Category: Quantum Stuff

Last month, we presented three puzzles that seemed ordinary enough but contained a numerical twist. Hidden below the surface was the mysterious transcendental number e. Most familiar as the base of natural logarithms, Euler’s number e is a universal constant with an infinite decimal expansion that begins with 2.7 1828 1828 45 90 45… (spaces… Continue reading Why e, the Transcendental Math Constant, Is Just the Best

When the first sponge genomes were sequenced in the early 2000s, researchers were surprised to find that sponges not only have roughly as many genes as humans and other complex creatures but also have many of the same genes. Sponges are among the earliest branching lineages on the evolutionary tree of animal life; their simple… Continue reading Sponge Genes Hint at the Origins of Neurons and Other Cells

Terri Randall’s hope when she makes films about space exploration—like Chasing Pluto, for example, or Death Dive to Saturn—is that viewers share scientists’ excitement. That rush of success and discovery. “Look at this moment, and look at his eyes, and look at what he’s so excited to do, and work on for so many years,… Continue reading Looking for Life on Mars – Issue 107: The Edge

Dogs that habitually hear a bell at chow time become classically conditioned to drool at the mere chime, as the physiologist Ivan Pavlov showed in the 1890s: Their brains learn to associate the bell with food and instruct the salivary glands to respond accordingly. More than a century later, in a paper published today in… Continue reading The Brain Can Recall and Reawaken Past Immune Responses

In their film, The Witness Is a Whale, filmmakers Nick and Cheryl Dean take us on a remarkable journey to understand the private lives of whales and their societies in the sea as revealed through the behavior of these magnificent giants. This stunning wildlife documentary is also a riveting detective story revealing espionage and deception… Continue reading The Witness Is a Whale – Issue 107: The Edge

Who shares fake news? Political scientists, behavioral researchers and the media have said that political conservatives are largely responsible for the proliferation of misinformation. But although there is a documented association, not all conservatives share fake news or endorse such behavior. Such sweeping generalizations threaten to condemn everyone who subscribes to conservative values, and that,… Continue reading Personality Type, as well as Politics, Predicts Who Shares Fake News

Christopher Intagliata: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Christopher Intagliata. Just as cows, sheep and bison roam in herds today, so, too, did plant-eating dinosaurs. And it appears they began flocking together much earlier than we used to think—just as the Jurassic period began to unfold. Jahandar Ramezani: This is a critical time in the… Continue reading Flocking Together May Have Helped Dinosaurs Dominate the Earth

Most American newborns will arrive home from the hospital and start hitting their developmental milestones, to their parents’ delight. They will hold their heads up by about three months. They will sit up by six. And they will walk around their first birthday. But about 1 in 10,000 will not. They will feel limp in… Continue reading The Rise of RNA Therapeutics – Issue 107: The Edge

When you deposit a quarter and turn the crank on a gumball machine, the flavor you receive is basically random. In math, sometimes a polynomial, like x2 + y2, works the same way. When you plug in numbers for x and y, the values the polynomial takes might be random. Other polynomials might favor particular… Continue reading Mathematicians Find Structure in Biased Polynomials

GLASGOW, Scotland—As climate talks race toward their conclusion, a concerted push by vulnerable countries to shake the world into taking action against intensifying threats from the sea and sky might be inching forward on the world stage. For days negotiators have huddled in windowless rooms trying to hammer out deals about funding and winding down… Continue reading Adaptation Becomes Focus of Climate Summit as Talks Draw to a Close