In an unprecedented display of leadership, the president, flanked by the provost and the chairman of the board of trustees, announced to the chanting and drumming students encamped in the South Quad: Out of respect for the rights of the members of our academic community, we have restrictions on the time, manner, and place for… Continue reading How Trustees Can Save Columbia, Brown, Northeastern, Penn, Indiana, Yale…
Moving Trees North Could Save Forests from a Changing Climate
On a brisk September morning, Brian Palik’s footfalls land quietly on a path in flickering light, beneath a red pine canopy in Minnesota’s iconic Northwoods. A mature red pine, also called Norway pine, is a tall, straight overstory tree that thrives in cold winters and cool summers. It’s the official Minnesota state tree and a… Continue reading Moving Trees North Could Save Forests from a Changing Climate
Does AI Know What an Apple Is? She Aims to Find Out.
What does “understanding” or “meaning” mean, empirically? What, specifically, do you look for? When I was starting my research program at Brown, we decided that meaning involves concepts in some way. I realize this is a theoretical commitment that not everyone makes, but it seems intuitive. If you use the word “apple” to mean apple,… Continue reading Does AI Know What an Apple Is? She Aims to Find Out.
As Election 2024 Unfolds, Be Aware That Big Lies Can Distort What We Believe In
Politicians have never been known for a strict adherence to truth. U.S. voters admit they know their representatives routinely lie to them: voters routinely assume that even their own party’s politicians are dishonest about two fifths of the time, according to a 2021 study.But in this election year, a larger-than-life candidate is openly distorting reality… Continue reading As Election 2024 Unfolds, Be Aware That Big Lies Can Distort What We Believe In
Joe Fisher’s Spirit Guides (Guides, Mediumship, Channeling, Siren Call of the Hungry Ghosts)
Podcast: Download MYS310: Joe Fisher’s research into spirit guides led him to past life revelations and even a spirit romance. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss how Joe was encouraged to investigate these paranormal claims, the evidence he found, and what he eventually concluded. Get all new episodes automatically and for free: Follow by Email… Continue reading Joe Fisher’s Spirit Guides (Guides, Mediumship, Channeling, Siren Call of the Hungry Ghosts)
How a NASA Probe Solved a Scorching Solar Mystery
At this point, we knew that solar magnetism was behaving in ways we weren’t expecting. SOHO data had revealed that globally, the solar magnetic field was far more variable than we had imagined. And the particles comprising the solar wind, as measured near Earth, had peculiar compositional patterns that didn’t make sense if the wind… Continue reading How a NASA Probe Solved a Scorching Solar Mystery
The Lie of the Century: The Origin of COVID-19
Four years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Chinese city of Wuhan, what do we know about the origin of the SARSCOV2 virus? We were presented at the outset with two competing theories: natural-origin spillover from animals to humans, and accidental lab leak. And at the outset, a cadre of elite scientists… Continue reading The Lie of the Century: The Origin of COVID-19
To Pack Spheres Tightly, Mathematicians Throw Them at Random
Mathematicians like to generalize concepts into higher dimensions. Sometimes this is easy. If you want to efficiently pack squares in two dimensions, you arrange them like a checkerboard. To squeeze together three-dimensional cubes, you stack them like moving boxes. Mathematicians can easily extend these arrangements, packing cubes in higher-dimensional space to perfectly fill it. Packing… Continue reading To Pack Spheres Tightly, Mathematicians Throw Them at Random
What 10 Years of U.S. Meddling in Ukraine Have Wrought (Spoiler Alert: Not Democracy)
Above, a map of Ukraine in green, with territory occupied or annexed by Russia in light green to the right — i.e., the eastern Donbas and the Crimean peninsula in the southeast. President Biden vows a fight for democracy, but recent history calls that into question. By Aaron Maté, RealClearInvestigationsApril 30, 2024 In successfully lobbying… Continue reading What 10 Years of U.S. Meddling in Ukraine Have Wrought (Spoiler Alert: Not Democracy)
Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier
What’s the best way to solve hard problems? That’s the question at the heart of a subfield of computer science called computational complexity theory. It’s a hard question to answer, but flip it around and it becomes easier. The worst approach is almost always trial and error, which involves plugging in possible solutions until one… Continue reading Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier