Issue_24
32 articles-
The Best Way to Reduce Research Bias Is Hiding in Plain View
In the late 1970s, groups of soda marketers descended on the nation’s malls. They gave shoppers two unmarked cups, one filled with Coke and one with Pepsi. Tasters were asked which they preferred. The Pepsi Challenge was a marketing gimmick, but it was based on a classic scientific tool, the blind experiment. If a person […] -
Apple Watch Shows the Benefits of Engineering Perfection—and of Flaws
Apple is famous for its obsessive care for design and manufacturing, and its new, much-hyped watches are no exception. But, ironically, the watch can only be created by introducing errors into exquisitely crafted materials. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . One familiar material used in Apple’s latest device is […] -
Welcome to the Unpredictable Era of Editing Human Embryos
Headlines and apocalyptic notions about designer babies proliferated last month after Chinese scientists published the results of a curious set of experiments on human embryos. The researchers were looking to understand whether gene-editing technology could correct, before birth, a malformed gene that can cause a potentially devastating blood disease. They found that the method introduced new […] -
Why Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing
Have you ever been walking in a dark alley and seen something that you thought was a crouching person, but it turned out to be a garbage bag or something similarly innocuous? Me too. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Have you ever seen a person crouching in a […] -
The Tricks Used by Pilots, Surgeons & Engineers to Overcome Human Error
When Germanwings Flight 4U9525 crashed into the French Alps in March it did not take investigators long to determine the likely reason: Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had allegedly been suffering from depression and may have crashed the plane as a means to commit suicide, taking hundreds of people along with him. But that doesn’t tell the […]
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Why Do We Love #Fail Videos?
If the Internet has shown me one thing, it’s my own astounding capacity to waste time. The rabbit holes online are deep and rich and usually absolutely fruitless. But I’m fascinated by anything that’s addictive, and my personal black tar heroin is, without doubt, “fail” videos. You know the sort—a 10-minute compilation of six-second clips […]
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Counting Animals Is a Sloppy Business
In 1989, scientists at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Zoo published a study on migratory songbirds with alarming results. The study relied on 22 years of data from annual surveys of more than 60 neotropical species, birds that breed in North America and overwinter in Central and South America. And […]
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Infected Monkeys and Other Cautionary Tales From the Biolab
No matter how safe the lab is, humans working with deadly bioagents can make errors.
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How Science Can Learn From Writing That Is “Not Even Wrong”
“…when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” –Nietzsche Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . For some people, this quote is very evocative. It feels important, and beautiful. Others feel like it doesn’t mean anything at all, because the idea of a deep hole […]
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The Simple Logical Puzzle That Shows How Illogical People Are
More than 90 percent of people err on this test. Will you?
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How Math’s Most Famous Proof Nearly Broke
Andrew Wiles thought he had a solution to an age-old puzzle. Until it began to unravel.
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Consciousness Began When the Gods Stopped Speaking
How Julian Jaynes’ famous 1970s theory is faring in the neuroscience age. -
Does Culture Really Evolve Like Organisms Do?
It’s become common to think about cultural change the same way we think about biological evolution—so common that it may obscure whether the comparison really works. Though there remain many questions yet to answer about biological evolution, it’s a process that’s well-understood. We know, in great detail, how variations emerge, how they’re passed on hereditarily, […] -
Why We Should Let the Pantheon Crack
Modern architects have a lot to learn from the sound engineering of the ancients. -
How Necking Shaped the Giraffe
The private life of the African giant offers a remarkable view on evolution. -
We Need More Autopsies, to Help Save the Living
When Italian authorities confirmed that James Gandolfini had just died in Rome of an apparent heart attack in 2013, many reports in American media fronted the fact that Gandolfini’s body would be autopsied, “as required by Italian law.” They emphasized this news for understandable reasons—an autopsy on someone who died in medical care seemed unusual. […]