Learning Through Student Feedback
By Mark Pierce
Halloween Science: Your Ancestors May Have...
Something Happened In Silicon Valley
Quantum Leap Or Quantum Mirage? What Happens...
These days I am putting the finishing touches on a hybrid algorithm that optimizes... Read >
Once the weather got political, more attention became focused on the cyclical... Read >
In late January 2026, New York Magazine published a striking piece of cultural... Read >
Publicly doctors say all of the things you'd expect a group with heavy state... Read >
In 1918, with Gen Black Jack Pershing off to France to stop the Germans in... Read >
Although I have long retired from serious chess tournaments (they take too... Read >
On The Illusion Of Time And The Strange Economy Of Existence
I recently listened again to Richard Feynman explaining why the flowing of time is probably an illusion. In modern physics time is just a coordinate, on the same footing as space, and the universe can be described as a four-dimensional object — a spacetime block. In that view, nothing really ...
RIP - Hans Jensen
Today I was saddened to hear of the passing of Hans Jensen, a physicist and former colleague in the CDF experiment at Fermilab. There is an obituary page here with nice pics and a bio if you want detail on his interesting, accomplished life. Here I thought I would remember him by pasting an excerpt ...
2026 Plans
This year opened in slow motion for me, at least work-wise. I have been on parental leave since December 16, when my third and fourth sons were born within one minute from one another, but of course a workaholic can never stand completely still. In fact, even as we speak I am sitting and typing ...
Letter To A Demanding PhD Supervisor
A fundamental component of my research work is the close collaboration with a large number of scientists from all around the world. This is the result of the very large scale of the experiments that are necessary to investigate the structure of matter at the smallest distance scales: building and ...
Urban Trees Can Absorb More CO2 Than Cars Emit
A new study finds that even in urban environments, trees make a terrific contribution to offsetting carbon dioxide emissions in cities, while grass is less valuable.Soil respiration of grass exceeds photosynthesis so grassy areas release more carbon dioxide than they bind, making them a source ...
New Study Shows Shrinking Snow Coverage
A new study examining regional snow cover trends across the Northern Hemisphere found seasonal shifts in snow - and a lot less of it.The authors used the Rutgers University Global Snow Lab Northern Hemisphere Weekly Snow Cover Extent Data Record to determine whether snow cover across the Northern ...
Prehistoric Peter Pan Syndrome
In older countries it has become common for young people to live with their parents until, and sometimes well after, they get married. A new study finds that some parts of the animal kingdom don't even stop growing until what it middle age for humans. An analysis of 17 tyrannosaurus rex specimens ...
Bacteroides Fragilis May Be A Fifth Columnist Helping Colon Cancer In Your Body
The gut bacterium Bacteroides fragilis has long presented researchers with a paradox. It has been associated with colorectal cancer, yet it also lives quite happily in most healthy people. A new study from a Danish research team offers a possible clue. When they looked beyond the bacterium itself ...
At 2 Months, Babies Can Categorize Objects
At two months of age, infants lack language and fine motor control but their minds may be understanding how things look and figuring out to which category they belong, which would push back earlier beliefs about the foundations of visual cognition.A new study recruited 130 two-month-old infants ...
Environmental Activists Hate CRISPR - And They're Dooming People With HIV
Existing treatments control HIV but the immune system does not revert to normal. They is why people living with HIV remain susceptible to infections and it underscores the need for immunotherapies.That requires modern tools like CRISPR-Cas9 and others. Tools that environmentalists oppose, insisting ...
Using Cholera To Battle Colorectal Cancer
Colorectal cancer, cancer of the colon and rectum, is the third most common form of cancer in the world and has the second highest mortality rate. When caught early enough, it is usually treated with surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, methods that can have significant side effects.A new study ...
Don't Sleep A Lot? You May Be At Risk For Diabetes
A new paper says the way to lower your risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes is not losing weight and exercising more, but sleeping 7 hours and 18 minutes every night.You can't multiply that by seven days and catch up by sleeping more on the weekend and it also means if you just sleep less, you are ...
