Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! Let’s start the day off right by catching up on some of the science news you may have missed last week. For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, this is Rachel Feltman. This past Friday, a global outage hit Microsoft Windows devices and caused quite a kerfuffle. Flights all over the world… Continue reading See the Perseid Meteor Shower and Watch Tornado Hunters on the Big Screen
How Do Merging Supermassive Black Holes Pass the Final Parsec?
More prosaic solutions to the puzzle have also been floated over the years. Amid this slew of options — some mundane, some exotic — scientists are devising ways to test the possibilities against each other. “It’s almost taken for granted at this point by most of the community that the final-parsec problem is solved,” said… Continue reading How Do Merging Supermassive Black Holes Pass the Final Parsec?
After the Deluge | RealClearInvestigations
Residents of western North Carolina try to reconcile with the “once in a thousand years” storm that wasn’t supposed to happen to them. ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — At 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, Chris Trusz was standing on one of the bridges spanning the Broad River in Chimney Rock. He wanted to get a… Continue reading After the Deluge | RealClearInvestigations
Halloween Weird Questions!
Podcast: Download MYS335: We’re on the verge of Halloween, so Cy Kellett of Catholic Answers Live is asking Jimmy Akin weird questions from listeners about Halloween topics like Samhain, favorite candies; Dracula; Annabelle; and Addams Family or Munsters; and more. Get all new episodes automatically and for free: Follow by Email | Watch this episode… Continue reading Halloween Weird Questions!
Why Is It So Hard to Define a Species?
The “species” category is almost certainly the best known of all the taxonomic classifications that biologists use to organize life’s vast diversity. It’s a linchpin of both conservation policy and evolutionary theory, though in practice biologists have struggled to find a definition that works across the natural world. In this episode, Kevin de Queiroz, a… Continue reading Why Is It So Hard to Define a Species?
Peak Waste: Feds Set Record for Improper Payments
In 2021, near the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, investigators tailed a Jeep Cherokee stolen from an airport Avis to a New York City apartment they called a “fraud factory” – no furniture, just an air mattress, a computer, stacks of loan and tax forms, and a shredder. Two men who had first met in… Continue reading Peak Waste: Feds Set Record for Improper Payments
Big Advance on Simple-Sounding Math Problem Was a Century in the Making
There was just one wrinkle: Pasten had no exam to give his students. He instead had them write an essay on whatever topic they wanted. “This turned out to result in very high-quality work,” he said. Pasten submitted his proof to Inventiones Mathematicae, one of math’s preeminent journals, where it was accepted in just over… Continue reading Big Advance on Simple-Sounding Math Problem Was a Century in the Making
‘Quantum Memory’ Proves Exponentially Powerful
It’s not easy to study quantum systems — collections of particles that follow the counterintuitive rules of quantum mechanics. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, a cornerstone of quantum theory, says it’s impossible to simultaneously measure a particle’s exact position and its speed — pretty important information for understanding what’s going on. In order to study, say, a… Continue reading ‘Quantum Memory’ Proves Exponentially Powerful
Book Review: Andrew Chow’s ‘Cryptomania’
Uber really started to become a thing in 2012. It was a spectacular revelation. Gone were the days of worrying about calling a cab or hailing one in order to get to the airport. Similarly gone were the days of worrying about being able to secure a ride in bad weather. Thanks to “surge pricing,”… Continue reading Book Review: Andrew Chow’s ‘Cryptomania’
Nope—It’s Never Aliens
I grew up believing in UFOs. I watched every TV show about aliens, spaceships, and aliens in spaceships. I voraciously read magazines and books on the topic, credulously soaking up everything I saw and believing it wholeheartedly because, after all, if someone published a book saying these things are real, they must be real, right?… Continue reading Nope—It’s Never Aliens