Science and Tech

Science and Tech

crispr cholesterol
It could permanently lower cholesterol — and permanently reduce your risk of having a heart attack.
While Y chromosome loss was first observed in 1963, it was not until 2014 that researchers found the link to a shorter life span.
A painting of an elderly man with long white hair and beard, wearing a red robe, surrounded by clouds with a halo above his head, set against a soft green sky—inviting reflection on beliefs and the types of atheism.
Just as there are many types of believers, there's not only one type of atheist.
John Templeton Foundation
neuroplasticity
Long thought incapable of regenerating, we now know that brain cells can grow and reorganize. That, it turns out, is a mixed blessing.
lasers
Lasers are all around you. This ubiquitous technology came from our understanding of quantum physics.
Searching for dark matter, the XENON collaboration found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Here's why that's an extraordinary feat.
enlightenment
A second Enlightenment would have a far bigger task: Saving civilization itself.
transhumanism
Proponents of transhumanism make big promises, such as a future in which we upload our minds into a supercomputer. But there is a fatal flaw in this argument: reductionism.
same-sex behavior
Turning off a gene called “Myc” has a surprising effect in male fruit flies: They start courting other males.
For over three decades, toxic proteins were believed to cause Alzheimer’s disease. However, recent studies suggest it might be metabolic reprogramming.
quantum communication
Quantum communication offers a surer path to sending an interstellar message, as well as receiving one. But can we do it?
More than 150 companies are developing flying cars. Here's why they're aren't yet off the ground and darting across city skies.
sleep sound
the human brain remains highly responsive to sound during sleep, but it does not receive feedback from higher order areas — sort of like an orchestra with “the conductor missing.”
The world is aging, and with age comes vision decline. New research may have found how to improve eyesight in an accessible way.
More humans are being born with a third arm artery, an example of microevolution happening right before our eyes.
eagle nebula stars
Even though the leftover glow from the Big Bang creates a bath of radiation at only 2.725 K, some places in the Universe get even colder.
The serotonin theory of depression started to be widely promoted in the 1990s, coinciding with a push to prescribe more SSRIs.
instructional design models
There are dozens of instructional design models, but most learning designers rely on a select few. Here are four of the most common.
From Amazon to the US Army, everybody wants one (or 150).
time dilation
We live in a four-dimensional Universe, where matter and energy curve the fabric of spacetime. But time sure is different from space!
The costs of such an endeavor would be extremely high, while the potential payoffs would be uncertain.
There's a speed limit to the Universe: the speed of light in a vacuum. Want to beat the speed of light? Try going through a medium!
Deliveries of the $250k Lightyear 0 will start in November 2022.
Cement production currently accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions.
MIRI
Take a peek at the pre-release images used to calibrate and commission JWST's coldest instrument, now ready for full science operations.
salton sea
A team of scientists hopes deep-earth lithium could sustain America's vast demand for batteries. But extracting it won't be easy.
length of day
The length of a day oscillates slightly every six years. This was a surprising discovery made last decade. We might now know why.
Livestock now outweighs wild mammals and birds ten-fold.
night vision
Deep learning AI has accurately created color images from night vision images.