago
Every spring, Forest Service fire leaders meet to plan for the upcoming fire season. This year, some employees were shocked by the blunt remarks made during a meeting with forest supervisors and fire staff officers from across the Intermountain West. “We were told, ‘Help is not...
nanoscale views
Brief items - Static electricity, quantum geometry, Hubbard model, + news It's been a busy time that has cut into my blogging, but I wanted to point out some links from the...
a month ago
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a month ago
It's been a busy time that has cut into my blogging, but I wanted to point out some links from the past couple of weeks. Physics Today has a cover article this past issue about what is colloquially known as static electricity, but what is more technically described as...
Quanta Magazine
How Can Math Protect Our Data? Mary Wootters discusses how error-correcting codes work, and how they are essential for reliable...
a month ago
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a month ago
Mary Wootters discusses how error-correcting codes work, and how they are essential for reliable communication and storage. The post How Can Math Protect Our Data? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
The Amazon Rainforest Approaches a Point of No Return In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest —...
a month ago
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a month ago
In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — Brazilian filmmakers show striking images of clear-cutting and explore how human activity is so damaging the world’s largest rainforest that it will not be able to recover. Read more on...
Quanta Magazine
New Method Is the Fastest Way To Find the Best Routes A canonical problem in computer science is to find the shortest route to every point in a network. A...
a month ago
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a month ago
A canonical problem in computer science is to find the shortest route to every point in a network. A new approach beats the classic algorithm taught in textbooks. The post New Method Is the Fastest Way To Find the Best Routes first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
Israeli Forces Allegedly Bulldoze Palestinian Seed Bank Israeli forces have attacked a seed bank in the West Bank city of Hebron, destroying equipment used...
a month ago
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a month ago
Israeli forces have attacked a seed bank in the West Bank city of Hebron, destroying equipment used to reproduce heirloom seeds, according to the group managing the facility. The attack comes as an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip has fueled widespread hunger in the...
Blog - Practical...
Why Are There No Short Arch Dams? [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Flaming Gorge Dam rises from...
a month ago
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a month ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] Flaming Gorge Dam rises from the Green River in northern Utah like a concrete wedge driven into the canyon, anchored against the sheer rock walls that flank it. It’s quintessential, in a way. It’s what we...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Some stories from healthcare founders | Out-Of-Pocket Titles matter, you can change regulation, how M&A happens
a month ago
NeuroLogica Blog
It’s Just A Correlation Did you know that the number of Google searches for cat memes correlates tightly (P-value < 0.01)...
a month ago
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a month ago
Did you know that the number of Google searches for cat memes correlates tightly (P-value < 0.01) with England’s performance in cricket World Cups? What’s going on here? Is interest in funny cat videos driven by the excitement created by cricket victories. Perhaps cat memes are...
Yale E360
Shrinking Cod: How Humans Are Impacting the Evolution of Species Biologists once thought that humans did little to affect the course of evolution in the short term....
a month ago
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a month ago
Biologists once thought that humans did little to affect the course of evolution in the short term. But a recent study of cod in the Baltic Sea reveals how overfishing and selective harvest of the largest fish has caused genetic changes that favor slower growth and smaller...
Quanta Magazine
Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of Earth’s Surface Strong new evidence suggests that primordial material from the planet’s center is somehow making its...
a month ago
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a month ago
Strong new evidence suggests that primordial material from the planet’s center is somehow making its way out. Continent-size entities anchored to the core-mantle boundary might be involved. The post Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of Earth’s Surface...
Yale E360
World Cannot Recycle Its Way Out of Plastics Crisis, Report Warns The 8 billion tons of plastic waste that have amassed on Earth pose a grave and growing danger to...
a month ago
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a month ago
The 8 billion tons of plastic waste that have amassed on Earth pose a grave and growing danger to human health, according to a new report published in the leading medical journal The Lancet. Ahead of a U.N. conference on plastic pollution, authors warn that countries urgently...
IEEE Spectrum
A Cold War Kit for Surviving a Nuclear Attack On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. Over the next year...
a month ago
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a month ago
On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. Over the next year and a half, U.S. President Harry S. Truman resurrected the Office of Civilian Defense (which had been abolished at the end of World War II) and signed into law the Federal Civil...
Quanta Magazine
At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at...
a month ago
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a month ago
After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture. The post At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
Bizarre New Creatures Discovered 30,000 Feet Under the Sea The Titanic lies about 12,500 feet under the ocean. The pressure down there is so immense that even...
a month ago
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a month ago
The Titanic lies about 12,500 feet under the ocean. The pressure down there is so immense that even submersibles supposedly built for those conditions can, as we know, tragically fail. Now imagine taking a sub nearly three times deeper. Read more on E360 →
NeuroLogica Blog
Depleted Uranium Batteries The Japan Atomic Energy Agency reported earlier this year that is has developed and tested a battery...
a month ago
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a month ago
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency reported earlier this year that is has developed and tested a battery with depleted uranium as the active material of the negative electrode. Why would they do this, and what role could such a battery play? First let’s look at the details (which are...
Yale E360
A 515-Mile Lightning Flash Is Longest on Record A reappraisal of satellite data from 2017 revealed that a thunderstorm over the Great Plains...
a month ago
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a month ago
A reappraisal of satellite data from 2017 revealed that a thunderstorm over the Great Plains produced a 515-mile lightning flash, the longest ever recorded. As science advances, researchers expect to uncover even longer flashes. Read more on E360 →
The Works in...
