Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? - Issue 86: Energy

The brain is complex; in humans it consists of about 100 billion neurons, making on the order of 100 trillion connections. It is often… | Continue reading


@Nautil.us | 4 years ago

Einstein’s Lost Hypothesis - Issue 86: Energy

When Ernest Sternglass walked up the steps at 112 Mercer Street in April 1947, he knew it would not be a normal day. Like a church… | Continue reading


@Nautil.us | 4 years ago

The Road Less Traveled to Fusion Energy - Issue 86: Energy

The modern quest for Promethean fire is underway in an anonymous office park in Foothill Ranch, California, an hour southeast of Los… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? - Issue 86: Energy

The brain is complex; in humans it consists of about 100 billion neurons, making on the order of 100 trillion connections. It is often… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Einstein’s Lost Hypothesis - Issue 86: Energy

When Ernest Sternglass walked up the steps at 112 Mercer Street in April 1947, he knew it would not be a normal day. Like a church… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Mice on Acid

In the bowels of an animal research facility at Oxford University, mice are stirring in cages. Half of them have been given an injection… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Evolution Is the Greatest Show on Earth

Science can be a peculiar source of joy—the joy, largely unique to human beings, of understanding the universe in which we live.… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Evolution Is the Greatest Show on Earth - Issue 85: Reopening

Science can be a peculiar source of joy—the joy, largely unique to human beings, of understanding the universe in which we live.… | Continue reading


@Nautil.us | 4 years ago

Young and Healthy and Waiting to Get Cancer - Issue 85: Reopening

I’m young and perfectly healthy, but I’m waiting for the day when I finally get sick. While many of us are locked down in our… | Continue reading


@Nautil.us | 4 years ago

No Country for Old People - Issue 85: Reopening

Sweden did not set out to kill thousands of its older citizens. Nor did any country as COVID-19 swept across the globe. But Sweden’s… | Continue reading


@Nautil.us | 4 years ago

Mice on Acid - Issue 85: Reopening

In the bowels of an animal research facility at Oxford University, mice are stirring in cages. Half of them have been given an injection… | Continue reading


@Nautil.us | 4 years ago

No Country for Old People - Issue 85: Reopening

Sweden did not set out to kill thousands of its older citizens. Nor did any country as COVID-19 swept across the globe. But Sweden’s… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Evolution Is the Greatest Show on Earth - Issue 85: Reopening

Science can be a peculiar source of joy—the joy, largely unique to human beings, of understanding the universe in which we live.… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Young and Healthy and Waiting to Get Cancer - Issue 85: Reopening

I’m young and perfectly healthy, but I’m waiting for the day when I finally get sick. While many of us are locked down in our… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Mice on Acid - Issue 85: Reopening

In the bowels of an animal research facility at Oxford University, mice are stirring in cages. Half of them have been given an injection… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

A Vision of Our Post-Lockdown Future

Xu Jiao was anxious to get back in the gym. Living in Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan province, she had gone through two… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Welcome Back, Animals

The shelter-in-place orders and the massive drop in human activity in our cities, designed to slow the spread of COVID-19, have given… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

A Vision of Our Post-Lockdown Future - Issue 85: Reopening

Xu Jiao was anxious to get back in the gym. Living in Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan province, she had gone through two… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

The Health Clinic Crisis on Main Street - Issue 85: Reopening

Things have been different at the Tumwater Family Practice Clinic since COVID-19 came. Its patients in Washington state are being… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Welcome Back, Animals! - Issue 85: Reopening

The shelter-in-place orders and the massive drop in human activity in our cities, designed to slow the spread of COVID-19, have given… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Most of the Mind Can’t Tell Fact from Fiction - Facts So Romantic

Even after you understand how an illusion operates, it continues to fool part of your mind. This is the kind of double knowledge we… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

The Life of Viruses

If there is one thing that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed, it is that there is much that we still don’t know about the world… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Why Covid-19 Flare-UPS Will Keep Happening – Issue 84: Outbreak

We all want to get back to our lives—go out for a drink, see a movie, hug our parents and grandparents, and bring our cities back… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Electrons May Well Be Conscious

Panpsychists look at the many rungs on the complexity ladder of nature and see no obvious line between mind and no-mind.Illustration… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Electrons May Well Be Conscious

