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late December 2017 |
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As the world turns: life can speed up a planet's rotation (Science) by melting glaciers, rising seas, and oxygen levels A wish list for 2018 space exploration (Astronomy) sadly, the JWST isn't on the list 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 Saturn's rings: a recent addition to the solar system (< 300 Myr old) (Science News) origin likely due to a shredded moon An unexpected polar vortex on Titan (Bristol U.) Oumuamua update: red, tumbling, and still silent (Sky & Telescope) sorry, ET fans climate change How we know it's climate change (NY Times) detecting the fingerprints of global warming Human-driven global warming fueled extreme weather events (American Meteorological Society) a special collection of papers Dire times ahead for Ponderosa-pine and pinyon forests (NY Times) new estimates of die-off by climate- induced drought Will changing cloud cover accelerate global warming? (Scientific American, December 2017 issue) or just the opposite? (paywall) Can we save the corals? (Scientific American, January 2018 issue) (paywall) The energy costs of bitcoin (Grist) one transaction costs the same as powering 9 houses for a day China is building the world's most ambitious carbon market (Vox) |
Huge convection cells on surface of a red giant (Astronomy) larger than Texas neutron-star merger Did the smash-up choke off its own jet? (Sky & Telescope) Cosmic convergence (Science) a short update on the neutron-star collision announced earlier in the years plus 7 new research articles on the collision (abstract only; the rest behind the paywall): ] The optical counterpart Light curves & r-process implications X-ray and uv data: detection of a kilonova A radio counterpart Spectral evolution of a neutron- star merger Electromagnetic evidence of a neutron-star merger A concordant picture of photons from the merger ------------------------- |
Oldest fossils suggest that life in the universe is 'common' say two press releases: from UCLA from U Wisconsin commentary 1 (Astronomy) commentary 2 (Science) and the (calmer) research article (PNAS) Aliens & UFOs UFOs: is this all there is? (NY Times) ambiguous title, interesting article Aliens are coming: why we should care (Washington Post) alien hoaxes(?) Glowing auras and 'Black Money' (NY Times) a secret Pentagon research program just uncovered and How the story was uncovered (NY Times) Does the Pentagon have a UFO program? (NY Times) it's not clear The truth about the 'alien alloys' in the original story (Scientific American) ------------------------- RZ Piscium: devouring its own wrecked planets? (NASA) |
Mysterious X-ray signal from multiple galaxies (Chandra) dark matter? or yet another false alarm? Anti-matter and matter neutrinos behave differently? (Quanta) and a clue to why the universe exists? Primordial galaxies swimming in dark matter (Earth & Sky) when the universe was only 780 Myr old Searching for the dark: the hunt for axions (Scientific American, (January 2018 issue) (paywall) |
Incoherent, authoritarian, and uninformed (Vox) Trump's appropriate ending to the year America's declining economic mobility (LA Times) economic problems for the poor. an aging society Decline of US influence: the global story of our age (Washington Post) The voluntary abdication of America (Atlantic) a new way for a great power to die ADHD from 1% to 17% in just 4 decades (Atlantic) or is it just narcissism gone wild? Judge Donald Stephens v. Senator Dan Bishop (Raleigh N&O) NC politics in a nutshell Stories that we wish we had one in 2017 (538) including an eclipse story A preview of the US without pensions (Washington Post) the first generation without is about to retire Atlantic Coast pipeline (Raleigh N&O) tough choices pro & con a modern lifeline con ------------------------- political entertainment "Thank you, President Trump, for allowing us to have you as our President" (New York) the very best in WH syncophantism On the front lines in the GOP's civil war (Esquire) the 'Never Trumpers' still at work White evangelicals: un-American to the core (Washington Post) or maybe anti-American? How the baby boomers screwed America (Vox) correct numbers, but idiotic blame casting Could 2018 be a 'flood' electron for the Democrats? (538) and not just a wave? ...... if only ------------------------- taxes Final tax cut bill: 4 winners & 4 losers (Vox) Tax cut or increase? two tax calculators: Washington Post NY Times give wildly different results Wrong solution for the wrong problem (NY Times) billions for Apple, Microsoft, & Google -- but ignoring the coming tsunami A win for the wealthy, the entitled, and the irresponsible (Washington Post) Risking the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (New Yorker) by allowing oil drilling The $1.5 trillion bribe (Washington Post) and the triumph of cynicism 6 reasons why liberals should love the GOP tax scam (New York) it will make America more progressive (after the blowback) ------------------------- 2018 or 1984?: Trump admin bans 7 words from CDC documents in 2018 (Mother Jones) and what those words 'really' mean social media Facebook.... or democracy? (NPR) which will we choose? on revisiting his Facebook wins, democracy loses (NY Times) How companies use Facebook to exclude older workers from job ads (Pro Publica) but defends age discrimination as 'accepted practice' but law expert says "blatantly unlawful" Former Facebook execs: "You are being programmed" (McClatchy) Social media ripping society apart? (The Verge) "un-civil discourse, ... misinformation, and mistruth" Former Facebook VP slams.... Facebook (Washington Post) for eroding the core foundation of how people behave or maybe he was exaggerating? (Facebook) Can Facebook be tried for human rights abuses? (Atlantic) ------------------------- The most exciting food cities of 2017 (Zagat) Raleigh @ #12 Xmas Nazareth cancels Christmas celebrations (Washington Times) in protest of Trump recognizing Jerusalem capital of Israel How the 'war on Christmas' was created (NY Times) by Fox News, Trump, and the ACLU? The mythical war on Christmas (Washington Post) is driving us apart What will happen to all the mall Santas? (Washington Post) as malls close ------------------------- Bitcoin A guide for the confused (New York) Bitcoin, explalined (Vox) The energy costs of bitcoin (Grist) Bitcoin's price spike causes extraordinary surge in energy use (Vox) Bitcoin: the choice of extremist groups (Washington Post) along with hiding drug deals and the like The Bitcoin Delusion (Atlantic) but then is real money real? |
America the frigid (Vox) in one cool map college The futility of college interviews (Atlantic) irrelevant and stressful Why do (so many) Republicans hate college? (Washington Post) The future of American undergraduate education (American Academy of Arts& Sciences) a challenge of quantity has become a challenge of educational quality ------------------------- taxes, science, and the future America: on the way to Nobel-Prize irrelevance? (Raleigh N&O) Trump's effect on science Devastating science: the new GOP tax bill (Scientific American) raising the debt instead of investing in the future Science wins some, loses some -- in new US tax plan (Science) Jim Simons: data mining for the public good? (New Yorker) the result of un-taxed billions ------------------------- it's that time of year Top 10 Astronomy new stories of 2017 (Sky & Telescope) neutron-star merger @ the top, of course Neutron-star merger tops list of 2017's 10 science breakthroughs (Science) and the 9 runners-up -- also now in video format for the reading deprived Science photos of the year and not one of the August total eclipse?!? 7 hot (sociopolitical) stories (Science Insider) Top 7 science videos (Science Insider) that 'stole our heaerts' The 15+ science events that shaped the year (Nature) colliding neutron stars, political upheaval top the list but Nature just can't stop ..... 10 best infographics and Top 10 videos/podcasts and Top 14 science images and 10 best books and 10 people who mattered (& 5 to watch in 2018) and 10 best long reads the end. I think. Top 10 science stories of 2017 (Scientific American) the total solar eclipse, colliding neutron stars at the top, in space 5 most read science stories of 2017 (Science News) blue dragonfly wings, next 15 solar eclipses top the list Top 10 emerging technologies of 2017 (Scientific American, December 2017 issue) water from the sun, artificial photosynthesis, and more (paywall) 10 greatest science breakthroughs of 2017 (Ranker) extracting water from air, turning hydrogen into metal... really. Top 10 science stories of 2017 (Cosmos) colliding neutron stars, habitable planets The earth-shaking events of 2017 (New Yorker) the year in geology Best science journalism of 2017 (Science) AAAS Kavli winners ------------------------- NC teaching NC teachers get more job security (Raleigh N&O) but still not tenure New math for teachers in Wale County (Raleigh N&O) new Common Core materials ------------------------- biology We're not destroying the Earth (much) (NY Times) NC: a leader in charter school magnet programs (Raleigh N&O) that promote diversity & choice NC legislature ignores class-size crisis (Raleigh N&O) Who eats whom (NY Times) in the deep ocean Leading hypothesis for life's origin on its way out? (Quanta) proteins, not RNA, came first? ------------------------- The workforce implications of machine learning (Science) A 'wrinkle' in the Navier-Stokes fluid equations (Quanta) under some extreme circumstances they give nonsense results A science and math crossword puzzle (Quanta) many clues refer to this-year's Quanta articles |
