Then, in a process Kukushkin described as a tedious choreography of clockwork pipetting, they exposed the cells to precisely timed bursts of chemicals that imitated bursts of neurotransmitters in the brain. Kukushkin’s team found that the both the nerve and kidney cells could finely differentiate these patterns. A steady three-minute burst activated CRE, making the… Continue reading What Can a Cell Remember?
Why the United States Should Not Fear a Space Pearl Harbor
In the early 2000s, U.S. defense analysts sounded the alarm (PDF) about a potential “Space Pearl Harbor.” They warned that the U.S. military was becoming increasingly dependent on a small number of vulnerable satellites that would become tempting targets during a crisis or conflict. Those fears grew exponentially after China’s landmark demonstration in 2007 of… Continue reading Why the United States Should Not Fear a Space Pearl Harbor
At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery
Cairo followed this advice. In the fall of 2023, her family moved to Davis, 60 miles northeast of Berkeley. There, her older brother enrolled as a freshman at UC Davis, and her parents allowed her to commute to Berkeley on Tuesdays and Thursdays. By the spring, she was going five days a week and taking… Continue reading At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery
Responding to President Trump’s Recent Executive Orders on Drones
President Donald Trump’s June 6, 2025 Executive Order (EO) “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” notes that Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones “enhance United States productivity, create high-skilled jobs, and are reshaping the future of aviation.” Its ambitions include “transforming industries from logistics and infrastructure inspection to precision agriculture, emergency response, and public safety.” The EO… Continue reading Responding to President Trump’s Recent Executive Orders on Drones
The Hell House of Martinez
The Hell House of Martinez < !- 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 MYS376: Fireballs. Scorch marks. Dizzy spells. A haunted house—or something worse? Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli,… Continue reading The Hell House of Martinez
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act Is a ‘Nightmare Scenario’ for Clean Energy, Analysts Say
CLIMATEWIRE | The clean energy transition may soon be on its own. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed last week by the House would effectively end most clean energy tax credits, reversing a large chunk of former President Joe Biden’s climate agenda. Wind and solar projects would need to begin construction within 60 days… Continue reading The One Big Beautiful Bill Act Is a ‘Nightmare Scenario’ for Clean Energy, Analysts Say
Taiwan’s Risky No-Holds-Barred Politics
This commentary was originally published by Journal of Democracy on July 30, 2025. Taiwan held a massive recall vote on July 26, threatening to remove 24 opposition Kuomintang (KMT) politicians from the legislature. This would have endangered the party’s combined majority with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), possibly returning Taiwan to unified government under the… Continue reading Taiwan’s Risky No-Holds-Barred Politics
The Science Adviser for The Last of Us Says COVID Changed How We View Zombie Stories
The year was 2013, and the release of a hotly anticipated zombie-apocalypse video game was on the horizon. The game, called The Last of Us, invited players to explore what then seemed a fanciful scenario: a world devastated by a pandemic in which a pathogen kills millions of people. Unlike in many apocalypse fictions, the… Continue reading The Science Adviser for The Last of Us Says COVID Changed How We View Zombie Stories
The Myth of the 5 A.M. Club: Why Early Isn’t Always Best
There’s a persistent myth in our culture that success and downright virtue belong to the early risers—those “5 a.m. club” members who rise before the sun and conquer their to-do lists while the rest of us are still snoozing. Social media is flooded with images of pre-dawn productivity, and best-selling books tout the virtues of… Continue reading The Myth of the 5 A.M. Club: Why Early Isn’t Always Best
A New Geometry for Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
Kunzinger and Sämann wanted to use their new way of estimating curvature to determine whether these singularity theorems would still be valid if they no longer assumed space-time is smooth. Would singularities persist even in rougher, more realistic-looking spaces? It’s important to find out if the smoothness condition can be waived, Sämann said, because doing… Continue reading A New Geometry for Einstein’s Theory of Relativity