Mushrooms Linked To Fewer COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial tested a four-day oral supplement, “FoTv,” which is made from the mycelium — the root-like network — of two types of mushrooms: Fomitopsis officinalis and Trametes versicolor (FoTv). Participants began taking the supplement on ...
Satellite Livers Instead Of Transplantation
A bad liver today currently means a replacement, but having enough transplant organs is challenging when families worry their loved ones' skeletons could be sold to middle schools and end up immortalized in prank photos. The future will involve replacements made with a patient's own stem cells ...
Losing Weight Improves The Heartbreak Of Psoriasis For Some
For many people living with psoriasis, the red, scaly skin patches are only part of the story. Another challenge is the uncertainty about whether there is anything they can do themselves to help manage their skin.Treatments have improved greatly in recent years. Creams, tablets and injectable medicines ...
Mesolithic People Had Meals With More Tradition Than You Thought
The common imagery of prehistoric people is either rooting through dirt for grubs and picking berries, or hunting mastodons with spears. Those are both true but some also had a good variety in meals. They were also fishers, not just hunter-gatherers.A new study analyzed remains found on 58 pieces ...
COVID-19 Lockdowns Set Back Childhood Development By Years
COVID-19 lockdowns were an important tool in mitigating risks of acquiring the disease and putting those with comorbidities at higher risk, but objective epidemiologists questioned the value of lockdowns beyond three weeks. Some areas exceeded SAR and R0 models by months or, in states like California ...
Canadian Epidemiologists Claim Processed Foods Cause Bad Kids
A cohort analysis of preschoolers in Canada has led the authors of the paper to call for bans on so-called "ultraprocessed" foods, charging that it will lead to long-term mental health and well-behaved children.There are numerous confounders. It was only 2,077 children, in Canada, and relied ...
Theory Of Mind Is Wrong About Autistic People
For four decades, a controversial idea has shaped how autism is understood by researchers, healthcare professionals and the public: the claim that autistic people are “mind blind”. The phrase suggests an inability to grasp what others think or feel. It is simple, memorable – and wrong.The ...
If You Don't Like Math, Blame Pollen
Epidemiologists say that pollen can cause worse outcomes for students in math, chemistry and physics.Allergic rhinitis, an allergic reaction to things such as dust, pet hair, and pollen, is common. Epidemiologists link that to cardiovascular health and even blanket terms like wellness. There is ...
What AI Can't Do: Humanity’s Last Exam
By this time 26 years ago, the "Dot-Com Bubble" was ready to burst. People who wanted to raise investor money claimed that they could sell anything affordably on a website; three companies were devoted just to pet food and buying ad space on broadcast television.So-called AI is enjoying a similar ...
Does NBA Income Inequality Impact Team Performance?
A new paper says that players where a few superstars get the money leads to less cooperation and poor team performance. The authors say this salary compression is why teams won fewer games.The authors also suggest that companies should strive for more equity in pay, to increase synchronized ...
Chloe Kim And Eileen Gu In Media As Anti-Asian Narrative
Olympians Chloe Kim and Eileen Gu are both Americans but have Asian descent. Yet Kim competed for her country in 2018 while Gu chose to instead compete for Communist China, which does not allow dual citizenship yet actively recruits foreign athletes to be on their Olympic team even if they have ...
A study has been making the rounds and has been published in BJSM. It is a meta-analysis of various... more »
Air India Flight 171 - Flawed EE Bay Water Ingress TheoryRichard Godfrey, in many videos on the... more »
In the past few years my activities on this site - but I would say more in general, as the same... more »
This came up on 2nd November 2024 (give or take a day), a broadcaster objecting to a carbon capture... more »
Sheer beauty — a beautiful Euhoplites ammonite from Folkstone, UK. These lovelies have a pleasing... more »
