The Great Matrix of Being
The four dimensions in the Great Matrix of Being give us four ways of measuring reality — by time, by scale, by energy density flow, and by thresholds of emergent complexity. All phenomena can be located within this Matrix.
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Miraculous Conception: Are Planets Forming Without Stars?
One of the most remarkable discoveries about exoplanets—planets that exist outside of our solar system—is that some of them appear to be flying through interstellar space on their own. They’re not orbiting a star, nor are they tied to any other obvious companion. The precise number of these planets—alternately called “free-floating,” “Steppenwolf,” “unbound,” or “rogue”…
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Gorgeous Glimpses of Calamity
“Welcome to the Anthropocene.” That is the message of a stunning collection of satellite images recently compiled by the New York Times.
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Four Reasons You Shouldn’t Exist
You’re almost unfathomably lucky to exist, in almost every conceivable way. Don’t take it the wrong way. You, me, and even the most calming manatee are nothing but impurities in an otherwise beautifully simple universe. We’re lucky life began on Earth at all, of course, and that something as complex as humans evolved. It was…
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Are We Martians After All?
If you looked in a mirror this morning, you may have seen a descendant of creatures from Mars. That is, if biochemist Steven Benner of the Westheimer Institute of Science and Technology in Gainesville, Florida, is right. “Life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock,” Benner declares. Today, at the European Association…
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New Element 115, Ununpentium, May Join Periodic Table
The periodic table of the elements has grown ever since the first version was published by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869. And now scientists in Sweden suggest it’s time to add yet another element to the table. New research confirms the existence of a super-heavy, radioactive element with atomic number 115. Its temporary name is ununpentium…
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The Proof in the Quantum Pudding
In early May, news reports gushed that a quantum computation device had for the first time outperformed classical computers, solving certain problems thousands of times faster. The media coverage sent ripples of excitement through the technology community. A full-on quantum computer, if ever built, would revolutionize large swathes of computer science, running many algorithms dramatically…
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The Truth is No Stranger Than Fiction When it Comes to Robots
Robots represent the cutting edge in science. For decades we have been promised a bright future in which these human-like machines will become so advanced that we won’t be able to tell the difference between them and us. But are technologists really dabbling in the unknown in their work or merely ripping a page out…
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West Antarctica Warmed Quickly: 20,000 Years Ago
The modern meltdown of the Antarctic Ice Sheet mirrors the frozen continent’s big thaw after the last ice age ended 20,000 years ago, a new study finds. New ice core records from West Antarctica show the huge ice sheet started heating up about 20,000 to 22,000 years ago, 2,000 to 4,000 years earlier than previously…
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Hunting Down the First Americans
James Adovasio stood on a platform on an overcast day last week, about forty feet up the side of a steep-sloped, wooded valley outside the tiny town of Avella, Pennsylvania, about thirty miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Adovasio, a sixty-nine-year-old archaeology professor, watched as a handful of archaeologists, mostly young ones, gently probed and poked at…
