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Ancient-DNA study identifies originators of Indo-European language family
Findings resolve “steppe hypothesis” enigma
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 4,455 posts.
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Visual explanations of mathematics (2020)
It is thought that Euclid wrote Elements in about 300 BC, but Oliver Byrne turned it into one of the true gems of visualization — and made it about 100 times more readable. By seamlessly combining typeset text (Caslon, if you’re interested) with minimalist geometric drawings in primary col
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Polish city is using mussels to monitor water quality (2020)
A city in Poland is relying on the mechanisms of mussels to safeguard its population from polluted drinking water.
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CDC: Unpublished manuscripts mentioning certain topics must be pulled or revised
Any unpublished manuscript mentioning certain topics, including gender and "LGBT," must be pulled or revised.
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Visualizing all books of the world in ISBN-Space
Libraries have been trying to collect humanity’s knowledge almost since the invention of writing. In the digital age, it might actually be possible to create a comprehensive collection of all human writing that meets certain criteria. That’s what shadow libraries do - collect and share as many
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Quaternions and spherical trigonometry
Hamilton’s quaternion number system $latex {\mathbb{H}}&fg=000000$ is a non-commutative extension of the complex numbers, consisting of numbers of the form $latex {t + xi + yj + zk}&f…
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IAC confirms existence of a Super-earth in the habitable zone of a Sun-like Star
The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universidad de La Laguna (ULL) has confirmed the discovery of a super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone of HD 20794, a nearby Sun-like star. This discovery, the result of over two decades of observations, opens a window to future studies of Earth-like planetary…
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The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray
A wolf paces in captivity, teaching us all the wrong lessons about power
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Oliver Heaviside and the theory of transmission lines (2021)
(This is an adapted version of an article I wrote for the Dutch amateur radio magazine Electron , November 2021.)
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Most Influential Papers in Computer Science History
This post celebrates influential papers that shaped technology and communication. Their foundational concepts inspire continued innovation, highlighting the importance of understanding our roots fo…
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Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant (1996)
SESSION 7: SPECIAL SESSION, 17th Annual EOS/ESD Symposium THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1995, 8:00 am SESSION 7: SPECIAL SESSION: ELECTROSTATIC CONSIDERATIONS IN INDUSTRY MODERATOR: D. Swenson, 3M 7.7 CASE STUDY - LARGE PLASTIC WEB ELECTROSTATIC PROBLEMS, RESULTS, AND CURE, D. Swenson, 3M Company Tremendous static charge…
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Where do those undergraduate divisibility problems come from?
Chris Grossack's math blog and professional website.
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Tomatoes roaming the fields and canaries in the coalmine
Many publishers are getting nervous about infiltration by paper mills, who can torpedo a journal's reputation when they succeed in publis...
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A UC Santa Cruz professor unearthed the oldest alphabet yet
The emerging importance of the find underscores a key truth about archaeology: artifacts often hold secrets that only later generations can unlock.
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Why the weak nuclear force is short range
The “range” of a force is a measure of the distance across which it can easily be effective. Some forces, including electric and magnetic forces and gravity, are long-range, able to cau…
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World's darkest and clearest skies at risk from industrial megaproject
On December 24th, AES Andes, a subsidiary of the US power company AES Corporation, submitted a project for a massive industrial complex for environmental impact assessment. This complex threatens the pristine skies above ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the darkest and clearest of any astronomical…
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Ingrid Daubechies awarded National Medal of Science
President Joe Biden has announced that Ingrid Daubechies , James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Mathematics , will receive the National Medal of Science in 2025. She is being honored for her pioneering work on signal processing.
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Very Wrong Math
The difference between misinformation and disinformation is the difference between ignorance and malice. Trolling is somewhat different, incorporating an element of provocation and narcissism. But what the hell is this?
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Predictions Scorecard, 2025 January 01
[You can follow me on social media: @rodneyabrooks.bsky.social and see my publications etc., at https://people.csail.mit.edu/brooks ]
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The engineering behind the San Antonio River Walk
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] I am on location in downtown San Antonio, Texas, where crews have just finished setting up this massive 650-ton crane. The counterweights are on. The outriggers are down. And the jib, an extension for the crane's telescoping boo
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Physicists Magnetize a Material with Light
MIT physicists created a long-lasting magnetic state in a material, using only light. The results provide a new way to control and switch antiferromagnetic materials, which are of interest for their potential to advance information processing and memory chip technology.
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Common misconceptions about the complexity in robotics vs. AI (2024)
Common misconceptions about the complexity in robotics vs AI
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All clocks are 30 seconds late
OK, this is going to sound crazy: I believe all clocks are 30 seconds late. Let's get a few things out of the way: this is neither about time zones, nor l...
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Researchers design wearable tech that can sense glucose levels more accurately
Imagine shrinking satellite technology that predicts the weather into a device that transmits vital information about the health of the person wearing it.
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University of Alabama Engineer Pioneers New Process for Recycling Plastics
Researchers at the University of Alabama have developed a way of more efficiently and effectively recycling polymers.
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Zebrafish protein unlocks dormant genes for heart repair
Researchers from the Bakkers group at the Hubrecht Institute have successfully repaired damaged mouse hearts using a protein from zebrafish.
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Masks, Smoke, and Mirrors: The story of EgyptAir flight 804
In 2016, an EgyptAir A320 spiraled into the Mediterranean, killing 66 people. Was it an act of sabotage, or something even scarier?
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Why are cancer guidelines stuck in PDFs?
How Machine-Readable Clinical Guidelines Can Help Standardize Cancer Care