Electric air taxis are coming soon to a city near you, with companies promising quick and quiet travel. In April, Archer Aviation unveiled its four-seater Midnight aircraft, designed to fly up to 50 miles with minimal downtime. A White House executive order, signed on June 6 and aimed at encouraging nationwide public-private partnerships, allowed manufacturers… Continue reading Air Taxis Are Coming. What Does That Mean for the Communities Below?
How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper
The Chinese AI company DeepSeek released a chatbot earlier this year called R1, which drew a huge amount of attention. Most of it focused on the fact that a relatively small and unknown company said it had built a chatbot that rivaled the performance of those from the world’s most famous AI companies, but using… Continue reading How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper
Golden Dome Could Learn from SDI Politics
President Trump has proposed that to “protect our homeland” he would move ahead with a Golden Dome missile defense. The Department of Defense is seeking a hefty budget increase for it next year, but the program is controversial. Missile defense was contentious also in the 1980s when President Ronald Reagan offered a vision to render… Continue reading Golden Dome Could Learn from SDI Politics
Bigfoot Biology (Sasquatch, Cryptid, Cryptozoology)
Bigfoot Biology (Sasquatch, Cryptid, Cryptozoology) < !- end of Google Analytics Code Snippet by GA4WP–> // tabnab protection window.addEventListener(‘load’, function () { // make all links have rel=”noopener noreferrer” document.querySelectorAll(‘a[target=”_blank”]’).forEach(link => { link.setAttribute(‘rel’, ‘noopener noreferrer’); }); }); ]]> Podcast: Download MYS375: If Bigfoot exists, what kind of animal would it be? Jimmy Akin and Dom… Continue reading Bigfoot Biology (Sasquatch, Cryptid, Cryptozoology)
YouTube Science Star Derek Muller Confronts PFAS “Forever Chemicals”—In His Own Blood
As the creator of Veritasium, a science education YouTube channel with 18 million subscribers, Derek Muller has spent the past 15 years exploring a counterintuitive vision for learning: Clarity numbs the mind, but confusion can crack it open. His audience has grown because of how he challenges common misconceptions about the laws of nature, and… Continue reading YouTube Science Star Derek Muller Confronts PFAS “Forever Chemicals”—In His Own Blood
Undersea Cables Are Vulnerable to Sabotage—but This Takes Skill and Specialist Equipment
Countries have come to rely on a network of cables and pipes under the sea for their energy and communications. So it has been worrying to read headlines about communications cables being cut and, in one case, an undersea gas pipeline being blown up. Critical undersea infrastructure (CUI) as these connections are known, supports about… Continue reading Undersea Cables Are Vulnerable to Sabotage—but This Takes Skill and Specialist Equipment
Latest Starship Test Flight Suggests SpaceX Is Short on Time
SpaceX’s Ninth Starship Test Flight Delivers Mixed Results The largest, most powerful launch vehicle ever built is meant to be a key part of SpaceX’s plans to send humans to Mars—and NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon, too By Gayoung Lee edited by Lee Billings The SpaceX Starship rocket launches from Starbase, Tex.,… Continue reading Latest Starship Test Flight Suggests SpaceX Is Short on Time
How I Became a Bird Launcher, not an Empty Nester
The other weekend, after my husband and I enjoyed our third consecutive Sunday brunch, a friend said to me, “Boy, Wendy, you are really owning this empty nester thing.” She’s right, I am owning it. But let’s be clear: I’m not a rookie. I’ve been at this for two years since my youngest flew the… Continue reading How I Became a Bird Launcher, not an Empty Nester
AI Comes Up with Bizarre Physics Experiments. But They Work.
If the AI’s insights had been available when LIGO was being built, “we would have had something like 10 or 15% better LIGO sensitivity all along,” he said. In a world of sub-proton precision, 10 to 15% is enormous. “LIGO is this huge thing that thousands of people have been thinking about deeply for 40… Continue reading AI Comes Up with Bizarre Physics Experiments. But They Work.
Five Questions: Peter Hussey on How to Fix American Health Care
The United States is projected to spend more than $5 trillion this year on health care. Yet by most measures, from chronic disease burden to the availability of hospital beds, our system performs worse than those in other wealthy nations. Americans can expect to live four years less, on average, than people in those countries.… Continue reading Five Questions: Peter Hussey on How to Fix American Health Care