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Why Am I Left-Handed?
Why are only 10% of people left-handed? Geneticists, developmental biologists, neuroscientists, and evolutionary biologists have all sought explanati…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Audio Edition: Old ‘Ghost’ Theory of Quantum Gravity Makes a Comeback
Has the secret to understanding gravity been hiding in plain sight for nearly 50 years?
The article Old ‘Ghost’ Theory of Quantum Gravity Makes a Come…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
A Dark Dimension Could Link Two of the Universe’s Great Unknowns
Generally, dark energy and dark matter are regarded as separate entities, but recent astronomical observations have spurred scientists to look furthe…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Is Life Just Different?
There’s no scientific consensus about what makes living things so different from inorganic material. Some scientists cite replication or metabolism. …
2 months ago
Audio Edition: ‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback
You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the same?
The article ‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI…
2 months ago
How Many Shuffles Do You Really Need to Randomize Your Deck?
In 1992, mathematicians Dave Bayer and Persi Diaconis proved that seven riffle shuffles are enough to shuffle a deck of cards — but only if you can c…
2 months, 1 week ago
Will We Ever Be Able To Forecast Volcanic Eruptions Like Weather?
Volcano forecasting can save countless lives. But most of the time warnings are more like educated guesses. How close are we to forecasting volcano b…
2 months, 2 weeks ago
Audio Edition: Tiny Tubes Reveal Clues to the Evolution of Complex Life
Scientists have identified tubulin structures in primitive Asgard archea that may have been the precursor of our own cellular skeletons.
The article T…
2 months, 2 weeks ago
Are Memories Transferable — or Edible?
In the 60s, an eccentric behavioral psychologist pureed a bunch of planarian worms and fed them to other ones. For years after, he claimed that the c…
2 months, 3 weeks ago
How Many Elementary Particles Are There, Really?
How many pieces are there in the Standard Model of particle physics? 17, 30, 37, 61, 118? Or is the true answer much larger — and not even an integer…
2 months, 4 weeks ago