Panpsychists look at the many rungs on the complexity ladder of nature and see no obvious line between mind and no-mind.Illustration… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

All sophisticated life on Earth may owe its existence to one freakish event

At first glance, a tree could not be more different from the caterpillars that eat its leaves, the mushrooms sprouting from its bark,… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

The Carouser and the Great Astronomer

The two men in the coach were both 28 years old, born within a few months of each other in 1571. Frederik was Danish and Johannes… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Electrons May Very Well Be Conscious - Facts So Romantic

Panpsychists look at the many rungs on the complexity ladder of nature and see no obvious line between mind and no-mind.Illustration… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

The Carouser and the Great Astronomer - Issue 84: Outbreak

The two men in the coach were both 28 years old, born within a few months of each other in 1571. Frederik was Danish and Johannes… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Why COVID-19 Flare-Ups Will Keep Happening - Issue 84: Outbreak

We all want to get back to our lives—go out for a drink, see a movie, hug our parents and grandparents, and bring our cities back… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

A Window on Africa’s Resilience - Issue 84: Outbreak

We called Greg Carr the other day to talk about the spread of the coronavirus in Africa. Carr, who has been featured in Nautilus,… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

The Hidden Life of Viruses - Issue 84: Outbreak

If there is one thing that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed, it is that there is much that we still don’t know about the world… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Are Black Holes Dark Energy Stars?

George Chapline believes that the Event Horizon Telescope will offer evidence that black holes are really dark energy stars. NASAWhat… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

How to Solve the Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever (2015)

While a doctoral student at Princeton University in 1957, studying under a founder of theoretical computer science, Raymond Smullyan… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

The Book That Invented the World - Facts So Romantic

Abraham Ortelius, with his comprehensive atlas, gave us not disenchantment, but a differing enchantment—a sense of the sheer magnitude… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

A Photographer Who Tinkers with Time (2015)

Adam Magyar’s gone viral. His recent series Stainless, in which video recordings of subway platforms are played out in super-slow-motion,… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Science Trumps Denial

There’s an old belief that truth will always overcome error. Alas, history tells us something different. Without someone to fight… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Why People Feel Misinformed, Confused, and Terrified About the Pandemic

 The officials deciding what to open, and when, seldom offer thoughtful rationales. Clearly, risk communication about COVID-19 is… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Don’t Fear the Robot

You probably know my robot. I’ve been inventing autonomous machines for over 30 years and one of them, Roomba from iRobot, is quite… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Why People Feel Misinformed, Confused, and Terrified About the Pandemic - Facts So Romantic

The officials deciding what to open, and when, seldom offer thoughtful rationales. Clearly, risk communication about COVID-19 is failing… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Don’t Fear the Robot - Issue 84: Outbreak

You probably know my robot. I’ve been inventing autonomous machines for over 30 years and one of them, Roomba from iRobot, is quite… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

How Science Trumps Denial - Issue 84: Outbreak

There’s an old belief that truth will always overcome error. Alas, history tells us something different. Without someone to fight… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

A Window on Africa’s Resilience - Facts So Romantic

 The coronavirus news from Mozambique is mixed, as it is in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Many experts fear chaos is inevitable.Photograph… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

What’s Missing in Pandemic Models - Issue 84: Outbreak

In the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous models are being used to predict the future. But as helpful as they are, they cannot make sense… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

The Sound So Loud That It Circled the Earth Four Times

A lithograph of the massive 1883 eruption of KrakatoaThe eruption of Krakatoa, and subsequent phenomena, 1888; Parker & Coward;… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

In turbulent times, people go from “me” thinking to “we” thinking

What is this pandemic doing to our minds? Polls repeatedly show it’s having an adverse effect on our mental health. Physical distancing,… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Guided by Plant Voices

Plants are intelligent beings with profound wisdom to impart—if only we know how to listen. And Monica Gagliano knows how to listen.… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago

Guided by Plant Voices - Issue 84: Outbreak

Plants are intelligent beings with profound wisdom to impart—if only we know how to listen. And Monica Gagliano knows how to listen.… | Continue reading


@nautil.us | 4 years ago