The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 4,455 posts.
However, no experiment with actual coin-tosses has been done to investigate whether the predicted effect is empirically observed. Diaconis et al noted, correctly, that to estimate the probability with a S.E. of 0.1% would require 250,000 tosses, but this seems unnecessarily precise. Let's work with numbers of tosses…
Evidence that discoveries are getting smaller on average
The world produces more food than ever, but the amount of land we use is now falling. This means we can feed more people while restoring wild habitat.
On GPT-3: meta-learning, scaling, implications, and deep theory. The scaling hypothesis: neural nets absorb data & compute, generalizing and becoming more Bayesian as problems get harder, manifesting new abilities even at trivial-by-global-standards-scale. The deep learning revolution has begun as foretold.
Why did the oracle of Delphi go into a trance state? Does it have anything to do with ethylene?
When Qantas 747 VH-OJU had engine trouble in Johannesburg, VH-OJS came to the rescue ferrying a spare Rolls Royce engine from Sydney to Johannesburg for the stricken plane. We wanted to find out more, so we talked with Qantas about how they go about carrying an extra engine across the ocean. After considering its…
What’s really happening when we see earthworms on a soggy sidewalk? It's probably not what you think.
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Here is what might possibly be my single favorite song in the world:
More than a third of the world’s population lives in drylands, areas that experience significant water shortages. Scientists and engineers at The
A gene called FMNL2 may explain why people with hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, or obesity have a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Before my first kiss, I scoured The Internet (Google Scholar + tracing blog posts back to their underlying studies - this was some time ago so I don’t still have the sources) for every valuable scrap of information available on the topic while trying to stray away from anything opinion-based. This is the result.
AUSTIN, Texas — An enzyme variant created by engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin can break down environment-throttling plastics
The winner of the 2022 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition was Nona Desalination, which is developing a low-cost, portable water desalination and purification device.
Age-related declines in stem cell function can be reversed by a 24-hour fast, according to a new study from MIT. Biologists found fasting dramatically improves stem cells’ ability to regenerate, in both aged and young mice.
Researchers at the Department of Neurology of the University of Bern and University Hospital Bern identified how the brain triages emotions during dream sleep to consolidate the storage of positive emotions while dampening the consolidation of negative ones. The work expands the importance of sleep in mental health…
The environmental and cognitive factors at play that have people eating more without realising.
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
New research in mice shows T cells prevent damaged nerve cells from regenerating due to a reversible, ageing-related mechanism.
The first images of the supermassive black hole at the heart of Sgr A reveal that this black hole is very different from the one at the heart of M87.
Oxygen candles are used as a backup source of breathable air inside refuge chambers, making them ideal for emergency situations underground.
Human activity and behaviour is contributing to an increasing number of disasters across the world, putting millions of lives and every social and economic gain in danger, warns a new UN report.
While most ghostwriting scandals in science involve physicians, the agrichemical company ran a unique and sophisticated campaign to promote GMO technology and attack critics.
