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NeuroLogica Blog
Avi Loeb and the Alien Technology Hypothesis Avi Loeb is at it again. He is the Harvard astrophysicist who first gained notoriety when he...
a month ago
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a month ago
Avi Loeb is at it again. He is the Harvard astrophysicist who first gained notoriety when he hypothesized that Oumuamua, the first detected interstellar object, might be an alien artifact. His arguments were pretty thin, not taken very seriously by the scientific community, and...
Yale E360
China Breaks Ground on Colossal Dam Project in Asia's Grand Canyon China has begun construction on a massive dam project in the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in Tibet,...
a month ago
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a month ago
China has begun construction on a massive dam project in the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in Tibet, the longest and deepest canyon in the world. Experts fear the impact on wildlife in the river gorge, which is home to snow leopards and Bengal tigers, as well as some of the...
Damn Interesting
Omiword, a Word Game In certain dialects of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, the word for ‘four’ sounds very...
a month ago
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a month ago
In certain dialects of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, the word for ‘four’ sounds very similar to the word for ‘death’1. Consequently, the number 4 is considered by many people in East Asian nations to be unlucky. It is not unusual for buildings in that region to skip...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
What goes into SOC 2 and HITRUST? (with Vanta) | Out-Of-Pocket
a month ago
Quanta Magazine
AI Comes Up with Bizarre Physics Experiments. But They Work. Artificial intelligence software is designing novel experimental protocols that improve upon the...
a month ago
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a month ago
Artificial intelligence software is designing novel experimental protocols that improve upon the work of human physicists, although the humans are still “doing a lot of baby-sitting.” The post AI Comes Up with Bizarre Physics Experiments. But They Work. first appeared...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Epstein Files Hubbub I have been away on vacation for the last week and a half, so I thought I would ease back into...
a month ago
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a month ago
I have been away on vacation for the last week and a half, so I thought I would ease back into blogging with a light non-controversial topic – the Epstein Files. OK – let’s all take a collective deep breath. Everyone – and I mean everyone – I talk to about this issue has strong...
Yale E360
Paying the People: Liberia’s Novel Plan to Save Its Forests Plagued by illegal logging and corruption, Liberia has been losing its forests at an alarming rate....
a month ago
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a month ago
Plagued by illegal logging and corruption, Liberia has been losing its forests at an alarming rate. But its new strategy to make direct payments to communities that agree to prohibit cutting and protect their trees is seen as a potential model for other developing nations. Read...
Chris Grossack's...
Free Things Are Complicated (Especially the Sphere Spectrum!) I’ve spent the last week at CT2025, which has just come to a close. It was great getting to see so...
a month ago
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a month ago
I’ve spent the last week at CT2025, which has just come to a close. It was great getting to see so many old friends and meet so many new ones, and every time I go to a CT I’m reminded of just how much category theory there is in the world, as well as just how much I enjoy all...
nanoscale views
The latest on US science funding The US House and Senate appropriations subcommittees have now completed their markups on the bills...
a month ago
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a month ago
The US House and Senate appropriations subcommittees have now completed their markups on the bills relevant to the FY26 appropriations for NSF, NASA, and NIST.  The AAAS has an interactive dashboard with current information here if you want to click and look at all the...
Yale E360
Paying the People: Liberia’s Novel Plan to Save Its Forests Plagued by illegal logging and corruption, Liberia has been losing its forests at an alarming rate....
a month ago
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a month ago
Plagued by illegal logging and corruption, Liberia has been losing its forests at an alarming rate. But its new strategy to make direct payments to communities that agree to prohibit cutting and protect their trees is seen as a potential model for other developing nations. Read...
Quanta Magazine
How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper Fundamental technique lets researchers use a big, expensive “teacher” model to train a “student”...
a month ago
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a month ago
Fundamental technique lets researchers use a big, expensive “teacher” model to train a “student” model for less. The post How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
Research Details Devastating Toll of Colonization on Pacific Northwest Wildlife When Europeans arrived to the Pacific Northwest, they spread smallpox that devastated the Indigenous...
a month ago
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a month ago
When Europeans arrived to the Pacific Northwest, they spread smallpox that devastated the Indigenous people, plundered stocks of salmon and herring, hunted down deer and other game, and built sprawling cities and ports. New research tallies the profound impact on wildlife. Read...
