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The two cultures of mathematics and biology
I’m a (50%) professor of mathematics and (50%) professor of molecular & cell biology at UC Berkeley. There have been plenty of days when I have spent the working hours with biologists and…
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 152 posts.
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New Solar Power Material Converts 90 Percent of Captured Light into Heat
A multidisciplinary engineering team at the University of California, San Diego developed a new nanoparticle-based material for concentrating solar power plants designed to absorb and convert to heat more than 90 percent of the sunlight it captures. The new material can also withstand temperatures greater than 700…
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“The Great Plate Count Anomaly” that is no more
by Gemma Reguera — For over a century, microbiologists have been using growth media solidified with agar to culture microbes from environmental samples. Individual cells are easily separated on th…
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The Fermi Paradox
The Fermi Paradox: There should be 100,000 intelligent alien civilizations in our galaxy — so why haven't we found any of them?
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Bioluminescent trees as an alternative to electric lighting
When people think of Registered Apprenticeship, they may picture careers in construction, manufacturing, or the skilled trades. But apprenticeship is also creating exciting career pathways in industries that keep our communities beautiful, safe, and thriving — including turfgrass management and groundskeeping. New…
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UNSW researchers set record in solar energy efficiency
Solar engineers from UNSW's Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics have set a new world-record in solar energy efficiency, achieving an electricity conversion rate of over 40%.
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The Future of Space Launch Is Near
Until recently, the future of space launch looked pretty much like its past. For over 50 years, humanity has blasted thousands of spacecraft and satellites into space. Every launch vehicle that carried them aloft has ended up littering the planet with the broken, twisted remains of expended rocket stages. The scenario…
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What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Stronger
Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
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Flying with Machine Guns?
Dynamics of shooting machine guns downwards, and the actual forces, velocities and heights that could be achieved. Modeled with Wolfram SystemModeler.
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Superconductivity without cooling?
Infrared laser pulses modify the structure of the high-temperature superconductor YBCO and make superconductivity possible at room temperature.
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6 GHz frequency modulated radar
Making a cheap and simple radar with a range of about 100 meters.
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Publish and Perish at Imperial College London: The Death of Stefan Grimm
Jump to follow-up This week’s Times Higher Education carried a report of the death, at age 51, of Professor Stefan Grimm: Imperial College London to ‘review procedures’ after death of academi…
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Time perception, just like vision, is a construction of the brain
The days of thinking of time as a river—evenly flowing, always advancing—are over. Time perception, just like vision, is a construction of the brain.
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How speakers make sound
Check out Animagraffs on youtube > .
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Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)
Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital find that participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress.
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Study: Doubling Saturated Fat in the Diet Does Not Increase It in Blood
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Doubling or even nearly tripling saturated fat in the diet does not drive up total levels of saturated fat in the blood, according to a controlled diet study.However, increasing levels of carbohydrates in the diet during the study promoted a steady increase in the blood of a fatty acid linked to an…
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Spooky Alignment of Quasars Across Billions of Light-years
New observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have revealed alignments over the largest structures ever discovered in the Universe. A European research team has found that the rotation axes of the central supermassive black holes in a sample of quasars are parallel to each other over distances of…
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Is Faster-Than-Light Travel or Communication Possible? (1997)
It might be thought that special relativity provides a short negative answer to this question. In actual fact, there are many trivial ways in which things can be going faster than light (FTL) in a sense, and there may be other more genuine possibilities. On the other hand, there are also good reasons to believe that…
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Our lander’s asleep
Follow ESA's mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
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France signs a five-year national deal with Elsevier
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Designing Stereographic Lampshades
I saw an article on the Guardian website here on the 3D-printing of shapes which project interesting patterns of light. Ignoring the strangely forced Halloween reference, I thought this would be an interesting project to attempt for an arbitrary pattern, perhaps as a personalised lampshade. Buoyed by the continuing…