In the mid-1950s Marthe Gautier, a young French doctor and cytogenetics researcher, led a cutting-edge experiment to investigate the cause of Down syndrome. She painstakingly cultured cells in a ramshackle lab until one day she discovered an extra chromosome in the cells of people with Down syndrome. This proved beyond a doubt that Down syndrome… Continue reading Who Discovered the Cause of Down Syndrome?
Glass Century | RealClearBooks
From the BQE she caught the holy hell of it, the way smoke was streaming from burning steel. It was cinema, bad fiction, a plot point dreamed up as too ridiculous for art and discarded somewhere else. She drove on thinking that soon this would all dissolve and she’d be back home, in bed, maybe… Continue reading Glass Century | RealClearBooks
Introducing The Quanta Podcast | Quanta Magazine
The Quanta Podcast is your weekly dispatch from the frontiers of science and mathematics. As editor in chief of the magazine, every day I am blown away by the passion and knowledge of our writers and editors. So in each episode of our new podcast, I will be speaking with them to dig into some of… Continue reading Introducing The Quanta Podcast | Quanta Magazine
Animal End-of-Life Experiences (Pets, Last Goodbyes, Last Rallies, Crisis Apparitions, Terminal Lucidity, Deathbed Visions, Precognition, etc.)
Podcast: Download MYS366: While scientists for years have been studying unusual experiences that happen to people as they approach death, they’ve only just begun studying whether animals have End-of-Life Experiences. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss whether they do, what kinds of experiences they have, and how they compare to human experiences. Get all new… Continue reading Animal End-of-Life Experiences (Pets, Last Goodbyes, Last Rallies, Crisis Apparitions, Terminal Lucidity, Deathbed Visions, Precognition, etc.)
How the Universe Differs From Its Mirror Image
After her adventures in Wonderland, the fictional Alice stepped through the mirror above her fireplace in Lewis Carroll’s 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass to discover how the reflected realm differed from her own. She found that the books were all written in reverse, and the people were “living backwards,” navigating a world where effects preceded… Continue reading How the Universe Differs From Its Mirror Image
Paradise Lost: Jeffrey Epstein’s Legacy Still Clouds the U.S. Virgin Islands
When Jeffrey Epstein purchased Little Saint James, the teardrop-shaped island south‑east of St. Thomas, in the late 1990s, he was seen as a mere oddity. A one-time math teacher who claimed to manage the fortunes of billionaires, he told U.S. Virgin Islands officials that he was seeking privacy. He also appears to have purchased impunity.… Continue reading Paradise Lost: Jeffrey Epstein’s Legacy Still Clouds the U.S. Virgin Islands
How Did Geometry Create Modern Physics?
Geometry is one of the oldest disciplines in human history, yet the worlds it can describe extend far beyond its original use. What began thousands of years ago as a way to measure land and build pyramids was given rigor by Euclid in ancient Greece, became applied to curves and surfaces in the 19th century,… Continue reading How Did Geometry Create Modern Physics?
Whale Songs Obey Basic Rules of Human Languages
For all the world’s linguistic diversity, human languages still obey certain universal patterns. These run deeper than grammar and syntax; they’re rooted in statistical laws that predict how frequently we use certain words and how long those words tend to be. Think of them as built-in guardrails to keep language easy to learn and use.… Continue reading Whale Songs Obey Basic Rules of Human Languages
A New IEA Report and the Iberian Blackout End Dreams of an ‘Energy Transition’
It’s no secret that the Republican’s “Big Beautiful Bill” plans to axe large swaths of mandates and billions of dollars in subsidies directed at achieving a so-called “energy transition.” If that budget axe falls, it will be the proverbial third strike that puts to rest the idea that the U.S., never mind the world, will… Continue reading A New IEA Report and the Iberian Blackout End Dreams of an ‘Energy Transition’
New ‘Superdiffusion’ Proof Probes the Mysterious Math of Turbulence
They started by imagining a very fine grid superimposed on their fluid. They then computed how long particles spent in each square of the grid, on average. In some squares, the fluid acted like a rushing river: Particles tended to sweep straight across the square, spending only a brief period of time there. In other… Continue reading New ‘Superdiffusion’ Proof Probes the Mysterious Math of Turbulence