The new observations from Levan, Rastinejad and others clash with this quick and clean image of neutron star mergers. “It doesn’t make any sense to have a 10-second burst from a system that lives only a fraction of a second,” said Ore Gottlieb, a computational astrophysicist at the Flatiron Institute who was not involved with… Continue reading Extra-Long Blasts Challenge Our Theories of Cosmic Cataclysms
Dear Conservatives, Please Stop Playing the Victim
The first McDonald’s opened on January 31, 1990 in Moscow. This powerful symbol of American-style capitalism attracted over 38,000 hungry Soviets desperate for a taste of wondrous Americana. Americans concerned about what they’re teaching on college campuses would be wise to internalize the above anecdote, conservatives in particular. Conservatives are singled out because they’re notably… Continue reading Dear Conservatives, Please Stop Playing the Victim
Meet Strange Metals: Where Electricity May Flow Without Electrons
After a year of trial and error, Liyang Chen had managed to whittle down a metallic wire into a microscopic strand half the width of an E.coli bacterium — just thin enough to allow a trickle of electric current to pass through. The drips of that current might, Chen hoped, help settle a persistent mystery… Continue reading Meet Strange Metals: Where Electricity May Flow Without Electrons
Like a Flock of Demons Released Upon the World
“Cancel culture” is one of those modern, politically charged terms that get thrown around so often they become easy to dismiss. One is tempted to toss it into the bin of overused-and-functionally-meaningless phrases, alongside “alt-right” and “woke.” Is cancel culture merely a figment of the FOX-watching, gun-toting, Trump-bedazzled MAGA imagination? Or else is it the… Continue reading Like a Flock of Demons Released Upon the World
International Space Station Suffers Leak, But Crew Remains Safe
Space station astronauts were “never in any danger” following a coolant leak Monday (Oct. 9) on a Russian module, NASA officials have said. Toxic ammonia flakes were observed on the International Space Station‘s (ISS) Russian Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) around 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). Personnel in NASA‘s Mission Control in Houston first spotted the “possible”… Continue reading International Space Station Suffers Leak, But Crew Remains Safe
The Mystery of Synesthesia (Letters, Numbers, Colors, Sounds, Perception, Psychic)
Podcast: Download MYS288: When you see a written word, do you also see colors in your mind? Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli explore the mystery of synesthesia where colors, sounds, letters, and numbers can all mix together in perception. What is synesthesia? Who has it? And what is responsible for it? Get all new episodes… Continue reading The Mystery of Synesthesia (Letters, Numbers, Colors, Sounds, Perception, Psychic)
The Milky Way May Be Missing a Trillion Suns’ Worth of Mass
There’s something strange going on with the Milky Way. Recent measurements suggest that stars at the outskirts of our galaxy are misbehaving. They’re traveling far slower than similarly situated stars in other galaxies. One possible explanation for the Milky Way’s stellar slowpokes is that our galaxy is extraordinarily deficient in dark matter, the invisible substance… Continue reading The Milky Way May Be Missing a Trillion Suns’ Worth of Mass
Why Women Earn Less Than Men: Economic Historian Wins Nobel for Work on Gender Pay Gap
October 11, 2023 4 min read Claudia Goldin mined 200 years of data to show that greater economic growth did not lead to wage parity or more women in the workplace By Philip Ball & Nature magazine Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University, speaks at a press conference after being named this… Continue reading Why Women Earn Less Than Men: Economic Historian Wins Nobel for Work on Gender Pay Gap
Here’s the ‘Jan. 6 Jurisprudence’ About to Be Unleashed on Trump
Defense attorneys have coined the term “January 6 Jurisprudence” to describe the treatment received by the more than 1,200 defendants arrested so far in connection with the events of Jan. 6, 2021. This carve-out legal system involves the unprecedented and possibly unlawful use of a corporate evidence-tampering statute; excessive prison sentences and indefinite periods of… Continue reading Here’s the ‘Jan. 6 Jurisprudence’ About to Be Unleashed on Trump
A Soggy Mission to Sniff Out a Greenhouse Gas ‘Bomb’ in the High Arctic
Jocie Bentley (tape): PSA: don’t bring hiking boots when walking the tundra. Your feet will get soaked like a wet sponge. Gabriel Hould Gosselin (tape): Almost there. [laughs] About halfway. Well, it’s a lot faster with snowmobiles. Bentley: Hey, I’m Jocie Bentley, and this is the final episode of a three-part Science, Quickly Fascination series from… Continue reading A Soggy Mission to Sniff Out a Greenhouse Gas ‘Bomb’ in the High Arctic