solar system
stellar physics
exoplanets
(& ET life)
galaxies
& cosmology
particle &
quantum physics
cultural
literacy
science, teaching,
education, & tech
late February 2018
Enceladus: teeming
with methane-
belching microbes?
(Scientific American)
Water on the Moon:
widespread,
but immobile
(NASA}
Micro-organisms in
extreme dry conditions:
thriving, dying, or
temporarily inactive?
(PNAS)
temporarily inactive.
... good news for
life on Mars?
Arecibo telescope
saved by university
consortium
(Science)
after NSF dumped it
Take handcuffs off
Martian life search?
(Science)
i.e., NASA should
be allowed to
contaminate
parts of Mars
Is this why we
haven't found
life on Mars yet?
(Science 2.0)
because we
haven't looked
(properly)
Oumaumau's
tumbling: clues to
a violent past?
(Earth & Sky)
fake videos ahead
Coming and going
of Neptune's storms
(Hubble)
climate
Spring is 20 days
early in a lot of places
(Washington Post)
including much of NC
Increasing ice loss
in the Antarctic
(Quartz)
new, higher-precision
measurements
document 2%
annual increase
Fastest decline in
Arctic ice in
1500 years?
(Vox)
isn't this news about
2.5 months late?
North Pole
temperatures surge
in dead of winter
(Washington Post)
30 - 50 °F above normal
policy &
the future
We can't engineer
our way out
of climate change
(Bloomberg)
IPCC report on
1.5 C warming
(IPCC)
a leaked draft
It's not working
(Washington Post)
carbon emissions
on the rise after
years of staying flat
90 ways to foul
the environment
(NY Times)
Trump and Congress
at work removing
regulations
stories
Why 6 people changed
their minds on
global warming
(NY Times)
Jean Lafitte, the
village, fights for
its life
(NY Times)
Amateur captures
supernova first light
(Astronomy)
first-ever optical
images of
a supernova's
shock breakout
... and
Berkeley
press release
published paper
has 2 nice graphs
(paywall)
Most distant
supernova ever
(Astronomy)a
z ~ 2 super-
luminous supernova
New upper limit on
neutron star masses
from gravitational
waves
(Science)
2.22 Msun
... revised slightly
from last week
The next frontier
in planet hunting
(March 2018 issue,
Scientific American)
Extended Kepler
K2: another 95
exoplanets
(Scientific American)
How humans will
react to the
discovery of ET life
(Frontiers in
Psychology)
"positively", except
maybe if it's microbial
The Milky Way's
core -- up close
and in the infrared
(Astronomy)
The most precise
measurement of H0 ?
(Hubble)
suggests new physics
Can galaxies ignore
their SMBHs?
(ALMA)
maybe they (all)
don't co-evolve?
Astronomy chimes in
Earth&Sky chimes in
on the other hand,
SMBHs are outgrowing
their galaxies
(Chandra)
Astronomers' Dark
Energy hopes
fade to gray?
(NY Times)
WFIRST on the
chopping block?
Astronomers
express concern
(AAS)
Antimatter takes
a van
(Nature)
anti-transport?
read with caution
Some black holes
erase your past
(Earth & Sky)
but give you an
infinite number
of futures....
can't wait to find
a nice one
America's 3 different
infrastructure problems
(Vox)
maintenance,
maintenance,
maintenance
union busting
Right-wing billionaires
battle to erode
US union rights
(Guardian)
a 20+-year campaign
by Koch et al.
When the Supreme
Court doesn't care
about the facts
(Atlantic)
fact-free arguments
win the day?
Busting unions =
busting fair pay
(538)
look at the data
Who's behind
the Janus lawsuit?
(American Prospect)
the hall of shame
----------------------
Olympics
Why the US is having
a very bad Olympics
(Globe and Mail)
behavior counts?
Ban the Olympics
(Atlantic)
a waste of money &
a tool for dictators?
Extinguish the US
Olympic Committee
(Washington Post)
failing to prevent sex abuse of gymnastics
& swimming kids and
rewarding itself with higher bonuses than gold-medal winners
Why (almost) no one
wants to host the
Olympics anymore
(Vox)
or why Pyeongchang
will tear downs its new
Olympic stadium soon
----------------------
guns & deaths
the standard response
Rituals of
American massacres
(Atlantic)
The 4 rules of
gun debates
(Atlantic)
American the violent
America's unique
gun violence problem
(Vox)
in 17 maps and charts;
map 5: more guns
=> more gun deaths
Cult of violence
(Counterpunch)
stop the fake patriotism
of military exercises,
occupations, and
bombings of schools
and hospitals
If we want to stop
kids from killing,
America's government
has to stop killing also
(Rolling Stone)
America' sickness
goes way beyond guns
(New Republic)
the gun lobby
Fantasyland:
how the NRA took
over America
(Slate)
Why the NRA
always wins
(Politico)
it's not the money...
it's the culture
Why NC's senators
get more NRA money
than most anyone else
(Durham Herald Sun)
'solutions' and
'not solutions'
Time for an evidence-
based debate on
gun control?
(Vox)
Repeal the 2nd
Amendment
(NY Times)
says a conservative
We need to take
away guns
(Vox)
and how & why we
know that it will work
Stop blaming
mental illness
(Vox)
it's responsible for
a tiny fraction of
mass gun violence
Stop the incessant
Hollywood violence
(Washington Post)
next up: Deadpool 2
and Death Wish
We need congressional
hearings
(Washington Post)
Get out of Facebook
and into the NRA's face
(NY Times)
Ban Facebook
before elections
(New Republic)
for 2 weeks before
We need respect
for gun owners
(NY Times)
or does this belong
with 'the idiotic'?
and the idiotic
Shoot back at
the shooters
(Wall Street Journal)
NC lawmakers to
consider arming teachers
(Raleigh N&O)
"We have to get over
this useless hysteria
about guns..."
It's socialism!
(Vox)
Wayne Lapierre
at CPAC
Rush Limbaugh:
we need concealed-
carry and armed
teachers in schools
(TownHall)
----------------------
immigration
it's over?:
Miller and Trump
win on immigration
(Vox)
Lindsay Graham loses
Immigration:
the 5 big issues
(NY TImes)
who's for what
and what's already
been voted (d)o(w)n
----------------------
the end of conservatism?
What conservatism
has become
(Washington Post)
CPAC, the final straw
Glad to be booed
at CPAC
(NY Times)
Reading conservatism's last rites
(Washington Post)
an unchecked
rise to extremism
How Trump destroyed
conservatism
(National Review)
How Trump saved
conservatism
(American Greatness)
----------------------
Europe's first artists
were Neandertals
(Science)
their Spanish cave
paintings are 65,000
years old
Russian meddling:
an act of war?
(Intercept)
what's the response?
