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Sleight-of-hand magic trick only fools monkeys with opposable thumbs
Illusion involving a hidden thumb confounds capuchin and squirrel monkeys for the same reason as humans – it misdirects the expected outcomes of actions they can carry out.
Topics /
Science & Space
The most popular blog posts about science & space on Hacker News. 440 posts.
212
How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?
In about 10 years, Apple has multiplied by 19 the number of transistors in its mobile processors. It corresponds roughly to a steady rate of improvement of 34% per year on the number of transistors, or a doubling every 2.5 years. In real dollars, an iPhone has roughly a constant price: the price tag of … Continue…
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UHZ1: NASA telescopes discover record-breaking black hole
This image contains the most distant black hole ever detected in X-rays , a result that may explain how some of the first supermassive black holes in the universe formed. As we report in our press release , this discovery was made using X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) and infrared data from…
214
The basics of decoupling capacitors
How to stabilize digital supply voltages - and why most of the online advice on this topic is suspect.
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Webb confirms its first exoplanet
Researchers have confirmed the presence of an exoplanet, a planet that orbits another star, using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope for the first time. Formally classified as LHS 475 b, the planet is almost exactly the same size as our own, clocking in at 99% of Earth’s diameter.
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Double neural bypass restores movement, sense of touch after paralysis
Using brain implants, artificial intelligence and novel stimulation technology, double neural bypass technology restores quadraplegic man’s sense of touch and movement.
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Over 70% of US household Covid spread started with a child
A study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open suggests that 70.4% of nearly 850,000 US household COVID-19 transmissions originated with a child.
218
Magnetic method to clean PFAS contaminated water
Researchers at The University of Queensland have pioneered a simple, fast and effective technique to remove PFAS chemicals from water.
219
Nanoplastics promote conditions for Parkinson's across various lab models
DURHAM, N.C. – Nanoplastics interact with a particular protein that is naturally found in the brain, creating changes linked to Parkinson’s disease and some types of dementia. In a Duke-led study appearing Nov. 17 in Science Advances, the researchers report that the findings create a foundation for a new area of…
220
MetNet-3: A state-of-the-art neural weather model
Posted by Samier Merchant, Google Research, and Nal Kalchbrenner, Google DeepMind Forecasting weather variables such as precipitation, temperature,...
221
Reading Ancient Scrolls
This is an elaboration of my submission for the letter detection prize as part of the Vesuvius Challenge in June. It gets technical and esoteric but the first few paragraphs are of general interest…
222
Tiny DNA circles are key drivers of cancer, study finds
Tiny circles of DNA harbor cancer-associated oncogenes and immunomodulatory genes promoting cancer development. They arise during transformation from pre-cancer to cancer, say Stanford Medicine-led team.
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How to slow down scientific progress, according to Leo Szilard
“Science would become something like a parlor game. There would be fashions. Those who followed the fashion would get grants”
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Canaries in coal mines (2018)
Have you ever wondered what our curators' favourite collection items are? Here, assistant curator Lewis takes us through his rather surprising pick.
226
GNU Octave 8.1
GNU Octave version 8.1.0 has been released and is now available for download. An official Windows binary installer is available. For mac...
227
Does the world have enough lithium to move to electric vehicles?
The world has enough lithium, but we need to scale up production this decade.
228
Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of car coatings
The unexpectedly interesting story of car coatings and what they tell us about the modern world
229
Can solar and wind power Britain? An update of David MacKay's numbers
These technologies have developed a lot since 2008. Should we be any more optimistic about their potential to power Britain?
230
The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)
The story of the infamous disappearance of an Airbus A330 over the Atlantic, and the fundamentally human mistakes which led to the tragedy.
231
I measured the pollution from my gas stove
Here's what I learned putting air quality monitors all over my house.
232
Caltech to launch space solar power technology demo into orbit
The launch represents the first in-situ test of the technology to harvest solar energy in space and transmit it to Earth.
233
Type 2 diabetes rates in US youth rose 62% after Covid pandemic began
Rates of new-onset type 2 diabetes climbed 62%—and type 1 diabetes increased 17%—among US youth after the COVID-19 pandemic began, especially in Black and Hispanic children, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open .
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Gigantic heat caverns in Mustikkamaa have now been filled with water (2021)
The filling of underground heat caverns in Mustikkamaa with water has been completed this week, and the use of the heat caverns for heating homes in Helsinki is a step closer.
235
Passive Solar Water Desalination
I know we are supposed to be worried about the world supply of fresh water. I have been hearing that at least for the last 40 years, and the statistics are alarming. According to the Global Commission on the Economics of Water: "We are seeing the consequences not of freak events, nor of population growth
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Ultra Deep look at Messier 81 and 82
An ultra deep 393h look at the galaxy pair M81/M82 - Amateurs reveal full Ha stream for the first time
238
Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft
Microsoft has agreed to purchase electricity from Helion’s first fusion power plant.
239
Light-induced whole-molecule vibration can rupture melanoma cells’ membrane
Rice scientists and collaborators at Texas A&M University and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have found a new way to kill cancer cells by using near-infrared light to make a small dye molecule attached to their membrane vibrate strongly. It is the first time this kind of mechanical molecular action has…
240
Aspartame: Once More Unto the Breach
Like it or not, there’s a clear scientific consensus