New this week
National Geographic
Why love and touch were once called ‘dangerous’ and how science proved that wrong in the 1950s
National Geographic
1 min read · May 19th · A series of now-infamous monkey experiments pushed the scientific community to acknowledge the importance of love and touch.
Shared by 7, including Deborah Blum
Discover Magazine
Scientists Are Using Ancient Rat Remains to Retrace Human History
Discover Magazine
5 min read · May 3rd · Researchers think that the genomes of ancient rat specimens can offer clues about the fall of the Roman Empire — and may help shine a light on other dark corners in our collective past.
Reader View · Shared by 10, including Bethany Brookshire, Jennifer Ouellette
Freethink
mRNA breakthrough offers a potential heart attack cure
Freethink
3 min read · May 2nd · King’s College London researchers have used mRNA to regenerate cardiac tissue in pig hearts, what they hope is the first step towards a heart attack cure.
Reader View · Shared by 34
medicalxpress.com
Scientists develop 'off the shelf' engineered stem cells to treat aggressive brain cancer
medicalxpress.com
3 min read · May 21st · Glioblastomas (GBMs) are highly aggressive cancerous tumors of the brain and spinal cord. Brain cancers like GBM are challenging to treat because many cancer therapeutics cannot pass through the blood…
Reader View · Shared by 74
Discover Magazine
How The New Science of Biocosmology Redefines Our Understanding Of Life
Discover Magazine
4 min read · Apr 29th · Scientists have long wondered how complex life emerged in a universe of ever-increasing disorder. Now a group of scientists think they now know.
Reader View · Shared by 99, including Jennifer Ouellette
𝔊𝔴𝔢𝔯𝔫
Fake Journal Club: Teaching Critical Reading
𝔊𝔴𝔢𝔯𝔫
~12 min read · May 19th · Discussion of how to teach active reading and questioning of scientific research. Partially fake research papers may teach a critical attitude. Various ideas for games reviewed.
Reader View · Shared by 205, including Ines Bieler
Futurity News
Why do hugs feel good? This chemical messenger
Futurity News
3 min read · May 3rd · A study in mice identifies a chemical messenger that carries signals between nerve cells that transmit the sensation known as pleasant touch.
Quanta Magazine
In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve Into a Tiny Ecosystem
Quanta Magazine
7 min read · May 5th · When researchers gave a genetic molecule the ability to replicate, it evolved over time into a complex network of “hosts” and “parasites” that both competed and cooperated to survive.
Shared by 74, including Brian Ahier
Futurism
Scientists Discover Something That Looks Like a Road Deep Under the Ocean
Futurism
1 min read · May 7th · Crew aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus discvered a "yellow brick road" that looks it leads to Atlantis. Climage change may affect future ocean studies.
Reader View · Shared by 72, including MEL Magazine
Quanta Magazine
Computer Scientists Prove Certain Problems Are Truly Hard
Quanta Magazine
7 min read · May 11th · Finding out whether a question is too difficult to ever solve efficiently depends on figuring out just how hard it is. Researchers have now shown how to do that for a major class of problems.
dwarkeshpatel.com
The mystery of the miracle year
dwarkeshpatel.com
6 min read · Apr 17th · An interesting pattern recurs across the career of great scientists: an annus mirabilis (miracle year) in which they make multiple, seemingly independent breakthroughs in the span of a single year or…
Reader View · Shared by 25, including Alf Rehn, Nico Müller 🇺🇦
Visual Capitalist
Synthetic Biology: The $3.6 Trillion Science Changing Life as We Know It
Visual Capitalist
9 min read · May 11th · Synthetic biology (synbio) is a field of science that redesigns organisms in an effort to enhance and support human life. According to one projection, this rapidly growing field of science is expected…
Reader View · Shared by 128, including Brian Laung Aoaeh, CFA, Dr. Marcell Vollmer 🇺🇦 #StaySafe & Carpe Diem
Brain Pickings
The Faith of the Naturist: John Burroughs’s Superb Century-Old Manifesto for Spirituality in the Age of Science
Brain Pickings
7 min read · May 14th · “Communing with God is communing with our own hearts, our own best selves, not with something foreign and accidental. Saints and devotees have gone into the wilderness to find God; of course …
Reader View · Shared by 277, including John Hagel, Charles Duhigg
Recently popular
ciechanow.ski
Mechanical Watch – Bartosz Ciechanowski
ciechanow.ski
20+ min read · May 4th · Interactive article explaining how a mechanical watch works.