John Kelly is
Donald Trump
(538)
in disguise
What Facebook,
Google, & Twitter
owe America
(Politico)
with our system
under assault,
it's payback time
teachers & guns
Teaching while afraid
(Atlantic)
The economics of
arming teachers
(Washington Post)
$12 - 15 billion,
annually
The absurdity of
armed educators
(Atlantic)
Trump: bonuses for
armed teachers
(CNN)
oh, "and it's cheaper
than armed guards"
CNN and MSNBC:
suckered into taking
NRA's bait on
arming teachers
(Vox)
----------------------
teachers & education
The misguided attempt
to assess 'learning
outcomes'
(NY Times)
there's no app
for actual learning
How the GOP reshaped
education in NC
(Raleigh N&O)
school choice,
teacher employment
& pay, class size,
grading schools, ...
NC teacher pay
shortchanges
veteran teducators.
rural schools
(Raleigh N&O)
college
Why are we still
paying the rich to
attend college?
(Washington Post)
The perils of trashing
the value of college
(Chronicle of
Higher Education)
by Margaret Spelling,
President of UNC,
(former home of
fake classes)
What the race gap
in academic looks like
(Scientific American)
as a function of
academic subject
----------------------
science & policy
Florida residents to
get power to alter
science classes
(Nature)
because they're so
much smarter?
Contribute! to
The 20 new scientists running for Congress
this coming year
(Science)
ok, including math
and 'tech' people
and medical doctors
The surprisingly
weak scientific case
for support animals
(Vox)
75th anniversary
of the Norwegian
attack to drive
Nazis of heavy water
(Conservation)
the key to making
an atomic bomb
----------------------
"tech"
Facebook: the tool
of choice for
Russian influence
in the 2016 election
(NY Times)
so why aren't we
indicting them?
Facebook exec exonerates
(NY Times)
.... idiot Facebook
exec apologizes
for 'exoneration'
(Wired)
to both Facebook
and Robert Mueller
12 questions for
(NY Times)
but only 5 answers
The case against
(NY Times)
for squelching
innovation
Social media as
information warfare
(US Air Force)
how Russians and
ISIS hijacked
Twitter & Facebook
Silicon Valley:
From disruption
to dystopia
(Daily Beast)
envisioning the
future of cities
----------------------
cosmic idiocy
Is the universe
a conscious mind?
(Aeon)
explaining why the
universe is fine-tuned
for life
Retrocausality
(New Scientist)
the future can change what happens now
More multiverse madness
(Backreaction)
exposing the
multiversers' logic:
1) it's falsifiable
2) ok, it's not falsifiable,
but it's sound logic
3) ok it's not logical
and not falsifiable..
so what? we'll do
it anyway
15 years of multiverse
mania
(Not Even Wrong)
exposing
more bogus logic:
1) but, but, ... it's just
like the theory
of evolution
2) but if a big enough
volume of spacetime
could be prepared
in a quantum state
that ....
3) maybe we can use
it to falsify quantum mechanics
----------------------
Did ocean tides
drive fish to walk?
(Nature)
Who owns the
Elgin Marbles?
(NY Times)
well, we know who
currently possesses
them
New food comes to
Durham/Raleigh
(Raleigh N&O)
what's opening in 2018
early February 2018
A poster of the
Sun's long-lost
relatives
(New Scientist)
The moon's
fossil 'tidal' bulge:
frozen in when Earth
was much closer
and ocean-less?
(Geophysical
Research Letters)
~ 4 Gyr ago, when
Moon was half its
present distance
Martian life:
will we know it
when we see it?
(Scientific American)
or, maybe we have
already seen it?
Amazing Venus
images
(Planetary Society)
from Akatsuki
2000 days on Mars,
with Curiosity Rover
(Atlantic)
24 images
or 1 panoramic
view & video
(Washington Post)
make sure to use
Full Screen mode
The dumbest idea
ever
(Sky & Telescope)
'Humanity Star'
is space garbage
in disco-ball form
Watch the 1/31/2018
lunar eclipse in
60 seconds
(Vox)
or wait for the next
one in the U.S.
on 1/21/2019
A newly-discovered
form of ice
(NY Times)
and likely prevalent
on Uranus & Neptune
Astronomy
belatedly comments,
and has comparative
diagrams of the 4
Jovian interiors
climate
Tracing global
warming to
carbon producers
(Nature Climate
Change)
i.e., who should
be sued
Waiting for the
next big volcano
(NY Times)
and the cooling that
comes with it
energy policy
100% renewable
energy?
(Vox)
part 1: is it even
possible? is it
the right question?
part 2: here's
what we know
Cutting fossil-fuel
subsidies won't
reduce CO2 emission
(Nature)
except maybe in
Middle East
and North Africa
published paper
(Nature)
paywall
Drawdown: the top
100 solutions to
global warming
(Vox)
A chirp, a roar,
and a whisper
(Nature)
an update on the
colliding neutron
stars' radiation
published paper
(Nature)
paywall
A new upper
mass limit for
neutron stars?
(Earth & Sky)
2.16 Msun
Exoplanets, now
in other galaxies
(Earth & Sky)
found by quasar
microlensing
TRAPPIST-1 again
TRAPPIST-1 update:
all of its planets
are waterworlds?
(ESO)
note the images
on the side panel
published
article #1
(A & A, via ESO)
mass & density
values, with
implications
(free)
published
article #2
(Nature Astronomy,
via Hubble)
on atmospheres
(free)
[why can't
Hubble make their
work as exciting as
ESO can?]
Hitchiking life in
the TRAPPIST-1
system
(Astrobites)
is a good
possibility
----------------------
A new definition
of 'planet'?
(Sky & Telescope)
formation by core
accretion (planets)
and formation by
gravitational
collapse
(brown dwarfs
and stars)
interesting
background and
commentary
(Earth & Sky)
Why NASA should
start funding
SETI again
(Scientific American)
3 reasons... none
very convincing
Primordial black
holes, revived?
(Astrobites)
again?
NASA's WFIRST
eliminated in Trump
budget proposal
(Atlantic)
the big mission to
study dark energy
NASA administrator
double-speak on
2019 budget
The mass of the
Milky Way:
150 +/- 80
(Astrobites)
Tera-solar-masses
Is the Big Bounce
back in play?
(Quanta)
debating the pre-
Big-Bang universe
3 Illustris papers
have results on
simulations of
the universe
(Sky & Telescope)
but why not on
the Illustris site?
A Milky-Way
origin star?
(Astronomy)
iron-deficient,
carbon-rich
Chasing dark matter
with the oldest stars
(Princeton U.)
Synchronized planar
galaxy rotation
in galaxy clusters
(Sky & Telescope)
Centaurus A makes
it 3 for 3.... but it
contradicts the ΛCDM
model expectation
Surprisingly complex
organic molecules
found in LMC
(ALMA)
in stellar embryos
The puzzle of the
first monster
black holes
(Scientific American,
February 2018 issue)
how so big, so fast?
