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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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Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)
[I am not a sleep specialist. Please consult with one before making any drastic changes or trying to treat anything serious.] Van Geiklswijk et al describe supplemental melatonin as “a chrono…
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Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to Agostini, Krausz, and L’Huillier
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter"
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How the Soviets put a lander on Venus
Surviving Hell
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MIT class project turns into an FDA-cleared treatment for tremors
Encora Therapeutics, which developed a wrist-based device that reduces essential tremor, started as a project in MIT’s famous product-design class, 2.009 (Product Engineering Processes).
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Ancient secrets of computer vision
This class is a general introduction to computer vision. It covers standard techniques in image processing like filtering, edge detection, stereo, flow, etc. (old-school vision), as well as newer, machine-learning based computer vision. It was originally offered in the spring of 2018 at the University of Washington .
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What everyone should know about the human eye
Odds are, you will one day build something someone will see. Here are three key findings from people who study how people see to keep in mind for your next project.
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Solar energy is now the cheapest source of power, study
University of Surrey research finds solar is now the lowest cost electricity source in sunniest regions. Discover what this means for the global energy future.
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Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
Each of us individually is the accumulated product of thousands of generations that have come before us in an unbroken line. Our culture and technology today are also the result of thousands of years of accumulated and remixed cultural knowledge.
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Fungus breaks down ocean plastic
A fungus living in the sea can break down the plastic polyethylene, provided it has first been exposed to UV radiation from sunlight. Researchers from, among others, NIOZ published their results in the scientific journal Science of the Total Environment. They expect that many more plastic degrading fungi are living in…
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Mathematical exploration and discovery at scale
Bogdan Georgiev, Javier Gómez-Serrano, Adam Zsolt Wagner, and I have uploaded to the arXiv our paper “Mathematical exploration and discovery at scale”. This is a longer report on…
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Our Brains Are Not Multi-Threaded
In computer programming, it’s common to split your program into multiple different threads that run simultaneously, as this often simplifies application design. Imagine, for example, ... Read more
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What are “actual pictures” of atoms actually pictures of?
Physicist: Actual pictures of atoms aren’t actually pictures at all. There are a few good rules of thumb in physics. Among the best is: light acts like you’d expect on scales well abov…
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Solar Orbiter gets world-first views of the Sun's poles
Thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun’s poles from outside the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter’s unique viewing angle will change our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar cycle and the workings of space…
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Adding crushed rock to farmland pulls carbon out of the air
Learn from UC Davis researchers how adding crushed volcanic rock to farmland removes carbon dioxide from the air.
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BusyBeaver(6) Is Quite Large
For overdetermined reasons, I’ve lately found the world an increasingly terrifying and depressing place. It’s gotten harder and harder to concentrate on research, or even popular scienc…
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Scientists discover receptor that blocks Covid-19 infection
University of Sydney scientists have discovered a protein in the lung that blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection and forms a natural protective barrier in the human body.
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So you want to build a tunnel
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] It seems like homemade tunnels are kind of having a moment. Just about everywhere I look, it feels like someone is carving new spaces from the ground and documenting the process online. Colin Furze might be the quintessential ex
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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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A shuffled deck of cards is unique in all human history
Every time you shuffle a deck of playing cards, it's probably a unique order, never before seen in human history.
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MIT engineers develop stickers that can see inside the body
MIT engineers designed an adhesive patch that produces ultrasound images of the body. The stamp-sized device sticks to skin and can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours.
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Transfer of atomic mass with a photon solves the momentum paradox of light
The Department of Applied Physics pursues vigorous research in physical sciences and creates important industrial applications.
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Hiding Images in Plain Sight: The Physics of Magic Windows
I recently made a physical object that defies all intuition. It’s a square of acrylic, smooth on both sides, totally transparent. A tiny window.
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Why can’t I go faster than the speed of light?
I should state from the very beginning that the title of this post is a bit of a tease. I don’t know why nothing can go faster than the speed of light. No one does. It is a fundamental pos…
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FAA approves hundreds more engines to use unleaded avgas
The FAA has approved approximately 611 more engine models to burn General Aviation Modifications Inc.'s 100-octane unleaded avgas that, when combined with approvals announced in July, account for about 70 percent of the GA aircraft fleet's powerplants. An AOPA consultant said the move signals the FAA's "bullish"…