... the rules of quantum mechanics forbid the complete destruction of information. ... documents can be burned [but] there’s nothing in the laws of physics that prevents the information lost in a book’s smoke and ashes from being reconstructed, at least in principle.
November 11, 2025 at 7:41 AM
... the rules of quantum mechanics forbid the complete destruction of information. ... documents can be burned [but] there’s nothing in the laws of physics that prevents the information lost in a book’s smoke and ashes from being reconstructed, at least in principle.
In 1955, Chomsky found a job at MIT. [...] The same year he submitted his doctoral dissertation to the University of Pennsylvania. The university granted him a Ph.D. for his thesis Transformational Analysis.
In fact, it was just the ninth chapter of [his manuscript].
In fact, it was just the ninth chapter of [his manuscript].
November 10, 2025 at 9:52 PM
In 1955, Chomsky found a job at MIT. [...] The same year he submitted his doctoral dissertation to the University of Pennsylvania. The university granted him a Ph.D. for his thesis Transformational Analysis.
In fact, it was just the ninth chapter of [his manuscript].
In fact, it was just the ninth chapter of [his manuscript].
Scientists had previously found that coastal condors had a greater probability of hatching failure. So Tubbs asked Hoh to test plasma from coastal condors and compare it to plasma from inland condors that did not have access to ocean mammal meals.
November 3, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Scientists had previously found that coastal condors had a greater probability of hatching failure. So Tubbs asked Hoh to test plasma from coastal condors and compare it to plasma from inland condors that did not have access to ocean mammal meals.
“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”
www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theeg...
www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theeg...
The Egg
www.galactanet.com
October 27, 2025 at 7:59 PM
“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”
www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theeg...
www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theeg...
… plants and infecting fungi can use packets of havoc-wreaking RNA as a form of coevolutionary information warfare: An enemy cell reads the RNA and builds self-harming proteins with its own molecular machinery.
Cells Across the Tree of Life Exchange ‘Text Messages’ Using RNA | Quanta Magazine
Long known as a messenger within cells, RNA is increasingly seen as life’s molecular communication system — even between organisms widely separated by evolution.
www.quantamagazine.org
October 13, 2025 at 8:26 PM
… plants and infecting fungi can use packets of havoc-wreaking RNA as a form of coevolutionary information warfare: An enemy cell reads the RNA and builds self-harming proteins with its own molecular machinery.
“When people feel uncertain, they’d rather have someone strong and wrong than weak and right.”
October 4, 2025 at 6:42 PM
“When people feel uncertain, they’d rather have someone strong and wrong than weak and right.”
The sensation that he, my previous self, was still sitting there was so strong that I pulled out the chair next to it instead, and sat down. It was as if I could see him but he couldn’t see me. He thought he was alone. He wasn’t. I had been there all along.
www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/third-chai...
www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/third-chai...
The third chair
I remembered my loneliness; I felt it with a defencelessness that I had denied myself at the time. The feeling that writing was impossible; that I would never find a place in the world that felt like ...
www.henrikkarlsson.xyz
September 29, 2025 at 10:12 AM
The sensation that he, my previous self, was still sitting there was so strong that I pulled out the chair next to it instead, and sat down. It was as if I could see him but he couldn’t see me. He thought he was alone. He wasn’t. I had been there all along.
www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/third-chai...
www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/third-chai...
The notion of cellular automata goes back to von Neumann and Ulam, whom Feynman had known at Los Alamos. Richard's recent interest in the subject was motivated by his friends Ed Fredkin and Stephen Wolfram, both of whom were fascinated by cellular automata models of physics.
September 19, 2025 at 1:54 PM
The notion of cellular automata goes back to von Neumann and Ulam, whom Feynman had known at Los Alamos. Richard's recent interest in the subject was motivated by his friends Ed Fredkin and Stephen Wolfram, both of whom were fascinated by cellular automata models of physics.
Even if I could see the steps, however, I would need to be an expert in many fields - from coding to entrepreneurship - to really have a sense of what the AI was doing. And then, of course, there is the question of accuracy. How can I tell if the AI is accurate without checking every fact?
September 12, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Even if I could see the steps, however, I would need to be an expert in many fields - from coding to entrepreneurship - to really have a sense of what the AI was doing. And then, of course, there is the question of accuracy. How can I tell if the AI is accurate without checking every fact?
If salt levels are high, the animal drinks.
But there is a disconnect between drinking water and correcting the water-salt balance. It takes 30 to 60 minutes for water to enter the bloodstream once it’s consumed, and the brain cannot wait that long to figure out if the body has the water it needs.
But there is a disconnect between drinking water and correcting the water-salt balance. It takes 30 to 60 minutes for water to enter the bloodstream once it’s consumed, and the brain cannot wait that long to figure out if the body has the water it needs.
September 5, 2025 at 1:48 PM
If salt levels are high, the animal drinks.
But there is a disconnect between drinking water and correcting the water-salt balance. It takes 30 to 60 minutes for water to enter the bloodstream once it’s consumed, and the brain cannot wait that long to figure out if the body has the water it needs.
But there is a disconnect between drinking water and correcting the water-salt balance. It takes 30 to 60 minutes for water to enter the bloodstream once it’s consumed, and the brain cannot wait that long to figure out if the body has the water it needs.