(paywall)
Neutron lifetime
matter deepens
(Quanta)
it's not neutron
γ-ray emission
(as hypothesized
just below)
Are neutrons
decaying into
dark matter?
(Scientific American)
it would explain
contradictory
neutron-lifetime
results ....
experimental test
results
now completed...
see above
quantum computing
again
Quantum computers
can't possibly work
(Quanta)
even in principle
The quantum internet
has arrived
(Nature)
and it hasn't
Job One for
quantum computers:
boost AI
(Quanta)
Quantum computing
(Physics Today)
both excitement
and confusion
----------------------
NC: we're number 39!
(Politico)
average rankings over
13 categories incl.
education, poverty,
health, income,
employment, etc
State legislative
assaults on the
courts
(Brennan Center
for Justice)
in 14 states
Not-Trump, yes
anti-Trump, no
What Democrats
need to do
(Washington Post)
to win back
independents and
never-Trump R's
Anti-Trump recoil
goes too far
(Atlantic)
The correct analogy to Trump's administration
is Clinton's
(Atlantic)
not Nixon's
----------------------
The Biggest Secret
(The Intercept)
James Risen's
multiyear battle to
expose NSA spying
(and lying)
Nuclear war with
North Korea
(Vox)
worse than you think
democracy,
or not
America is not
a democracy
(Atlantic)
how the U.S. lost the
faith of its citizens
How democracies die
(Vox)
explained
The Republican party
is a threat to
constitutional order?
(Atlantic)
is it time to vote
mindlessly?
Can we exit Trumpocracy?
(Atlantic)
Democracy continues
its disturbing retreat
(Economist)
in half the
world's countries
----------------------
immigration
again
A grand bargain
on immigration
(NY Times)
that both sides
will hate
The politics of
immigration
(NY Times)
and why Trump
has the upper hand
The two sides
(American Prospect)
How immigration
became party-polarized
(Atlantic)
it wasn't in 2004
Immigrants are a
fiscal boon to the U.S.
(Bloomberg)
and not a burden
says a 2016 meta-analysis
(National Academy
of Sciences)
"the impact of
immigration on the
labour market of
the native born(s) ...
is quantitatively
very small"
----------------------
State of the Union,
annotated
(Atlantic)
Fraternity hazing is
prevalent across NC
(Raleigh N&O)
and this is news?
the Nunes memo
explained WITH
diagrams
(Vox)
like a flowchart
explained WITHOUT
diagrams
(Vox)
and the actual memo,
annotated
(Washington Post)
and again
(LA Times)
and again
(Politico)
and the alternative
Nadler memo
(MSNBC)
which totally destroys
the Nunes memo
and finally (2/24/18), the
Democratic response
The full (redacted)
response
(Politico)
5 takeaways
(NY Times)
Tearing the
Nunes memo apart
(Vox)
Demolishing the
'fake' Nunes memo
(NY Mag)
------------------
NC: the worst
gerrymandering
in history?
(Raleigh N&O)
The intellectual
war on science
(Steven Pinker
in Chronicle of
Higher Education)
wreaking havoc in
universities and
jeopardizing the
progress of research
tech
The Soul Suckers
(Esquire)
Amazon, Apple,
Facebook, & Google;
... and tax avoiders
... and job killers
Facebook is a
"surveillance
operation"
(Quartz)
"in an abusive
relationship with
its users"
Inside Facebook's
hellish two years
(Wired)
that shook the world
Driven to suicide
by Uber/Lyft?
(NY Post)
woe are the
taxi drivers
Elon Musk:
5 billion dollars
of federal support
(The Hill)
and counting
Do we really want
the damn thing?
(Indy Weekly)
Amazon in the
Triangle?
What Amazon does
to poor cities
(Atlantic)
is any job
a good job?
It's not the tech,
it's the advertising
(NY Times)
but what are we
doing about it?
Is sociology the
next physical science?
(Physics Today,
February 2018 issue)
the reincarnation
of Asimov's
Foundation trilogy?
Getting started with
LaTex in Astronomy
(Astrobites)
explainers
(Wired)
Hyperloop
Drones
----------------------
science
Join the hunt
for cosmic rays
(Astronomy)
No, no, no ,,,,
A magnetic pole flip
will not make parts of
Earth uninhabitable
(Science 2.0)
facts, mistakes,
re-posts and reviews
Why this year's flu
vaccine is only 10% effective this year
(Vox)
blame hen's eggs
sports science,
Olympics
Science of 16
winter events
(NBC/NSF)
in 4-5 minute videos,
from 2010...
and with activities
(click the side panel)
& 10 more from 2014
with lesson plans
Making snow & ice
for the Olympics
(Smithsonian)
Bobsledding, skiing,
and curling stones
(Smithsonian)
Why ice is slippery
(Vox)
or how ice skating works
Biophysics of 7
winter events
(Popular Science)
Science at the
2018 Olympics
(Scientific American)
a mostly lame
collection of articles
sports science,
football
This is your brain
on football
(Vox)
if you play
Brain damage in
99% of NFL
players studied
(Boston University)
Super Bowl players
45 years on:
paying the price
(Washington Post)
regrets? or not?
Football destroyed
his mind
(NY Times)
by the wife of a
5-yr NFL player
Concussion Protocol
(Intercept)
a video of all 280
concussions in this
year's NFL season
----------------------
science policy
Trump budget sows
science confusion
(Nature)
major cuts retracted?
Trump budget
proposal slashes
science across
all agencies
(Scientific American)
Trump's science
apathy
(Physics Today)
----------------------
ice and water
2018 Underwater
Photographer of
the Year awards
(Atlantic)
30 selected photos,
surprisingly tame
(an underwater car
or ship or wheel or
motorbike or plane
is interesting?)
the entire selection
A newly-discovered
form of ice
(NY Times)
and likely prevalent
on Uranus & Neptune
Why polar bears
are starving
(Science)
same reason Earth
is getting hotter:
energy imbalance
and the useless
accompanying video
Atlantic
has much better
pictures and viedo
------------------
school
Education proposals
in Trump's budget
(Atlantic)
federal funding of
public schools is cut;,
bur huge increases
for school-choice
We all live
'on campus' now
(New York)
and that's not
a good thing
How hard do college professors work?
(Atlantic)
In praise of
charter schools?
(Raleigh N&O)
yeah, maybe in some
alternate universe
------------------
life in past
Where dinosaurs and
mammals once
crossed paths
(NY Times)
and now a NASA
parking lot
Ancient Mayan city
found under
Guatemala jungle
(Guardian)
home for 10 million?
