Secret Codes

45 articles
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    Math

    The Math Trick Behind MP3s, JPEGs, and Homer Simpson’s Face

    This theoretical physicist’s idea has an astounding legacy.

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    Psychology

    The Secret Costs of Keeping Secrets

    Sarah Horrigan via Flickr Keeping a secret can be hard work. It may seem relatively easy to avoid mentioning your friend’s surprise birthday party or your co-worker’s recent breakup, but concealing even trivial information, let alone important things, can be exhausting. When keeping a secret, we have to constantly monitor what we say to make […]

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    Physics

    Hearing Hadrons, and Doing Research by Ear

    Animation of data from collisions at the LHCCERN Several years ago, particle physicist Lily Asquith was hanging out with a few musician pals in London after a band rehearsal, doing impromptu impersonations of what she thought the various elementary particles might sound like, and encouraging the drummer to recreate them electronically. Another band member asked […]

  • 1. EKG. The artist draws at Pandemic gallery, 2013. Courtesy of the gallery.

    Arts

    Taking the Pulse of the City With Graffiti Artist EKG

    Though New Yorkers are currently chasing down the next piece of Banksy street art, graffiti typically blends into the background. If you’re not a tagger, you most likely are not paying attention to the coded messages embedded in the endless stream of stylized names, faces, animals, and jokes that are constantly thrown up then torn […]

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    Arts

    Science Gets Down With Miles Davis and Bernini

    Analyzing music and sculpture in the digital age.

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    Psychology

    Can’t Remember Your Password?

    Welcome to subconscious encryption, the ultimate private security.