NeuroLogica Blog
The Fight over Education
There is an ongoing culture war, and not just in the US, over the content of childhood education,...
2 weeks ago
There is an ongoing culture war, and not just in the US, over the content of childhood education, both public and private. This seems to be flaring up recently, but is never truly gone. Republicans in the US have recently escalated this war by banning over 500 books in several...
NeuroLogica Blog
Unifying Cognitive Biases
Are you familiar with the “lumper vs splitter” debate? This refers to any situation in which there...
2 months ago
Are you familiar with the “lumper vs splitter” debate? This refers to any situation in which there is some controversy over exactly how to categorize complex phenomena, specifically whether or not to favor the fewest categories based on similarities, or the greatest number of...
NeuroLogica Blog
Some Battery News
I have been following battery technology pretty closely, as this is a key technology for the...
a month ago
I have been following battery technology pretty closely, as this is a key technology for the transition to green energy. The most obvious application is in battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The second most obvious application is in grid storage. But also there are all the...
NeuroLogica Blog
New Platform for Timed Drug Release
This is one of those technologies that most people probably never think about, but could potentially...
3 weeks ago
This is one of those technologies that most people probably never think about, but could potentially have a significant impact on our lives – timed drug release. The concept is nothing new, but there is a lot of room for improvement on current technologies. We already have...
NeuroLogica Blog
Will Hydrogen BEV Hybrids Be A Thing?
I recently recorded a YouTube video on the notion of hydrogen fuel cell cars (it will be posted...
3 weeks ago
I recently recorded a YouTube video on the notion of hydrogen fuel cell cars (it will be posted soon, and I will add the link when it’s up). One question I did not get into in the video, but which is an interesting thought experiment, is hydrogen – plug-in battery hybrid...
NeuroLogica Blog
Moon Spacesuit Prototype Unveiled
Good spacesuits are deceptively difficult to design, even with today’s technology. NASA is planning...
2 months ago
Good spacesuits are deceptively difficult to design, even with today’s technology. NASA is planning to return to the moon in 2025 (if all goes well) but the spacesuit the astronauts will wear is one piece to the puzzle they have not completed yet (the other being the lunar...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Lunar Cycle and Suicide
Does the lunar cycle affect human behavior? This seems to be a question that refuses to die, no...
a month ago
Does the lunar cycle affect human behavior? This seems to be a question that refuses to die, no matter how hard it is to confirm any actual effect. It’s now a cultural idea, deeply embedded and not going anywhere. A recent study, however, seems to show a correlation between...
NeuroLogica Blog
New Type of Black Hole Discovered
ESA’s Gaia orbital telescope has recently discovered two new black holes. This, in itself, is not...
a month ago
ESA’s Gaia orbital telescope has recently discovered two new black holes. This, in itself, is not surprising, as that is Gaia’s mission – to precisely map the three-dimensional position of two billion objects in our galaxy, using three separate instruments. The process is called...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Role of Plausibility in Science
I have been writing blog posts and engaging in science communication long enough that I have a...
2 weeks ago
I have been writing blog posts and engaging in science communication long enough that I have a pretty good sense how much engagement I am going to get from a particular topic. Some topics are simply more divisive than others (although there is an unpredictable element from social...
NeuroLogica Blog
Making Fuel from Sunshine
When it comes to big problems it’s generally a good idea to remember some basic principles. One is...
2 weeks ago
When it comes to big problems it’s generally a good idea to remember some basic principles. One is that there is no free lunch. This is a cliche because it’s true. Another way to put this is – there are no solutions, only trade offs. Sometimes there is a genuine advance that does...
NeuroLogica Blog
Harvesting Energy from Water Vapor
I did not plan to write yet another post about energy, but this popped up and I had to write about...
2 days ago
I did not plan to write yet another post about energy, but this popped up and I had to write about it. UMASS researchers have produced a device that generates electricity by harvesting charge from water vapor. They write: The common feature of these materials is that they are...
NeuroLogica Blog
England Allows Gene-Edited Crops
This has been somewhat of a quiet revolution, but a new law in England may bring it to the...
2 months ago
This has been somewhat of a quiet revolution, but a new law in England may bring it to the foreground. The Precision Breeding Act will now allow gene-edited plants to be developed and marketed in England (not Northern Ireland, Wales, or Scotland). The innovation is that the law...
NeuroLogica Blog
Should Tech Companies Be Liable for Content
The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) is hearing a case that will have profound effects on social media – is...
3 months ago
The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) is hearing a case that will have profound effects on social media – is Google liable for a terrorist killing? The family of Nohemi Gonzalez is suing Google, because she was shot by an Islamic terrorist in 2015 and the family alleges this act was abetted...