As many building
as Manhattan
(Guardian)
Tracing humans'
tangled evolutionary
journey
(Guardian)
but sadly, no flow-
chart-like tree
------------------
late January 2018
Total lunar eclipse:
1/31/2018 morning
(Sky & Telescope)
starts at 6:48 am EST
with the moon 4°
above the horizon in
Durham, and it ends
at moonset, 7:18 am
and useful projects
you could have
done if it lasted
(Sky & Telescope)
Sea level on Titan
(Astronomy)
and why Titan's
lake basins have
jagged edges
New fossil
discoveries
challenge life's
start date on Earth
(Quanta)
back to 3.77 Byr ago
... or even 4.23 Byr?
Meteorites from
Michigan fireball
recovered
(Sky & Telescope)
with a pressure-
wave recording of
the break-up
causing a seismic
2.0 event
... and more
The Hypatia rock:
a pre-solar
meteorite?
(Astronomy)
or something
more exotic?
24 'gorgeous'
images from
Juno at Jupiter
(Atlantic)
climate change
the past
2017 Global
Climate
Assessment
{NOAA)
Earth's warming
continued in 2017
(NY Times)
even without
El Nino, it was the
2nd (says NASA),
3rd (says NOAA)
-hottest year
on record
The hottest 4 years
in recorded history
(Washington Post)
were the last 4
(and with 3
nice graphs)
the future
... but maybe the
most dire future
scenarios can
be ruled out?
(Washington Post)
based on
published article
(Nature)
looking for a
constraint on
climate sensitivity
Wired comments
Cleaning up air
pollution could
increase global
warming
(Scientific American)
by 0.5 - 1.1 °C,
along with more
precip and more
extreme weather
says new research
(Geophysical
Research Letters)
We aren't even
landing a punch...
(NY Times)
in trying to stop
climate change
Does rising CO2
help or harm plants?
(Scientific American)
a net harm,
....probably?
communication
The amateur
scientist who
discovered
global warming?
(Wired)
book review,
with a fake news
title
politics
Tracking 'Silenced
Climate Science'
(Columbia Law)
documenting the
restrictions on
climate reporting
Scientific American
comments
Reckoning with
climate change will
demand ygly
tradeoffs with
environmentalists
(Vox)
and everyone else
environment
Dangerous
consequences
resulting from
starting -- and
stopping --
engineering?
(Wired)
to biodiversity
and the ecosystem
(but don't we have
more important
things to
worry about?)
published article
(Nature)
(behind a paywall)
The damage done
by Ryan Zinke
(New Yorker)
and the Interior
Department
Can we save
the corals?
(Scientific American,
January 2018 issue)
(paywall)
An unexpected
black hole -- in a
globular cluster
(Earth & Sky)
at 4 solar masses
... the press release
(ESO)
... published article
in MNRAS
(RAS)
The formation of the
heaviest elements
(Physics Today)
mostly about the
r-process
(in colliding
neutron stars)
A new definition
of 'planet'
(Sky & Telescope)
distinguishing
between formation
by core accretion
(for planets) and
gravitational
collapse (for
brown dwarfs)
A new way for
hunting alien life
(Scientific American)
look for CH4 & CO2
and the absence
of CO (and O2)
and the
published article
(Science Advances)
Are most hot exo-
Earths stripped-
down Jupiters?
(Astronomy)
TRAPPIST-1's 2
most habitable
planets
(Guardian)
with 'definite'
liquid water
(acc. to models)
says research
article
(arXiv)
is it the only
system with
its own website?
(TRAPPIST-1)
2017's 6 most
intriguing exoplanets
(Space)
the TRAPPIST-1
family tops the list
The oldest
spiral galaxy?
(Astronomy)
@ z = 2.54, age =
2.6 = Gyr A.B. --
and in the process
of forming arms
The SMBH mass size
regulates a galaxy's
star formation rate
(Nature)
higher the mass,
sooner & greater
the quenching rate
(paywall)
Order in a
chaotic universe?
(ALMA)
800 Myr A.B.,
galaxies have settled
into rotating disks...
well, at least 2 did!
A laser powerful
enough to rip
apart empty space?
(Science)
just what we need
Searching for the dark:
the hunt for axions
(Scientific American,
(January 2018 issue)
(paywall)
Why are the hardest
phsyics equations
so difficult?
(Quanta)
in a word,
turbulence
quantum
computing
The era of quantum
computing is here
(Quanta)
but the outlook
is cloudy
An introduction to
quantum computing
(YouTube)
a 23+-part
video series by
Dayton Ellwanger
(NCSSM '13)
Beginner's guide
or
Intermediate guide
(IBM)
if you prefer to read
While you were
sleeping
(NY Times)
hyping the future
while visiting the
first 50-bit
quantum computer
The Quantum Spy
(Amazon)
more reality
than hype
-----------------------
Trump's 1st year
immigration
race & MLK day
Appalachia
war
drugs
1968
spying
Michelangelo
Trump's 1st year
Grading Trump on
his own goals
(538)
A damage assessment
(Washington Post)
A pleasant surprise
(Washington Post)
The optimists
were wrong
(New Yorker)
for the most part
Extremely and
uniquely wrong
(Washington Post)
Why conservatives
must abandon
Trumpocracy
(Atlantic)
A radical change
in world view
(Washington Post)
Trump's Middle East
policy is imploding
(New Yorker)
Abandoning
science advice
(Union of
Concerned Scientists)
-----------------------
and longer range
Get over yourself,
America
(Politico)
while China thrives
on engagement, the
U.S. is focused
on containment
Clueless vs. Trump
(NY Times)
which is worse?
-----------------------
immigration
A massive shift to
the right in the
immigration debate
(538)
how Trump and
his minions
succeeded
How US immigration
has changed
over 120 years
(Washington Post)
The people who
don't want legal
status for Dreamers
(NY Times)
whereas most
Americans do
A century-old
argument
(Atlantic)
who's allowed in
... and who's not
The path to
compromise is clear
(538)
but getting there is
hard for both parties
Barriers rising
worldwide
(Washington Post)
the new age of walls
all about
Immigration
(Pew Research)
the greatest research
compilation anywhere
-----------------------
race & MLK day
Time to reclaim
the true MLK
(Washington Post)
challenging America's
exceptionalism,
not celebrating it
The radicalism of
MLK's nonviolent
resistance
(Washington Post)
the means, not the
ends, was of
utmost importance
King's dream or
Trump's nightmare?
(NY Times)
which will we choose?
Five decades of
white backlash
(Atlantic)
MLK: scorn for
white moderates?
(Washington Post)
the letter from
Birmingham jail
-----------------------
Appalachia
A hillbilly syllabus
(100 days in
Appalachia)
Inside Appalachia
(WV public
broadcasting)
Hillbilly Elegy
The lives of poor
white people
(New Yorker)
Trump: Tribune of
poor white people?
(American
Conservative)
an interview with
J. D. Vance
Teaching the
wrong lessons?
