Podcast: Download MYS303: In 1972, a book purported to tell the tale of a Communist infiltrator at the Vatican dedicated to bringing down the Church. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss who this mysterious agent was, where he came from, and whether he really did what the books says. Get all new episodes automatically and… Continue reading AA-1025 (Communist Infiltration in the Church)
Math That Connects Where We’re Going to Where We’ve Been
Say you’re at a party with nine other people and everyone shakes everyone else’s hand exactly once. How many handshakes take place? This is the “handshake problem,” and it’s one of my favorites. As a math teacher, I love it because there are so many different ways you can arrive at the solution, and the… Continue reading Math That Connects Where We’re Going to Where We’ve Been
Give Me an Engaged Electorate
On March 23rd in 1775, Patrick Henry rose at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, to urge his countrymen to arm themselves for the Revolutionary War. Four weeks before the battle of Lexington and Concord, Henry saw the future: “The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of… Continue reading Give Me an Engaged Electorate
Astronomers Are Snapping Baby Pictures of Planets by the Dozen
Astronomers Are Snapping Baby Pictures of Planets by the Dozen Snapshots of a plethora of planet-forming disks offer more than just eye candy—they also reveal some fundamental aspects of how worlds are born By Phil Plait Dust swirls around the MWC 758 planet-forming disk, located about 500 light-years away from Earth in the Taurus region,… Continue reading Astronomers Are Snapping Baby Pictures of Planets by the Dozen
Most Astronauts Get ‘Space Headaches.’ Scientists Want to Know Why
Most Astronauts Get ‘Space Headaches.’ Scientists Want to Know Why Headaches are a common and recurring problem in space, even for astronauts that don’t experience them on Earth By Joanna Thompson Credit: Ignatiev/Getty Images Spaceflight can be a real headache—literally. Since the days of the Apollo program, astronauts have reported experiencing head pain during their… Continue reading Most Astronauts Get ‘Space Headaches.’ Scientists Want to Know Why
Friends in Low Places? Behind South Africa’s New Genocide Case Against Israel
Above, President Cyril Ramaphosa next to a statue of Nelson Mandela in Cape Town in 2020. His new genocide case against Israel in international court looks to some like South Africa’s latest example of honoring the human rights icon’s legacy in the breach. By Toby Dershowitz and Max Friedman, RealClearInvestigationsMarch 18, 2024 Shortly before South… Continue reading Friends in Low Places? Behind South Africa’s New Genocide Case Against Israel
Fresh X-Rays Reveal a Universe as Clumpy as Cosmology Predicts
Clusters of hundreds or thousands of galaxies sit at the intersections of giant, crisscrossing filaments of matter that form the tapestry of the cosmos. As gravity pulls everything in each galaxy cluster toward its center, the gas that fills the space between the galaxies gets compressed, causing it to heat up and glow in X-rays.… Continue reading Fresh X-Rays Reveal a Universe as Clumpy as Cosmology Predicts
The Silence of U.S. Senate Hopeful Adam Schiff on China: ‘Blood Money’ Book Excerpt
In “Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans,” investigative journalist Peter Schweizer continues his groundbreaking scrutiny of what he portrays as the wide and deliberately subversive influence of China on American politics and society. His reporting — ranging from the deadly fentanyl trade to America’s social justice movement to… Continue reading The Silence of U.S. Senate Hopeful Adam Schiff on China: ‘Blood Money’ Book Excerpt
Elliptic Curve ‘Murmurations’ Found With AI Take Flight
Almost immediately, the preprint garnered interest, particularly from Andrew Sutherland, a research scientist at MIT who is one of the managing editors of the LMFDB. Sutherland realized that 3 million elliptic curves weren’t enough for his purposes. He wanted to look at much larger conductor ranges to see how robust the murmurations were. He pulled… Continue reading Elliptic Curve ‘Murmurations’ Found With AI Take Flight
Cellular Self-Destruction May Be Ancient. But Why?
The genes for apoptosis reminded Kaczanowski and Zielenkiewicz of an arms race between a predator and its prey. In their new paper, they speculated that they might be holdovers from the tools evolved by a prey organism, presumably the original mitochondrial bacterium, to defend itself. Maybe, once caught inside our ancient ancestor, apoptotic proteins became… Continue reading Cellular Self-Destruction May Be Ancient. But Why?