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Dividing a Square into 7 Similar Rectangles
This is a continuation of my post Dividing a square into similar rectangles, in which I discussed this puzzle: if you partition a square into n similar rectangles, what proportions can these rectan…
Topics /
Science & Space
The most popular blog posts about science & space on Hacker News. 440 posts.
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Infra-Red, in Situ (Iris) Inspection of Silicon
Cryptography tells us how to make a chain of trust rooted in special-purpose chips known as secure elements. But how do we come to trust our secure elements? I have been searching for solutions to this thorny supply chain problem . Ideally, one can directly inspect the construction of a chip, but any viable inspection…
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Death by vegetable oil: What the studies say (2020)
In a world without vegetable oil, we may be twenty pounds lighter, have half the amount of heart disease and cancer, live longer, think clearer, feel better, and be happier and less depressed.
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Discovery could extend battery life by replacing tape that causes self‑discharge
Thanks to a discovery in a Dal lab, manufacturers of laptops and other tech devices now have an explanation for why the batteries that power their gadgets tend to lose some of their charge over time and a path forward to fixing the problem..
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Shannon’s Source Coding Theorem (2020)
The mathematical field of information theory attempts to mathematically describe the concept of “information”. In the first two posts, we discussed the concepts of self-information and information entropy. In this post, we step through Shannon’s Source Coding Theorem to see how the information entropy of a probability…
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Admiral Rickover's 'Paper Reactor' Memo (1953)
Rickover's famous speech about the distinction between academic (paper) reactors and practical reactors.
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T cells can activate themselves to fight tumors
UC San Diego scientists find an auto-signaling mechanism driving the T cell anti-tumor response; findings may inspire new cancer therapeutics and biomarkers.
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Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)
Shocking new research confirms the ancient Carthaginians ritually sacrificed children as offerings to the gods, overturning decades of denial. Uncover the dark secrets of this long-forgotten civilisation.
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My diatribe against “skeptics” (2016)
April 10, 2023. The backlash was immediate after I spoke at the 2016 Northeast Conference on Science & Skepticism , which bills itself as a “celebration of science and critical thinking.” Although the conference had allotted me 10 minutes for questions, the stage manager, Jamy
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Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?
No, but they’re probably good for you.
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Chemotherapy drug reaches brain tumors using novel ultrasound technology
Northwestern Medicine scientists report results of the first in-human clinical trial in which they used a novel, skull-implantable ultrasound device to open the blood-brain barrier and repeatedly permeate large, critical regions of the human brain to deliver chemotherapy that was injected intravenously.
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The Relativity of Wrong (1989)
I received a letter from a reader the other day. It was handwritten in crabbed penmanship so that it was very difficult to read. Nevertheless, I tried to make it out just in case it might prove to be important.
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Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
When we finished the Potato Diet Community Trial, we found ourselves in a pickle. The diet worked — people lost 10.6 lbs on average over only four weeks — and we had basically no idea why. No idea …
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How to Think Computationally about AI, the Universe and Everything
In his TED Talk, Stephen Wolfram covers the emergence of space by the application of computational rules to spacetime, gravity and quantum mechanics to AI and LLMs. Computational irreducibility and the ruliad.
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What Will Transformers Transform?
Generative Pre-trained Transformer models (GPTs) are now all the rage and have inspired op-eds being written by everyone from Henry Kissinger (WSJ) to Noam Chomsky (NYTimes) in just the last month. That sure is some hype level.
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A new quantum algorithm for classical mechanics with an exponential speedup
Posted by Robin Kothari and Rolando Somma, Research Scientists, Google Research, Quantum AI Team Quantum computers promise to solve some problems e...
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How to Grow a Three Sisters Garden (2016)
By Melissa Kruse-Peeples For many Native American communities, three seeds - corn, beans, and squash represent the most important crops. When planted together, the Three Sisters, work together to help one another thrive and survive. Utilizing corn, beans, and squash together in your garden draws upon centuries of…
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Inverted perovskite solar cell breaks 25% efficiency record
Northwestern University researchers have raised the standards again for perovskite solar cells with a new development that helped the emerging technology hit new records for efficiency.
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Arxiv.org is experiencing a DDoS attack
arXiv users may be experiencing email disruption due to a DDOS attack. Over the past few days, a small number of users issued over a million email change…
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Public exposure to BPA exceeds acceptable health safety levels
Population exposure to the synthetic chemical Bisphenol A (BPA), which is used in everything from plastic and metal food containers to reusable water bottles and drinking water pipes in Europe is well above acceptable health safety levels, according to updated research data. This poses a potential health risk to…
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P < 0.05 Considered Harmful
The unreasonable persistence of an old standard
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Vinyl Chloride and the Ohio Train Derailment
The recent Ohio train derailment and subsequent fire that released vinyl chloride into the environment has been a terrifying experience for the nearby population. The accident rekindles memories of the 1979 train accident in Mississauga, Ontario, when over 200,000 people had to be evacuated after a wheel bearing…
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This is what the year actually looks like (2018)
A few weeks back, I asked the Norwegian public what the year looks like inside their heads. It led to a deluge of responses. Here's a summary of more than 75 000 month placements, and nearly 40 000 questionnaire responses.