Brian Gallagher
This Man Was Accused of Trying to Pull Earth Out of Its Orbit
Gregory Laughlin has a funny story: While he was working as a planetary scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center in the early 2000s, he was accused in the press of trying to shove Earth into a new orbit, farther from the Sun.“I got into major trouble,” Laughlin remembers in a conversation with Nautilus. “All […]
The Hidden Warning of Fall Colors
Did autumn reds and yellows evolve to repel insects?
Why a Post-Nuclear World Would Look Nothing Like “Mad Max”
Mad Max: Fury Road envisions an embarrassing, nightmarish future. Worldwide droughts have driven humanity to nuclear war over water, destroying modern civilization, and disfiguring the earth into a planet-spanning Sahara. Decrepit old goons control the last remaining pockets of groundwater and arable land; essentially, the movie is one drawn-out, violent chase scene through a sterile […]
The Simple Logical Puzzle That Shows How Illogical People Are
More than 90 percent of people err on this test. Will you?
Daredevil’s Powers Are More Realistic Than You Think
In an early episode of Daredevil, Netflix’s new series about Marvel Comic’s blind superhero, there’s a telling scene in which the crime-fighting protagonist tends to an injured friend. Although he lost his eyesight in a traffic accident as a boy, Daredevil can nevertheless perceive her wounds. From across his apartment, he senses that a cut […]
How Enormous Dominoes Can Help You Rethink Saving for Retirement
Can the spectacle of crashing dominoes shock people out of old habits?
Is Our Universe a One-Off Fluke, or an Endless Cycle?
Paul Steinhardt is torn. On the one hand, he has been working on and contributing to the theory of inflation for decades. On the other hand, he thinks it may very well be wrong.Inflation describes the early universe going through an unimaginably rapid expansion in its infancy, from the size of an atomic nucleus to […]
Nobody Knows the Real Price of a Forest—and That’s a Problem
A Cambridge economist discusses wealth, health, and disaster.
The Endless Storm Over Jupiter
Why the Great Red Spot refuses to die.
Jupiter Is a Garden of Storms
Why the Great Red Spot refuses to die.
