1951
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 4,455 posts.
1952
Ice Spikes: Strange things you can find in your freezer
Temperature is certainly a factor when growing ice spikes, and we have done experiments that show that spikes are more likely to form when the temperature is just below freezing (see the graphs below). I'm not entirely sure why this is so, but I suspect that the ice tube freezes shut before the tube gets very long if…
1953
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…
1954
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 …
1955
Why isn't there a replication crisis in math?
The replication crisis is a major problem in medicine and social science; we know that a huge fraction of the published literature is outright wrong. But in math we don't seem to have a similar crisis, despite reasonably frequent minor errors in published papers. Why not, and what can this tell us about the fields…
1956
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.
1957
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.
1958
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…
1959
Royal Society cautions against censorship of scientific misinformation online
The Online Information Environment report discusses how to limit the harm of scientific misinformation online
1960
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.
1961
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
1962
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…
1963
Why Quantum Mechanics?
In the past few months, I’ve twice injured the same ankle while playing with my kids. This, perhaps combined with covid, led me to several indisputable realizations: I am mortal.Despite my se…
1964
How the Soviets put a lander on Venus
Surviving Hell
1965
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.
1966
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?
1967
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.
1968
The control group is out of control (2014)
I. Allan Crossman calls parapsychology the control group for science. That is, in let’s say a drug testing experiment, you give some people the drug and they recover. That doesn’t tell …
1969
1970
1971
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.
1972
1973
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…
1974
How to grow monosodium glutamate (MSG) crystals
Dissolve MSG in water to form a saturated solution. Wait for small MSG crystals to form. Then, tie it to a string to let it grow bigger.
1975
An open letter on E.O. Wilson's legacy
Response to Scientific American's "The Complicated Legacy..."
1976
GPS
Interactive article explaining how GPS works.
1977
Geometry from Another Universe
You start on an enclosed lawn, surrounded by four walls with a doorway in one of them. If you go in and explore, you might begin to feel trapped. You'll find you can visit five different rooms in the house, or go back outside to the lawn, but there's no way to go anywhere else. It's not because there are walls…
1978
1979
A high-dimensional sphere spilling out of a high-dimensional cube
Make a square, split each side into two halves, producing four cells. Put a circle into each cell such that it fills it completely. There is a small gap right in the middle of the square. Put a circle there again such that it touches the other four circles. The central circle is obviously inside the square, right?…
1980
The Color of Infinite Temperature
This is the color of something infinitely hot. Of course you’d instantly be fried by gamma rays of arbitrarily high frequency, but this would be its spectrum in the visible range. This…