(New Republic)
Advancing the
conversation?
(NY Times)
can poverty be
a family tradition
-----------------------
war, nuclear
or otherwise
Doomsday clock
advances 30 seconds
to 11:58 B.A.
(Washington Post)
due to threats of
nuclear war and
climate change
Trump: "insane and
ignorant" on
nuclear weapons
(Rolling Stone)
How the U.S. is making
war in Yemen worse
(New Yorker)
with a quasi-history
of recent Yemen
U.S. military prepares
for the last resort
(NY Times)
... war with North Korea
(WBUR 50-minute
OnPoint audio)
North Korea has
closed the gap
(Defense One)
we cannot shoot
down its missiles
Daniel Ellsberg,
nuclear worrier
(NY Books)
if nuclear weapons
are too dangerous
to use, they're too
dangerous to have
Pandemonium and
rage in Hawaii
(Atlantic)
What would have
happened next, had
it been a real alert
(Time)
What to do in case
of a nuclear attack
(Washington Post)
'stay indoors'
tops the list
-----------------------
drugs
Diet coke's moment
of panic?
(Atlantic)
so that's why they're
introducing 3
new flavors?
Why did so many
Americans
turn to opioids?
(New York)
despair? or because
they were there?
It's not the
entitlements
(538)
it's rising health costs
for all ages, stupid
-----------------------
1968
Parallels to 50
years ago?
(NY Times)
the last time
America fractured
1968: The year that
changed American
forever
(US News)
50 years later, MLK's America is still in a world in trouble
(USA Today)
8 unforgettable
events that
made history
(CNN)
Revisiting Vietnam
(Smithsonian)
50 years after
the Tet offensive
50 years ago,
in photos
(Atlantic)
1968, the year
in music
(Classic Bands)
-----------------------
spying
What Amazon Echo
and Google Home
are doing with
your voice data
(Wired)
and what to do
about it
Does Glenn Greenwald
know more than
Robert Mueller?
(New York)
why he think the
Russia investigation
will find nothing
Misused FISA
surveillance?
Release the memo!
(Intercept)
or is it just more
GOP hype?
-----------------------
NSA destroyed surveillance data
it promised to keep
(Politico)
for people suing
the NSA...
oh well
-----------------------
Michelangelo
at the Met
Divine draftsman
and designer
(Metropolitan
Museum of Art)
A divine star
(NY Times)
A genius in draft form
(National Review)
Exploding Art History
(New York)
Why the exhibit was nearly impossible
to pull off
(ArtNet)
7 reasons
-----------------------
et cetera
Can you score as
high as Trump on
the Montreal
Cognitive Test?
30 out of 30 is
nothing to brag about
The Bayeux Tapestry
coming to Britain?
(Guardian)
mon Dieu!
The Guardian
goes tabloid ...
(NY Times)
another casualty of
Facebook/Google?
or maybe it's
for reasons of
clarity and
imagination?
(Guardian)
nah, more likely,
it's to save money
Infrastructure:
wasting an
opportunity?
(538)
Qatar vs. Saudi Arabia
& the Emirates
(NY Times)
and no, not in soccer
Astronomy Days
is this weekend
(NC Museum of
Life and Science)
in Raleigh
NC education
bad tech
science data
nature
gerrymandering
pseudoscience
education in NC
NC K-12 schools
drop in EdWeek
rankings
(Raleigh N&O)
1from 9th in 2011
to 40th today
complete EdWeek
2018 rankings
(Education Week)
NC gets a D+ in
student achievement
and a D in
school financing
(spending 35% less
per student than
the national average)
Charter schools
take money away from
NC school districts
(Durham Herald Sun)
greatest reduction
of services is in
Durham
and elsewhere
How China
infiltrated America's
classrooms
(Politico)
the rise of the
Confucius Institutes
(mostly) bad tech
A totally accidental
explanation of
everything wrong
with Silicon Valley's
view of the world
(Quartz)
Is new tech just
about greed?
(NY Times)
fortunately not
Are smartphones
really destroying the
lives of teenagers?
(Scientific American,
February 2018 issue)
spoiler alert:
"it's not that simple"
(paywall)
How smartphone
addiction kills
manners and moods
(NY Times)
and creates neck pain
-----------------------
science data
A new science
search engine
(Dimensions)
linking papers to
grants and patents
Online astro data
gets a refresh
(Physics Today)
Is the golden age
of astronomy over?
(Scientific American)
focus on multiple
missions rather than
one huge one?
nature
The dark side
of light
(Nature)
how artificial lighting
is harming the world
The end of night
threatens animal
ecology and
human health
(Scientific American)
1/3 of the world can't
see the Milky Way
at night
The importance
of biodiversity
(Atlantic)
life's safety net
Blue Planet II:
the greatest nature
series of all time?
(Atlantic)
(contains spoilers!)
The murmurations
of starlings
(Washington Post)
13 pictures
8 science/health
myths that need
to die in 2018
(Vox)
e.g., we need to
have a debate on
climate change
gerrymandering
continued
An atlas of
redistricting
(538)
for each state,
current congressional
maps & 8 other ways
to redistrict
(generally more fairly)
and the methodology
of the 8 other ways
Ending partisan
gerrymandering won't
fix what ails America
(538)
Has the tide turned?
(Atlantic)
Pennsylvania
makes it three
Math strikes a blow
for democracy
(Nature)
featuring Jonathan
Mattingly (NCSSM '88)
-- but will the Supreme
Court agree?
Adventures in
extreme
gerrymandering
(NY Times)
3 maps for PA:
from fair to unfair
A case for math in
judging partisan
gerrymandering
(NY Times)
Judge Wynn vs.
Judge Roberts
The math tools
that are changing
judges' minds
on gerrymandering
(Vox)
North Carolina
as a test case
-----------------------
Facebook & Google:
getting worse,
instead of better
The monopolistic
behavior of
Facebook & Google
(George Soros)
how they avoid
responsibility for
-- and avoid paying
for -- the content
on their platforms
How Google tracks
your every move
(Wired)
Facebook's new
plans to let users
decide news trustworthiness
(Vox)
what could
possibly go wrong?
The problem with
Facebook's new
news feed
(NY Times)
Facebook fiddling
magnified fake news
(NY Times)
in countries where
similar news-feed
changes have
already been made
AARP to Facebook:
stop your age
discrimination now
(ProPublica)
how to fix Facebook,
perhaps
How to fix Facebook
(Washington Monthly)
before it fixes us...
by a former
Zuckerberg mentor
and the short version
(Daily Mail)
of the 8 steps
-----------------------
pseudoscience
continued
Astrology on
the rise
(WBUR OnPoint
50-minute audio)
for millennials.
of course
Beyond
falsifiability
(Preposterous
Universe)
defending the
multiverse because
"we don't have
any choice"
... and
a rational rebuttal
(Not Even Wrong)
-----------------------
early January 2018
solar system
stellar physics
exoplanets
(& ET life)
galaxies
& cosmology
particle &
quantum physics
cultural literacy
science, teaching,
education, & tech
Ice cliffs
spotted on Mars
(Science)
Clean sub-surface
water on Mars
(Wired)
cliffs? subsurface?
is this really the
same story?
