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Vogtle Unit 3 starts nuclear fuel load
Vogtle Unit 3's fuel load process is underway marking a historic milestone toward ommercial operation of the first new nuclear units in the United States in more than three decades
Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 4,455 posts.
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Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa.
Ernst Stuhlinger wrote this letter on May 6, 1970, to Sister Mary Jucunda, a nun who worked among the starving children of Kabwe, Zambia, in Africa, who questioned the value of space exploration. A…
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It took two days to develop Moderna’s vaccine
As the first crop of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are being rolled out, we can start to see the light at the end of this pandemic tunnel. Still, in the US alone there will probably be another 200,000 deaths before we reach herd immunity. Further, as fast as this vaccine development and deployment was, it's not clear
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Book Review: “Viral” by Alina Chan and Matt Ridley
Happy New Year, everyone! It was exactly two years ago that it first became publicly knowable—though most of us wouldn’t know for at least two more months—just how freakishly horr…
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LIGO detects most massive black hole merger to date
Gravitational waves from massive black holes challenge current astrophysical models
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Evidence of oldest known alphabetic writing unearthed in ancient Syrian city
Findings suggest alphabetic writing may be some 500 years older than other discoveries
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I’m not convinced by the new lab leak debunking
It’s still an open question
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One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice
In a new study, researchers induced mild, acute sleep deprivation in mice and then examined their behaviors and brain activity. Not only did dopamine release increase during the acute sleep loss period, synaptic plasticity also was enhanced — literally rewiring the brain to maintain the bubbly mood for the next few…
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CT scan shows there's still lots of toner left in an “empty” cartridge
CT scans of a new and "empty" toner cartridge reveal a 5% operating window, an 80% air hopper, and the real reason shaking the cartridge always works.
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Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
Loneliness increases death risk by 32% but we know how to fix it. Real solutions that cut loneliness in half, from mindfulness to community…
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Why Bridges Don't Sink
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] The essence of a bridge is not just that it goes over something, but that there’s clear space underneath for a river, railway, or road. Maybe this is already obvious to you, but bridges present a unique structural challenge. In
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It's all a blur
Designing a slightly sneaky blur filter and then poking holes in it.
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Lack of sleep, stress can lead to symptoms resembling concussion
A new study suggests that a lot of people might be going through life with symptoms that resemble concussion – a finding supporting researchers’ argument that athletes recovering from a brain injury should be assessed and treated on a highly individualized basis.In the national study, between 11% and 27% of healthy…
588
How to start a rocket engine
This article answeres the questions of how to start a rocket engine and takes you on a deep dive into spark plugs, torch ignitors and more.
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Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
A new study from researchers at Columbia University is the first to quantitatively link psychological stress to graying hair in people and find that the process is reversible.
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Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first
A team of scientists and students from TU Delft has taken first place at the A2RL Drone Championship in Abu Dhabi - an international race that pushes the limits of physical artificial intelligence, challenging teams to fly fully autonomous drones using only a single camera. The TU Delft drone competed against 13…
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Two days of oatmeal reduce cholesterol level
The fact that oats have a beneficial effect on the metabolism is nothing new. German medic Carl von Noorden treated patients with diabetes with the cereal at the beginning of the 20th century – with remarkable success. “Today, effective medications are available to treat patients with diabetes,” explains…
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The Pumpkin Eclipse
The Lumen blog and newsroom is your source for business technology news and insights, customer stories, press and media, and trending articles.
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Long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution linked to increased risk of dementia
An analysis of studies incorporating data from almost 30 million people has highlighted the role that air pollution – including that coming from car exhaust emissions – plays in increased risk of dementia.
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Gene therapy restored hearing in deaf patients
Gene therapy can improve hearing in children and adults with congenital deafness or severe hearing impairment, a new study involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet reports. Hearing improved in all ten patients, and the treatment was well-tolerated. The study was conducted in collaboration with hospitals and…
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Outbreak – playable simulations of a disease outbreak
A playable disease simulation
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Do we really travel through time with the speed of light?
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
599
Why I've lost faith in p values
[Note: There is a followup to this post .] There has been a lot written over the past decade (and even longer) about problems associated with null hypothesis statistical testing (NHST) and p values. Personally, I have found most of these arguments unconvincing. However, one of t
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Planetfall
Gentle readers, I have just wrapped up a fun side project that will be of great interest to a very small number of you. The result of one of the most technically demanding efforts of my career, I a…