2581
How Pulse Oximeters Work (2015)
Principles of how pulse oximetry works explained without using complicated physics.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 4,456 posts.
2582
What if the Trinity test had failed?
If the first nuclear weapons test had been a flop, would the world be better or worse off?
2583
Who is the greatest knife steel metallurgist of all time?
There have been many metallurgists over the decades who have developed steels used in knives. Who has made the greatest contribution?
2584
2585
Do We Need a Theory of Everything?
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
2586
An aerospace engineer explains fireworks
A quick look at the ballistics and stability of aerial fireworks.
2587
2588
Two-Thirds of Americans Think Government Should Do More on Climate
There is bipartisan support for several proposals to reduce the effects of climate change, especially for large scale tree-plantings to help absorb carbon emissions and offering tax credits to businesses that capture carbon emissions.
2589
Why Can't I Reproduce Their Results?
Computer Science, Machine Learning, Programming, Art, Mathematics, Philosophy, and Short Fiction
2590
2+1=4, by quinoa
I was struck the other day by the following: The cooking instructions on my Bob’s tri-colored quinoa package said to combine 2 cups of water with 1 cup of dried quinoa, which would ultimately create 4 cups of cooked quinoa. See image above. My first reaction was to believe …
2591
Sphere Eversion
Topology is the study of the properties of geometric objects which aren’t changed by continuous deformation. A standard low-grade math joke is that toplogists consider a coffee mug and a doughnut equivalent because they’re both torii—(pauses for laughter)—one can be continuously deformed into the other, called a…
2592
Crooked to the Millimetre
The technology pioneered by the ETH spin-off incon.ai allows blocks to be positioned with pinpoint accuracy, creating structures with aesthetic designs and augmented acoustics.
2593
Lights and Shadows
Interactive article explaining how lights and shadows behave.
2594
2595
All about Modelica: An equation-based language for modeling physical systems
Marco Bonvini’s personal website.
2596
How well do cars do in crash tests they're not optimized for?
Any time you have a benchmark that gets taken seriously, some people will start gaming the benchmark. Some famous examples in computing are the CPU benchmark specfp and video game benchmarks. With specfp, Sun managed to increase its score on 179.art (a sub-benchmark of specfp) by 12x with a compiler tweak that…
2597
AI predicts effective depression treatment based on brainwave patterns
Tracking brainwave patterns and symptoms in patients with depression, researchers used artificial intelligence to predict best treatment options.
2598
Weighing a Car with Tire Pressures
The first thing I wanted to do with my Saab 96 was to establish a baseline weight.
2599
How remdesivir works, and why it's not the ultimate coronavirus killer
How exactly does the antiviral drug remdesivir counter SARS-CoV-2 - the coronavirus strain responsible for COVID-19? And how well?
2600
Neurons that fire together, wire together, but how?
Neurons that fire together, wire together... Ok, but how? One of my little pet projects is a neurology book for psychologists, coaches and the like. What most people in these fields imagine about the brain is somewhere between perplexing, preposterous and potentially poisonous. (Seriously, I could tell you stories...)…
2601
Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown
Radio signals from deep space: Astronomers including researchers at MIT have detected the first periodic fast radio burst from 500 million light years away.
2602
Initial Covid-19 infection rate may be 80 times greater than originally reported
A new study from Penn State tracked excess influenza-like illness data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to estimate that the number of early COVID-19 cases in the U.S. may have been more than 80 times greater and doubled nearly twice as fast as originally believed.
2603
2604
Crows’ ability to discriminate between languages
That crows can recognize humans faces (and other physical attributes) has been a staple of our experiences with them for thousands of years. It’s part of what has allowed them to take s…
2605
Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes
Following a low carb, high fat diet shortly after being diagnosed with…
2606
Solar storm risk and EMP attacks
A Q&A style dialogue to separate fact from fiction.
2607
Covid-19: The T Cell Story
When COVID-19 burst on to the scene, tests quickly showed that the everyone was susceptible - no pre-existing antibodies were found that bound to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This led to dire predictions that over 80% of the population might eventually fall ill. Now more than six months in, this has not happened, and it does…
2608
Diluting blood plasma rejuvenates tissue, reverses aging in mice
New study suggests that plasma exchange could be the key to unlocking the body’s regenerative capacities
2609
Feynman Lectures on the Strong Interactions
Available at the arXiv this evening is something quite fascinating. Jim Cline has posted course notes from Feynman’s last course, given in 1987-88 on QCD. There are also some audio files of a…
2610
The Sun seen through the Earth in “neutrino light” (2007)
Physics blog quantum computation