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early December 2017 |
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Juno at Jupiter: the Red Spot goes deep (Sky & Telescope) and a new radiation zone found US to return to Moon ... and then Mars? (Nature) but no timetable... and no money Oumuamua: disrupting planetary science? (Scientific American) Alien probe or galactic driftwood? (Scientific American) we're listening, Oumuamua Is Planet 9 real? (Atlantic) pros and cons Evidence mounts for Europa plate tectonics (Astronomy) resurfacing is done by subduction or subsumption of parts of ice shell, says research article (Journal of Geophysical Research) Pluto's Secrets Revealed (Scientific American, December 2017 issue) behind a pay wall Why is Earth magnetized... and not Venus? (Sky & Telescope) is the origin of the Moon the cause? The lumpy world of asteroids (Scientific American) gnarled, bumpy, and bizarre Apophis has a chance of hitting Earth in 2036? (Science 2.0) Google News over-run by fake astronomy climate change the future of warming Arctic Report Card (NOAA) 2017: 2nd warmest year since 1900 & permafrost melting faster than ever (Guardian) The most accurate climate models are predicting the most alarming consequences (Washington Post) with a very scary graph, says a statistical study: Greater future global warming inferred from Earth's recent energy budget (Nature) (sadly behind a pay wall) The far reach of ice- shelf thinning (Nature) it accelerates upstream ground- ice melting A long goodbye to the Ponderosa pine and Pinyon forests (NY Times) What the Pliocene era can tell us about future Earth warming (Science News) it was the last time CO2 levels were comparable to today's 6 ways 'we' can adapt to climate change (NY Times) but only 1 requires something of Americans: for them to stop eating meat ....yeah, right Ice apocalypse (Grist) 2 melting glaciers could decide our future coastlines Where is Greenland's melted ice water going? (NY TImes) This year's deadly hurricanes and climate change (Vox) it's complicated Preparing for climate disaster (NY Times) breaking, burning, and throwing stuff ------------------------- energy & the future 6 principles for energy innovation (Nature) Arctic drilling: it's hidden in the tax bill (NY Times) Life after coal (Grist) the last coal mine in Germany's Appalachia is closing ------------------------- communication France takes the lead on climate: One Planet Summit was December 12 Make the Planet Great Again started last July Doom-and-gloom reporting won't solve anything (Scientific American) "we need to engage the skeptics" those who believe politicians over science? France lures 18 climate scientists with huge grants (Science) 12 Americans (and 5 from Colorado) ------------------------- reducing CO2 in the atmosphere The dirty secret of averting climate disaster (Wired) it relies on a technology that doesn't yet exist Winning slowly = Losing (Bill McKibben, via Rolling Stone) the technology exists to fight climate change... why aren't we using it? Humanity's fight vs. warming is failing ... only 1 technology can change that (Quartz) suck up the CO2 The first zero-emission fossil fuel planet? (Quartz) by a Texas start-up How much CO2 will we need to remove from the atmosphere? (ClimateWire) time to start working on negative emissions How tropical forests could stabilize atmospheric CO2 (Nature) |
Stellar cannibalism. in fits and starts (Nature) accreting matter from a companion Exotic objects: black holes, pulsars and more (Astronomy) 10-page free e-book (in exchange for your email address) |
Kepler-90 has (at least) 8 planets (NY Times) tying solar system for the most Why ET can't expand for more than a few millenia (Science 2.0) obvious, but is it remotely relevant? The labs on Earth that simulate high-pressure exoplanets (Nature) exploring what it takes to make a planet habitable ET calling How will humans react to alien contact? (Washington Post) badly is the obvious answer The Cosmos is calling. What will we say? (NY Times) or should we be thinking about cutting the $2-trillion military budget in half first? ------------------------- life goes deep, both here and elsewhere? Searching for life's origins (Atlantic) thousands of feet underwater Life goes deeper (Aeon) to the bottom of the ocean ------------------------- Chemical rockets will not get us to other worlds (Scientific American) beware: equations (and neither will wormholes) |