NeuroLogica Blog
Germany and Nuclear Power
Germany has been thrown around a lot as an example of both what to do and what not to do in terms of...
3 weeks ago
Germany has been thrown around a lot as an example of both what to do and what not to do in terms of addressing global warming by embracing green energy technology. It’s possible to look back now and review the numbers, to see what the effect was of its decision to embrace...
NeuroLogica Blog
T-rex Had Lips
One of the challenges of paleontology is that we are trying to infer and entire animal just from the...
2 months ago
One of the challenges of paleontology is that we are trying to infer and entire animal just from the hard parts that fossilize, mostly bones and teeth (and sometimes just teeth). But if we look at animals today there are a lot of details we could not guess from their bones alone...
NeuroLogica Blog
Should You Get a Heat Pump?
Starting around 1550 and lasting through the 1600s, England had an energy crisis. They were running...
4 days ago
Starting around 1550 and lasting through the 1600s, England had an energy crisis. They were running out of wood, which was the main source of fuel for residential and commercial heating. England also needed a lot of wood for their massive navy – it took about 2,000 trees to build...
NeuroLogica Blog
Student Attitudes Toward AI in the Class
Researchers recently published an extensive survey of almost 6,000 students across academic...
2 weeks ago
Researchers recently published an extensive survey of almost 6,000 students across academic institution in Sweden. The results are not surprising, but they do give a snapshot of where we are with the recent introduction of large language model AIs. Most students, 56%, reported...
NeuroLogica Blog
Is The Boring Company Useful?
Elon Musk has a complicated legacy. Most people I encounter who bother to express an opinion tend to...
3 weeks ago
Elon Musk has a complicated legacy. Most people I encounter who bother to express an opinion tend to be either a fan or hater. I am neither. He’s a complicated and flawed person who has accomplished some interesting things, but also has had some epic failures. People like a clean...
NeuroLogica Blog
Reading The Mind with fMRI and AI
This is pretty exciting neuroscience news – Semantic reconstruction of continuous language from...
a month ago
This is pretty exciting neuroscience news – Semantic reconstruction of continuous language from non-invasive brain recordings. What this means is that researchers have been able to, sort of, decode the words that subjects were thinking of simply by reading their fMRI scan. They...
NeuroLogica Blog
Problems with the Institute Of Noetic Sciences
I was interviewed recently for a Daily Beast article on recent research involving the Institute of...
a month ago
I was interviewed recently for a Daily Beast article on recent research involving the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Overall the article is very good, and author Maddie Bender was fair and reasonable in how I was quoted. I can’t always take that as a given. No matter how...
NeuroLogica Blog
Meteostat-12 Meets Flat Earthers
I know this wasn’t the purpose of sending up a €4.3bn satellite into geostationary orbit, but...
4 weeks ago
I know this wasn’t the purpose of sending up a €4.3bn satellite into geostationary orbit, but tweaking flat earthers is a fun side effect. European countries have collaborated on this project, having weather satellites in orbit since 1977. The latest iteration is Meteostat-12,...
NeuroLogica Blog
Is AI Sentient Revisited
On the SGU this week we interviewed Blake Lemoine, the ex-Google employee who believes that Google’s...
2 months ago
On the SGU this week we interviewed Blake Lemoine, the ex-Google employee who believes that Google’s LaMDA may be sentient, based on his interactions with it. This was a fascinating discussion, and even though I think we did a pretty deep dive in the time we had, it also felt...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Circular CO2 Economy
Big picture time – as I have discussed before, we have just passed 8 billion people on this planet...
3 months ago
Big picture time – as I have discussed before, we have just passed 8 billion people on this planet and will likely top 10 billion before populations stabilize (which is quite possible, but that’s another story). What this means is that anything we collectively do is big. It...
NeuroLogica Blog
Coaching with Empathy
The show Ted Lasso is about to wrap up its final season. I am one of the many people who really...
a month ago
The show Ted Lasso is about to wrap up its final season. I am one of the many people who really enjoy the show, which turns on a group of likable people helping each other through various life challenges with care and empathy. Lasso is an American college football coach who was...
NeuroLogica Blog
AI – Is It Time to Panic?
I’m really excited about the recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and their potential...
a month ago
I’m really excited about the recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and their potential as powerful tools. I am also concerned about unintended consequences. As with any really powerful tool, there is the potential for abuse and also disruption. But I also think that...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Climate Debate Regarding Health Effects – Part II
Yesterday’s post was the first in an exchange about the effects of climate change on public health....
3 months ago
Yesterday’s post was the first in an exchange about the effects of climate change on public health. Today’s post is my response. Part II Climate change is a critically important topic for society today, and it’s important that the public have a working knowledge of the facts,...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Climate Debate Regarding Health Effects – Part I
This is the first entry in an exchange between me and Scott Hastings, who requested the exchange....
