Issue_68
15 articles-
What Impossible Meant to Feynman
Physicist Paul Steinhardt remembers a great mentor and scientist. -
The Case for Professors of Stupidity
The greatest problem facing the world today is a rule system. -
Paradox Is Illuminating the Black Hole
How reconciling opposites is driving the science of black holes forward. -
Studies Shoot Down Tech’s Harmful Effects on Kids—So Now What?
Ultimately, what matters most is that we provide our children with a sense of agency and autonomy by teaching them that tools don’t use us, we use them.Photograph by Iakov Filimonov / Shutterstock It looks like grownups can disregard the fear-mongering about the ill effects of digital media on kids. A 2017 study in Child […] -
Gene Drives Reach Mammals
A new genetic technology that can quickly change entire populations gets broader.
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How Black Holes Nearly Ruined Time
Quantum mechanics rescued our understanding of past and future from the black hole.
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When People Are as Predictable as Water
Can we apply a physics-like reductionism to people? That’s a question we asked Simon DeDeo, a professor of social and decision sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, who also heads the Laboratory for Social Minds at the Santa Fe Institute. DeDeo was well suited to the question. With a background in astrophysics, studying galaxy formation, he’s […]
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Jellyfish Genome Hints That Complexity Isn’t Genetically Complex
Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog.An overarching theme in the story of evolution, at least over the past half billion years or so, is rising complexity. There are other themes, of course, but life has undoubtedly become more complicated since its origin. Early cells globbed together to form multicellular coalitions. Those developed more complex bodies and lifestyles as the […]
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Evolution’s Gravity: A Paean to Natural Selection
Physicists speak of four fundamental forces that govern the interactions among the bits of matter that make up our universe. The strongest of these four forces, aptly known as the Strong Force, is so powerful that it can keep an atom’s positively charged protons from ripping the atom’s nucleus apart as their mutually repellent positive […] -
Echos
What happens when a person is simultaneously lost and found? -
How Alan Turing Deciphered Shark Skin
The universal math behind hair and feathers. -
It’s the End of the Gene As We Know It
We are not nearly as determined by our genes as once thought.
