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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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FDA grants emergency use authorization for 5-13 minute Covid-19 test
Available on the portable ID NOW platform, Abbott's molecular COVID-19 test delivers results in minutes in a variety of healthcare settings.
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A new class of tiny, self-propelled robots that can zip through liquid at speed
CU Boulder engineers have designed a new class of "microrobots" several times smaller than the width of a human hair that may be able to treat human illnesses
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Scott and Scurvy: How the cure for scurvy was lost
Writing about the first winter the men spent on the ice, Cherry-Garrard casually mentions an astonishing lecture on scurvy by one of the expedition’s doctors:
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Geometry, Algebra, and Intuition (2017)
I have a confession to make: I have always found symbolic algebra more intuitive than geometric pictures. I think you’re supposed to feel the opposite way, and I greatly admire people who think and communicate in pictures, but for me, it’s usually a struggle.
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Living skin can be 3D-printed, with blood vessels
TROY, N.Y. — Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a way to 3D print living skin, complete with blood vessels. The advancement, published online today in Tissue Engineering Part A, is a significant step toward creating grafts that are more like the skin our bodies produce naturally.
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Predictions Scorecard, 2025 January 01
[You can follow me on social media: @rodneyabrooks.bsky.social and see my publications etc., at https://people.csail.mit.edu/brooks ]
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New records on Wendelstein 7-X
Wendelstein 7-X—the leading fusion device of the stellarator type—achieved several new performance milestones during its latest run of experiments. Among them is a world record for triple product, the value that measures how close a fusion device is to generating net energy across the plasma.
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How I Learned to Love Algebraic Geometry
A more polished version of this article appeared on Nautilus on 2019 February 28. This version has some more material. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Algebraic Geometry In my 50s, too old …
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Calculus for the Curious
Some weeks ago I got involved in a discussion on Twitter about, which books to recommend on the history of calculus. Somebody chimed in that Steven Strogatz’s new book would tell you all that you n…
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Prefrontal cortex as a meta-reinforcement learning system
Recently, AI systems have mastered a range of video-games such as Atari classics Breakout and Pong. But as impressive as this performance is, AI still relies on the equivalent of thousands of hours of gameplay to reach and surpass the performance of human video game players. In contrast, we can usually grasp the…
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Emissions are no longer following the worst case scenario
So where might we be headed instead?
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The human ear detects half a millisecond delay in sound
Researchers discover how accurately the human ear can detect time delay in sounds in different frequencies.
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The science of Westworld
How close are we to building the hosts?
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How Radar Works
Radar is one of the most versitile sensors we have to determine what is happening in an environment. Some common applications include air traffic control, weather prediction, automated driver assist, astronomy and terrain mapping. Given that these applications have wildy varying requirements on resolution, range and…
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SpaceX Raptor: Methane fueled full-flow staged combustion cycle engine
SpaceX's new raptor engine is a methane fueled full flow staged combustion cycle engine and its so hard to develop, no engine like this has ever flown before!Now this topic can be really intimidating so in order to bring the Raptor engine into context, we’re going to do an overview of a few common types of rocket…
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GLP-1 drugs linked to lower death rates in colon cancer patients
In an analysis of more than 6,800 colon cancer patients across all University of California Health sites, researchers found that those taking glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications were less than half as likely to die within five years compared to those who weren’t on the drugs (15.5% vs. 37.1%
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How does the US use water?
Water infrastructure often gets less attention and focus than other types of infrastructure.
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A nasal spray protects against coronavirus including immune-evasive variants
Researchers have developed a molecule that is, when administered nasally, extremely effective in preventing the disease caused by all known variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The molecule can be a key tool in preparing for future pandemics, as it is aimed at preventing both the transmission and spread of the virus.
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Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system
The diminished power of the immune system in older adults is usually blamed on the aging process. A new study shows that decades of inhaled particulates due to air pollution also take a toll.