Interactive 3-D map traces galaxies in the Local Supercluster (Astronomy) with 2 simulations of galaxy motions Using stars to map the dark matter (Sky & Telescope) in the Sculptor dwarf galaxy lighting up the dark universe Most distant SMBH found (Astronomy) @ z = 7.54, 690 MY after the Bang + clues to when the universe re-ionized? How do you build a 800-million solar mass black hole in just 690 Myr? (Astronomy) lighting up the dark universe Earliest black hole gives a rare glimpse of the early universe (Quanta) how did it grow so big, so fast? ------------------------- Infant O and B stars huddle around Milky Way's SMBH (NRAO) in two separate rings WMAP wins one of the $3-million Breakthrough Awards (Nature) but remember that Yuri Milner -- and Kremlin/Putin cash -- partially funds this prize A deeper view of the Hubble Deep Field (Sky & Telescope) ESO's MUSE finds 72 additional galaxies, seeing back to 600 MY A.B. Baryon acoustic oscillations: a cosmological ruler (Physics Today) sadly, not the most illuminating of articles |
String theory fails another test (Not Even Wrong) LIGO has found no evidence of cosmic strings (so far) Quantum teleportation turns 20 (Nature) we've come a long way since 1993, when non-reality and entanglement were discredited ideas A tantalizing hint of dark matter? (Science) Chinese probe finds discontinuity in positron-electron cosmic-ray spectrum Time's arrow reversed in quantum experiment (Science News) and without violating the 2nd law of thermo |
inspiring Truth (still) matters (NY Times) to most of us Our time to 'fight on the beaches'? (Washington Post) Despair is not an option (American Prospect) ------------------------- depressing Thank you, Alabama (Washington Post) A media debacle (Intercept) where's the transparency? Big rocket man (NY Books) is oh so small Are social networks controlling your mind? (Scientific American) and can up stop using them if they are? Roy Moore: America is 'the focus of evil in the world'... but Putin is just great (Vox) won... just wow The closing of the Republican mind (Atlantic) insularity rules ...while rotting from within (NY Times) but... liberals need to take their fingers our of their ears (NY Times) ------------------------- baking cakes at the Supreme Court for the couple (Washington Post) for the baker (New York) ------------------------- Big Money rules (NY Books) why do the poor so often vote for tax cuts for the rich? The desecration of Utah Two vast national monuments turned into 5 smaller ones (Salt Lake Tribune) 2 million acres now open to drilling, mining, etc. Archaeologists uneasy (Nature) thousands of Native American sites lose protection Why would anyone do this to a landscape that looks like this? (Patagonia) because big money always wins The legal battle ahead (Vox) Inside the fight for Utah's national monuments (BBC) Bear Ears to shrink by 85% (NY Times) because drilling is most important What's next: the Grand Canyon? (NY Times) ------------------------- De-legitimizing government Government by revenge... (New York) ...while stealing billions from the poor (Vox) only in (Trump's) America Dismantling the Foreign Service (Burns and Crocker, via NY Times) will Congress provide oversight? How Tillerson did so much damage in so little time (NY TImes) but his replacement will be a hawk Diplomats pushed out in droves (NY Times) Enabling Trump's worst instincts (Atlantic) Mike Pompeo, front and center Dismantling the EPA (Time) anti-science on parade Let's dismantle the National Parks & Forests (Think Progress) says the GOP 2 Utah National Monuments about to almost disappear (Grist) The Bitcoin Delusion (Atlantic) but then is real money real? ------------------------- wonder & awe Public lands: what makes America great (Washington and they're not for sale (and showing the Moki Dugway -- the craziest road I've ever driven) Bears Ears in photos (Quartz) How Alexander Calder made art move (New Yorker) the invention of the mobile Malta: where the West was born (NY TImes) at a cultural crossroads A photo trip along the Silk Road (Atlantic) The 'new' Seven Wonders of the World (NY TImes) Petra, Chichen Itzla, Machu Picchu, & more The treasures of Chaco Canyon (NY Times) get there before drilling ruins it |
