2251
Some of the forces blocking new ideas in science
Some of the forces blocking really new ideas in science
Topics /
Science & Space
The most popular blog posts about science & space on Hacker News. 4,455 posts.
2252
First space images captured by balloon-borne telescope
Astronomers have successfully launched a balloon-borne telescope that has begun capturing images of the universe on its first flight above the Earth’s atmosphere. The Super Pressure Balloon-Borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) was flown to the edge of space by a helium-filled NASA scientific balloon the size of a…
2253
Electric motor scaling laws and inertia in robot actuators
Engineering contraptions
2254
2255
A ternary plot of citrus geneology
Interactive ternary chart of citrus ancestry
2256
Melting aluminum
Today another in my ongoing, seldom-updated series of posts about building my own backyard foundry. Today I’ll describe how the final step works: actually melting and pouring the metal. First…
2257
The Physics of GPS
An interactive exploration of how GPS works: from the speed of light and trilateration to the cheap clock problem and Einstein's relativity corrections.
2258
The fascinating and complicated sex lives of white-throated sparrows
With their quadruple personalities, those little brown birds at your feeder are a lot more interesting than they might appear.
2259
Why are male testosterone levels falling?
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
2260
How to Produce Green Hydrogen for $1/Kg
At Terraform Industries we believe in a future where energy is universally cheap, clean, and abundant. We’re developing a scalable electrolyzer to deliver the cheapest possible green hydrogen…
2261
University of Alabama Engineer Pioneers New Process for Recycling Plastics
Researchers at the University of Alabama have developed a way of more efficiently and effectively recycling polymers.
2262
Why are our brains shrinking?
As promised, here is the first post in our “The Student of Life” series. This essay, focusing on the fascinating subject of the shrinkage of our brain over the last 70,000 years, was masterfully penned by USF student Savannah Robison during the Fall 2017 semester of BIOL100. It is a wonderful example of student…
2263
2264
California Megafires Are Solvable
The basics on how we got to now, why it matters for all Americans, and how we can fix it together.
2265
Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all
The commonly-held belief that attempting to suppress negative thoughts is bad for our mental health could be wrong, a new study from scientists at the University of Cambridge suggests.
2266
Marijuana accelerates growth of HPV-related head and neck cancer (2020)
University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers identified how THC from marijuana accelerates cancer growth in patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive head and neck cancer.
2267
Getting a 787 back in the air after a diversion
On Wednesday, 12 October at 38,000 feet over the North Pacific Ocean, American Airlines flight 288 developed an issue with its number 2 engine, the General Electric GEnx-1B engine on the right hand side of the aircraft. The crew decided the best course of action was to divert the aircraft, but over the Pacific…
2268
2269
Misunderstanding Dunning-Kruger
There is, apparently, an increase recently in interest in the Dunning-Kruger effect. The Washington Post writes about this recently, making the obvious political observation (having to do with the current occupant of the White House). It's great that there is public interest in an important psychological phenomenon…
2270
How to assign partial credit on an exam of true-false questions?
Note: the following is a record of some whimsical mathematical thoughts and computations I had after doing some grading. It is likely that the sort of problems discussed here are in fact well studi…
2271
The Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion and the O-ring
A tragic case of how poor data analysis can lead to very bad outcomes.
2272
Histotripsy – a technique that harnesses soundwaves to attack cancer
It’s called histotripsy. And it could change cancer treatment forever.
2273
Brain fog after Covid-19 has similarities to ‘chemo brain’ in humans and mice
Researchers found that damage to the brain's white matter after COVID-19 resembles that seen after cancer chemotherapy, raising hope for treatments to help both conditions.
2274
Microsoft, UW demonstrate first fully automated DNA data storage
Researchers encode the word “hello” in fabricated DNA, convert it back to digital using fully automated DNA storage system.
2275
An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters
An opinionated perspective on how to do important research that makes a difference (and sometimes win awards).
2276
Cancer vaccine begins Phase I clinical trials
Cross-disciplinary team from Harvard University and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute brings novel therapeutic cancer vaccine to human clinical trials
2277
131M American Buildings
Benchmarks & Tips for Big Data, Hadoop, AWS, Google Cloud, PostgreSQL, Spark, Python & More...
2278
Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium
Technical nuclear forensics-themed discussion of the age, activity, and grade of plutonium found in a KI-1 Soviet smoke detector.
2279
A woman on a mission to photograph every species of hummingbird
In less than a decade amateur photographer and Hummingbird Spot founder Carole Turek has photographed more than 250 hummingbird species, including one that was long considered extinct.
2280
What comes up when you flush
Germophobes, brace yourselves. A team of CU Boulder engineers has revealed how tiny water droplets, invisible to the naked eye, are rapidly ejected into the air