3 months ago
This is the first entry in an exchange between me and Scott Hastings, who requested the exchange. This is his opening arguments. My response will be tomorrow’s post. Part I: Hi Steven, first of all, I am tremendously grateful to you for taking time to engage with me on this...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Speed of Gravity
I recently received an e-mail question from an SGU listener about the speed of gravity. They were...
3 months ago
I recently received an e-mail question from an SGU listener about the speed of gravity. They were questioning a statement they heard by Neil DeGrasse Tyson that if the sun were magically plucked from existence, the Earth would not feel the effects for 8 minutes and 20 seconds –...
NeuroLogica Blog
Is AI Sentient – Revisited
This happened sooner than I thought. Last June I wrote about Google employee, Blake Lemoine, who...
2 months ago
This happened sooner than I thought. Last June I wrote about Google employee, Blake Lemoine, who claimed that the LaMDA chatbot he was working on was probably sentient. I didn’t buy it then and I still don’t, but Lemoine is not backing away from his claims. In an interview on H3...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Climate Debate Regarding Health Effects – Part III
Part 3 Hi Steve, and thank you for your timely response, and for even considering hosting this...
2 months ago
Part 3 Hi Steve, and thank you for your timely response, and for even considering hosting this debate. There has been, and continues to be a “blackout” on almost all discussion regarding the science behind climate change. If “The science” is truly “settled”, it is a pretty shaky...
NeuroLogica Blog
A Climate Debate Regarding Health Effects – Part IV
Part 4 This will be the final installment of this mini-debate about climate change and health...
2 months ago
Part 4 This will be the final installment of this mini-debate about climate change and health effects, following a typical format of each person getting to make a statement and a response. Scott makes a lot of complaints about tone, format and fairness while simultaneously trying...
NeuroLogica Blog
UK Building More Nuclear
The nuclear debate seems never-ending, which I guess is to be expected. Every large technology has...
2 months ago
The nuclear debate seems never-ending, which I guess is to be expected. Every large technology has tradeoffs. But the need to transition our energy infrastructure to carbon neutral has shifted the equation, and it is now arguable that we cannot afford to ignore the option of...
NeuroLogica Blog
3D Printing Superalloys
This is a cool material science development that nicely illustrates recent technological...
3 months ago
This is a cool material science development that nicely illustrates recent technological advancements. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created a superalloy using additive manufacturing (3D printing). That may not sound that impressive at first, but consider the...
NeuroLogica Blog
Starship Explodes in Successful Launch
A common joke in the medical world is, “The operation was a success, but the patient died.” The...
a month ago
A common joke in the medical world is, “The operation was a success, but the patient died.” The irony comes from how we might define “success”. On April 20th SpaceX conducted the maiden launch of the fully assembled Starship, including a Starship rocket on top of a super heavy...
NeuroLogica Blog
Elizabeth Holmes Going to Prison
I first wrote about the Theranos scandal in 2016, and I guess it should not be surprising that it...
a month ago
I first wrote about the Theranos scandal in 2016, and I guess it should not be surprising that it took 7 years to follow this story through to the end. Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the company Theranos, was convicted of defrauding investors and sentenced to 11 years in prison....
NeuroLogica Blog
Anxiety Biomarkers
Psychiatry, psychology, and all aspects of mental health are a challenging area because the clinical...
2 months ago
Psychiatry, psychology, and all aspects of mental health are a challenging area because the clinical entities we are dealing with are complex and mostly subjective. Diagnoses are perhaps best understood as clinical constructs – a way of identifying and understanding a mental...
NeuroLogica Blog
Serial Dependence Bias
As I have discussed numerous times on this blog, our brains did not evolve to be optimal precise...
3 months ago
As I have discussed numerous times on this blog, our brains did not evolve to be optimal precise perceivers and processors of information. Here is an infographic showing 188 documents cognitive biases. These biases are not all bad – they are tradeoffs. Evolutionary forces care...
NeuroLogica Blog
Nuclear Microreactors
The first nuclear powered vessel was completed in 1959. Since then there have been nuclear powered...
2 months ago
The first nuclear powered vessel was completed in 1959. Since then there have been nuclear powered vessels in the oceans, including many nuclear submarines. The obvious advantage is that is such vessels can stay at see for long periods of time without refueling. These ships use...
NeuroLogica Blog
ChatGPT Almost Passes Medical Licensure Exams
The emergence of several AI applications for public use, such as Dalle-2, Midjourney, and ChatGPT,...
3 months ago
The emergence of several AI applications for public use, such as Dalle-2, Midjourney, and ChatGPT, had made AI one of the biggest science news items of the past year. I have written about it here extensively myself, and have been using these applications extensively to get a feel...