AAS meeting
press release
(NASA JPL)
full paper here
(Science)
How comets
spin down
(Nature)
outgassing?
Ingredients of life
found in meteorites
(@AAS)
10 places with snow,
besides Earth
(Earth & Sky)
can you name the
9 places in the
solar system?
Did the solar system
form in stellar-wind
bubble?
(Earth & Sky)
of a supernova or a
Wolf-Rayet star
Atmospheric CH4
changes seasonally
on Mars
(Science)
incoming meteors
or signs of life?
Mars & Jupiter
pair up before dawn
(Sky & Telescope)
with Saturn and
Mercury close by
NOAA & USGS:
A new plan to
study Earth
from space
(Nature)
Synch your
calendar to the
solar system
(NY TImes)
26 dates to look
forward to this year
(and how to synch
them to Google
or iOS calendar)
Jocelyn Bell looks
back on her
cosmic legacy
(New Yorker)
50th anniversary
of pulsars'
discovery
Solar and lunar
eclipses in 2018
(Sky & Telescope)
2 lunars and 3
partial solars; but
only part of the lunar
of 1/31/18 is
visible in the US
climate
science
How we know it's
climate change
(NY Times)
detecting the
fingerprints of
global warming
Scientists can now
attribute specific
disasters to
climate change
(Scientific American)
5 'favorite' climate
stories of 2017
(NY Times)
communication
How climate-change
deniers rose to
the top of Google
searches
(NY Times)
creating a platform
for false and
misleading claims
The desperate need
for action on
climate change
(Vox)
in a series of
22 cartoons
geoengineering
& mitigation
A radical new
scheme to engineer
the world's glaciers
(Atlantic)
building underwater
sand walls at the
mouths of the world’s
most unstable glaciers
Transportation is
America's biggest
climate problem
(Vox)
for 2nd year in
the row
the future
Mass extinctions
in oceans by 2100?
(Scientific American)
if we keeping
adding carbon to
the environment
Black hole
apocalypse
(2-hr edition of
PBS NOVA)
surprisingly both
literate and
interesting, covering
all facets of black
holes, from stellar
to colliding to
supermassive
... and more
associated
Educator Guide
(PBS Learning
Media)
has an Iphone-only
app
@AAS
Significant brown
dwarf population
found in Orion nebula
(Hubble)
a 3-D fly-through
the nebula
(NASA JPL)
Interstellar
benzonitrile
(NRAO)
found in the ISM
for the first time...
... and may explain
how planets got
the seeds of life
(Scientific American)
benzonitrile is the
building block
for PAHs and a sign
that benzene exists
in interstellar space
-----------------------
'Seeing' black holes
(Vox)
illustrations, images,
or something else?
Sorting elements
by their X-ray
emissions in
supernovae
(Earth & Sky)
bonus: origin of
elements by process
Tabby's star changes
caused by dust
(arXiv)
sorry, alien hopers
...
Sky & Telescope
comments
@AAS
Ringed disks don't
always mean planets
(Sky & Telescope)
Metal-rich stars host
closer-in planets
(SDSS)
but were they
formed there or
did they migrate in?
-----------------------
Exoplanet
science 2.0
(Nature)
the study of life
here & elsewhere
requires a new
coherent plan
A recipe for
making
mini-Neptunes
(Astrobites)
they can form
from both pebbles
and planetesimals,
at a variety of
distances
It's never aliens,
until it is
(Scientific American)
last year's big
disappointments:
Oumuamua,
Tabby's star, &
the Pentagon's
UFOs that didn't
pan out
@AAS
The most distant
resolved galaxy ever
(NASA JPL)
seen 500 Myr A.B.
Probing the
archaeology of
of the Milky Way's
ancient hub
(Hubble)
yielding clues to
our galaxy's
formation
Dark Energy Survey
releases first
3 years of data
(SDSS)
11 new Milky Way
stellar streams
from ripped-apart
satellite galaxies;
animations here
New insights into
jets of supermassive
black holes
(Northwestern U.)
the jets co-precess
with the disk due to
GR frame-dragging...
with animations
Growing up on
the edge of a
cosmic void
(AAS)
are you any
different?
fast radio burster
121102
Magnetic secrets
from a faraway galaxy
(NY Times)
Edging closer to
solving a cosmic
conundrum
(Atlantic)
Into the lair of
an FRB
(@AAS)
A very odd and extreme
cosmic neighborhood
(Quanta)
"a magnetar in a
magnetically-dense
birth nebula? or a
"neutron star living
in the environment
of a massive
black hole"?
or is it
Dead stars orbiting
a black hole?
(Scientific American)
and the
published paper
(Nature)
but we still don't
quite know what
the source is
-----------------------
Why is there a
filament pointing
toward the Milky
Way's SMBH?
(Earth & Sky)
An astronomy
'dream team' to
solve the universe's
"problems"
(Astronomy)
chutzpah or
just hype?
Can tabletop
experiments
replace CERN?
(Nature)
how they might
find evidence of
new particles,
physics beyond
the Standard Model
Why an old theory
of everything is
gaining new life
(Quanta)
the re-rise of
asymptotically-
safe gravity
"There's no conflict
between lack of
evidence for string
theory and work
being done on it"
(the Wire)
defending the
indefensible?
The danger of
accepting the
unacceptable
(Atlantic)
what if we get used
to the lying, the
bullying, and
the boasting?
So now we know
what happens if
you don't read
(Atlantic)
or won't,
or can't or ...
Making China
great again
(New Yorker)
Trump surrenders
leadership; Xi Jinping
picks up the pieces
A deadly
miscalculation
on North Korea?
(Vanity Fair)
"the war games
solutions are
all horrific"
Whose Holy Land?
(NY Books)
Israel, Palestine,
and what came
before
Our retreat to
tribalism
(NY Times)
remembering 2017
Bigly damage
(NY Books)
Trump's 1st year
Lie of the year:
the Russian election
interference is a
made-up story
(Politifact)
& its 10 most
clicked-on stories
Winners and losers
in politics, 2017
(Washington Post)
2017: the year
in charts
(NY Times)
mostly politics
and the economy
16 megadisasters
in 2017 America
(Vox)
the new normal
-----------------------
There is no
1st-amendment
right on college
campuses
(Vox)
neither students
nor professors can
engage in personal
abuse
Why U.S. heath care
is so much more
expensive than any
other country's
(NY Times)
it's the high prices
(without cause),
stupid
Amazon vs. USPS
(Vox)
Sue Grafton: a master
at subverting the
detective novel
(NY Mag)
Kinsey Milhone's
last case: "Y is for..."
