In an old Indian parable, six blind men each touch a different part of an elephant. They disagree about what the elephant must look like: Is it smooth or rough? Is it like a snake (so thinks the man touching the trunk) or a fan (as the man touching the ear proposes)? If the blind… Continue reading Strangely Curved Shapes Break 50-Year-Old Geometry Conjecture
Inflation Isn’t a Bug in the System, It’s a Feature
May brings more bad economic news for hard-pressed American households. “Transitory” inflation remains firmly entrenched at rates equal to or higher than those reported at the start of 2024. The Labor Department reports this week that the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, it’s official measure of the rate of change in the retail price of a… Continue reading Inflation Isn’t a Bug in the System, It’s a Feature
Vaccine-resistant Mothers Blame Bad Experiences in Health Care
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Why would a mother reject safe, potentially lifesaving vaccines for her child? Popular writing on vaccine skepticism often denigrates white and middle-class mothers who reject some or all recommended vaccines as hysterical, misinformed, zealous or ignorant. Mainstream media… Continue reading Vaccine-resistant Mothers Blame Bad Experiences in Health Care
Terminal Lucidity (Sudden Awakenings, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Near-Death)
Podcast: Download MYS312: Sometimes, near death, a person with dementia will suddenly regain clarity and lucidity and give loved ones a chance to say goodbye. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss the phenomenon called terminal lucidity, what could cause it, and whether it tells us anything new about the brain, soul, and consciousness. Get all… Continue reading Terminal Lucidity (Sudden Awakenings, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Near-Death)
To Change the World, Protest Less, Study More
Congratulations class of 2024! Today we celebrate your high school graduation. High school graduation is America’s national “coming of age” tradition. Today, you are adults. Your future is finally yours. Gen Z is America’s most educated generation ever. Your strong political opinions surely account for the “generation gap” between you and your parents and, especially… Continue reading To Change the World, Protest Less, Study More
Computer Scientists Invent an Efficient New Way to Count
Let’s return to Hamlet, but this time your working memory — consisting of a whiteboard — has room for just 100 words. Once the play starts, you write down the first 100 words you hear, again skipping any repeats. When the space is full, press pause and flip a coin for each word. Heads, and… Continue reading Computer Scientists Invent an Efficient New Way to Count
Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems
The new result is the fruit of several years’ worth of scientific labor. Prior research by Anshu and others got part of the way there. Those researchers developed an algorithm that could deduce a system’s Hamiltonian using a reasonable amount of sample data: The amount needed increased only as a polynomial function of the number… Continue reading Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems
Should You Believe Faulty U.S. Crime Stats or Your Own Lying Eyes? It’s a Tough Call
Car theft, above, might be a better barometer of the state of crime than other measures. Unlike other crimes, they tend to be logged accurately — and have risen markedly. By James Varney, RealClearInvestigationsMay 14, 2024 Americans can be forgiven for suffering from whiplash regarding law and order. In recent weeks the Biden administration and… Continue reading Should You Believe Faulty U.S. Crime Stats or Your Own Lying Eyes? It’s a Tough Call
How Do Chemicals in Plastics Impact Your Endocrine System?
The translucent exterior of a plastic soda bottle hides a secret in plain sight: hundreds of synthetic chemicals embedded in its seemingly innocuous material. These chemicals give the plastic its structure, flexibility and durability, among other qualities—the same traits that also make plastic last for centuries, causing it to accumulate and endure in nature. Before… Continue reading How Do Chemicals in Plastics Impact Your Endocrine System?
The Mystery of the Missing Multicellular Prokaryotes
The genomes of prokaryotes, however, tend to collapse in size in the face of genetic drift, as suggested by work done by Howard Ochman of the University of Texas, Austin and Louis-Marie Bobay, now at North Carolina State University. It’s not clear why, but it may be because gene regulation in prokaryotes is much less… Continue reading The Mystery of the Missing Multicellular Prokaryotes