4411
Lethal Neutrinos
How close would you have to be to a supernova to get a lethal dose of neutrino radiation?
Topics /
Science & Space
The most popular blog posts about science & space on Hacker News. 4,455 posts.
4412
[109] Data Falsificada (Part 1): “Clusterfake”
This is the introduction to a four-part series of posts detailing evidence of fraud in four academic papers co-authored by Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino. In 2021, we and a team o…
4413
Mortality in the past: every second child died
The chances that a newborn survives childhood have increased from 50% to 96% globally. How do we know about the mortality of children in the past? And what can we learn from it for our future?
4414
CO₂ emissions
How much CO₂ does the world emit? Which countries emit the most?
4415
Beware The Man Of One Study
Aquinas famously said: beware the man of one book. I would add: beware the man of one study. For example, take medical research. Suppose a certain drug is weakly effective against a certain disease…
4416
China is building more coal plants but might burn less coal
China is adding more coal capacity, but its plants are running less often.
4417
U.S. could feed 800 million people with grain that livestock eat, Cornell ecologist advises animal scientists
From one ecologist's perspective, the American system of farming grain-fed livestock consumes resources far out of proportion to the yield, accelerates soil erosion, affects world food supply and will be changing in the future.
4418
Our World in Data
Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems.
4419
Cars, planes, trains: where do CO₂ emissions from transport come from?
Transport accounts for around one-fifth of global CO₂ emissions. Three-quarters of this is from road transport.
4420
Why I Am Not An Integrated Information Theorist (or, The Unconscious Expander)
Happy birthday to me! Recently, lots of people have been asking me what I think about IIT—no, not the Indian Institutes of Technology, but Integrated Information Theory, a widely-discussed &#…
4421
Ketamine: Now By Prescription
Last week the FDA approved esketamine for treatment-resistant depression. Let’s review how the pharmaceutical industry works: a company discovers and patents a potentially exciting new drug. …
4422
1. The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown
TOF once wrote an article entitled "The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown and Down 'n Dirty Mud-Wrassle" which described the century-long progress f...
4423
Cleaner Cars from Cradle to Grave
Over their lifetime, battery electric vehicles produce far less global warming pollution than their gasoline counterparts—and they’re getting cleaner.
4424
Gerard ’t Hooft, Theoretical Physics as a Challenge
How to become a good theoretical physicist
4425
The Atomic Bomb Considered As Hungarian High School Science Fair Project
I. A group of Manhattan Project physicists created a tongue-in-cheek mythology where superintelligent Martian scouts landed in Budapest in the late 19th century and stayed for about a generation, a…
4426
Project GREAT: General Relativity Einstein/Essen Anniversary Test
In September 2005 the kids and I took several very accurate cesium atomic clocks from home and parked 5400 feet up Mt Rainier (the volcano near Seattle) for a full two days. The goal was to see if the clocks actually gained time, even if billionths of a second, as predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity…
4427
Vitamin D toxicity: What if you get too much?
Understand the risks of taking high doses of this vitamin in supplement form.
4428
In Defense Of The Amyloid Hypothesis
A guest post by David Schneider-Joseph
4429
Alcohol Consumption
Who consumes the most alcohol? How has consumption changed over time? And what are the health impacts?
4430
Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist
[ An updated treatment of some of this material appears in Chapter 2 of the Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet (free) textbook, also mirrors a 2022 article in Nature Physics . . ]
4431
Can face masks protect against COVID-19?-How well do face masks protect against COVID-19?
Face masks can help slow the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Learn about mask types, which masks to use and how to use them.
4432
Working Hours
How much time do people across the world spend working? How have working hours changed over time, and what do these changes matter for people’s lives? Explore data and research on working hours.
4433
Electricity Mix
Explore data on where our electricity comes from and how this is changing.
4434
4435
The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown: TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown 2. The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown: Down for the Count 3. The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown: The Great Gali...
4436
BU-808: How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries
Manufacturers take a conservative approach and specify the life of Li-ion in most consumer products as being between 300 and 500 discharge/charge cycles.…
4437
People
This text circulated on the internet in September 2003. I first became aware of it when a journalist contacted a my colleague Sian Miller on 16th September, trying to track down the original source. It's been passed on many times, and in the way of most internet memes has mutated along the way. It struck me as…
4438
Obesity
When did obesity increase? How do rates vary across the world? What is the health impact?
4439
The bitter truth about fructose alarmism.
Dr. Robert Lustig, professor of pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco, is the star of the video above. While he presents some material that’s scientifically sound, he also makes enough errors to warrant a healthy dose of criticism. There’s a ton of material he goes over, so instead of writing a…
4440
Embryo Selection For Intelligence
A cost-benefit analysis of the marginal cost of IVF-based embryo selection for intelligence and other traits with 2016–2017 state-of-the-art.