Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 2,419 posts.
The Dunning-Kruger effect may just be a data artefact (2020)
I want the Dunning-Kruger effect to be real. First described in a seminal 1999 paper by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, this effect has been the darling of journalists who want to explain why dumb people don’t know they’re dumb. There’s even video of a fantastic pastiche of Turandot’s famous aria, Nessun dorma…
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…
Analog Computers
Analog computers, predominant in high-performance computing until the 1970s, were forgotten when digital computers took over. We need to change that.
Chronic stress spreads cancer
Stress is inevitable. But too much of it can be terrible for our health. Chronic stress can increase our risk for heart disease and strokes. It may also help cancer spread. How this works has remained a mystery—a challenge for cancer care. Xue-Yan He, a former postdoc in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Adjunct…
A study on how turtles navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field
Carolina researchers publish a groundbreaking study on how turtles navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to Bertozzi, Meldal, and Sharpless
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 was awarded jointly to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless "for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry"
How to grow a cacao tree at home (2024)
Growing chocolate at home might sound like a wild idea, right? Chocolate originates from cacao trees, which demand a tropical climate, specific growing conditions, and several years to reach maturity in order to flower and fruit to produce cacao pods. However, our CocoTerra founder, Nate Saal, took on the challenge…
Lasers deflected using air
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY A Research Centre of the Helmholtz Association
MIT’s ‘Artificial leaf’ makes fuel from sunlight
Solar cell bonded to recently developed catalyst can harness the sun, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Stem Cells Regenerate Human Lens After Cataract Surgery, Restoring Vision
Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Shiley Eye Institute, with colleagues in China, have developed a new, regenerative medicine approach to remove congenital cataracts in infants, permitting remaining stem cells to regrow functional lenses.
ACM Prize in Computing Awarded to AlphaGo Developer
Silver, a professor at University College London and Principal Research Scientist at DeepMind, is recognized as a central figure in the growing and impactful area of deep reinforcement learning, leading the team that developed AlphaGo.
Are sprouted potatoes safe?
You are better off tossing potatoes that have turned green or grown sprouts. Eating them puts you at risk for toxicity from solanine and chaconine, two natural toxins found in green or sprouted potatoes.
Did fermented foods fuel brain growth?
Researchers hypothesize it’s fermentation, not fire, that’s behind our ancestors’ increasing brain size.
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…
Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine (1989)
For Richard, a crazy idea was an opportunity to either prove it wrong or prove it right.
Fungi and bacteria are binging on burned soil
UC Riverside researchers have identified tiny organisms that not only survive but thrive during the first year after a wildfire. The findings could help bring land back to life after fires that are increasing in both size and severity.
Yakhchal: Ancient Refrigerators (2009)
By 400 BC, Persian engineers had mastered the technique of storing ice in the middle of summer in the desert. The ice was brought in during the winters from nearby mountains in bulk amounts, and stored in a Yakhchal , or ice-pit. These ancient refrigerators were used primarily to store ice for use in the summer, as…
Student refines 100-year-old math problem, expanding wind energy possibilities
A Penn State engineering student's work on a century-old math problem that expands research in aerodynamics, unlocking new possibilities in wind turbine design, was recently published in Wind Energy Science.
Study shows antibodies against PEG in 83% of the German population
Study shows antibodies against polyethylene glycol in 83 percent of the German population
ER visits for gambling disorders doubled after expanded online gambling market
ER visits for gambling disorders doubled after single-event sports betting was legalized and Ontario's online gambling market expanded.