The popular newsletter platform Substack launched its short-form content feature, Notes, in April. Meta rolled out Threads via Instagram in July. Predating these was Mastodon, which had for years already provided the more technically inclined with a decentralized, server-based network for discussion. And there was Bluesky, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s reskinned, “distributed” version of … Continue reading Substack Can Redeem Online Journalism
More than Half of Earth’s Species Live Underground
To many humans, soil is just the dirt under our feet. But new research shows that for more than half of all species on Earth, soil is crucial habitat—and an imperiled one at that. “I think soil’s having a moment,” says Mark Anthony, a fungal ecologist at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and… Continue reading More than Half of Earth’s Species Live Underground
The Experimental Cosmologist Hunting for the First Sunrise
Quanta Magazine > 0; if (typeof predicate !== ‘function’) { throw new TypeError(‘predicate must be a function’); } var thisArg = arguments[1]; var k = 0; while (k We care about your data, and we’d like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.Agree… Continue reading The Experimental Cosmologist Hunting for the First Sunrise
The Meaning of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
On this date in 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation announcing that if the states of the Confederacy did not return to the Union within 100 days, he would issue a final proclamation freeing the slaves in areas of rebellion. One hundred days later, with the Civil War still raging, Lincoln did just… Continue reading The Meaning of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
Behold Modular Forms, the ‘Fifth Fundamental Operation’ of Math
Two kinds of transformations copy the fundamental domain to the right and left, as well as to a series of ever-shrinking semicircles along the horizontal axis. These copies fill the entire upper half of the complex plane. A modular form relates the copies to each other in a very particular way. That’s where its symmetries… Continue reading Behold Modular Forms, the ‘Fifth Fundamental Operation’ of Math
The Bizarre Case of Victim F (Matthew Muller, Denise Huskins, Aaron Quinn)
Podcast: Download MYS277: The kidnapping of Victim F was like something out of a movie. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss the bizarre details of the case and how it riveted the nation; the police investigation; and the ultimate, confounding truth behind what happened. Get all new episodes automatically and for free: Follow by Email… Continue reading The Bizarre Case of Victim F (Matthew Muller, Denise Huskins, Aaron Quinn)
A message from Dom Bettinelli of Starquest
Podcast: Download I need to ask for your help, but first I want to thank you for listening to StarQuest and supporting our mission of exploring the intersection of faith and pop culture. Over the past five years–since 2018–StarQuest has grown by leaps and bounds, more than at any time in our previous 12 years.… Continue reading A message from Dom Bettinelli of Starquest
Tech Companies’ New Favorite Solution for the AI Content Crisis Isn’t Enough
Thanks to a bevy of easily accessible online tools, just about anyone with a computer can now pump out, with the click of a button, artificial-intelligence-generated images, text, audio and videos that convincingly resemble those created by humans. One big result is an online content crisis, an enormous and growing glut of unchecked, machine-made material… Continue reading Tech Companies’ New Favorite Solution for the AI Content Crisis Isn’t Enough
Embracing the Messiness of Public-Private Collaboration in the Fight Against Botnets
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine War, Russia has sponsored several Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against Ukrainian targets, including various attacks against government and financial entities. Botnets, which are networks of computers infected with malware that an attacker controls and uses to fulfill malicious cyber activities, can be used to launch these DDoS… Continue reading Embracing the Messiness of Public-Private Collaboration in the Fight Against Botnets
The 4 Stages of Conspiracy Theory Escalation on Social Media
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Conspiracy theory beliefs and (more generally) misinformation may be groundless, but they can have a range of harmful real-world consequences, including spreading lies, undermining trust in media and government institutions and inciting violent or even extremist behaviors. For… Continue reading The 4 Stages of Conspiracy Theory Escalation on Social Media