"It validates an intuition that appears increasingly common in the AI alignment community, that all methods we use for alignment are highly superficial. Deep down, the model appears capable of exhibiting any behavior we may be interested in."
September 5, 2025 at 1:31 PM
"It validates an intuition that appears increasingly common in the AI alignment community, that all methods we use for alignment are highly superficial. Deep down, the model appears capable of exhibiting any behavior we may be interested in."
The depiction of the Pleiades on the disc in conjunction with a crescent moon is thought to represent a calendar rule for synchronising solar and lunar calendars, enabling the creation of a lunisolar calendar.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_s...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_s...
Nebra sky disc - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
August 25, 2025 at 8:27 PM
The depiction of the Pleiades on the disc in conjunction with a crescent moon is thought to represent a calendar rule for synchronising solar and lunar calendars, enabling the creation of a lunisolar calendar.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_s...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_s...
"Only the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University were willing to welcome her straight into a doctoral program. She’ll start at Maryland in the fall. When she finishes, it will be her first degree."
www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah...
www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah...
At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery | Quanta Magazine
After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture.
www.quantamagazine.org
August 2, 2025 at 2:34 PM
"Only the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University were willing to welcome her straight into a doctoral program. She’ll start at Maryland in the fall. When she finishes, it will be her first degree."
www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah...
www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah...
Whether falling cherry blossoms or barley flowers or a life quenched like a candle, nothing can be done. Rituals and refinement could be deflection and defense, even denial, an attempt to hide from ourselves the vulgar insistence of human needs — or the opposite:
July 19, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Whether falling cherry blossoms or barley flowers or a life quenched like a candle, nothing can be done. Rituals and refinement could be deflection and defense, even denial, an attempt to hide from ourselves the vulgar insistence of human needs — or the opposite:
Ms. Hodgson has many happy memories of those beaches. But she’s resigned to the changes. “It was fun while it lasted,” she said.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/c...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/c...
An Ancient Law Could Shape the Modern Future of America’s Beaches. Here’s How.
www.nytimes.com
July 19, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Ms. Hodgson has many happy memories of those beaches. But she’s resigned to the changes. “It was fun while it lasted,” she said.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/c...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/c...
“I noticed a strange emotional charge from interacting daily with a system … affirm[ed] me. When I fed it a prompt in my voice and it returned a sharp version of what I was trying to say, I felt a little thrill, as if I’d been seen. Then I got confused, as if I were somehow now derivative.”
July 18, 2025 at 6:28 PM
“I noticed a strange emotional charge from interacting daily with a system … affirm[ed] me. When I fed it a prompt in my voice and it returned a sharp version of what I was trying to say, I felt a little thrill, as if I’d been seen. Then I got confused, as if I were somehow now derivative.”
The Serb-encircled enclave of Srebrenica, protected in theory by more than 400 Dutch U.N. troops, suffered the culminating assault of this Serbian campaign.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/u...
Srebrenica, a Massacre Foretold, Still Casts Its Shadow
www.nytimes.com
July 11, 2025 at 12:35 PM
The Serb-encircled enclave of Srebrenica, protected in theory by more than 400 Dutch U.N. troops, suffered the culminating assault of this Serbian campaign.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/u...
Mediterranean Sea surface temperature at 28°C, more than 6°C above long-term average.
Buckle up.
Buckle up.
July 9, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Mediterranean Sea surface temperature at 28°C, more than 6°C above long-term average.
Buckle up.
Buckle up.
“Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of imagination”
L.W.
L.W.
July 9, 2025 at 8:35 PM
“Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of imagination”
L.W.
L.W.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: After [winning the second place in an event he didn’t even expect to be on the podium], I never went to a competition to compete. I went to win. Even though I didn't win every time, that was my mind-set. I became a total animal.…”
July 8, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Arnold Schwarzenegger: After [winning the second place in an event he didn’t even expect to be on the podium], I never went to a competition to compete. I went to win. Even though I didn't win every time, that was my mind-set. I became a total animal.…”
In this framework, our entire observable universe lies inside the interior of a black hole formed in some larger “parent” universe.
www.port.ac.uk/news-events-...
www.port.ac.uk/news-events-...
What if the Big Bang wasn’t the beginning? Our research suggests it may have taken place inside a black hole
In this blog, Professor Enrique Gaztanaga from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation writes for The Conversation.
www.port.ac.uk
July 5, 2025 at 7:44 PM
In this framework, our entire observable universe lies inside the interior of a black hole formed in some larger “parent” universe.
www.port.ac.uk/news-events-...
www.port.ac.uk/news-events-...
Reposted
National Science Foundation staff were notified that their office space will be taken over by Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's unclear where the 1,800+ NSF employees will work. Renovation plans apparently include a personal gym for the HUD secretary & family eos.org/research-and...
National Science Foundation Staff Booted From Headquarters - Eos
Staff at the National Science Foundation (NSF) were notified on 25 June that the agency’s office space, located in Alexandria, Va., will be taken over by Department of Housing and Urban Development (H...
eos.org
June 26, 2025 at 1:19 AM
National Science Foundation staff were notified that their office space will be taken over by Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's unclear where the 1,800+ NSF employees will work. Renovation plans apparently include a personal gym for the HUD secretary & family eos.org/research-and...