A new history of
World War II
(New Yorker)
without addressing
why it started
Saving the free press
from private equity
(American Prospect)
a losing cause?
The stupidity of
impeachment
(NY Times)
instead, do your job,
Congress...
... and if you need
another job,
go to Phoenix...
or Salt Lake City
(Wallet Hub)
NC cities aren't
that great for jobs
astronomers
meet in Maryland
Day 4
(Astrobites)
gravitation waves;
exploding white dwarfs;
science funding
Day 3
(Astrobites)
misunderstood Venus;
IR astronomy;
evolution of stars
and galaxies; bid
data in astronomy
Day 2
(Astrobites)
an FRB session;
stormy life in
galaxy clusters;
using Astrobites in
education; surprises
in stellar evolution;
gravitation-wave
astronomy
Day 1
(Astrobites)
Juno@Jupiter;
expanding universe:
new physics?;
will TESS find
70 exo-Earths?
-----------------------
tech
Big tech:
predatory capitalism
(American Prospect)
documenting the
tangible damage that
Facebook, Google,
et al. have done
to democracy
Facebook finally
blinks?
(Atlantic)
after it "broke ...
journalism ... and
democracy" it's now
"breaking its own site"
2 major flaws found
in world's computers
(NY Times)
nearly all of them
&
what you need to do
according to NY Times
according to US-CERT
according to Wired
A looming digital
meltdown
(NY Times)
was the digital world
built too rapidly?
The future of work
(Politico)
it's not only about
automation
Why is the U.S. so bad
at worker retraining?
(Atlantic)
by protecting workers
from automation
Get a password
manager, now
(Wired)
no more excuses
10 ways tech will
shape our lives n 2018
(Washington Post)
5 good, 5 bad
The 4 big tech trends
to follow at CES 2018
(NY Times)
Alexa-ites, smart cities,
smarter cars, and
5th-gen wireless
Thinking about
investing in Bitcoin?
(Guardian)
don't
-----------------------
science
Frnakenstein lives on
(Science)
could science
destroy the world?
Interior Department
science grants now
subject to 'political
priorities' review
(Washington Post)
2018: what to
expect in science
(Nature)
moon missions,
ancient genomes,
and a publishing
showdown
What the cultured
scientist looks
forward to 2018
(Nature)
exhibits & movies
Ancient Americans
arrived in a single wave
(Science)
about 25,000 years
ago, across Beringia
land connection
NY Times
fleshes out the story
Science says
fitness trackers
don't work
(Wired)
wear one anyway
Exercise won't help
you lose weight
(Vox)
the science is in
These toxic chemicals
are everywhere
(Washington Post)
and they're not
going away, ever
-----------------------
math
The abc conjecture
(Scientific American)
solved, published,
or neither?
and much much more,
for math geeks
(Not Even Wrong)
Why symmetry still
beguiles mathematicians
(Wired)
and physicists too
A new largest
prime number
(538)
it's 277,232,917 - 1, and
it's 23 million digits long
-----------------------
pseudoscience
String theory is still
the best explanation
for everything
(Quanta)
despite no experimental
evidence nor any
likelihood of ever
getting any
How astrology took
over the Internet
(NY Times)
and this is surprising?
A brief (30 pages!)
history of the
multiverse
(arXiv)
and still no journal
is willing to publish
after 2 years
-----------------------
voting and
gerrymandering
Federal court judges
rule NC congressional
voting plan relies on
unconstitutional
partisan gerrymandering
(Raleigh N&O)
first time ever on such
grounds; court asks
for new plan by 1/29
Duke math prof
(& NCSSM alum c/0 '88)
did the math that
drew the line on GOP
gerrymandering
(Durham Herald Sun)
NC: where every
district looks like
a monster
(Washington Post)
with pictures,
of course
The math behind
gerrymandering
(Wired)
and how it works
(with quiz questions!)
Revealing the true
toll of voter ID laws
(Wired)
with a simple algorithm
Two views of
gerrymandering
(NY TImes)
both Maryland and
Wisconsin reach
the Supreme Court
Stop the voter purge!
(Washington Post)
isn't it enough that
40% of Americans
didn't/couldn't vote
in 2016?
Is Navajo packing
gerrymandering?
(NY Times)
a court battle over
indigenous voting
rights
How to redraw school
boundaries so that
there's less segregation
(Vox)
-----------------------
teaching/educaiton
America's teacher
shortage can't be
solved by hiring more
unqualified teachers
(Washington Post)
the main problem
is teacher retention...
Teacher shortage
shortchanges
America's students
(WBUR OnPoint
50-min interactive)
salaries stagnant,
poor working
conditions, 35%
drop in teacher
education programs
Thousands of
teacher positions
vacant across
the country
(Chalkbeat)
4000+ alone in just the
15 largest districts
NC teacher attrition
is still 9% per year
(Raleigh N&O)
but it's 19% in Durham
and 14% in Chapel Hill
... yet some teachers
wait 6 months to
get hired
(Raleigh N&O)
due to delayed
paperwork
NC's system of
funding schools
needs to change
(Raleigh N&O)
it's unfair for poor
and minority kids
The legislature's
attack on NC
public schools
(Raleigh N&O)
it lowered class
size without funding
for more teachers
NC leads nation in
board-certified
teachers
(Raleigh N&O)
18% of all such
teachers nationwide
Why are our most
important teachers
paid the least?
(NY Times)
the plight of
preschool teachers
the 5 or 10 (or so) top stories of 2017
solar system
stellar physics
exoplanets
(& ET life)
galaxies
& cosmology
particle &
quantum physics
cultural literacy
science, teaching,
& education
Best photos from
the 8/21/2017 eclipse
(Popular Science)
ok, some duds too
solar system
exploration
Mars is not Earth
(Nature Geoscience)
looking for Martian
life -- and the origin
of life -- underground
(no paywall)
Where next?:
NASA finalists:
comet sampling and
Titan drone orbiter
(NY Times)
beating out
missions to Venus,
Moon, Saturn,
Enceladus
Surprises at
Jupiter
(Sky & Telescope)
Juno's first
science results
A special issue
on Enceladus
(Astrobiology Journal,
September 2017)
-----------------------
Cassini (overload?)
