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Craig Hogan believes that the world is fuzzy. This is not a metaphor. Hogan, a physicist at the University of Chicago and director of the Fermilab Particle Astrophysics Center near Batavia, Ill., thinks that if we were to peer down at the tiniest subdivisions of space and time, we would find a universe filled with…
Human brains are remarkably inefficient in some key ways: our memories are lousy; our grasp of logic is shallow, and our capacity to do arithmetic is dismal. Our collective cognitive shortcomings are so numerous I’ve written a book about them. And yet, in some ways, we continue to far outstrip the very silicon-based computers that…
The search for a far-off twin of Earth has turned up two of the most intriguing candidates yet. Scientists say these new worlds are the right size and distance from their parent star, so that you might expect to find liquid water on their surface. It is impossible to know for sure. Being 1,200 light-years…
These rhythmic signal pulses, which sweep through the brain during deep sleep at the rate of about one cycle per second, are assumed to play a role in processes such as consolidation of memory. For the first time, researchers have shown conclusively that slow waves start in the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain…
Because nature does not present the world in the form we would like, we must reorder it. To create this new order, we need information about what that order is supposed to look like, knowledge about how to build it and energy to get it into shape. Many technological revolutions of the past have focused…
Here’s an interesting idea. Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years or so. That has produced an exponential increase in the number of transistors on microchips and continues to do so. But if an observer today was to measure this rate of increase, it would be…
Famed British cosmologist Stephen Hawking sees only one way for humanity to survive the next millennium: colonize space. And he’s probably right. In a lecture Tuesday in Los Angles, the 71-year-old Stephen Hawking said humanity would likely not survive another 1,000 years “without escaping beyond our fragile planet,” according to the Associated Press.
One need not look far these days to find people skeptical (at best) about the value of higher education. Most of these people particularly question the value of a liberal-arts education, which they view as outdated and elitist. Claiming economic pragmatism, they seek the curtailment or even outright elimination of arts and humanities programs. Liberal…
In 2008, researchers found remains of a few early human-like beings in a cave in South Africa. Now, they’ve pieced them together into one of the most complete skeletons of a human ancestor ever made. The skeletons belong to a new species of australopithecine, named Australopithecus sediba, discovered for the first time at that cave…
More than half of our nation’s waterways are in “poor condition.” So said the “National Rivers and Streams Assessment”, a recent report from the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA). As the weather warms and minds turn to spring and summer recreation, waterways in poor condition affect you directly if you are planning to swim, fish, or boat…