Our future will be bright, fast—and full of robots. It’ll be more Asimov than Terminator: servant robots, more or less similar… | Continue reading
On March 3, 1942, a brief item with a rather peculiar headline appeared tucked away in the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper. “Fledermaus… | Continue reading
Five World War II bombers took off from a Florida airfield on Oct. 5, 1967 to bomb the American South. An article that ran that morning… | Continue reading
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog.So-called “analogue experiments” are becoming increasingly… | Continue reading
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog.So-called “analogue experiments” are becoming increasingly… | Continue reading
Great art often jumps ahead of its time, and science fiction is no exception. It has anticipated cellular phones and submarines, geostationary… | Continue reading
George Chapline believes that the Event Horizon Telescope will offer evidence that black holes are really dark energy stars. NASAWhat… | Continue reading
George Chapline believes that the Event Horizon Telescope will offer evidence that black holes are really dark energy stars. NASAWhat… | Continue reading
A few years ago there was a woman in my life—let’s call her Tanya—and we had hooked up one night in Los Angeles. We’d both… | Continue reading
Can a planet be alive? Lynn Margulis, a giant of late 20th-century biology, who had an incandescent intellect that veered toward the… | Continue reading
It seemed inevitable that Elon Musk would eventually get into a Twitter war over whether Mars can be terraformed. When you’re on… | Continue reading
In early 1999, during the halftime of a University of Washington basketball game, a time capsule from 1927 was opened. Among the contents… | Continue reading
For something called the Standard Model, the foundational theory of particle physics is confronting a lengthy list of non-standard… | Continue reading
For something called the Standard Model, the foundational theory of particle physics is confronting a lengthy list of non-standard… | Continue reading
In early 1999, during the halftime of a University of Washington basketball game, a time capsule from 1927 was opened. Among the contents… | Continue reading
It seemed inevitable that Elon Musk would eventually get into a Twitter war over whether Mars can be terraformed. When you’re on… | Continue reading
Depending on which economist you ask, big inequalities in wealth are either an essential engine for growth—the reward that motivates… | Continue reading
Money used to be local. The first non-precious metal coins emerged as a natural consequence of trade, and were seldom accepted as… | Continue reading
As a geologist and professor I speak and write rather cavalierly about eras and eons. One of the courses I routinely teach is “History… | Continue reading
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine‘s Abstractions blog.In math, sometimes the most common things are the hardest… | Continue reading
When I first adopted Lucas nine years ago from a cat rescue organization in Washington, D.C., his name was Puck. “Because he’s… | Continue reading
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine‘s Abstractions blog.In math, sometimes the most common things are the hardest… | Continue reading
People too often forget that IQ tests haven’t been around that long. Indeed, such psychological measures are only about a century… | Continue reading
We are at the midpoint of our journey. Seth twists the key, turning the truck ignition off, and we step out and walk the few remaining… | Continue reading
When I first adopted Lucas nine years ago from a cat rescue organization in Washington, D.C., his name was Puck. “Because he’s… | Continue reading
People too often forget that IQ tests haven’t been around that long. Indeed, such psychological measures are only about a century… | Continue reading
An Alphabet subsidiary is planning to build a futuristic neighborhood, not out of concrete and steel, but wood—and wood is looking… | Continue reading
An Alphabet subsidiary is planning to build a futuristic neighborhood, not out of concrete and steel, but wood—and wood is looking… | Continue reading
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine‘s Abstractions blog.Astronomers have known where the universe’s missing matter… | Continue reading
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine‘s Abstractions blog.Astronomers have known where the universe’s missing matter… | Continue reading
The use of emojis has become a global phenomenon. By 2015, over 6 billion emojis1 were being sent every day by over 90 percent of… | Continue reading
Who will say ‘corpse’ to his vivid cast? Who will say ‘body’ to his opaque repose? —Seamus Heaney, “Grauballe Man”… | Continue reading
The inside of every cell in our body is like a crowded city, filled with tracks, transports, libraries, factories, power plants, and… | Continue reading
One part of the Hippocratic Oath, the vow taken by physicians, requires us to “remember that there is art to medicine as well as… | Continue reading
The sun formed 4.5 billion years ago, but it’s got around 6 billion years more before its fuel runs out. It will then flare up,… | Continue reading
One part of the Hippocratic Oath, the vow taken by many physicians, requires us to “remember that there is art to medicine as well… | Continue reading
Who will say ‘corpse’ to his vivid cast? Who will say ‘body’ to his opaque repose? —Seamus Heaney, “Grauballe Man”… | Continue reading
The sun formed 4.5 billion years ago, but it’s got around 6 billion years more before its fuel runs out. It will then flare up,… | Continue reading
When Nate Soares psychoanalyzes himself, he sounds less Freudian than Spockian. As a boy, he’d see people acting in ways he never… | Continue reading
Hot fluids of neutrons that flow without friction, superconductors made of protons, and a solid crust built of exotic atoms—features… | Continue reading
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.When entomologist Barrett Klein talks to people about his research on honeybee… | Continue reading
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.When entomologist Barrett Klein talks to people about his research on honeybee… | Continue reading
If you dropped a dozen human toddlers on a beautiful Polynesian island with shelter and enough to eat, but no computers, no cell phones,… | Continue reading
Man’s best friend was also man’s first buried pet.Photograph by Pavlina Trauskeova / ShutterstockAs a kid, when my pet turtle… | Continue reading
Man’s best friend was also man’s first buried pet.Photograph by Pavlina Trauskeova / ShutterstockAs a kid, when my pet turtle… | Continue reading
In “Half-Wit,” an episode of House, Gregory House, a brilliant Sherlock Holmes-like doctor (and a decent musician) wheels a piano… | Continue reading
In “Half-Wit,” an episode of House, Gregory House, a brilliant Sherlock Holmes-like doctor (and a decent musician) wheels a piano… | Continue reading
The science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein once wrote, “Each generation thinks it invented sex.” He was presumably referring to… | Continue reading