I was a teacher and then worked in test prep before starting the Classic Learning Test. Before and especially since then, I’ve reviewed a lot of high school curricula, particularly from Catholic and/or classical high schools, which tend to get some flak for their focus on things like Latin, rhetoric, and philosophy. When people argue… Continue reading How Catholics Can Save American Education
Does Pi Contain All of Shakespeare?
All circles, from onion rings to Saturn’s rings, share a magnificent property: their circumferences stretch about three times longer than their diameters. To be more precise (though still not exact), the circumferences are 3.14159, or pi, times longer. Circles are such fundamental shapes that pi, the number that governs them, stamps its signature across the… Continue reading Does Pi Contain All of Shakespeare?
My Fantastic Voyage at Quanta Magazine
In 2016, I joined Natalie, Siobhan Roberts and Emily Singer in profiling four master science and math teachers as part of an education series that included video vignettes produced by my former New York Times colleague Lisa Iaboni, an interactive survey of readers’ experiences with math and science built by Emily Fuhrman, my interview with… Continue reading My Fantastic Voyage at Quanta Magazine
How Do Machines ‘Grok’ Data?
As a network trains, it tends to learn more complex functions, and the discrepancy between the expected output and the actual one starts falling for training data. Even better, this discrepancy, known as loss, also starts going down for test data, which is new data not used in training. But at some point, the model… Continue reading How Do Machines ‘Grok’ Data?
Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits
You can create a graph with the angle as the x-axis and the speed as the y-axis. But since traveling 360 degrees brings you back to the start, you can sew together the vertical lines where x is zero degrees and where x is 360 degrees. This makes a cylinder. The cylinder doesn’t directly reflect… Continue reading Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits
The Baghdad Battery (Advanced Technology? Out of Place Artifact? OOPART?)
Podcast: Download MYS308: Some are convinced that an ancient clay pot found in Iraq is an electric battery made 2,000 years ago. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli examine the claim and whether it might be advanced, ancient technology or even evidence of extraterrestrial contact. Get all new episodes automatically and for free: Follow by Email… Continue reading The Baghdad Battery (Advanced Technology? Out of Place Artifact? OOPART?)
Pleasure or Pain? He Maps the Neural Circuits That Decide.
Does finding this skin-to-brain pathway have any medical implications? Yes, the skin is a good therapeutic target. It’s accessible and presents a direct highway to the part of the brain that makes us feel good. What if we could turn on these neurons with a skin cream to improve mental health — say, to offset… Continue reading Pleasure or Pain? He Maps the Neural Circuits That Decide.
Why Fatal Police Shootings Aren’t Declining: Some Uncomfortable Facts
When Dexter Reed died in a shootout with Chicago police on March 21, the incident was quickly grafted onto a narrative that began in 2014 after a policeman killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. – namely, that the U.S. faces an epidemic of violence by unbridled cops who do not believe black lives matter. “Killing… Continue reading Why Fatal Police Shootings Aren’t Declining: Some Uncomfortable Facts
Hopes of Big Bang Discoveries Ride on a Future Spacecraft
The theory has its flaws. For instance, the mass of the Higgs boson — the component of the Standard Model that determines the masses of other particles — is frustratingly “unnatural.” It appears arbitrary, and puzzlingly small compared to the far greater energy scales of the universe. Moreover, the Standard Model offers no explanation for… Continue reading Hopes of Big Bang Discoveries Ride on a Future Spacecraft
Impeachment ‘Whistleblower’ Was in the Loop of Biden-Ukraine Affairs That Trump Wanted Probed
Above, Vice President Biden meets ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk at the White House in June 2016 as his Ukraine adviser Eric Ciaramella (right) looks on. By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigationsApril 17, 2024 The ‘whistleblower’ who sparked Donald Trump’s first impeachment was deeply involved in the political maneuverings behind Biden-family business schemes in Ukraine that Trump… Continue reading Impeachment ‘Whistleblower’ Was in the Loop of Biden-Ukraine Affairs That Trump Wanted Probed