Reader View · Shared by 685, including Krzysztof Zabłocki, Tactical Tech, Leo Polovets, Max Roser, Michael Bench-Capon, Nico Luchsinger, Nils Hitze, Oliver Reichenstein, Craig Mod, Ben Thompson, Pascal Sulser, Tim Holman, Carlos Scheidegger, Chris Heilmann, David Papandrew, Esther Schindler, Romain Guy, tanh(mmalex) 🇺🇦
The Pudding
We think this cool study we found is flawed. Help us reproduce it.
The Pudding
5 min read · Apr 28th · Are 25 year olds really more random than 60 year olds?
Reader View · Shared by 484, including David Smith, David Robinson, Simon C, Pascal Sulser, Stéphanie Walter, Tactical Tech
Quanta Magazine
Where Do Space, Time and Gravity Come From?
Quanta Magazine
20+ min read · May 4th · Einstein’s description of curved space-time doesn’t easily mesh with a universe made up of quantum wavefunctions. Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll discusses the quest for quantum gravity with host…
Shared by 476, including Anita Leirfall
scienceme.com
What is Schrodinger's Cat?
scienceme.com
10 min read · May 3rd · Schrodinger's Cat is a hypothetical thought experiment created in 1935 by a man who loved physics and hated cats.
Reader View · Shared by 421, including David Papandrew
Phys.org
Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
Phys.org
3 min read · Apr 27th · An enzyme variant created by engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin can break down environment-throttling plastics that typically take centuries to degrade in just a matter of…
Brain Pickings
The Faith of the Naturist: John Burroughs’s Superb Century-Old Manifesto for Spirituality in the Age of Science
Brain Pickings
7 min read · May 14th · “Communing with God is communing with our own hearts, our own best selves, not with something foreign and accidental. Saints and devotees have gone into the wilderness to find God; of course …
Reader View · Shared by 277, including John Hagel, Charles Duhigg
Discover Magazine
How Adding Iodine to Salt Boosted Americans' IQ
Discover Magazine
2 min read · May 4th · New research finds that iodine played a substantial role in cognitive improvements in 20th century Americans.
Reader View · Shared by 274
Visual Capitalist
Nature Timespiral: The Evolution of Earth from the Big Bang
Visual Capitalist
10 min read · Apr 23rd · Since the dawn of humanity, we have looked questioningly to the heavens with great interest and awe. We’ve called on the stars to guide us, and have made some of humanity’s
Reader View · Shared by 272, including Dr. Marcell Vollmer 🇺🇦 #StaySafe & Carpe Diem, Harold Sinnott 📱📲 #SAPSapphireOrlando
Quanta Magazine
Why ‘De-Extinction’ Is Impossible (But Could Work Anyway)
Quanta Magazine
3 min read · May 9th · Several projects are aiming to bring back mammoths and other species that have vanished from the planet. Whether that’s technically possible is beside the point.
Shared by 252, including Pascal Sulser
Reader's Digest
25 Amazing Science Facts That Are Weird, Wild, and True
Reader's Digest
~12 min read · May 3rd · These weird, wild, and totally true science facts prove that reality is often stranger—and a lot more interesting—than fiction.
Reader View · Shared by 247
All-time favorites
Quanta Magazine
Scientists Watch a Memory Form in a Living Brain
Quanta Magazine
2 min read · Mar 3rd · While watching a fearful memory take shape in the brain of a living fish, neuroscientists see an unexpected level of rewiring occur in the synaptic connections.
Shared by 1361, including Jane, Sam, Howard Getson, Pippa Malmgren, USC, Chris Isak , Chaotic Goode, Nicolas Babin #AmazonPartner, AI, PNASNews, Danielle 👩🏻💻, John Hagel, ipfconline 🇺🇦, 🟣 Antonio Vieira Santos #FutureOfWork, Leonardo Sumulong, Brian Ahier, Nico Müller 🇺🇦, Kevin Mitchell, Brian Roemmele
The New Yorker
The Science of Mind Reading
The New Yorker
6 min read · 2021-11-29 · Researchers are pursuing age-old questions about the nature of thoughts—and learning how to read them.
Reader View · Shared by 700, including sarcastic_f, Oscar MacDonald, John Hagel, William El Kaim, Jane, Moheb Costandi, Howard Getson, Stephanie A Kowalski, Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦, Evan Kirstel the $B2B Techfluencer, Jason Silva, Barry Ritholtz, Anita Leirfall, Brian Ahier, AI, Vaughan Bell
ciechanow.ski
Mechanical Watch – Bartosz Ciechanowski
ciechanow.ski
20+ min read · May 4th · Interactive article explaining how a mechanical watch works.
