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New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 422 posts.
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Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
The method is based on a recyclable filtration fluid consisting of a superbase-alcohol compound. One gram of the new compound can absorb 156 milligrams of carbon dioxide.
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Quality of drinking water varies significantly by airline
A 2026 Airline Water Study released today by the Center for Food as Medicine and Longevity reveals that the quality of drinking water varies significantly by airline, and many airlines…
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Electrolysis can solve one of our biggest contamination problems
ETH Zurich researchers have developed a process that can be used on site to render environmental toxins such as DDT and lindane harmless and convert them into valuable chemicals – a breakthrough for the remediation of contaminated sites and a sustainable circular economy.
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What an unprocessed photo looks like
The image isn't even black-and-white , it's gray-and-gray: While the sensor's ADC can theoretically output values from 0 to 16382, the data doesn't cover that whole range.
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Researchers discover molecular difference in autistic brains
Brains of autistic individuals have fewer of a specific kind of glutamate receptor, supporting an idea that autism is driven by a signaling imbalance. The
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Experts explore new mushroom which causes fairytale-like hallucinations
Between traditional folklore and modern biology, the wild forest floor and the sterile scientific laboratory, lies the story of the lilliputian mushroom.
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Alzheimer’s disease can be reversed in animal models? Study
For more than a century, people have considered Alzheimer's disease (AD) an irreversible illness. Consequently, research has focused on preventing or ...
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Researchers achieved 1,270 Wh/L in an anode-free lithium metal battery
[POSTECH, KAIST, and Gyeongsang National University achieve a record-breaking energy density of 1,270 Wh/L]
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Google's year in review: areas with research breakthroughs in 2025
This year saw new AI models, transformative products and new breakthroughs in science and robotics.
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NIST was 5 μs off UTC after last week's power cut
If you were 5 microseconds late today, blame it on NIST. Their facility in Boulder Colorado just had its power cut for multiple days. After a backup generator failed, their main ensemble clock lost track of UTC, or Universal Time Coordinated. But even if you used the NTP timing servers they run, they were never off by…
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More on whether useful quantum computing is “imminent”
These days, the most common question I get goes something like this: A decade ago, you told people that scalable quantum computing wasn’t imminent. Now, though, you claim it plausibly is immi…
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Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study
Average blood levels far exceed those considered to cause impairment.
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Research team digitizes more than 100 years of Canadian infectious disease data
The new, publicly accessible database contains more than a million infectious disease incidence counts dating back to 1903.
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Gut bacteria from amphibians and reptiles achieve tumor elimination in mice
HOME > ［News & Events］ Gut Bacteria from Amphibians and Reptiles Achieve Complete Tumor Elimination
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40 percent of fMRI signals do not correspond to actual brain activity
Interpretation of numerous MRI data may be incorrect: blood flow is not a reliable indicator of brain activity.
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Erdős Problem #1026
Problem 1026 on the Erdős problem web site recently got solved through an interesting combination of existing literature, online collaboration, and AI tools. The purpose of this blog post is to try…
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Economics of Orbital vs. Terrestrial Data Centers
Before we get nerd sniped by the shiny engineering details, ask the only question that matters. Why compute in orbit? Why should a watt or a flop 250 miles up be more valuable than one on the surface? What advantage justifies moving something as mundane as matrix multiplication into LEO?
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If a Meta AI model can read a brain-wide signal, why wouldn't the brain?
In 2023, Meta researchers were able to decode images in thoughts from the brain's magnetic fields. What if that's how the brain coordinates it's own global state?
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The tiniest yet real telescope I've built
76/300 Pocket Dobson: a tiny yet real telescope that comes with you everywhere
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CRISPR fungus: Protein-packed, sustainable, and tastes like meat
Researchers have successfully used CRISPR gene editing technology to create a fungi strain that is highly efficient, more nutritious, and significantly more sustainable than its natural counterpart. The fungus Fusarium venenatum already stands out for its meat-like flavor and texture, leading to its approval for food…
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$5 whale listening hydrophone making workshop
Whale songs were first noticed by accident, when analysts tracking Russian submarines at the height of the cold war heard cetacean interference instead. An engineer sent some recordings to Roger Payne, a biologist friend of his, who did something that proved pivotal: he played the hours-long recordings on his hi-fi at…
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Beautiful Abelian Sandpiles
I can't remember where I first saw them, but ever since, I have been unable to forget them: abelian sandpiles. I'm far from the only one . They're remarkably simple, yet produce lovely symmetric patterns. I loved them so much that I adorned the title banner of this blog with an animation of an abelian sandpile. But…
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A supersonic engine core makes the perfect power turbine
It started, as many things do these days, by scrolling on X.
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Trials avoid high risk patients and underestimate drug harms
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.
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Quanta to publish popular math and physics books by Terence Tao and David Tong
Quanta Books is delighted to announce two new upcoming books by mathematician Terence Tao and theoretical physicist David Tong. Six Math Essentials will be Tao’s first math book written for a popular…
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We collected 10k hours of neuro-language data in our basement
Over the last 6 months, we collected ~10k hours of data across thousands of unique individuals. As far as we know, this is the largest neuro-language dataset in the world. [1] See here , here , here , here , and here (discussion only, no data available) for some of the larger datasets. See recent papers discussing the…
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Coffee linked to slower biological ageing among those with severe mental illness
New research from King’s College London finds that coffee consumption within the NHS recommended limit is linked to longer telomere lengths – a marker of biological ageing – among people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The effect is comparable to roughly five years younger biological age.