2017: How Trump shaped science (Scientific American) We're number 33 (in annual ranking of healthiest states) (American Health) Science made America great (Scientific American) once upon a time A guide to digital security (Wired) passwords, smart- phone protection, and more How to talk to a science denier effectively (Scientific American) it's not talking to a rational being A secret link between pure math and physics? (Quanta) but don't think you're going to understand it by reading this lame article What makes a good teacher? (Atlantic) one whose students enjoy class or one with high standards? 5 ways to fix statistics (Nature) the problem is not math, but ourselves 1967: The year we discovered how the Earth really works (BBC) 50 years of plate tectonics NC pollution grows; so do environmental budget cuts (Raleigh N&O) geniuses? Where inventors grew up (NY Times) the correlation between wealth and invention or why invention doesn't happen in the South Who becomes an inventor (Equality of Opportunity) America's lost Einsteins (Atlantic) millions of children from poor families will never achieve their science/math potential Bad news for the highly intelligent? (Scientific American) superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders ------------------------- biology surprises Insect armageddon (NY Times) and how it was discovered by German amateurs The jellyfish apocalypse (Atlantic) jellyfish are the top underwater predator A huge haul of pterosaur eggs (Nature) pterosaurs nested in groups ------------------------- college and grad school Would we be better off without 'college for everyone'? (Atlantic) students don't seem to be getting much out of higher ed? or maybe the author doesn't understand the purpose of college? The right way to fix universities (NY TImes) stop catering to the rich; develop training programs for those hurt by globalization & technological change Universities are also to blame for the 'grad student tax' (Washington Post) why don't they just charge zero tuition? ... find the answer here A death blow to grad school? (US News) US grad students: protests and arrests (Nature) over 'tuition' taxation Overestimating the benefits of a college degree? (Atlantic) Harvard's hypocrisy on unions (NY Times) ------------------------- net neutrality, part 2 Congress will pay the price (Wired) How the end on net neutrality will change the Internet (Wired) blocked content, slow (& fast) lanes, disappearance of small Internet companies Concerns about net neutrality over-blown? (NY Times) Ajit Pai's shell game (Wired) is exceptionally vacuous Net neutrality repeal (50-min audio from WBUR OnPoint) 2 pro, 1 con... the con guy says nothing of substance An FCC defends (or attempts to) the revocation of net neutrality (50-min audio from WAMU The 1A) and says nothing of substance |
late November 2017 |
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The story of fossil meteorites (Astronomy) what 4 of them can tell us Light pollution on Earth is increasing (Sky & Telescope) the lost LED revolution Quashed: a leading theory for liquid water on Mars (Science) Oumuamua A short visit from a red and very elongated interstellar asteroid (Nature) the unexpected rendezvous with Oumuamua (paywall) visualizing its path (NASA) The physics behind Oumuamua (Wired) with homework! ------------------------- Stop annoying NASA (Washington Post) with Planet X doomsday theories Photoshopping Jupiter (Atlantic) the workings of the Juno club Arecibo gets a reprieve (Science) astronomers relieved climate change What lies beneath (Scientific American) diving scientists report big changes beneath Antarctic ice shelf Global warming in real time (Vox) and the paper it's based on (Nature) Solving 3 of the world's biggest problems -- all at once (Vox) global warming, energy access, and air pollution World Energy Outlook 2017 (International Energy Agency) renewables are the future; coal strikes out; oil era not yet over; world falls short on GHGs & pollution; China will change everything talking about doing 2 weeks in Bonn (NY TImes) what's happened/ (and happening) at the UN climate conference update (NY Times) 15,000 scientists clamor for more climate action (Science 2.0) The once and future climate consensus (Vox) is presently stalled Fossil-free finance (American Prospect) divesting carbon All the risks of climate change in 1 graph (Vox) in short, panic 7 surprises that climate change will throw at us (Nautil.us) more violence, less sleep & less sex |
Black-hole pretenders may be superfast spinning pulsars (Scientific American) are we smart enough to tell them apart? Smallest black- hole merger so far (LIGO) 7- and 12-solar-mass black holes merge into 18-solar-mass black hole Sky and Telescope has some interesting comments about spin |
55e Cnr has an atmosphere (and not lava flows) (Sky & Telescope) and a substantial one.... probably Did life hitchhike its way through the solar system? (Astronomy) by hypervelocity spacedust collisions Rethinking alien life (Nature) it's no longer about water Ross 128b: a nice place to live? (Atlantic) (Molecular) beacons of life (Astrobites) looking for signs of life on other planets |
Hidden supercluster might solve Milky Way mystery (Quanta) and explain why our galaxy is moving so fast |
