1981
Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 2,419 posts.
1982
Mike Levin on using bioelectricity to study how cells form (2019)
By Lindsay Brownell At first glance, the lab of Wyss Associate Faculty member Mike Levin looks like any standard biology lab: graduate students in white lab coats pipette liquids into tubes at benches surrounded by centrifuges, freezers, racks of graduated cylinders hanging over sinks, and shelves of petri dishes…
1983
Foraging humans, mammals and birds who live in the same place behave similarly
Foraging humans find food, reproduce, share parenting, and even organise their social groups in similar ways as surrounding mammal and bird species, depending on where they live in the world, new research has found.
1984
1985
1986
1987
The Apollo 11 Moon Landing: Spacecraft Design Then and Now
To mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, we revisit a first-hand account of designing the Lunar Module digital autopilot, and compare the approach used then with the way it could be done today.
1988
1989
1990
World Population Growth
Explore global and national data on population growth, demography, and how they are changing.
1991
France signs a five-year national deal with Elsevier
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1992
What if half of Switzerland's rooftops produced electricity?
Researchers at EPFL are assessing Switzerland’s solar power potential. Their results show that photovoltaic panels could be installed on more than half of the country’s 9.6 million rooftops. The resulting power would meet more than 40% of Swiss electricity demand.
1993
1994
1995
A new JPEG format
The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), an international committee headed by an EPFL professor, has just unveiled JPEG XS. With this new format, the image-compression process uses less energy, and higher-quality images can be sent with low latency over broadband networks like 5G. JPEG XS will have applications in…
1996
New discovery reveals how diatoms capture CO2 so effectively
Tiny diatoms in the ocean are masters at capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the environment. They fix up to 20 percent of the Earth’s CO2. A research team at the University of Basel has now discovered a protein shell in these algae that is necessary for efficient CO2 fixation. This groundbreaking discovery can…
1997
‘Superbugs’ found breeding in sewage plants
Tests at wastewater treatment plants in China revealed antibiotic-resistant bacteria were not only escaping purification but also breeding and spreading their dangerous cargo.
1998
L-Arginine potentiates radiation therapy for cancer
Treatment with the amino acid arginine enhanced the effectiveness of radiation therapy in cancer patients with brain metastases in a clinical trial from investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and Angel H. Roffo Cancer Institute.
1999
Wireless magnetic millirobots that deliver medicine inside the beating heart
Hopkins engineers have created robots the size of a pencil tip intended to travel through the body to deliver medicine to infections inside a beating heart
2000
Start Using Landsat on AWS
My colleague Jed Sundwall wrote the guest post below to show you how one of the newest AWS Public Data Sets is being put to use. — Jeff; You can now access over 85,000 Landsat 8 scenes through our newest Public Data Set: Landsat on AWS. The scenes are all available in the landsat-pds bucket […]
2001
Genetic code enables zebrafish to mend damaged organs
New research identifies the genes necessary for zebrafish to regenerate their hearts after damage—work that could ultimately impact the recovery of human patients after heart attacks.
2002
Introducing Amino: Desktop Bioengineering for Everyone
Archived MIT Admissions blog post 'Introducing Amino: Desktop Bioengineering for Everyone,' published October 13, 2015. Preserved for historical context; not maintained as current admissions policy.
2003
2004
Orange rivers signal toxic shift in Arctic wilderness
Scientists say the warming climate is triggering chemical reactions that leach toxic metals into once-pristine Arctic waters, degrading fish habitat, water quality, and life for local people.
2005
A “perfect coronal mass ejection” could be a nightmare
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.
2006
Infrared thermometers to screen for Covid: more marketing than medical evidence
Many restaurants, theatres and offices are using infrared thermometers to get the country back to work. Multiple companies are advertising these as a way to ‘reassure’ employers and employees. In China, security guards have even been given infra-red spectacles in order to detect people with fever. But where’s the…
2007
CO₂ and Other Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Human emissions of greenhouse gases are the primary driver of climate change. The world needs to decarbonize to reduce them.
2008
Butterfly wing patterns emerge from ancient ‘junk’ DNA
Butterfly wing patterns have a basic plan to them, which is manipulated by non-coding regulatory DNA to create the diversity of wings seen in different species, according to new research.
2009
Red algae proteins grafted into tobacco double plant growth
Cornell researchers have successfully transferred key regions of a highly efficient red algae into a tobacco plant to dramatically improve plant productivity and increase carbon sequestration.
2010
