Brian gallagher
49 articles-
NASA Is on the Cusp of a New Era
A planetary scientist explains why SpaceX’s Starship will transform her field. -
Steven Pinker Has His Reasons
The psychologist unpacks rationality and denies being a guru to the capitalist elite. -
The Math That Says Egalitarianism Is Possible
You don’t have to be entirely pessimistic about the future of wealth inequality. -
Reports of a Baleful Internet Are Greatly Exaggerated
Our digital technologies can in fact be cognitive aids. -
Talking Pop Science with Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder
As abstract as it is, physics enriches your life.Image via Sabine Hossenfelder / YouTube Science without the gobbledygook.” That’s the name, and promise, of Sabine Hossenfelder’s YouTube show. The German theoretical physicist, whose main gig is as a Research Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, has attracted over 300,000 subscribers. Her videos—some of […]
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The Dangerous Evolution of the Coronavirus
These scientists have a new model for identifying variants before they kill.
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How to Talk Like a Physicist
Theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, who probably is the smartest person on her block, has fun in her latest video skewering the scientific braggart.Photograph by Francisco De Legarreta C. / Unsplash The other night I was out on our street with the neighbors for a socially distanced hang. My two-year-old daughter, mistaking the only street light […]
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How to Stop Feeling Crushed for Time
Quit worrying whether time is money. Start appreciating time’s true value.
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A Neuroscientist’s Theory of Everything
Karl Friston takes us on a safari of his free-energy principle.
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Summer Won’t Save Us from COVID-19
Why SARS-CoV-2 will threaten us for months to come. -
Should Scientists Use the Phrase “Quantum Supremacy”?
Forget for a moment that you know the meaning of “quantum supremacy,” the idea of a quantum computer outdoing its conventional counterpart. What does the phrase instantly bring to mind? Perhaps the idea that the quantum world, with its electrons, neutrons, and quarks, is, somehow, better than ours—more dazzling and awe-inspiring. Or perhaps it’s the […] -
The Cultural Distances Between Us
Mapping the world’s psychological traits. -
Australia’s Secret Rescue of Ancient Trees Offers an Insight Into Evolution
When I read that more than a billion animals had lost their lives to bushfires still raging in Australia, I froze, staring at the incomprehensible figure on my screen. A sort of sinking feeling came. Scientists made the estimate from the numbers of animals that have died from previous land-clearing practices. It is dismaying to […] -
How Inequality Imperils Cooperation
A game theorist breaks down the effects of inequality.