The nature of reality: Ed Witten interviewed (Quanta) Modern physics demotes mass (Nautil.us) it's not an intrinsic property of particles? dark matter stock rising? The origin of cosmic positrons (Scientific American) is it mundane (pulsars) or exotic (annihilation of dark matter)? published article (Science) authors lean toward 'exotic' New particle study supports dark-matter annihilation (Astronomy) or stock falling? Deathblow dealt to dark-matter disks (Quanta) |
The media apocalypse (Atlantic) the evil that Facebook & Google have wrought millennials Where millennials come from (New Yorker) the first major accounting of this generation by one of its own No wonder millennials hate capitalism (NY Times) Millennials will pay for GOP tax plan (Atlantic) maybe it will make them start voting? ... nah How to be an adult (Washington Post) a weekly series for millennials on how to behave ------------------------- looking forward Lines that divide (Atlantic) we're increasingly segregaed by socioeconomic class The war on blue states (US News) and on colleges and the college-educated Trapped in Trump's delusional world (New York) mental illness, front and center The self-destruction of American democracy (NY Times) The non-reality show (New York) looking backward Race, class, and the 2016 election (NY TImes) The men who cost Clinton the election (NY Times) Lauer, Rose, and Thrush ------------------------- books 100 notable books (NY Times) but nary a science book in sight Best books 2017 (Washington Post) 125+ ------------------------- gifts that are not books The 100 best products (New York) Holiday gift guide (NY TImes, with Wirecutter) Best Cyber Monday deals (Wired) Most cutting-edge gifts for techies (Washington Post) ------------------------- NCAA basketball: starting with sleaze and scandal (Washington Post) here's to you, UNC Uber's problem: a culture of dishonesty (Bloomberg) and why isn't it cleaning up its cheating culture? ------------------------- Airline deregulation (American Prospect) Wall Street screws America, again Uranium ONE scandal? (American Thinker) or no scandal? (NY Times) which article has facts? and which innuendo? ------------------------- America the depressing A spectacular accumulation of lies (Washington Post) the descent of Trump and his allies The unique corruption of Trump's White House (Robert Dallek, via Vox) "politicians lie, but this is different" Selfishness, alienation, distrust, & polarization (NY Times) what our leaders have wrought A golden age of corruption (Atlantic) the executive branch's indifference to the appearance of clean hands Our inordinately white. wealthy, male government (New Republic) deserving what we elect Reflections on a year with Trump (NY Books) 9 essays but perhaps most important: We're with stupid (NY TImes) living in a digital safe space walls us off from truth & reality Making you want to look forward to the 2018 miderms? (New York) ------------------------- taxes & cuts, part 2 Winners and losers (NY TImes) GOP's tax plan's 5 worst things (Washington Post) gobbledygook at the start, 5 things at end GOP tax plans: corporations over people (NY Times) Biggest losers: humans (Washington Post) The effect of GOP tax plans on graduate students (Astrobites) it's not good Grad students are freaking out about the GOP tax plans (Wired) as they should be Bankrupting grad students (NY Times) does this explain why the GOP is smiling? comments from the right How to fix the GOP tax plan (NY Times) The original GOP tax plan is the right one (Washington Post) Stephen Moore defends the indefensible, again ------------------------- art Norwegian woods (NY Books) the art of Munch A divine star (NY Times) Michelangelo at the Met The secret lives of Leonardo (New Yorker) Walter Isaacson's latest book Math at the Met (Scientific American) it's everywhere in art Masters & pieces (New Yorker) Leonardo. Munch, & Michelangelo Salvator Mundi: the last Leonardo? (Vulture) real or fake? Christie's thinks it's real Inside at the 450 M$ Leonardo auction (Vanity Fair) All the daVinci's of the world, rated (Guardian) but only 14... not 16...or 17...or 18? ------------------------- How taming cows and horses sparked worldwide inequality (Science) White-on-white voting (NY Times) when an area is more than 85% white, Trump support skyrockets Why age prejudice never gets old (New Yorker) new forces (e.g., Silicon Valley, Hollywood) restore its youthful vitality The NYC subway is a disaster (NY TImes) years in the making |
