Learning
The cruelest people in Russian history
If there is one thing that Russia scholars can agree on, it is the poor quality of leadership that has plagued the country since its inception. Though some coul…
Wednesday, 15 September 2021
AI & Machine Learning
Mindfulness: New age craze or science-backed solution?
Mindfulness has become a billion-dollar industry. Research shows mindfulness can be an effective wellness practice, yet the effect sizes found in studies tend t…
AI & Machine Learning
Big Tech and privacy: Apple flirts with the "dark side"
Compared to other Big Tech companies, Apple has been the poster child of privacy protection. Unfortunately, a recent announcement has breached that trust. How m…
AI & Machine Learning
What happens when two different respiratory viruses infect the same cell?
Right now, there's just one virus on everyone's minds: SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But humanity is plagued by many respiratory viruses, such as …
Learning
How to understand Einstein's equation for general relativity
The Einstein field equations appear very simple, but they encode a tremendous amount of complexity. What looks like one compact equation is actually 16 complica…
Tuesday, 14 September 2021
AI & Machine Learning
What really happens when your foot goes to sleep?
Imagine you've just sat down to watch your favorite TV show. You decide to snuggle in with your legs crisscrossed because you find it more comfortable that way.…
AI & Machine Learning
Saving history: 3D laser scans preserve world heritage sites
To prevent the present from erasing the past, non-profit organizations are creating detailed 3D scans of famous monuments. Stored online and shared with researc…
AI & Machine Learning
Who was the most original philosopher?
Plato wrote profusely, and his ideas are intelligent, well argued, and powerful. His works form the backbone of so many subjects: epistemology, aesthetics, meta…
Learning
Exoplanets with moons may be likelier to host life
A new study suggests that exomoons are common in multistar systems. Thus far, only a few exomoon candidates have been identified. Exoplanets with moons may be l…
AI & Machine Learning
Could fundamental physical constants not be constant across space and time?
We assume that physical constants do not change from time to time or location to location. Measurements aimed at calculating the fine-structure constant, howeve…
Monday, 13 September 2021
Learning
Clever wild boar brings rescue party to save young from a trap
Researchers observe in a series of photos an unexpected rescue of two young wild boars from a trap. The whole rescue took less than half an hour thanks to a cle…
AI & Machine Learning
Wisdom of Daoism: why Yin-Yang is so much more than a tattoo
Daoism is the philosophy that there is a right way to live life, and it involves finding and following the "Dao", or path, to our life and also the universe. Yi…
AI & Machine Learning
Neuroplasticity: how to use anxiety to improve your life
Anxiety is an inevitable feature of our lives. Our brains need stress in order to thrive, but neither too much nor too little. By harnessing neuroplasticity — t…
Sunday, 12 September 2021
AI & Machine Learning
What are dormant volcanoes good for? Copper mining
This article was originally published on our sister site, Freethink. Oxford scientists have proposed what they believe is a more sustainable approach to copper …
Learning
Is reality real? These neuroscientists don’t think so.
Is there an external reality? Is reality objective? Is the information your senses are feeding you an accurate depiction of reality? Most neuroscientists and sc…
AI & Machine Learning
What do Putin and Bieber have in common? A lot, if you think they look alike
A study finds that people associate personality traits with faces. People thought to have similar personalities were viewed as looking alike; people thought to …
AI & Machine Learning
Glow-in-the-dark milky seas of maritime lore really exist – satellite proves it
For centuries, sailors have been reporting strange encounters like the one below. “The whole appearance of the ocean was like a plain covered with snow . There …
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Saturday, 11 September 2021
Learning
Sophia the Robot will be mass-produced this year
This article was originally published on our sister site, Freethink. When Sophia the robot debuted in 2016, she was one of a kind. She had a remarkably lifelike…
Learning
Twenty years after 9/11, hindsight is 20/20
The 20th anniversary of 9/11 arrives with pessimism and a sense of defeat. 9/11 caused a national trauma that lasted for years. We should remember this when ana…
AI & Machine Learning
The term 'AI' overpromises: Here's how to make it work for humans instead
One of the popular memes in literature, movies and tech journalism is that man's creation will rise and destroy it. Lately, this has taken the form of a fear of…
Friday, 10 September 2021
Learning
The secret to how scorpions, spiders, and ants puncture tough skin
Many small animals grow their teeth, claws and other “tools" out of materials that are filled with zinc, bromine and manganese, reaching up to 20% of the materi…
Learning
Early humans migrated in and out of Arabia — based on the climate
Despite being the only bridge early hominin species could have crossed to enter Eurasia, the Arabian Peninsula bears little to no evidence of early human occupa…
Learning
TikTok tics: when Tourette's syndrome went viral
Mass psychogenic illness, also known as mass hysteria, is when a group of people manifest physical symptoms from imagined threats. History is littered with outb…
AI & Machine Learning
Will concentrated solar thermal power dominate the energy industry?
Concentrated solar thermal power is a fascinating technology. These plants can produce power after dark, unlike standard solar photovoltaic plants. Currently, t…
The Changing Venture Landscape
The world around us is being disrupted by the acceleration of technology into more industries and more consumer applications. Society is reorienting to a new po…
Thursday, 9 September 2021
Learning
HR diagram: how we learned that stars evolve
Just like you and me, stars change over time. By studying the characteristics of stars, like their temperature and luminosity, astrophysicists figured out how s…
Learning
Terrifying proto-whale hunted on land and in the sea
Before migrating to the sea, whales were terrestrial herbivores. As they transitioned to the ocean and became carnivores, at least one proto-whale was an eating…
AI & Machine Learning
Enough moral relativism: some cultures are worse than others
Conventionalism is the idea that right and wrong depend entirely on the cultures and traditions to which we belong. What one culture calls immoral, another acce…
Wednesday, 8 September 2021
AI & Machine Learning
How 3 new technologies can bring us closer to 100% renewable energy
In recent decades the cost of wind and solar power generation has dropped dramatically. This is one reason that the U.S. Department of Energy projects that rene…
AI & Machine Learning
A fable of ancient Greece: when the mythic universe became a rational machine
Worldviews change and, with them, the way we see ourselves and our place in the universe. The transition from myth to science as an explanation for the workings…