A New Theory for the Assembly of Life in the Universe

Shedding the Shackles of Determinism Assembly theory predicts that objects like us can’t arise in isolation — that some complex objects can only occur in conjunction with others. This makes intuitive sense; the universe could never produce just a single human. To make any humans at all, it had to make a whole bunch of… Continue reading A New Theory for the Assembly of Life in the Universe

Is the Pope Catholic? Yes, but Wisconsin Rules This Catholic Charity Is Not ‘Primarily’ Religious

For over a century, the Catholic Charities Bureau of Superior, Wis., has aided people of all faiths: the developmentally disabled, seniors, and children, many of them low income. As Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki recently noted, since the time of Jesus Christ, the Church has had “a mandate from Scripture to serve the poor.”   The… Continue reading Is the Pope Catholic? Yes, but Wisconsin Rules This Catholic Charity Is Not ‘Primarily’ Religious

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Information Theory Finds the Best Wordle Starting Words

How did you spend the past few years as the COVID pandemic raged and limited our leisure options? Software developer Josh Wardle and his partner passed the time with crossword puzzles from the New York Times. At one point, Wardle remembered an idea for a similar game he had thought up a few years earlier. The word game… Continue reading Information Theory Finds the Best Wordle Starting Words

Strange Material Breaks a Classic Rule of Physics

A basic tenet of college physics is that as pressure increases, thermal conductivity—a material’s ability to conduct heat—increases, too, because atoms that are squeezed together interact more. More than a century of research has confirmed this rule. But engineers have now found an exception: when they applied intense pressure to boron arsenide, a recently discovered… Continue reading Strange Material Breaks a Classic Rule of Physics

A Mutation Turned Ants Into Parasites in One Generation

These workerless social parasites, sometimes called inquilines (from the Latin word for “tenants”), have a distinctive appearance that to human eyes easily sets them apart from their hosts. But their parasitic scheme succeeds because they have evolved ways to steal chemical odors from the host nest to camouflage themselves. Genomic analyses have shown that ant… Continue reading A Mutation Turned Ants Into Parasites in One Generation

This Pioneering Nuclear Fusion Lab Is Gearing Up to Break More Records

Last month, the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) fired its lasers up to full power for the first time since December, when it achieved its decades-long goal of ‘ignition’ by producing more energy during a nuclear reaction than it consumed. The latest run didn’t come close to matching up: NIF achieved only 4% of the output it… Continue reading This Pioneering Nuclear Fusion Lab Is Gearing Up to Break More Records

Leo Tolstoy the Free Thinker: Yet Another ‘New’ Look at ‘War and Peace’

For mountain climbers, one imagines that Mt. Everest looms as the ultimate climb to validate one’s ability. For runners, it would be the Boston Marathon, for triathletes the Iron Man? For readers, it’s no reach to say that Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace is the Mt. Everest, Boston Marathon, or Iron Man of reading. Coming… Continue reading Leo Tolstoy the Free Thinker: Yet Another ‘New’ Look at ‘War and Peace’

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With a Planned Moon Launch, NASA Must Put Safety First

The U.S. is once again sending people to the moon. The world met the crew of the planned Artemis II mission in early April and celebrated an upcoming 10-day voyage that should both stir nostalgia and fuel a new generation’s love of crewed spaceflight. But after multiple space catastrophes in the past 60 years, Project… Continue reading With a Planned Moon Launch, NASA Must Put Safety First

Help Meet America’s Need for Honest and Independent Journalism

By David DesRosiers, PublisherMay 2023 Honest journalism—nonpartisan, evenhanded, and striving toward objectivity—faces resistance within many corners of the media and other powerful institutions. According to a Pew survey, 55% of journalists believe that every side does not always deserve equal coverage. That portion rises to 63% among younger members of the profession. Major papers of… Continue reading Help Meet America’s Need for Honest and Independent Journalism

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