The 10 most popular genes in the human body (Nature) 'popular', as in 'most studied' Here come the earthquakes: drilling re-awakens dormant faults in Texas (Scientific American) thanks, fracking! Science at Thanksgiving dinner (Scientific American) just in time Cook the perfect turkey (Scientific American) with Chemistry Thanksgiving: for the Jarzynksi inequality (Preposterous Universe) extending the 2nd law of thermo Thunderstorms make new isotopes! (Nature) C14 made with lightning-generated positrons Nice brains finish last (Scientific American) 'prosocial' brains more likely to suffer from depression Death... and football (Guardian) brain science and lawsuits net neutrality Hastening the death of the Internet? (NY TImes) what we give up by allowing corporate control Fake Americans wrote most of anti- neutrality public comment period (Washington Post) we need a comment do-over 10 essential reads (The Conversation) A net neutrality FAQ (Tim Wu) The FCC and net neutrality (Mashable) How the FCC can 'save' the open Internet (Ajit Pai, via Wall Street Journal) smoke and mirrors from the leader of the opposition Net neutrality can't fix the Internet (Atlantic) can anything? ------------------------- civilization Saudi Arabia's lines in the sand (NY TImes) who made them and why? Do civilizations collapse? (Aeon) perhaps only states do? Why written languages look alike the world over (Science) an aesthetic wired into our brains ------------------------- anti-education Can the Museum of the Bible overcome its sins of the past? (Science) Iraq-looted, smuggled tablets & seals, questionable origin of artifacts... Fake news at the Bible museum (Vox) pandering to faith over inquiry and scholarship The 'miraculous' appearance of 'new' Dead Sea Scrolls (National Geographic) Bad and worse (Newsweek) ignorance or theft? Spotlight on stolen antiquities (OnPoint 50-min audio) sins of omission Cloudy provenance (Insider Higher Ed) where's the paper? Reflecting the discouraging state of Christianity (Washington Post) culture over values Perhaps we should just be grateful that it's not the Creation Museum? (Washington Post) Powerful story, beautiful building, entertainment AND education! (Washington Post) all the important stuff, right? ------------------------- The (GOP) war on college (Atlantic) |
early November 2017 |
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Hazy skies cool down Pluto (Nature) why Pluto is 30 °C cooler than predicted Is there a terrestrial analog to Titan? (Astronomy) Trinidad's Asphalt Lake? Frozen life on Mars? (Astronomy) in the frozen Martian regolith? Ancient ocean remnants on Ceres? (NASA JPL) evidence from Dawn The asteroid from 'not around here' (Nature) what we can learn from the first interstellar visitor Asteroids photobomb distant galaxies (Hubble) and why is this interesting? climate change Global CO2 emissions up 2%... ending a 3-year plateau (Washington Post) despite China & US emissions decreasing ditto (NY Times) 4th National Climate Assessment (NCA4) (Science 2017) Volume I is 800 pages Climate change is real & humans are to blame (Nature) duh The zombie diseases of climate change (Atlantic) what pathogens lurk below the Arctic's melting permafrost? How climate change helped overthrow the Roman Empire (Vox) along with disease public policy America pushes coal at Bonn climate summit (Politico) like selling cigarettes at an anti-cancer convention Live report(s) from Bonn climate summit (OnPoint 45-min audio) Where's the climate legislation? (Atlantic) Dems are shockingly unprepared to fight global warming with climate bills Can CO2 removal save the world? (New Yorker) a lengthy article (or 30-minute audio) 4 ways that cities can become climate heroes (Vox) How far is the world from meeting its own climate goals? (NY Times) pretty far off-course Who will lead in this time of climate crisis? (NY Times) as US sheds its leadership role EPA: ousting the scientists who received its grants (Vox) dozens of employees speak out book review: The Water Will Come: Rising seas, sinking cities, and the remaking of the civilized world (Bill McKibben, via Washington Post) we're not anywhere close to preparing for rising seas Education divides opinions on climate change (NY Times) the more education Republicans have, the less they 'believe' in climate change |
IPTF14hls The supernova that wouldn't stop glowing (Nature) the longest-lived supernova ever observed (600 days before fading) -- un-explainable with current models The zombie supernova (Astronomy) and this isn't behind a pay wall and more commentary (Sky & Telescope) new update: did the star partially explode in 1954? (Quanta) imaged on a photographic plate Defying every known theory of stellar death (Atlantic) it even made NPR Sunday (NPR) -------------------------- neutron-star & black hole mergers The neutron-star merger that solved half of astronomy's problems (538) and what next? A simple recipe for the final spin of a black-hole merger (Astrobites) What if black-hole mergers could be detected earlier? (Astrobites) i.e., hours or days before the merger -------------------------- A moving light echo around a supernova (Hubble) light echoes are rare, moving ones, rarer Deciphering the development of black-hole jets (Sky & Telescope) and ditto (Astronomy) full research article (Nature) The brown dwarf that killed its brother (Astronomy) A golden binary (Nature) gravitational and electromagnetic waves from the merging neutron stars Open to debate: the insides of a neutron star (Quanta) squishy soft or solid? |
