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Topics /
Science & Space
The most popular blog posts about science & space on Hacker News. 4,455 posts.
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The Dunning-Kruger effect may just be a data artefact (2020)
I want the Dunning-Kruger effect to be real. First described in a seminal 1999 paper by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, this effect has been the darling of journalists who want to explain why dumb people don’t know they’re dumb. There’s even video of a fantastic pastiche of Turandot’s famous aria, Nessun dorma…
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Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes
Following a low carb, high fat diet shortly after being diagnosed with…
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Translating Akkadian clay tablets with ChatGPT?
Alles wat Jan bezighoudt, interesseert en irriteert... en ook een beetje onzin...
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Earth rotation limits in-body image stabilization to 6.3 stops (2020)
In 2016, Olympus Camera made some buzz in the photo world when they claimed that their new camera was capable of an impressive 6.5 stops of stabilization and that the limiting factor was in fact th…
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Analog Computers
Analog computers, predominant in high-performance computing until the 1970s, were forgotten when digital computers took over. We need to change that.
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Shrimp Trap
I built a prawn trap from lawyer cane, sticks and vine. Then I caught some prawns and ate them. Prawn (and fish) traps are simple traps designed to catch aquatic life due to their shape. It consist…
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Chronic stress spreads cancer
Stress is inevitable. But too much of it can be terrible for our health. Chronic stress can increase our risk for heart disease and strokes. It may also help cancer spread. How this works has remained a mystery—a challenge for cancer care. Xue-Yan He, a former postdoc in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Adjunct…
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A study on how turtles navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field
Carolina researchers publish a groundbreaking study on how turtles navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field.
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Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to Bertozzi, Meldal, and Sharpless
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 was awarded jointly to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless "for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry"
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How to grow a cacao tree at home (2024)
Growing chocolate at home might sound like a wild idea, right? Chocolate originates from cacao trees, which demand a tropical climate, specific growing conditions, and several years to reach maturity in order to flower and fruit to produce cacao pods. However, our CocoTerra founder, Nate Saal, took on the challenge…
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Imaging Cygnus a at 8.45 GHz with ATA
Earlier this year, I published a post showing our results of the interferometric imaging of Cassiopeia A and Cygnus A at 4.9 GHz with the Allen Telescope Array . Near the end of July, I decided to perform more interferometric observations of Cygnus A at a higher frequency, in order to obtain better resolution. I chose…
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Lasers deflected using air
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY A Research Centre of the Helmholtz Association
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MIT’s ‘Artificial leaf’ makes fuel from sunlight
Solar cell bonded to recently developed catalyst can harness the sun, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.
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Stem Cells Regenerate Human Lens After Cataract Surgery, Restoring Vision
Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Shiley Eye Institute, with colleagues in China, have developed a new, regenerative medicine approach to remove congenital cataracts in infants, permitting remaining stem cells to regrow functional lenses.
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ACM Prize in Computing Awarded to AlphaGo Developer
Silver, a professor at University College London and Principal Research Scientist at DeepMind, is recognized as a central figure in the growing and impactful area of deep reinforcement learning, leading the team that developed AlphaGo.
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Are sprouted potatoes safe?
You are better off tossing potatoes that have turned green or grown sprouts. Eating them puts you at risk for toxicity from solanine and chaconine, two natural toxins found in green or sprouted potatoes.
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The physics of airplane flight
A common misconception about wings is that they need to have the classic airfoil shape to work. In reality, just about any surface can create lift and function as a wing.
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What methylene blue can (and can’t) do for the brain
Methylene blue is touted as yet another universal boost-all, fix-all drug, the ultimate biohacking tool. Find out why that's not exactly true.
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Did fermented foods fuel brain growth?
Researchers hypothesize it’s fermentation, not fire, that’s behind our ancestors’ increasing brain size.
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I’m so sorry for psychology’s loss, whatever it is
The plane crashed and nobody checked the bodies
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New Solar Power Material Converts 90 Percent of Captured Light into Heat
A multidisciplinary engineering team at the University of California, San Diego developed a new nanoparticle-based material for concentrating solar power plants designed to absorb and convert to heat more than 90 percent of the sunlight it captures. The new material can also withstand temperatures greater than 700…
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Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine (1989)
For Richard, a crazy idea was an opportunity to either prove it wrong or prove it right.
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Fungi and bacteria are binging on burned soil
UC Riverside researchers have identified tiny organisms that not only survive but thrive during the first year after a wildfire. The findings could help bring land back to life after fires that are increasing in both size and severity.