Last November the spring weather in South America jumped from cold to searing. Usually at that time of year people would have been holding backyard barbecues, or asados, in the lingering evening light. But on December 7 the temperature in northern Argentina, near the borders of Bolivia and Paraguay, hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit, making it… Continue reading When Disaster Strikes, Is Climate Change to Blame?
Category: Quantum Stuff
How to Build a Big Prime Number
Over time, researchers developed the aforementioned approaches. The simplest way is just to guess. If you want a prime with 1,000 digits, for example, you could pick a 1,000-digit number at random and then check it. “If it’s not prime, you just try another one, and another, and so on until you find one,” said… Continue reading How to Build a Big Prime Number
World’s Largest Fusion Project Is in Big Trouble, New Documents Reveal
It could be a new world record, although no one involved wants to talk about it. In the south of France, a collaboration among 35 countries has been birthing one of the largest and most ambitious scientific experiments ever conceived: the giant fusion power machine known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). But the… Continue reading World’s Largest Fusion Project Is in Big Trouble, New Documents Reveal
There’s No Evidence for Claims That Environmentally Friendly Investments Are Bad for the Poor
CLIMATEWIRE | Conservatives are leveraging a new argument against ESG: It’s hurting poor families. Energy analysts say the criticism lacks any supporting evidence. But it builds on Republicans’ intensifying opposition to environmental, social and governance investing, which refers to the practice of considering risks like climate change when making financial decisions. Mandy Gunasekara, a former Trump… Continue reading There’s No Evidence for Claims That Environmentally Friendly Investments Are Bad for the Poor
The Key to Species Diversity May Be in Their Similarities
Back in 2001, the paradoxically high biodiversity on Barro Colorado Island inspired Hubbell to propose the groundbreaking neutral theory of ecology. Traditional ecology theory stressed the competition for niches between species. But Hubbell pointed out that species might not really matter in that equation because, in effect, individuals compete for resources with members of their… Continue reading The Key to Species Diversity May Be in Their Similarities
Recounting the History of Math’s Transcendental Numbers
It was not obvious that transcendental numbers should exist. Moreover, it’s challenging to prove that a given number is transcendental because it requires proving a negative: that it is not the root of any polynomial with integer coefficients. In 1844, Joseph Liouville found the first one by coming at the problem indirectly. He discovered that… Continue reading Recounting the History of Math’s Transcendental Numbers
Have Astronomers Seen the Universe’s First Stars?
SUBSCRIBE: Apple | Spotify Lee Billings: Hi, and welcome to Cosmos, Quickly. This is Lee Billings. Carin Leong: And this is Carin Leong. [CLIP: Show theme music] Billings: Carin, thanks for being here. A quick question for you: What’s super-duper bright and hundreds or even thousands of times heavier than our entire solar system, yet… Continue reading Have Astronomers Seen the Universe’s First Stars?
Why Does Smoke Turn the Sky Orange?
If you are one of the tens of millions of people who’ve been affected by smoke from the millions of acres of Canadian forest that are currently aflame, then you know what it’s like to live under a murky brown sky, with the sun a sullen reddish orb glaring menacingly down at you. There’s very… Continue reading Why Does Smoke Turn the Sky Orange?
What Can Jellyfish Teach Us About Fluid Dynamics?
The jellyfish that move through the seas by gently pulsing their saclike bodies may not seem to hold many secrets that would interest human engineers. But simple as the creatures are, jellyfish are masterful at harnessing and controlling the flow of the water around them, sometimes with surprising efficiency. As such, they embody sophisticated solutions… Continue reading What Can Jellyfish Teach Us About Fluid Dynamics?
An Enormous Gravity ‘Hum’ Moves Through the Universe
Most likely, the gravitational waves come from pairs of supermassive black holes that are spiraling around each other inside merging galaxies. But we might be seeing something else entirely, perhaps something exotic such as ruptures in space-time itself resulting from loops of energy called cosmic strings. “Finding for the first time the suggestion of background… Continue reading An Enormous Gravity ‘Hum’ Moves Through the Universe