Cassini retrospective
(Scientific American,
October 2017 issue)
and it's free
Download the 100+-
page Cassini e-book
(NASA)
The big questions
about Saturn that
Cassini may yet answer
(Nature)
composition of its
atmosphere, age of
the rings, & the origin
of its magnetic field
Cassini's
greatest hits
(Physics Today)
the moons, the
rings, & the clouds:
20 of the best images
The best of Cassini:
13 years at Saturn
(Atlantic)
40 detailed images
with captions
-----------------------
our Moon
How and when
the Moon formed
(Sky & Telescope)
with links to four
new articles
A new Moon
(Physics Today,
June 2017 issue)
recent findings
challenge old ideas
A(nother) new
theory of Moon's
origin
(Scientific American)
the synestia
hypothesis
-----------------------
and on climate What happens after all the ice goes? (Nature) in the Arctic Consequences of 1.5 - 2°C global warming for the US (PLOS) What a real climate debate looks like (Atlantic) is the Atlantic ocean current driver unstable? We're not close to being prepared for rising sea levels (Washington Post) Bill McKibben's book review of "The Water Will Come" by Jeff Goodell Doomsday (New York) "peering beyond scientific review" The 10 most important US climate stories in 2017 (Climate Central) Making America last and isolated (NY Times) pulling the US out of the Paris accords 2017: the year in climate (NY Times) economic costs How much climate change will cost (or benefit) your county (Science) The full, peer-reviewed article (Science) What's the damage? (Science) a summary of the full article by William Pizer, NCSSM '86 The South and the poor get hammered (NY Times) |
1st kilonova: the
neutron-star merger
A golden binary
(Nature)
gravitational and
electromagnetic waves
from the merging
neutron stars
Cosmic convergence
(Science)
a short update on the
neutron-star collision
announced earlier
in the years
A new view on
the origin of gold
(Quanta)
from neutron star
collisions ---
not supernovae?
.... a prescient article
-----------------------
Open to debate:
the insides of
a neutron star
(Quanta)
squishy soft or solid?
Gravitational waves
and stellar
paleontology
(Nature)
2-pager on three
scenarios for
black-hole mergers
The supernova that
wouldn't die
(Nature)
the longest-lived
supernova ever
observed (600 days
before fading) --
un-explainable
with current models
A celebration of
Supernova 1987A
(Harvard
Smithsonian)
with an image set,
including 3-D
understanding
exoplanets
Forbidden planets
(Science)
understanding alien
worlds once thought
impossible
Making sense of
the exoplanet zoo
(Science)
a nice radius-mass
graph separates
exoplanets into
3 kinds: jovian,
neptunian, & terran
The three eras of
planetary exploration
(Nature Astronomy)
understanding the
solar system is not
enough
-----------------------
life in the universe:
common or not ?
Oldest fossils suggest
that life in the
universe is 'common'
(U Wisconsin)
The likelihood of
life in the universe
as a function
of time
(axXiv)
the conclusion:
life peaks at 10
billion years A.B.
near low-mass stars:
are we the most
ancient ones?
The case for
cosmic modesty
(Scientific American)
looking for life in
all possible forms
Earliest SM black hole
gives a rare glimpse
of the early universe
(Quanta)
how did it grow so
big, so fast?
Starving vs. feasting
black holes
(Sky & Telescope)
a change in the
unified model
of active galaxies?
Does dark energy
change with time?
(Sky & Telescope)
If so, it could explain
the discrepancy in H0
values from CMB
and supernovae data
New estimate for
Milky Way's mass
(Sky and Telescope)
based on globular
cluster motions,
lower (by 30%) than
previously thought
Cosmic 'cold spot'
challenges standard
cosmology
(Astronomy)
a matter supervoid,
the last hope,
is now ruled out
Explaining the
Milky Ways's
γ-ray excess
(Sky & Telescope)
pulsars or dark-
matter annihilation?
What's wrong with
Hubble's constant?
(Science)
bad assumptions?
new physics?
Einstein's ' greatest
blunder'
(Physics Today)
the 100th
anniversary.....
and perhaps the
wrong blunder has
been assumed?
Anti-matter and
matter neutrinos
behave differently?
(Quanta)
a clue to why the
universe exists?
The origin of
cosmic positrons
(Scientific American)
is it mundane
(pulsars) or exotic
(annihilation of
dark matter)?
How things get heavy
(Physics Teacher,
October 2017 issue)
the nature of mass
Quantum teleportation
is weirder than
you think
(Nature)
getting to the heart
of quantum theory
Hidden worlds of
fundamental particles
(Physics Today,
June 2017 issue)
how hidden sectors
might solve the
hierarchy problem,
dark matter, and
matter/antimatter
asymmetry
The neutrino:
fundamental to
the universe
(Aeon)
a tale of bombs,
espionage, and
subtle flavors
the year of Trump
Incoherent,
authoritarian,
and uninformed
(Vox)
Trump's appropriate
coda to 2017
Our dishonest
President
(LA Times)
in 6 parts
Why Trump won:
cultural anxiety
(PRRI)
one of the more
believable reasons
Busting myths:
Trump supporters
weren't poor and
weren't working class
(Washington Post)
65% of his voters
came from the
better-off half of
the economy
How immigration
foiled Hillary
(NY Times)
and elected Trump
-----------------------
The new class war
(American Affairs)
what is America
about?
The pity of it all:
remembering the
Vietnam War
(NY Review of Books)
the Ken Burns
retrospective
Facebook's manifesto:
A blueprint for
destroying journalism
(Atlantic)
What Hillary knew
(Atlantic)
finally, an accounting
of Bill Clinton's past?
White evangelicals:
the greatest threat
to christianity?
(Washington Post)
maybe to America?
the media
from the right
They're wrong
about everything
(Wash. Free Beacon)
"almost the entirely
of what one reads
on web or in print
is speculation"
from the left
Media malpractice
(The Nation)
keeping American
shocked rather
than informed
science & math
Top 10 science
stories of 2017
(Scientific American)
the total solar eclipse,
colliding neutron stars
at the top, in space
A simple guide
to CRISPR
(Vox)
biggest science
story of the decade?
Life's first molecules:
proteins or RNA?
(Scientific American)
2017 Nobel Prize in Physics
(Nobel Prize)
for discovery of
gravitational waves
Quantifying
(and fighting)
gerrymandering
(Quanta)
math for good
-----------------------
education
The future of American
undergraduate
education
(American Academy
of Arts& Sciences)
a challenge of
quantity has become
a challenge of
educational quality
The decline of the
Midwest's public
research universities
(Atlantic)
threatening economic
vibrancy
Can American
education be rescued?
(Scientific American)
Can American
education be rescued?
(Scientific American)
The right way to
fix education
(NY Times)
-----------------------
tech
Have smartphones
ruined a generation?
(Atlantic)
Our minds have been
hijacked by our
smartphones
(Wired)
how to rescue them
Net neutrality can't
fix the Internet
(Atlantic)
can anything?
Elon Musk's
billion-dollar
crusade to stop the
AI Apocalypse
(Vanity Fair)
-----------------------
teaching
Evaluating teacher
effectiveness
(Prospect)
evaluating teachers
by their students'
performance
under fire, finally