Drew Ex Machina
The Soviet Zond 3 Lunar Flyby: Revealing the Rest of the Far Side Naturally, the early history of space exploration is filled with firsts. Just six decades ago at...
a month ago
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a month ago
Naturally, the early history of space exploration is filled with firsts. Just six decades ago at this time, the world watched as NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft […]
Yale E360
Clearcutting Can Lead to Devastating Floods, But It Doesn’t Have To It has long been understood that clearcutting forests leads to more runoff, worsening flooding. But...
a month ago
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a month ago
It has long been understood that clearcutting forests leads to more runoff, worsening flooding. But a new study finds that logging can reshape watersheds in surprising ways, leading to dramatically more flooding in some forests, while having little effect on others. Read more on...
Quanta Magazine
A New Geometry for Einstein’s Theory of Relativity A team of mathematicians based in Vienna is developing tools to extend the scope of general...
a month ago
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a month ago
A team of mathematicians based in Vienna is developing tools to extend the scope of general relativity. The post A New Geometry for Einstein’s Theory of Relativity first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Works in...
A $50 million foundation model to predict earthquakes Achieving a 10-minute warning would save thousands of lives
a month ago
Yale E360
Ice Recovered from European Alps Holds 12,000-Year Record of History Glacial ice offers a detailed record of the atmosphere, preserved in discrete layers, providing...
a month ago
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Glacial ice offers a detailed record of the atmosphere, preserved in discrete layers, providing researchers with a valuable tool for studying human history. A sample taken from a glacier in the European Alps dates back at least 12,000 years, making it the oldest ice yet recovered...
Blog - Practical...
The Hidden Engineering of Floating Bridges [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In the early 1900s, Seattle...
a month ago
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a month ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In the early 1900s, Seattle was a growing city hemmed in by geography. To the west was Puget Sound, a vital link to the Pacific Ocean. To the east, Lake Washington stood between the city and the farmland and...
Yale E360
Drop in Air Pollution Drove a Surge in Warming, Study Finds Scientists have been scrambling to make sense of a recent acceleration in warming, which may be...
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Scientists have been scrambling to make sense of a recent acceleration in warming, which may be attributable, they say, to changes in solar output or to shifts in cloud cover. A new study finds the biggest driver may be a drop in air pollution in East Asia, primarily in...
Quanta Magazine
RNA Is the Cell’s Emergency Alert System How does a cell know when it’s been damaged? A molecular alarm, set off by mutated RNA and colliding...
a month ago
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a month ago
How does a cell know when it’s been damaged? A molecular alarm, set off by mutated RNA and colliding ribosomes, signals danger. The post RNA Is the Cell’s Emergency Alert System first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
Trump’s Logging Push Thrusts a Dagger at the Heart of Wilderness Alaska’s Tongass is the world’s largest temperate rainforest and a sanctuary for wildlife. The Trump...
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a month ago
Alaska’s Tongass is the world’s largest temperate rainforest and a sanctuary for wildlife. The Trump administration’s plan to rescind a rule banning roads in wild areas of National Forests would open untouched parts of the Tongass and other forests to logging and...
Quanta Magazine
The Biggest-Ever Digital Camera Is This Cosmologist’s Magnum Opus Tony Tyson’s cameras revealed the universe’s dark contents. Now, with the Rubin Observatory’s...
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Tony Tyson’s cameras revealed the universe’s dark contents. Now, with the Rubin Observatory’s 3.2-billion-pixel camera, he’s ready to study dark matter and dark energy in unprecedented detail. The post The Biggest-Ever Digital Camera Is This Cosmologist’s Magnum Opus...
nanoscale views
US science funding - now time to push on the House appropriators Some not-actively-discouraging news out of Washington DC yesterday:  The Senate appropriations...
a month ago
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a month ago
Some not-actively-discouraging news out of Washington DC yesterday:  The Senate appropriations committee is doing its markups of the various funding bills (which all technically originated in the House), and it appears that they have pushed to keep the funding for NASA and NSF...
