Issue_7

38 articles
  • Chernobyl glowing

    Chernobyl’s Hot Mess, “the Elephant’s Foot,” Is Still Lethal

    The Elephant’s Foot could be the most dangerous piece of waste in the world.
  • ace in the hole

    A Formula That Shows How to Cheat & Triumph at Tournaments

    Gryffindor and Slytherin are about to play their annual badminton match. The best players from each house are supposed to face off on court one, the second best on court two, and so on. Slytherin’s coach knows that Gryffindor will put their players on the right courts, in order of their skill, because Gryffindors are […]
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    The Curious Case of the Exploding Pig Farms

    This pig farm was devastated by an explosion due to foaming. Ross Muhlbauer, Iowa State University At first, the manure was just harmlessly foaming. Only later on did things get lethal.  Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Hog farms in the Midwest are great big barns sitting on top […]
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    The Mental Glitch That Makes Us Throw Good Money After Bad

    Luca Cerabona via Flickr You’ve been waiting for today for weeks. You paid more than you could really afford for tickets to a football game, and the day is finally here. But when you look outside your window early Sunday morning, you realize you’d rather not go. It’s snowing, it’s 20 degrees below zero, and […]
  • Holmes_HERO

    Up, Up, and Away With Science

    Richard Holmes gets high on ballooning.
  • Davies_HERO2

    Education Is a Waste of Effort—But It Doesn’t Have to Be

    In the nearly 25 years that I spent in school, I produced countless term papers, exams, and presentations, nearly all of which of no value to anyone else. And that goes for most of the 20 million or so college and graduate students currently pursuing higher education in the United States. They produce thousands of […]

  • Article Image

    The Science of Gratitude

    New research suggests saying thanks regularly can benefit your health.

  • anderson_HERO

    Einstein’s Lost Hypothesis

    Is a third-act twist to nuclear energy at hand?

  • Article Image

    For Billions of People, “Wasting Time” Makes Little Sense

    Monks relaxing in Sikkim, Indiaflowcomm via Flickr Robert Levine, a social psychologist at California State University, Fresno, will always remember a conversation he had with an exchange student from Burkina Faso, in Western Africa. Levine had complained to the student that he’d wasted the morning “yakking in a café” instead of doing his work. Nautilus […]

  • Novak_HERO

    Kellogg’s

    The last wholesome fantasy of the middle-school boy.

  • Deutsch_HERO_2

    Not Merely the Finest TV Documentary Series Ever Made

    A reflection on Jacob Bronowski’s “The Ascent of Man.”

  • Article Recirculation Lead Image

    Preserving Yesterday’s Tech to Get a Better Grasp on Today’s

    In 2009, more than 47 million computers in the U.S. were ready for “end-of-life management”—so hopelessly outmoded that no reasonable amount of refurbishment could redeem them. Market-driven innovation, thus far hewing to the demanding prediction of Moore’s law, means that every few months, the gadgets in our pockets and on our desktops are pushed closer […]
  • Article Recirculation Lead Image

    Love Your Dog? You Should Thank Garbage

    scion via Shutterstock Just south of the equator, thirty miles off the coast of Tanzania, sits a small island called Pemba. The small patch of dry land jutting out from the Indian Ocean is just 30 miles long and 10 miles wide. The quarter million or so people who inhabit Pemba live more or less […]
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    Drug Users Are Secretive; Their Sewers Tell All

    In London’s waste system, like this stretch of the King’s Scholars Pond Sewer, concentration of urinary biomarkers for ecstasy is among the highest of any European city. Jon Doe via Flickr The sewage doesn’t lie.  Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . People, however, are less than honest when asked […]
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    Animals’ Wildly Varying Reactions to the Smell of Death

    Cadaverine and putrescine are the chemicals responsible for the dead-flesh stench.
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    Each Piece of Trashed Plastic Can Find a New Life as Art

    In one important way, grocery stores were very different during my childhood. Catsup was only packaged in glass bottles. Soda came in either aluminum cans or glass bottles, and there was no bottled water—no Fuji, Poland Spring, or Evian. Crackers were wrapped in waxed paper. Everything was bagged in paper. Now, some 30 years later, […]