Tag: Quantum Stuff

Over the past century, many notable viruses have emerged from animals to cause widespread illness and death in people. The list includes the pathogens behind pandemic influenza, Ebola, Zika, West Nile fever, SARS and now COVID, brought on by the virus SARS-CoV-2. For all of these microbes, the animal species that served as the original source… Continue reading Why We Don’t Know the Animal Origins of the Coronavirus

I have a childhood memory of looking in the bathroom mirror, and for the first time realizing that my experience at that precise moment—the experience of being me—would at some point come to an end, and that “I” would die. I must have been about 8 or 9 years old, and like all early memories… Continue reading We Are Beast Machines – Issue 107: The Edge

NEW YORK HARBOR—It’s an odd scene in New York Harbor. On the banks of tree-lined Governors Island, a small group has gathered to watch a tiny gray boat anchor itself in the water. Two figures lean over the side of the vessel, their red life vests standing out against the slate waves. Each clutches several… Continue reading Saved from Shuckers, Oysters Fight Rising Seas

Consciousness is a thriving industry. It’s not just the meditation retreats and ayahuasca shamans. Or the conferences with a heady mix of philosophers, quantum physicists, and Buddhist monks. Consciousness is a buzzing business in neuroscience labs and brain institutes. But it wasn’t always this way. Just a few decades ago, consciousness barely registered as a… Continue reading The Spiritual Consciousness of Christof Koch – Issue 107: The Edge

Scientific American June 2021 Making peace with the biosphere will require building communities and relationships that are focused on protecting life—human and nonhuman No one in her village faced food shortages during the lockdowns, nor did they suffer from COVID-19, Moligeri Chandramma assured me through an interpreter this past March. A farmer in the drylands… Continue reading These Alternative Economies Are Inspirations for a Sustainable World

In a polarized nation, victimhood is a badge of honor. It gives people strength. “The victim has become among the most important identity positions in American politics,” wrote Robert B. Horwitz, a communications professor at the University of California, San Diego. Horwitz published his study, “Politics as Victimhood, Victimhood as Politics,” in 2018.1 He focused… Continue reading Why People Feel Like Victims – Issue 99: Universality

Last year, my first in medical school at Columbia University, I used a bone saw to slice through the top half of a cadaver’s skull, revealing a gray brain lined with purple blood vessels. This was Clinical Gross Anatomy, the first-year course that has fascinated or devastated (or both) every medical student. You never forget… Continue reading You Can’t Dissect a Virtual Cadaver – Issue 99: Universality

Imagine you’re a scientist, sitting in the cold dark belly of a ship above an ocean abyss. Your eyes are fixed on a panel of screens as a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) descends miles below your feet. First the ROV travels through the productive sunlit waters, rich with fish and jellies, but as it sinks… Continue reading The Largest Cells on Earth – Issue 99: Universality

Julian Barbour’s obsession with time began on Oct. 18, 1963. The 26-year-old Cambridge graduate in mathematics was on a train to the Bavarian alps, where he and a friend planned to climb the Watzmann, Germany’s third highest peak. The newspaper in his hand contained a summary of a Scientific American article by British physicist Paul… Continue reading The Country Gentleman of Physics – Issue 100: Outsiders