Most people probably don’t think of mathematics when they hear “busy beavers.” But these eager little animals symbolize one of the most amazing concepts of the knotty field: not everything can be calculated, no matter how hard you try (or how busy of a beaver you are). The busy beaver function is the first example… Continue reading Mathematicians Have Finally Found the Fifth ‘Busiest Beaver’
Category: Quantum Stuff
How Our Longest Nerve Orchestrates the Mind-Body Connection
It is late at night. You are alone and wandering empty streets in search of your parked car when you hear footsteps creeping up from behind. Your heart pounds, your blood pressure skyrockets. Goose bumps appear on your arms, sweat on your palms. Your stomach knots and your muscles coil, ready to sprint or fight.… Continue reading How Our Longest Nerve Orchestrates the Mind-Body Connection
Dogs Can Smell Your Stress, and It Seems to Make Them Sad
When Dogs Smell Your Stress, They Act Sad Dogs can smell when people are stressed, and it seems to make them feel downhearted By Sara Novak Hailey Seelig/Getty Images Humans and dogs have been close companions for perhaps 30,000 years, according to anthropological and DNA evidence. So it would make sense that dogs would be… Continue reading Dogs Can Smell Your Stress, and It Seems to Make Them Sad
What We Know about Long COVID Right Now
What We Know about Long COVID Right Now Researchers are still working to understand the complicated and debilitating condition dubbed long COVID By Ziyad Al-Aly & The Conversation US Researchers are gaining key insights into the ways that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can lead to long COVID symptoms. The following essay is reprinted with permission from… Continue reading What We Know about Long COVID Right Now
Computer Scientists Prove That Heat Destroys Entanglement
Nearly a century ago, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger called attention to a quirk of the quantum world that has fascinated and vexed researchers ever since. When quantum particles such as atoms interact, they shed their individual identities in favor of a collective state that’s greater, and weirder, than the sum of its parts. This phenomenon… Continue reading Computer Scientists Prove That Heat Destroys Entanglement
Komodo Dragons’ Nightmare Iron-Tipped Teeth Are a Reptilian First
Komodo Dragons’ Nightmare Iron-Tipped Teeth Are a Reptilian First Reptile teeth have long been considered simple and cheap because the animals replace them regularly. That isn’t so, Komodo dragons show By Meghan Bartels An adult Komodo dragon seen at a zoo. Jürgen & Christine Sohns/imageBROKER.com GmbH & Co. KG/Alamy Stock Photo There aren’t many scenarios… Continue reading Komodo Dragons’ Nightmare Iron-Tipped Teeth Are a Reptilian First
Basic Income Gives Money without Strings. Here’s How People Spend It
In 2020, amid widespread layoffs and economic turmoil brought on by the COVID pandemic, 1,000 low-income people in Texas and Illinois won something of a lottery. They were selected to receive $1,000 per month—with no strings attached—for three years as part of a study on guaranteed income by OpenResearch, a nonprofit research organization funded in… Continue reading Basic Income Gives Money without Strings. Here’s How People Spend It
Waning Dark Energy May Evade ‘Swampland’ of Impossible Universes
At the time, the work seemed to conflict with what physicists thought they knew about the universe, with its presumed cosmological constant. And some string theorists still argue that stable universes with positive cosmological constants can exist in string theory; one attempt at constructing such a solution appeared earlier this month. Nevertheless, in light of… Continue reading Waning Dark Energy May Evade ‘Swampland’ of Impossible Universes
If Trump Were to Pull the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement Again, It Will Be Much Harder to Rejoin
CLIMATEWIRE | Donald Trump pulled America out of the Paris climate agreement once. But while his loud condemnations of the deal drew rebukes from world leaders, the withdrawal itself resulted in ripples rather than tidal waves for the landmark agreement. It could be different if Trump is elected this year. That’s because the terms of… Continue reading If Trump Were to Pull the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement Again, It Will Be Much Harder to Rejoin
Mathematicians Prove Hawking Wrong About ‘Extremal’ Black Holes
To understand the universe, scientists look to its outliers. “You always want to know about the extreme cases — the special cases that lie at the edge,” said Carsten Gundlach, a mathematical physicist at the University of Southampton. Black holes are the enigmatic extremes of the cosmos. Within them, matter is packed so tightly that,… Continue reading Mathematicians Prove Hawking Wrong About ‘Extremal’ Black Holes