NeuroLogica Blog
SpaceX Tests Super Heavy Booster
Last Thursday SpaceX successfully conducted the most significant test firing of its Heavy Booster...
3 months ago
Last Thursday SpaceX successfully conducted the most significant test firing of its Heavy Booster rocket to date. The rocket sports 33 Raptor 2 engines. During the test, 31 of them fired. One engine failed, and one was shut down. According to SpaceX, even with 31 engines the...
NeuroLogica Blog
Dwarf Planet Ring Mystery
Scientists love mysteries, because that is where new discoveries lay. It is nice to find evidence...
3 months ago
Scientists love mysteries, because that is where new discoveries lay. It is nice to find evidence consistent with existing theories, providing further confirmation, but it’s exciting to find evidence that cannot be explained with existing theories. Astronomers may have found such...
NeuroLogica Blog
Using Plants as Biofactories
When you think about it, plants are self-reproducing solar-powered biological factories. They are...
a month ago
When you think about it, plants are self-reproducing solar-powered biological factories. They are powered by the sun, extract raw material from the air and soil, and make all sorts of useful molecules. Mostly we use them to make edible molecules (food), but also to make textiles,...
NeuroLogica Blog
3D Printed Rocket Launches
This is one of those technology news stories where the implications of the technology is greater...
2 months ago
This is one of those technology news stories where the implications of the technology is greater than the thing itself. Relativity Space, a rocket company based in California, launched their first Terran-1 rocket. The launch ultimately failed when the second stage failed to...
NeuroLogica Blog
The Future of (Unpaid) Work
If we think of the top inventions that had a positive impact on human society and our quality of...
3 months ago
If we think of the top inventions that had a positive impact on human society and our quality of life most lists would contain things like the printing press, the wheel, or the computer. One invention that should be on everyone’s list but is easy to overlook is – the washing...
NeuroLogica Blog
Everything Will Evaporate
What will be the ultimate fate of our universe? There are a number of theories and possibilities,...
15 hours ago
What will be the ultimate fate of our universe? There are a number of theories and possibilities, but at present the most likely scenario seems to be that the universe will continue to expand, most mass will eventually find its way into a black hole, and those black holes will...
NeuroLogica Blog
Multipurpose Superconducting Highway
When it comes to technology (and also probably many things) there is a pyramid of ideas. At the very...
a month ago
When it comes to technology (and also probably many things) there is a pyramid of ideas. At the very bottom of the pyramid is pure speculation, just throwing out “what if” ideas to feed the conceptual pipeline. A subset of these ideas will pass the sniff test enough to justify...
NeuroLogica Blog
Deep Sea Mining for Minerals Could Harm Environment
It is an unfortunate reality that with over 8 billion people on the planet almost anything we...
2 months ago
It is an unfortunate reality that with over 8 billion people on the planet almost anything we collectively do has the potential to have huge environmental impacts. When the human population was in the mere millions we could treat the planet as an essentially unlimited resource....
NeuroLogica Blog
It’s Not Possible – Until Suddenly It Is
There are a couple of recent stories that remind me that perhaps the most powerful thing in the...
3 months ago
There are a couple of recent stories that remind me that perhaps the most powerful thing in the world is political will. Often politicians and motivational speakers will say something along the lines of, “We can do anything, if we put our minds to it.” While this sounds like...
NeuroLogica Blog
Building A Robotic Hand
Roboticists are often engaged in a process of reinventing the wheel – duplicating the function of...
a month ago
Roboticists are often engaged in a process of reinventing the wheel – duplicating the function of biological bodies in rubber, metal, and plastic. This is a difficult task because biological organisms are often wondrous machines. The human hand, in particular, is a feat of...
NeuroLogica Blog
UFOs and the Pandemic
Did UFO reporting increase during the pandemic? A group of researchers set out to answer that...
2 months ago
Did UFO reporting increase during the pandemic? A group of researchers set out to answer that question, and recently published their results. Their hypothesis was two-fold, including the notion that people had more free time during the shutdown and perhaps spent more time out...
NeuroLogica Blog
New Asteroid Probably Won’t Hit Earth
NASA recently discovered a 50 meter wide asteroid whose orbit will come close to Earth. They...
2 months ago
NASA recently discovered a 50 meter wide asteroid whose orbit will come close to Earth. They estimate a close approach in 2046, which will likely bring the asteroid within 1.1 million miles of the Earth, about four times the distance of the moon. However, there is always...
NeuroLogica Blog
Update on Quantum Computers
There has been a lot of quantum computer news since I last wrote about the topic. But this is still...
2 months ago
There has been a lot of quantum computer news since I last wrote about the topic. But this is still a technology that is slowly advancing in the background, while actual applications have been limited. There is a threshold effect at play – at some point, quantum computers will be...
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