Category: Quantum Stuff

Draconian Laws Deter Pregnant Women from Treating Drug Abuse

Neonatologist Stephen W. Patrick of Vanderbilt University Medical Center recalls one patient in particular. She was seeking care for an opioid use disorder (OUD) at the treatment facility that he runs in Nashville, Tenn. The patient came in frantic after an exchange at her first prenatal visit. The sonographer who conducted her ultrasound, she recounted,… Continue reading Draconian Laws Deter Pregnant Women from Treating Drug Abuse

This Tiny Fish Can Recognize Itself in Photos

Bluestreak cleaner wrasses are entrepreneurial fish. This tiny, shiny species sets up shop in coral reefs, where it eats parasites off of client fish, some of them big and hungry. It’s a dangerous business that requires impeccable social skills. No wonder, then, that these fish can identify other individuals by their faces—and even recognize their… Continue reading This Tiny Fish Can Recognize Itself in Photos

In a Fierce Desert, Microbe ‘Crusts’ Show How Life Tamed the Land

While all biocrusts perform some degree of weathering, the larger grains of the grit crust are especially suited for it. The process reveals the full potential of microbes to impact their environment. A microbial skin can glue together pebbles, break them down into soil and fertilize that soil with essential nutrients. In effect, the crust… Continue reading In a Fierce Desert, Microbe ‘Crusts’ Show How Life Tamed the Land

New Tool Reveals How AI Makes Decisions

When I asked ChatGPT to name the editor in chief of Spektrum der Wissenschaft, the German-language sister publication of Scientific American, the answer was, “I have the latest information until 2021, and at that time Dr. Florian Freistetter was the editor-in-chief of Spektrum der Wissenschaft. However, it is possible that the information has changed since… Continue reading New Tool Reveals How AI Makes Decisions

Useful Feedback, More Than Praise, Helps Students Flourish

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” This proverb has become a cliché, but it remains a useful shorthand for self-sufficiency. If you want someone to succeed independently, give them the tools to do so. Within the realm… Continue reading Useful Feedback, More Than Praise, Helps Students Flourish

Here’s What the Supreme Court’s Clean Water Act Ruling Means to You

If you ever drank a glass of clean water, caught a freshwater fish, swam in a lake or even maybe avoided a flood, you have directly benefited from wetlands. But those benefits are drying up, thanks to a Supreme Court decision that has overturned five decades of wetland protections. The 1972 federal Clean Water Act… Continue reading Here’s What the Supreme Court’s Clean Water Act Ruling Means to You

Can Math and Physics Save an Arrhythmic Heart?

The heart’s electrical system keeps all its muscle cells beating in sync. A hard whack to the chest at the wrong moment, however, can set up unruly waves of abnormal electrical excitation that are potentially deadly. The resulting kind of arrhythmia may be what caused the football player Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills to… Continue reading Can Math and Physics Save an Arrhythmic Heart?

When Disaster Strikes, Is Climate Change to Blame?

Last November the spring weather in South America jumped from cold to searing. Usually at that time of year people would have been holding backyard barbecues, or asados, in the lingering evening light. But on December 7 the temperature in northern Argentina, near the borders of Bolivia and Paraguay, hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit, making it… Continue reading When Disaster Strikes, Is Climate Change to Blame?