Shown, the skyline of Doha, capital of energy-rich Qatar, financial sponsor of terrorists whose moneyed influence has helped it win bipartisan plaudits in Washington. By Ben Weingarten, RealClearInvestigationsFebruary 7, 2024 After Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, one of the terrorist organization’s chief financial sponsors, hosts of its leaders, and backers of its propaganda found… Continue reading U.S. Asset or U.S. Adversary? Why Qatar Looks Worryingly Like Both
How to Build an Origami Computer
In 1936, the British mathematician Alan Turing came up with an idea for a universal computer. It was a simple device: an infinite strip of tape covered in zeros and ones, together with a machine that could move back and forth along the tape, changing zeros to ones and vice versa according to some set… Continue reading How to Build an Origami Computer
Homeland Security Cited Inaccurate Allegation to Censor New York Times Journalist
Above, Reid J. Epstein of the New York Times, target of the first known instance of the Department of Homeland Security attempting to silence a social media account associated with a national newspaper. His employer did little to push back. By Lee Fang, RealClearInvestigations and LeeFang.comFebruary 5, 2024 As the 2020 Election Day count dragged… Continue reading Homeland Security Cited Inaccurate Allegation to Censor New York Times Journalist
Plants Find Light Using Gaps Between Their Cells
The wild Arabidopsis, like most plants, has air channels between its cells. These structures are like ventilation shafts woven around the sealed cellular compartments, and they are known to play important roles both in photosynthesis and in oxygenating cells. But the air channels of the mutant plant were flooded with water. The team tracked the… Continue reading Plants Find Light Using Gaps Between Their Cells
What Makes for ‘Good’ Mathematics?
We tend to think of mathematics as purely logical, but the teaching of math, its values, its usefulness and its workings are packed with nuance. So what is “good” mathematics? In 2007, the mathematician Terence Tao wrote an essay for the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society that sought to answer this question. Today, as… Continue reading What Makes for ‘Good’ Mathematics?
In a ‘Dark Dimension,’ Physicists Search for Missing Matter
Since then, scientists have wrestled with one striking characteristic of lambda: Its estimated value of 10−122 in Planck units is “the smallest measured parameter in physics,” said Cumrun Vafa, a physicist at Harvard University. In 2022, while considering that almost unfathomable smallness with two members of his research team — Miguel Montero, now at Madrid’s… Continue reading In a ‘Dark Dimension,’ Physicists Search for Missing Matter
The Quest for Simple Rules to Build a Microbial Community
Then he found something more surprising. Ignoring the actual gene sequences, he looked directly at the molecular breakdown of a strain’s DNA. In the double helix of DNA, the four types of bases in the opposing strands are paired, with guanine (G) bound to cytosine (C) and thymine (T) bound to adenine (A). Unexpectedly, the… Continue reading The Quest for Simple Rules to Build a Microbial Community
The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife (Karen King, Walter Fritz, Forgery, Fraud, Hoax)
Podcast: Download MYS296: The 2012 announcement of a papyrus fragment called the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife caused a huge media sensation over the claim that Jesus did have a wife. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli examine what this fragment is, what it says, and whether it is an authentic, early Christian document. Get all new… Continue reading The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife (Karen King, Walter Fritz, Forgery, Fraud, Hoax)
Math’s ‘Game of Life’ Reveals Long-Sought Repeating Patterns
In 1969, the British mathematician John Conway devised a beguilingly simple set of rules for creating complex behavior. His Game of Life, often referred to simply as Life, unfolds on an infinite square grid of cells. Each cell can be either “alive” or “dead.” The grid evolves over a series of turns (or “generations”), with… Continue reading Math’s ‘Game of Life’ Reveals Long-Sought Repeating Patterns
Igniting an Appreciation for Abraham Lincoln in Children
Historians and the general public regularly rank Abraham Lincoln as America’s greatest president. There is little doubt that he is widely admired for the work he did to end slavery and preserve the Union. But beyond these two important points, most Americans know little else about Lincoln’s life. A 2013 poll by Participant found that… Continue reading Igniting an Appreciation for Abraham Lincoln in Children