Reader View · Shared by 685, including Krzysztof Zabłocki, Tactical Tech, Leo Polovets, Max Roser, Michael Bench-Capon, Nico Luchsinger, Nils Hitze, Oliver Reichenstein, Craig Mod, Ben Thompson, Pascal Sulser, Tim Holman, Carlos Scheidegger, Chris Heilmann, David Papandrew, Esther Schindler, Romain Guy, tanh(mmalex) 🇺🇦
nature
Adding is favoured over subtracting in problem solving
nature
4 min read · 2021-04-08 · People tend to solve problems by adding features.
Reader View · Shared by 673, including Bob Sutton, Patrick Sanwikarja, Peter Herger, Esther Schindler, Christopher Lauer, Gabriele, Nando 💪🇦🇺🇦🇷, Luzius Meisser, Arie Goldshlager, Filippo Antonio Capizzi, Stephan Woodtli, Kyle Bunch, Matteo Furia, davidabrock, Benjamin, Zach Seward, Bas Grasmayer, Mark Kaigwa, William Gibson, Patrick Collison
Science Magazine
Artificial intelligence is evolving all by itself
Science Magazine
3 min read · From 2020 · Advance replicates decades of AI research in days
Reader View · Shared by 663, including Marc R Gagné MAPP 🍁, ipfconline 🇺🇦, Ronald van Loon, Nige Willson, Meghan M. Biro ⚡️, Yves Mulkers, News from Science, Roger Highfield, Theodora (Theo) Lau - 劉䂀曼 🌻, George Shiber, Bob Violino, AAAS, Bob E. Hayes, Thomas Power, Evan Kirstel the $B2B Techfluencer, Andreas Staub, Iain Brown, PhD, Terence Mills, Martin Ford, Tamara McCleary
XKCD Comic
Types of Scientific Paper
XKCD Comic
2021-04-28 · This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). More details.
Shared by 653, including Lynn Cherny, Kate Crawford, Robert Kosara, Moritz Stefaner, M.J. Crockett, Mathew Ingram, Hannah Ritchie, Helen De Cruz, Jennifer Ouellette, Cory Doctorow, Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦, Kevin Marks, Prof. Lauren Hall-Lew (she/her), Brendan Nyhan, Danielle 👩🏻💻, Liam Bright, Renee DiResta, Kevin J.S. Zollman, Andrew Dessler, Maarten Lambrechts
Quanta Magazine
Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real
Quanta Magazine
7 min read · 2021-07-30 · Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming energy. Physicists claim to have built this new phase of matter inside a quantum computer.
Shared by 606, including Evan Kirstel the $B2B Techfluencer, Marius Bleuer, Mathew Ingram, John Hagel, Berci Meskó, MD, PhD, Eli Pariser 🏞📲, Nicolas Babin #AmazonPartner, Rick Powell, Kyle Bunch, Jessy Lane, Nico Müller 🇺🇦, Scott Santens, Andreas Staub, Dion Almaer, Jennifer Ouellette, Brian Ahier, Gabriele, Martin Recke, Nando de Freitas 🏳️🌈, Jeremiah Owyang jowyang.eth
WIRED
The Teeny, Tiny Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill
WIRED
~19 min read · 2021-05-13 · All pandemic long, scientists brawled over how the virus spreads. Droplets! No, aerosols! At the heart of the fight was a mysterious error in decades-old research.
Shared by 575, including wil shipley, Moritz Stefaner, David Smith, ɪᴀɴ ᴍ. ᴍᴀᴄᴋᴀʏ, ᴘʜᴅ 🦠🤧🧬🥼🦟🧻🧙♂️, Bethany Brookshire, Martin Stabe, zooko❤ⓩ🛡🦓🦓🦓, Kevin Marks, Mark Hogan, Dr. Simon A. Rego, Douglas Karr, Rachel Glennerster, Gavin Schmidt, David Fisman, Akshat Rathi, Roger Highfield, Steve Keen, Lee Keyes, zeynep tufekci, Jen Simmons
The New Yorker
The Day the Dinosaurs Died
The New Yorker
20+ min read · From 2019 · A young paleontologist may have discovered a record of the most significant event in the history of life on Earth.
Reader View · Shared by 548, including Michael Seemann, Shanna Peeples she/her 🏳️🌈, Ward Plunet, mdy, Marsha Collier, Ajit Pai, Beto Esquivel, Richard Deitsch, Tiago Forte, Dominik Grolimund, Aral Balkan, Mike Davidson, Nils Hitze, 𝔎𝔢𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔚𝔦𝔩𝔰𝔬𝔫 🆚 🦠, Mathew Ingram, LoriBeth, Florian Hanke 🍎, Korben, zooko❤ⓩ🛡🦓🦓🦓, Jeff Atwood
