931
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 2,038 posts.
932
The Geometry of Color Perception
The previous pages have explained three very different methods for defining a color: (1) the measurement of the color stimulus as a spectral emittance or reflectance curve in colorimetry ; (2) the proportional responses to the stimulus by the L , M and S cones, represented as a chromaticity diagram ; and (3) the…
933
The physics anomaly no one talks about: What’s up with those neutrinos?
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
934
Tianwen-1 attitude in Mars orbit
It has been a while since the last time I wrote an update about Tianwen-1’s attitude . In that post I showed that Tianwen-1 had changed to a sun angle of 0 degrees with respect to the spacecraft’s X axis on 2020-10-22. Since then, nothing changed, even after the spacecraft arrived to Mars orbit on February 2021, so I…
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936
Why can’t I go faster than the speed of light?
I should state from the very beginning that the title of this post is a bit of a tease. I don’t know why nothing can go faster than the speed of light. No one does. It is a fundamental pos…
937
What if I were 1% charged? (2013)
In case you hadn’t heard, the universe is governed by four fundamental forces. But when it comes to understanding nature at almost any level larger than a nucleus and smaller than a planet, …
938
How strong would a magnetic field have to be to kill you?
There’s a great joke in Futurama, the cartoon comedy show, about a horror movie for robots. In the movie, a planet of robots is terrorized by a giant “non-metallic being” (a mons…
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940
New Evidence Against the Standard Model of Cosmology
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
941
Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)
[I am not a sleep specialist. Please consult with one before making any drastic changes or trying to treat anything serious.] Van Geiklswijk et al describe supplemental melatonin as “a chrono…
942
Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier (2020)
You can make a DIY air purifier in 30s. To test if it works, I generated smoke, and measured how well it removes tiny particles.
943
The Orbit of Planet Nine
Five and a half years after our proposal of the existence of Planet Nine, we have finally accomplished what is perhaps the most important t...
944
Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?
I like to start all my scientific inquiries off with really dumb questions. It makes life more fun. Here’s my latest: why can’t we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?
945
Sputnik V: fraudulent clinical trial data
Sputnik V clinical trial data seems as trustworthy as Putin’s election results.
946
Hiding Images in Plain Sight: The Physics of Magic Windows
I recently made a physical object that defies all intuition. It’s a square of acrylic, smooth on both sides, totally transparent. A tiny window.
947
America Had an Atomic Mecha Warrior Robot
"REAL stories. REAL history."
948
The only skin care that works? science video response (2020)
Recently ASAP Science released a video called "The ONLY face cream that works! – according to science". A lot of people asked me to do a response, so here it is on YouTube (keep scrolling for the text…
949
Noted study in psychology fails to replicate, crumbles with evidence of fraud
About 80 people pointed me to this post by Uri Simonsohn, Joe Simmons, and Leif Nelson about a 2012 article, “Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient and decreases dishonest self-reports in comparison to signing at the end.” Apparently some of the data in that paper were faked; see for example here:
950
Expert help needed to decode rare piece of space history: Lunokhod data tapes
Blog di Paolo Attivissimo su Internet, social network, informatica e bufale
951
How is efficacy vs. severe disease strong if 60% of hospitalized are vaccinated?
A surge involving the rapidly-transmitting Delta variant in heavily vaccinated countries has led to much hand-wringing that the vaccines are not effective against Delta, or vaccine effectivenss wanes after 4-6 months. This has fueled anti-vaccine sentiment suggesting the vaccines are not working, and causing much…
952
Evidence of fraud in an influential field experiment about dishonesty
This post is co-authored with a team of researchers who have chosen to remain anonymous. They uncovered most of the evidence reported in this post. These researchers are not connected in any way to…
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I've decided not to work with Aubrey de Grey or SENS
I've decided not to work with Aubrey de Grey or SENS in any capacity moving forward. I had one bad experience with him when I was 17 - he told me in writing that he had an ‘adventurous love life’...
955
California Megafires Are Solvable
The basics on how we got to now, why it matters for all Americans, and how we can fix it together.
956
Imaging Cygnus a at 8.45 GHz with ATA
Earlier this year, I published a post showing our results of the interferometric imaging of Cassiopeia A and Cygnus A at 4.9 GHz with the Allen Telescope Array . Near the end of July, I decided to perform more interferometric observations of Cygnus A at a higher frequency, in order to obtain better resolution. I chose…
957
Powering the Lunar Base
NASA’s selection of SpaceX’s Starship within the Human Lander System (HLS) program was both surprising and exciting for space nerds all over. Previously I have written about how Starshi…
958
Lead Poisoning and Rome
"The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them."
959
This Can’t Go On
The long view of economic history says we're in the midst of a huge, unsustainable acceleration. What happens next?
960
Computational algebraic geometry for high school students
Can high school students really learn algebraic geometry? And what could it teach us about mathematics education?