By definition, the universe seems like it should be the totality of everything that exists. Yet a variety of arguments emerging from cosmology, particle physics and quantum mechanics hint that there could also be unobservable universes beyond our own that follow different laws of nature. While the existence of a multiverse is speculative, for many… Continue reading Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse?
The Bread of Life and the Need of the Human Heart
Anthony Lilles Anthony Lilles, a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, completed his graduate and post-graduate studies in Rome at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas. He and his lovely wife, Agnes, are blessed with three children and live in California, where he is the Academic Dean, and Associate Professor of Theology, St. John’s Seminary,… Continue reading The Bread of Life and the Need of the Human Heart
Secret Messages Can Hide in AI-Generated Media
The result comes from the world of information theory, which provides a mathematical framework for understanding communication of all sorts. It’s an abstract and tidy field, in contrast to the complicated messiness of practical steganography. The worlds don’t often overlap, said Jessica Fridrich, a researcher at Binghamton University who studies ways to hide (and detect)… Continue reading Secret Messages Can Hide in AI-Generated Media
A Little Spiritual Guidance for Moms: Let Yourself Be Mothered
The other day, I took a walk with a friend. I don’t get together with Dee as much as I did when we were in the thick of raising children, so we chatted happily, catching up on family news. Back at her house, I sat at her kitchen table, and we continued our conversation. I… Continue reading A Little Spiritual Guidance for Moms: Let Yourself Be Mothered
Weighing the Soul? (Scientific evidence for the human soul? Spirit? Life after death?)
Podcast: Download MYS259: Could the human soul ever be scientifically detected? Could it even be weighed? Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss a series of experiments that claimed to detect the departure of the soul at death, whether that’s possible, and what other researchers have found. Get all new episodes automatically and for free: Follow… Continue reading Weighing the Soul? (Scientific evidence for the human soul? Spirit? Life after death?)
After Nearly a Century, a New Limit for Patterns in Graphs
“I was floored,” said Yuval Wigderson, a mathematician at Tel Aviv University, on hearing about the new result. “I was literally shaking for half an hour to an hour.” The Party Lines Ramsey theory most commonly asks questions either about the integers or about graphs. A graph, in this context, refers to collections of points called… Continue reading After Nearly a Century, a New Limit for Patterns in Graphs
In the New Scientific Age, the Non-Sciences Are More Important Than Ever
Over the past 40 years, Western education has emphasized math, engineering, and invention, while neglecting the disciplines that allow us to cope with their creations. We are more equipped than ever to disrupt entire economies and ways of life with technology and less equipped than ever to deal with the consequences. If we want to retain a life worth… Continue reading In the New Scientific Age, the Non-Sciences Are More Important Than Ever
Meeting Jesus in the Eucharist
My dad died when I was sixteen. Nine days later, I turned seventeen. I don’t remember much about that year. The days passed in a haze of grief, though at the time, I didn’t know to call the hollowed-out feeling I lived with “grief.” Nor did I know that the constant exhaustion I felt was… Continue reading Meeting Jesus in the Eucharist
50,000 Worms Tangled Up in a Ball Unravel in an Explosive Burst when a Predator Appears
Anyone who’s grappled with jumbled headphones knows the difficulty of disentangling snarled cords. A tight knot is nothing for a California blackworm, however. These tiny worms twist together by the thousands to form tightly packed blobs reminiscent of a forkful of squirming spaghetti. While these tangles take minutes to form, intertwined blackworms can wriggle free… Continue reading 50,000 Worms Tangled Up in a Ball Unravel in an Explosive Burst when a Predator Appears
Alan Turing’s Most Important Machine Was Never Built
Computation is a familiar concept most of us understand intuitively. Take the function f(x) = x + 3. When x is three, f(3) = 3 + 3. Six. Easy. It seems obvious that this function is computable. But some functions aren’t so simple, and it’s not so easy to determine if they can be computed,… Continue reading Alan Turing’s Most Important Machine Was Never Built