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When volcanoes go bang, submarine cables do what?
Guest Post: Insights and lessons from Tonga in the last five weeks.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 2,419 posts.
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Solar-powered system offers a route to inexpensive desalination
MIT researchers developed a desalination system that is more efficient and less expensive than previous methods. In addition to providing fresh water, the process could be used to treat contaminated wastewater or generate steam for sterilizing medical instruments, all without requiring a power source other than…
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Soybean oil affects hypothalamus, causes genetic changes in mice: study (2020)
Soybean oil is linked to metabolic and neurological changes in mice in new research.
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Feynman’s advice to W&M student resonates 45 years later (2020)
Early in her career as a William & Mary student, Beulah Elizabeth Cox turned in a physics exam that contained what became one of the most famous incorrect answers in science.
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Controlling the nuclear fusion plasma in a tokamak with reinforcement learning
Successfully controlling the nuclear fusion plasma in a tokamak with deep reinforcement learning
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Some neurons are active when adding, others when subtracting
Most elementary school children probably already know that three apples plus two apples add up to five apples. However, what happens in the brain during such calculations is still largely unknown. The current study by the Universities of Bonn and Tübingen now sheds light on this issue.
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Corrected identification of object about to hit the moon
Note : I keep getting questions that cause me to realize I should explain something else, or that I explained something poorly. Click here for a list of recent changes. Last modified 2015 Mar 05 16:00 UTC. Here's the original story about this object .
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Marijuana accelerates growth of HPV-related head and neck cancer (2020)
University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers identified how THC from marijuana accelerates cancer growth in patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive head and neck cancer.
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New plant-derived composite is tough as bone and hard as aluminum
A new woody composite engineered by an MIT team is tough as bone and hard as aluminum, and might pave way for naturally derived plastics.
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First images of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain during sleep (2019)
A new study from Boston University is the first to illustrate that the brain’s cerebrospinal fluid pulses during sleep, and that these motions are closely tied with brain wave activity and blood flow. It may confirm the hypothesis that CSF flow and slow-wave activity both help flush toxic, memory-impairing proteins…
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Protons are probably smaller than long thought
Our office chair, the air we breathe, the stars in the night sky: they are all made of atoms, which in turn are composed of electrons, protons and neutrons. Electrons are negatively charged; according to current knowledge, they have no expansion, but are point-like. The positively charged protons are different …
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New lightweight material is stronger than steel
MIT chemical engineers have created a new material that is stronger than steel, as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities.
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Nearly 1k mysterious strands revealed in Milky Way’s center
More than 35 years ago, a Northwestern astrophysicist discovered mysterious, giant filaments in the center of the Milky Way. Now, he uncovered 10 times more than previously known.
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Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis
If you’ve ever been given a can of Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi and it tastes a little off, or way off, you probably just toss it out. Why does this happen and what can you do about it? Many diet soft d…
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Royal Society cautions against censorship of scientific misinformation online
The Online Information Environment report discusses how to limit the harm of scientific misinformation online
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Simulation of a 2B-atom cell that metabolizes and grows like a living cell
Researchers from the University of Illinois developed GPU-accelerated software to simulate a cell that metabolizes and grows like a living cell.
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United flies passenger flight on sustainable aviation fuel supplying one engine
United Flies World’s First Passenger Flight On 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel Supplying One Of Its Engines
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Mysterious object unlike anything astronomers have seen before
A team mapping radio waves in the Universe has discovered something unusual that releases a giant burst of energy three times an hour, and it’s unlike anything astronomers have seen before. The team who discovered it think it could be a neutron star or a white dwarf—collapsed cores of stars—with an ultra-powerful…
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The history of the end of poverty has just begun
The decline of global poverty is one of the most important achievements in history, but the end of poverty is still very far away.
1103
Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning
Estimates suggest that around every third child in the world suffers from lead poisoning. What can we do to reduce this?
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Device wraps around hot surfaces, turns wasted heat to electricity
Penn State scientists have created flexible thermoelectric devices that can wrap around pipes and other hot surfaces, converting wasted heat into electricity more efficiently than previously possible.
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Starlink satellites hindering detection of near-Earth asteroids, study finds
A study of archival images from Zwicky Transient Facility shows an increase in satellite streaks.
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No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation
GENEVA (20 January 2022) – In a new policy brief, the World Heart Federation (WHF) challenges the widespread notion that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol can decrease the risk of heart disease, and calls for urgent and decisive action to tackle the unprecedented rise in alcohol-related death and disability…
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Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
Does explicitly acknowledging bias make us less likely to make biased decisions? A new study examining how people justify decisions based on biased data finds that this is not necessarily the case.