1621
Oklo, the Earth's Two-billion-year-old only Known Natural Nuclear Reactor (2018)
Physicist Francis Perrin sat at a nuclearfuel-processing plant down in the south of France, thinking to himself: “This cannot be possible.” It was 1972.
Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 4,455 posts.
1622
What it’s like to dissect a cadaver
Alok Singh's Blog
1623
Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
New research finds that small regions of the brain cycle in and out of sleep, even when awake. The cycles shift toward “awake” when that part of the brain pays attention to a task.
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New antifungal therapy for fungal meningitis
A team of University of Minnesota Medical School researchers successfully tested a new antifungal therapy to treat fungal meningitis. The trial results were published today in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
1626
Why wasn't the steam engine invented earlier? Part II
As I noted in Part I, the general idea of using heat and steam for mechanical work had a long and continuous history back to ancient times. But when we talk of the breakthrough “steam engine” in the eighteenth-century sense, we don’t mean a machine that exploits steam’s expansive, or pushing force. We actually mean a…
1627
Drivers who keep their windows down are exposed to 80 percent more air pollution
Discover how Surrey researchers show driving with windows down increases exposure to air pollution by around 80%, with implications for health.
1628
A new chapter begins for EV batteries with the expiry of key LFP patents
Expiry of key LFP battery patents in 2022 reshaped the EV sector—open access to tech is driving global strategy shifts as old IP barriers fall.
1629
Why the sun is a poor dumping ground for nuclear waste (2010)
A physicist explains why the sun is a poor dumping ground for nuclear waste.
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What Is Spacetime, Really?
On the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Stephen Wolfram discusses the nature of space and time, and fundamental theory of physics.
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Passing planes and other whoosh sounds
A blog about signals, programming, music, and other stuff.
1635
Vehicle brakes produce charged particles that may harm public health: study
The work could help efforts to contain an important source of air pollution
1636
Antiviral Molnupiravir Reduces Risk of Hospitalization/Death by ~50 Percent
At the Interim Analysis, 7.3 Percent of Patients Who Received Molnupiravir Were Hospitalized Through Day 29, Compared With 14.1 Percent of Placebo-Treated Patients Who were Hospitalized or Died Merck Plans to Seek Emergency Use Authorization in the U.S. as Soon as Possible and to Submit Applications to Regulatory…
1637
5-MeO-DMT Associated with Improvements in Depression, Anxiety
Study: Fast-acting psychedelic associated with improvements in depression and anxiety ›
1638
Evidence that drinking baking soda can promote an anti-inflammatory environment
AUGUSTA, Ga. – A daily dose of baking soda may help reduce the destructive inflammation of autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, scientists say.
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SpaceX's Texas Rocket Is Going to Cause a Lot More Damage Than Anyone Thinks
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a license for SpaceX to launch the first orbital test of Starship, the largest rocket in human history, as soon as this Monday, April 17th.
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The software that flies SpaceX rockets and starships
Spaceflight, from the beginning, has depended on computers – both on the ground and in the spacecraft. SpaceX has carried it to a new level. We recently spoke with Steven Gerding, Dragon’s software development lead, about the special challenges software development has for SpaceX's many missions.
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Wind energy used to mine cryptocurrency to fund climate research
Wind energy used to mine cryptocurrency to fund climate research Oliver 2017
1645
What's the third most common element?
The Universe was 99.999999% Hydrogen and Helium after the Big Bang. Billions of years later, there’s a new contender in town.
1646
When His SR-71 Blackbird Disintegrated, This Pilot Free Fell from Space
During the early days of testing for the legendary SR-71 Blackbird there were some harrowing mishaps, the details of which have rarely come to light. On January 25, 1966, test pilot Bill Weaver and Lockheed flight test reconnaissance and navigation systems specialist Jim Zwayer experienced their plane vanishing around…
1647
Bret Victor Redesigns Classic Strogatz Paper (2011)
This page presents a scientific paper that has been redesigned as a sequence of illustrations with captions. This comic-like format, with tightly-coupled pictures and prose, allows the author to depict and describe simultaneously — show and tell.
1648
A new kind of fractal?
Experimenting with the "divisibility" of complex numbers, I stumbled across this thingy. It looks like a fractal. Although the formula does not do any iterations. It reminds me of something. But I dont know what. Doing a Google image search brings up a couple of galaxies :) This image shows the region from (-1/-1) to…
1649
Why is only half of Mars magnetized?
An article in the September 26 issue of Science neatly explains why only the southern half of Mars is strongly magnetized.
1650
Did the Particle Go Through the Two Slits, or Did the Wave Function?
In the quantum double-slit experiment, did the particle go through the slits or did the wave function? 1920's quantum physics has a simple answer: "NO".