But in some ways, the proof was a bit unsatisfying. Jitomirskaya and Avila had used a method that only applied to certain irrational values of alpha. By combining it with an intermediate proof that came before it, they could say the problem was solved. But this combined proof wasn’t elegant. It was a patchwork quilt,… Continue reading ‘Ten Martini’ Proof Uses Number Theory to Explain Quantum Fractals
A Public Health Researcher and Her Engineer Husband Found How Diseases Can Spread through Air Decades before the COVID Pandemic
Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, by Carl Zimmer, charts the history of the field of aerobiology: the science of airborne microorganisms. In this episode, we discover the story of two lost pioneers of the 1930s: physician and self-taught epidemiologist Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband, sanitary engineer William Firth Wells. Together,… Continue reading A Public Health Researcher and Her Engineer Husband Found How Diseases Can Spread through Air Decades before the COVID Pandemic
Time to Put Children’s Health Above Pesticide Industry Profits
When chemical giant Syngenta hired biologist Tyrone Hayes to study its widely used herbicide atrazine, the company didn’t like the results. Hayes found that atrazine, one of the most common weed killers in America, disrupted hormones in frogs and altered their sexual development. Instead of facing the science, Syngenta went into product-defense mode: pressuring Hayes… Continue reading Time to Put Children’s Health Above Pesticide Industry Profits
Astrophysicists Find No ‘Hair’ on Black Holes
In 2012, physicists showed that this paradox is tightly linked to the nature of the event horizon. They’d known since the 1970s that black holes emit radiation, and that this radiation probably somehow carries the scrambled information about the stuff that fell into the hole. Now they imagined what would happen if an astronaut who… Continue reading Astrophysicists Find No ‘Hair’ on Black Holes
Farmers Watching the MAHA Commission Closely
In an industry that operates at the mercy of Mother Nature and the markets, the last thing farming families like mine – and the thousands more represented by the Modern Ag Alliance – need is more uncertainty, but the conversation in Washington over crop protection tools has American agriculture on edge. As the MAHA Commission… Continue reading Farmers Watching the MAHA Commission Closely
Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ Probably Can’t Work, According to Science
During a briefing from the Oval Office this week, President Donald Trump revealed his administration’s plan for “Golden Dome”—an ambitious high-tech system meant to shield the U.S. from ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missile attacks launched by foreign adversaries. Flanked by senior officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the project’s newly selected leader, Gen.… Continue reading Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ Probably Can’t Work, According to Science
Competition Between GPs and Pharmacies Is Hampering Service Integration
Community pharmacies are mentioned as part of the government’s recently released 10-Year Health Plan, which aims to build an NHS in England that is “fit for the future.” The plan describes shifting from treating to preventing illnesses and from acute to community-based care—two areas that community pharmacies are well poised to support. In fact, most… Continue reading Competition Between GPs and Pharmacies Is Hampering Service Integration
Could Catholics Colonize Mars? (And More Weird Questions)
Podcast: Download MYS380: It’s a fifth Friday, so Cy Kellett of Catholic Answers Live is asking Jimmy Akin weird questions from listeners, about topics like what we will be doing after the Resurrection; the morality of Catholics colonizing Mars; why Lucifer rebelled; and more. Get all new episodes automatically and for free: Follow by Email… Continue reading Could Catholics Colonize Mars? (And More Weird Questions)
The Sudden Surges That Forge Evolutionary Trees
Over the last half-billion years, squid, octopuses and their kin have evolved much like a fireworks display, with long, anticipatory pauses interspersed with intense, explosive changes. The many-armed diversity of cephalopods is the result of the evolutionary rubber hitting the road right after lineages split into new species, and precious little of their evolution has… Continue reading The Sudden Surges That Forge Evolutionary Trees
How AI Is Changing Our Approach to Disasters
Disaster losses are rising, and the stakes are high for reducing risk. Artificial intelligence (AI) promises new ways to spot danger sooner, coordinate relief more quickly, and save lives and property. But AI doesn’t just drop neatly into a command center. To matter in practice, it must be shaped to the messy realities of emergency… Continue reading How AI Is Changing Our Approach to Disasters