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Nuclear power is too slow
One common and plausible argument against nuclear power is that it is too slow.
Topics /
Science & Space
The most popular blog posts about science & space on Hacker News. 4,455 posts.
1712
Is Ketamine Neurotoxic?
It is clear that ketamine at a sufficient dose & frequency can and does kill neurons through NMDA-driven excitotoxicity. However, what does a sufficient dose & frequency mean? There is a common myth that ketamine is “neurogenetic”. This is mostly false. While it does increase neurogenesis in the only two places in the…
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Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic
It's unsafe and probably ineffective
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Electric cooker an easy, efficient way to sanitize N95 masks, study finds
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Owners of electric multicookers may be able to add another use to its list of functions, a new study suggests: sanitization of…
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Continuous glucose monitors reveal variable glucose responses to the same meals
In this exploratory analysis of 2 highly controlled crossover studies in 30 participants without diabetes, the same meals led to highly variable glucose responses, as measured with continuous glucose monitors.
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Which power plant does my electricity come from?
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] In June of 2000, the power shut off across much of the San Francisco Bay area. There simply wasn’t enough electricity to meet demands, so more than a million customers were disconnected in California's largest load shed event si
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The brain's 5-million core, 9 Hz computer
Weekly essays on biology, philosophy and other topics.
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Computer scientists prove that a 40-year-old algorithm is optimal
Computer scientists from MIT find that a 40-year-old algorithm for determining the “edit distance” between symbols cannot be optimized any further.
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The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 was awarded with one half to David J. Thouless, and the other half to F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter"
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The hippocampus as a 'predictive map'
Think about how you choose a route to work, where to move house, or even which move to make in a game like Go. All of these scenarios require you to estimate the likely future reward of your decision. This is tricky because the number of possible scenarios explodes as one peers farther and farther into the future…
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Hengefinder: Finding when the sun aligns with your street
Next week in Manhattan, the sunset will align perfectly with the east-west streets of the city grid. It’s beautiful, and people know it. Twice a year, crowds gather to see the brief moment when the sun sits perfectly on the horizon, framed by skyscrapers on either side. It’s called Manhattanhenge , after Stonehenge.
1723
Alzheimer's disrupts circadian rhythms of plaque-clearing brain cells
A mouse study at WashU Medicine shows how Alzheimer’s disease reprograms genes in specialized cells involved in amyloid plaque removal.
1724
Printed robots with bones, ligaments, and tendons
For the first time, researchers have succeeded in printing a robotic hand with bones, ligaments and tendons made of different polymers using a new laser scanning technique.
1725
The Wendelstein 7-X concept proves its efficiency
One of the most important optimisation goals underlying the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device at Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald has now been confirmed. An analysis by IPP scientists in the journal Nature shows: In the optimised magnetic field cage, the energy losses of the plasma are reduced in the…
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Introduction to the Fourier transform for image processing (2001)
The definitons of the transform (to expansion coefficients) and the inverse transform are given below:
1727
Synthetic aperture radar autofocus and calibration
3D trajectory position error estimation autofocus, antenna pattern normalization, and polarimetric calibration for drone mounted SAR radar.
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TACF is no longer supporting development of D58 American chestnut trees
In December 2023, The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) withdrew its support for SUNY-ESF’s Darling transgenic chestnut project. Since then, we’ve received questions about the decision and what’s next for the Darling line. We appreciate those questions because they indicate a deep interest in our mission and reflect…
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Origami-inspired soft artificial muscles
By Lindsay Brownell (CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — Soft robotics has made leaps and bounds over the last decade as researchers around the world have experimented with different materials and designs to allow once rigid, jerky machines to bend and flex in ways that mimic and can interact more naturally with living organisms…
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Do-it-yourself EEG, EKG, and EMG
Do-it-yourself EEG, EKG, and EMG Source: https://sites.google.com/site/chipstein/home This site features things related to my interests...
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Google Co-Scientist AI fed previous paper with the answer in it
The hype cycle for Google’s fabulous new AI Co-Scientist tool, based on the Gemini LLM, includes a BBC headline about how José Penadés’ team at Imperial College asked the tool about a problem…
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Nuclear power is the only green solution (2004)
We have no time to experiment with visionary energy sources, writes James Lovelock – civilisation is in imminent danger. Published in The Independent , 24 May 2004.
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The rise and fall of peer review
Why the greatest scientific experiment in history failed, and why that's a great thing