We're hiring: Daily newsletter writer Join us and document the scientific, technological and economic progress happening around the world.
a month ago
Quanta Magazine
What Can a Cell Remember? A small but enthusiastic group of neuroscientists is exhuming overlooked experiments and performing...
a month ago
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a month ago
A small but enthusiastic group of neuroscientists is exhuming overlooked experiments and performing new ones to explore whether cells record past experiences — fundamentally challenging what memory is. The post What Can a Cell Remember? first appeared on Quanta...
Yale E360
A Promised U.S. Drilling Boom Fails to Materialize With clean energy more cost-competitive than it once was, the White House’s oil-first strategy is...
a month ago
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a month ago
With clean energy more cost-competitive than it once was, the White House’s oil-first strategy is faltering in a changing energy landscape. Read more on E360 →
Drew Ex Machina
As Government Cuts Weather Forecasting, Private Weather is Poised to Take the Lead By Ilya Schiller For decades, Americans have relied on federal agencies like NOAA and the National...
a month ago
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a month ago
By Ilya Schiller For decades, Americans have relied on federal agencies like NOAA and the National Weather Service (NWS) to provide essential weather forecasts, storm tracking, […]
The Works in...
How Henry VIII accidentally started the Industrial Revolution, with Anton Howes Episode three of the Works in Progress Podcast is about England's WORST king.
a month ago
NeuroLogica Blog
What To Do About AI Slop I wasn’t planning on doing a follow up to my recent post on AI so quickly, but a published...
a month ago
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a month ago
I wasn’t planning on doing a follow up to my recent post on AI so quickly, but a published commentary on the issue makes a good point of discussion. I know it can get tiring to see so much news and commentary about AI, but we are in the middle of a rapidly evolving and […] The...
Yale E360
Sprawling Study Links Air Pollution to Dementia A wide-ranging analysis, drawing from data on nearly 30 million people, finds a link between air...
a month ago
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a month ago
A wide-ranging analysis, drawing from data on nearly 30 million people, finds a link between air pollution and dementia.  Read more on E360 →
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Advice and Lessons for Healthcare Founders | Out-Of-Pocket Some stuff people don’t tell you
a month ago
Quanta Magazine
Why the Key to a Mathematical Life is Collaboration Fan Chung, who has an Erdős number of 1, discusses the importance of connection — both human and...
a month ago
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a month ago
Fan Chung, who has an Erdős number of 1, discusses the importance of connection — both human and mathematical. The post Why the Key to a Mathematical Life is Collaboration first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
‘Sponge City’: How Copenhagen Is Adapting to a Wetter Future Climate change is bringing ever more precipitation and rising seas to low-lying Denmark. In response...
a month ago
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a month ago
Climate change is bringing ever more precipitation and rising seas to low-lying Denmark. In response to troubling predictions, Copenhagen is enacting an ambitious plan to build hundreds of nature-based and engineered projects to soak up, store, and redistribute future floods Read...
Quantum Frontiers
Little ray of sunshine A common saying goes, you should never meet your heroes, because they’ll disappoint you. But you...
a month ago
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a month ago
A common saying goes, you should never meet your heroes, because they’ll disappoint you. But you shouldn’t trust every common saying; some heroes impress you more, the better you know them. Ray Laflamme was such a hero. I first heard … Continue reading →
Yale E360
A Third of Slum Dwellers at Risk of 'Disastrous' Floods Close to 900 million people across the Global South live in densely packed urban slums, which often...
a month ago
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a month ago
Close to 900 million people across the Global South live in densely packed urban slums, which often sit in floodplains. A new study finds that one in three slum dwellers is at risk of "disastrous" flooding, a risk that is set to grow as warming spurs more intense rainfall around...
Quanta Magazine
Quantum Scientists Have Built a New Math of Cryptography In theory, quantum physics can bypass the hard mathematical problems at the root of modern...
a month ago
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a month ago
In theory, quantum physics can bypass the hard mathematical problems at the root of modern encryption. A new proof shows how. The post Quantum Scientists Have Built a New Math of Cryptography first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
On Controlling Fire, New Lessons from a Deep Indigenous Past For centuries, the Native people of North America used controlled burns to manage the continent's...
a month ago
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a month ago
For centuries, the Native people of North America used controlled burns to manage the continent's forests. In an e360 interview, ecologist Loris Daniels talks about the long history of Indigenous burning and why the practice must be restored to protect against catastrophic...
nanoscale views
Research experience for teachers - why NSF education funds matter The beginning of a RET poster session Research Experience for Teachers (RET) programs are an...
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The beginning of a RET poster session Research Experience for Teachers (RET) programs are an example of the kind of programs that the National Science Foundation funds which are focused on K12 (and broader) education. This summer I hosted a high school physics teacher in my lab...
The Works in...
Tram trains How to build cheap transit in smaller towns
a month ago
Quanta Magazine
The Cells That Breathe Two Ways In a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, a microbe does something that life shouldn’t be able...
a month ago
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a month ago
In a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, a microbe does something that life shouldn’t be able to do: It breathes oxygen and sulfur at the same time. The post The Cells That Breathe Two Ways first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
Lightning Kills 320 Million Trees Yearly. With Warming, the Toll Could Rise A new study finds that lightning kills some 320 million trees around the world each year, more than...
a month ago
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a month ago
A new study finds that lightning kills some 320 million trees around the world each year, more than was previously thought. And the figure could rise in the years ahead as increasingly hot and humid weather fuels more lightning, particularly in forested parts of the Far...