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ZEUS – A new two-petawatt laser facility at the University of Michigan
Hitting 2 petawatts, the NSF-funded ZEUS facility at U-M enables research that could improve medicine, national security, materials science and more.
Topics /
Science & Space
The most popular blog posts about science & space on Hacker News. 422 posts.
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The disappearance of Gaia, ESA spacecraft will be turned off on 27 March 2025
Updates on the ESA Gaia mission
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Scientists create ultra fast memory using light
Novel "photonic latch" technology paves the way for ultra-fast, light-based computing for AI and data centers.
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A Century of Quantum Mechanics
On 9 July 1925, in a letter to Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg revealed his new ideas, which were to revolutionise physics
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“The Mind in the Wheel” lays out a new foundation for the science of mind
OR: the ideas your mother warned you about
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The Dead Planet Theory
No one does anything, the bar is lower than you think
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The Mathematics of Crochet
I remember thinking at school when will I ever in my “real life” use maths. Well much to my utter surprise I’ve come to the stark realisation that there is a link between mathematics and crochet. …
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Quaternions and spherical trigonometry
Hamilton’s quaternion number system $latex {\mathbb{H}}&fg=000000$ is a non-commutative extension of the complex numbers, consisting of numbers of the form $latex {t + xi + yj + zk}&f…
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Big Data was used to see if TCM was scientific (2023)
People love to show that skeptics were wrong about something, especially when national pride hangs in the balance. The South China Morning Post published the following headline on November 3rd: “Scientists find traditional Chinese medicine is based on a complex network of proteins – 3,000 years before modern science.”…
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Psilocybin treatment extends cellular lifespan, improves survival of aged mice
Emory University researchers identified that psilocin, a byproduct of consuming psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, actively delays aging in cells and organisms.
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Nano-engineered thermoelectrics enable scalable, compressor-free cooling
Researchers at Johns Hopkins APL, in collaboration with Samsung Research, have unveiled a breakthrough in solid-state cooling technology, doubling the efficiency of today’s commercial systems. Driven by the Lab’s patented nano-engineered thin-film thermoelectric materials and devices, this innovation paves the way for…
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Microplastics: No longer a "maybe"
It’s Already Inside Us Microplastics are not just an environmental problem affecting nature. They’re in our blood [1] , lungs [2] , placentas [3] , brains [4] , and breast milk [5] . Every human tissue scientists have tested so far has come back contaminated. In diseased tissue samples of people with chronic illnesses…
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How many dimensions is this?
A degree in mathematics might not save you from stacking boxes for a living.
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How Potatoes Evolved
Crisps and mash owe their existence to a series of precise events that took place nine million years ago.
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'Sticky thinking' hampers decisions in depression
New study finds rumination can cause those with depression to get ‘stuck’ on thoughts, limiting their ability to mentally juggle options available to them when making decisions.
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Is Planet Nine Alone in the Outer System?
Planet 9 might be our Ultima Thule . Hell would certainly be freezing over at 700 AU. Whether this tentative observation is Planet 9 or not, it is still an interesting observation and an example, I think, of proof that AIs will not do all our science for us. (At least not LLMs).
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Why do we remember some life moments but not others?
BU study finds memories of mundane incidents can be strengthened when they get attached to a memory of an emotionally charged event
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Bifurcation: The secret giant islands formed when rivers split
As I’m sure you’re aware, rivers usually combine together to make larger and larger rivers until they reach the sea.However, there are some exceptions: rivers do sometimes split up and flow in separate directions. These splits are called “bifurcations” (bi” meaning “two”, and “furcations” being the forks). They happen…
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Learning Is Slower Than You Think
What AI-optimized schools misunderstand about learning
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We collected 10k hours of neuro-language data in our basement
Over the last 6 months, we collected ~10k hours of data across thousands of unique individuals. As far as we know, this is the largest neuro-language dataset in the world. [1] See here , here , here , here , and here (discussion only, no data available) for some of the larger datasets. See recent papers discussing the…
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The Biology of a Large Language Model
We investigate the internal mechanisms used by Claude 3.5 Haiku — Anthropic's lightweight production model — in a variety of contexts, using our circuit tracing methodology.
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Continuous Glucose Monitoring
Continuous glucose monitoring has been a thing for a while. It's a probe that sits just inside your body and measures blood glucose levels frequently. Obviously this is most useful for type 1 diabetics, who need to regulate their blood glucose manually.
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Genetic code enables zebrafish to mend damaged organs
New research identifies the genes necessary for zebrafish to regenerate their hearts after damage—work that could ultimately impact the recovery of human patients after heart attacks.
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Orange rivers signal toxic shift in Arctic wilderness
Scientists say the warming climate is triggering chemical reactions that leach toxic metals into once-pristine Arctic waters, degrading fish habitat, water quality, and life for local people.
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Researchers achieved 1,270 Wh/L in an anode-free lithium metal battery
[POSTECH, KAIST, and Gyeongsang National University achieve a record-breaking energy density of 1,270 Wh/L]