Julie Beck, The Atlantic
I remember looking at her and thinking, She's totally lying.' At the same time, I remember something in my mind saying, And that doesn't matter.' For Daniel Shaw, believing the words of the guru he had spent years devoted to wasn't blind faith exactly. It was something he chose. I remember actually consciously making that choice.
Annalee Newitz, Ars Technica
The Silk Road was a series of ancient trading routes that spanned Asia, reaching as far as the Middle East and Europe. Self-organizing and vast, it fell under the control of various empiresbut never for long. The polyglot civilizations of traders who lived along its routes are the subject of legends, and more recently the Silk Road lent its name to an infamous darknet market. Historians usually date the Silk Road from roughly the 200s to the 1400s. But a new study... Читать дальше...
Kat Eschner, Smithsonian
Astronomer Percival Lowell, born on this day in 1855, left a very concrete legacy in the form of the Lowell Observatory. His other legacies are less tangible, but have also had lasting effects.
Matthew Hutson, Science News
In the recent movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the face of the character Grand Moff Tarkin was constructed digitally, as the actor who had originally played him had died. Some who knew about the computer trickery saw his appearance as slightly unnatural, leading to a sense of unease. Their discomfort demonstrates what the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori referred to in 1970 as the uncanny valley: Our affinity toward robots and animations increases as they physically appear more humanlike... Читать дальше...
Neuroskeptic, Discover
Citation is a little-discussed subject in science. Certainly, there's plenty of talk about citations about whether it is right to judge papers by the number of citations they receive, whether journals should be ranked by their impact factor (average number of citations per paper), and so on. But citation, the actual process of choosing which papers to cite when writing papers, has largely escaped scrutiny.
Linda Geddes, NewScientist
A set of chemical reactions occurring spontaneously in Earth's early chemical environments could have provided the foundations upon which life evolved.The discovery that a version of the Krebs cycle, which occurs in most living cells, can proceed in the absence of cellular proteins called enzymes suggests that metabolism is older than life itself.
Paul Ratner, Big Think
Albert Einstein was one of the world's most brilliant thinkers, influencing scientific thought immeasurably. He was also not shy about sharing his wisdom about other topics, writing essays, articles, letters, giving interviews and speeches. His opinions on social and intellectual issues that do not come from the world of physics give an insight into the spiritual and moral vision of the scientist, offering much to take to heart.
Cathal O'Connell, Cosmos Magazine
Inspired by Dr Who's sonic screwdriver and the tricorder of Star Trek, Australian scientists are working on a device that can instantly tell what any material is made of.Physicist Marcus Doherty and his team designed the device based on quantum properties of flawed diamonds, and report their proof of concept in the journal Nano Letter.
Deena Shanker, Bloomberg
Regardless of whether you're a parent, an environmentalist, or just a plain old shopper, chances are you've gazed out over the supermarket produce section and asked yourself, Should I buy organic?Everyone's heard of the scary chemicals used by agribusiness to keep your apples worm-freeit's what generates the fear that makes organic produce lucrative.
Sarah Charley, Symmetry
Much of the matter in the universe is made up of tiny particles called quarks. Normally it's impossible to see a quark on its own because they are always bound tightly together in groups. Quarks only separate in extreme conditions, such as immediately after the Big Bang or in the center of stars or during high-energy particle collisions generated in particle colliders.
Davy Falkner, BioMed Central
The Chow Chow is an East Asian dog breed and one of the first to emerge after the domestication of the dog. It is believed that they were the models for the stone lion statues which guard Buddhist temples.Chow Chows have a sturdy build, straight hind legs and very dense fur, particularly in the neck area, giving the impression of a mane. The breed also possesses more unusual features such as an extra pair of teeth (44 instead of 42) and a distinctive blue/black tongue. Читать дальше...
James Macdonald, JSTOR Daily
When attacked by a predator, most animals will go to any length to escape. Some animals, like lizards, crabs, or octopus, can autotomize, or intentionally drop off body parts, to escape. Few animals, however, take things quite as far as a type of fish scale gecko recently discovered in Madagascarwhen grabbed, these little lizards shed virtually all of their scales.
Alison Klesman, Astronomy
NASA's goal of sending humans to Mars by the 2030s faces many challenges. Now, if all goes well, the American space agency is poised to take one of the first steps toward overcoming those challenges. Although the project is still speculative, NASA and other International Space Station (ISS) partners have begun making plans for a cis-lunar spaceport designed to provide a stepping-stone to the Red Planet.
Sarah Zhang, Atlantic
The ocean is vast, deep, and unexplored.When Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared three years ago this week, the search brought the ocean's vastness into sharp relief. This is how deep and dark it is three miles down. This is how unlikely you are to spot a downed airliner in 120,000 square nautical miles of open ocean. This is how much we know about the ocean floorless than we know about the surface of Mars.
Dean Keith Simonton, Nautilus
When John Forbes Nash, the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician, schizophrenic, and paranoid delusional, was asked how he could believe that space aliens had recruited him to save the world, he gave a simple response. Because the ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way that my mathematical ideas did. So I took them seriously.
Andrew Griffin, The Independent
Scientists might have found proof of alien life but misunderstood it, according to a professor at Harvard University. Strange radio waves that have been reaching Earth might actually be leakage from a huge, light-powered ship deep in space.
Clay Routledge, Quillette
Many social scientists are excited about and poised to participate in the upcoming March for Science, which is being described by the organizers as a celebration of our passion for science and a call to support and safeguard the scientific community. I realize that this will be a controversial position, but I believe the best way social scientists can contribute to the March for Science is to quietly sit this one out.