Yale E360
In a First, Solar Was Europe's Biggest Source of Power Last Month For the first time, solar was the largest source of electricity in the EU last month, supplying a...
a month ago
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For the first time, solar was the largest source of electricity in the EU last month, supplying a record 22 percent of the bloc's power. Read more on E360 →
The Works in...
Stian Westlake on the intangible economy and paying for social science Episode two of The Works in Progress Podcast is out now
a month ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Announcing…our next event this fall!!! And other fun stuff!! | Out-Of-Pocket Calling all the builders
a month ago
Quanta Magazine
How Can Regional Models Advance Climate Science? Elfatih Eltahir explains why we need more local and social data, like disease spread and population...
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Elfatih Eltahir explains why we need more local and social data, like disease spread and population growth, to better predict and address climate-related challenges. The post How Can Regional Models Advance Climate Science? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
In Pakistan, a Solar Revolution Is Bringing Power to the People Fed up with pricey electricity from an unreliable grid, Pakistanis have gobbled up cheap solar...
a month ago
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Fed up with pricey electricity from an unreliable grid, Pakistanis have gobbled up cheap solar panels. In an interview, Muhammad Mustafa Amjad, of Islamabad-based Renewables First, says his country can stand as a model for other nations as they transition away from fossil...
Quanta Magazine
Computer Scientists Figure Out How To Prove Lies An attack on a fundamental proof technique reveals a glaring security issue for blockchains and...
a month ago
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An attack on a fundamental proof technique reveals a glaring security issue for blockchains and other digital encryption schemes. The post Computer Scientists Figure Out How To Prove Lies first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Works in...
What's new in biology, summer 2025 edition The first gonorrhea vaccination program, contact lenses that see infrared light, the protein behind...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
The first gonorrhea vaccination program, contact lenses that see infrared light, the protein behind sweet tastes, a baby cured with gene therapy, and more
Yale E360
Koalas Spend Just 10 Minutes a Day on the Ground — That's Usually When They're Killed Koalas, which spend most of their lives high up in eucalyptus trees, usually die while on the...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Koalas, which spend most of their lives high up in eucalyptus trees, usually die while on the ground, often mauled by dogs or hit by cars. More striking, a new study reveals that the amount of time they spend on the ground is only around 10 minutes a day. Read more on E360 →
nanoscale views
New updates + tetrahedra, tunneling times, and more Here are a number of items from the past week or so that I think readers of this blog might find...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Here are a number of items from the past week or so that I think readers of this blog might find interesting: Essentially all the news pertaining to the US federal funding of science continues to be awful.  This article from Science summarizes the situation well, as does this...
Yale E360
In Uganda, Deadly Landslides Force an Agricultural Reckoning As growing populations denude its slopes and heavy rain intensifies, Mount Elgon has become...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
As growing populations denude its slopes and heavy rain intensifies, Mount Elgon has become increasingly vulnerable to landslides. In response, Ugandan farmers are planting native trees and changing the crops they plant in efforts to build resilience against future...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Common ROI mistakes in healthcare | Out-Of-Pocket Plus some benchmark ROI numbers for you to think about
2 months ago
Quanta Magazine
New Sphere-Packing Record Stems From an Unexpected Source After just a few months of work, a complete newcomer to the world of sphere packing has solved one...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
After just a few months of work, a complete newcomer to the world of sphere packing has solved one of its biggest open problems. The post New Sphere-Packing Record Stems From an Unexpected Source first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Yale E360
With 'Big Beautiful Bill,' U.S. to Reverse Course on Clean Energy The Republican spending bill, signed into law Friday, will reset the course for the U.S. energy...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
The Republican spending bill, signed into law Friday, will reset the course for the U.S. energy sector, analyses show. The law rapidly phases out tax credits for wind, solar, and electric cars, while making it cheaper to drill and mine for fossil fuels on federal lands.  Read...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Real Risk of AI Artificial Intelligence (AI) is unavoidable. It’s now a part of our daily lives as it has been...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is unavoidable. It’s now a part of our daily lives as it has been steadily infiltrating the technology we use every day, whether you realize it or not. I remain somewhat in the middle in terms of the hype-to-technological-miracle spectrum. I don’t...
Quanta Magazine
How Smell Guides Our Inner World A better understanding of human smell is emerging as scientists interrogate its fundamental...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
A better understanding of human smell is emerging as scientists interrogate its fundamental elements: the odor molecules that enter your nose and the individual neurons that translate them into perception in your brain. The post How Smell Guides Our Inner World first...
IEEE Spectrum
This 1945 TV Console Showed Two Programs at Once As I try to write this article, my friend and I have six different screens attached to three types...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
As I try to write this article, my friend and I have six different screens attached to three types of devices. We’re working in the same room but on our own projects—separate yet together, a comfortable companionship. I had never really thought of the proliferation of screens as...
The Works in...
The end of lead How a single taxi ride saved millions of lives
2 months ago
Yale E360
Meta Said A.I. Could Help Tackle Warming. An Early Experiment Underwhelmed Last year Meta identified 135 materials that could potentially be used to draw down carbon dioxide,...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Last year Meta identified 135 materials that could potentially be used to draw down carbon dioxide, work it described as "groundbreaking." But when scientists tried to reproduce the results, they found that none of the materials could perform as promised and that some did not...
Quanta Magazine
Physicists Start To Pin Down How Stars Forge Heavy Atoms The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in smoldering stellar corpses. They definitely exist in East Lansing, Michigan. The post Physicists Start To Pin Down How Stars Forge Heavy Atoms first appeared on Quanta...
Yale E360
A Decade After a Lead Crisis, Flint Has At Last Replaced Its Pipes A decade after Flint, Michigan, was beset by widespread lead contamination, officials confirmed the...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
A decade after Flint, Michigan, was beset by widespread lead contamination, officials confirmed the city has replaced its lead pipes, as ordered by a federal court. Read more on E360 →
Blog - Practical...
The Hidden Engineering of Liquid Dampers in Skyscrapers [Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] There’s a new trend in...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] There’s a new trend in high-rise building design. Maybe you’ve seen this in your city. The best lots are all taken, so developers are stretching the limits to make use of space that isn’t always ideal for...
Yale E360
London Inches Closer to Running Transit System Entirely on Renewable Power Under a new agreement, London will source enough solar power to run its light railway and tram...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Under a new agreement, London will source enough solar power to run its light railway and tram networks entirely on renewable energy. Read more on E360 →
nanoscale views
Science slow down - not a simple question I participated in a program about 15 years ago that looked at science and technology challenges...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
I participated in a program about 15 years ago that looked at science and technology challenges faced by a subset of the US government. I came away thinking that such problems fall into three broad categories. Actual science and engineering challenges, which require...
Quanta Magazine
Researchers Uncover Hidden Ingredients Behind AI Creativity Image generators are designed to mimic their training data, so where does their apparent creativity...
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2 months ago
Image generators are designed to mimic their training data, so where does their apparent creativity come from? A recent study suggests that it’s an inevitable by-product of their architecture. The post Researchers Uncover Hidden Ingredients Behind AI Creativity first...
NeuroLogica Blog
Animals Adapting to Cities Humans are dramatically changing the environment of the Earth in many ways. Only about 23% of the...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Humans are dramatically changing the environment of the Earth in many ways. Only about 23% of the land surface (excluding Antarctica) is considered to be “wilderness”, and this is rapidly decreasing. What wilderness is left is also mostly managed conservation areas. Meanwhile,...
nanoscale views
Cryogenic CMOS - a key need for solid state quantum information processing The basis for much of modern electronics is a set of silicon technologies called CMOS, which stands...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
The basis for much of modern electronics is a set of silicon technologies called CMOS, which stands for complementary metal oxide semiconductor devices and processes.  "Complementary" means using semiconductors (typically silicon) that is locally chemically doped so that you can...
Yale E360
Why U.S. Geothermal May Advance, Despite Political Headwinds The Trump administration is outwardly hostile to clean energy sourced from solar and wind. But...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
The Trump administration is outwardly hostile to clean energy sourced from solar and wind. But thanks to close ties to the fossil fuel industry and new technological breakthroughs, U.S. geothermal power may survive the GOP assaults on support for renewables and even thrive. Read...