Closest Earth-sized temperate world is 11 c-years away (ESO) Ross 128b orbits an M4 main-sequence star; the planet has 1.4 Earth masses and orbits its star at 0.05 au; equilibrium temps range from -60 °C to +18 °C, depending on its albedo research article here (Astron & Astrophys) Earth-sized alien worlds are out there... but how to detect life? (Science) should we look for O2 or CO2 or H2O or CH4 or 'the red edge'? What happens if China makes first contact with ETI? (Atlantic) it now has the largest radio telescope dish on Earth An exoplanet that snows sunscreen (Hubble) TiO snow on Kepler 13A-b The significance of the 24.2-day period in Tabby's-star's light curve (Science 2.0) |
Bullying and harassment.... over galaxies?!? (Starts with a Bang via Forbes) Hidden pulsars? and not dark matter (Quanta) explaining a galactic glow |
What if there are no laws of nature? (New Scientist) does reality exist without us? Closing in on the tetraquark? (Real Clear Science) dark matter ... or maybe not A deathblow to dark matter and dark energy alternatives (Starts with a Bang) from the neutron-star merger Discussing dark matter (Astronomy) roundtable at the Kavli Foundation More frustration in the search for dark matter (Nature) XENON1T and PandaX come up negative -------------------------- Beautiful Physics: the beauty quark in physics (Scientific American, November 2017 issue) the search for new physics at LHCb The particle discovery that physicists considered keeping secret (Scientific American) beauty quarks, again Cosmic-ray muons reveal interior of Egyptian pyramid (Nature) |
The costs of being a millennial (New Republic) the psychic cost of growing up in the 'new economy' The pity of it all (NY Books) remembering (or is it rethinking?) the Vietnam War Fox News anchor debunks the fake Clinton uranium affair (Washington Post) to the chagrin of FoxNews haters Moore and Clinton, and more Roy Moore: charlatan, anti-American, with contempt for the law (Federalist) and this from a conservative rag Dump Roy Moore? (New York) you mean like the Democratic party did Bill Clinton, JFK, & Anthony Weiner? Bill Clinton: finally, a reckoning (Atlantic) has the past finally caught up with the liberals' defense of a sex-crime creep? Clinton should have resigned (Vox) a bit late for liberals to complain -------------------------- A 36-photo trip to Antarctica (Atlantic) auroras, telescopes, BICEP-3, neutrino and cosmic-ray detectors, the Milky Way... plus all that ice, biology, and geology The danger of a President Pence (New Yorker) is it really 'corporate rights' or just plain vacuity? the evil 5 The upside of being ruled by the 5 tech giants (NY Times) irony, or sarcasm? Are Facebook, Twitter, and Google American companies? (Atlantic) Who will take responsibility for Facebook now? (Wired) bet it won't be -------------------------- taxes & cuts The American tax system -- in 8 charts (Washington Post) The worst possible tax bill? (Vox) yeah, the one the GOP is proposing The truth about corporate taxes (NY Times) the effective tax rate is already low -- and getting lower GOP tax plan raises taxes of 30% of Americans -- but rich get big reductions (Vox) 60% of the cuts go to richest 20%; 22% of cuts to the richest 1% or....is it 50% to the richest 1%? (NY Mag) or....Greatest benefits for the middle-class? (Politico) Taking aim on academic excellence (Washington Post) the GOP, again A stupidity tax on colleges? (Spectator) punishing colleges for providing a liberal education? ------------------------ information, real and fake America's mis- information problem (Vox) better and worse than you think Trump's message of mistrust is slowly sinking it (Washington Post) sadly Victim-in-chief (Atlantic) yeah, you know who it is ------------------------ 5 books to make you feel less stupid about the Civil War (Atlantic) yeah, they're for you, John Kelly |
prostitution in science: where physics/math prize & research money comes from Kremlin cash & Putin-friend Milner (NY Times) funds the Breakthrough Prize Offshore Bermuda accounts (NY Times) Simons Foundation is largest non-gov't funder of physics & math research in particular, Renaissance Technologies, until recently headed by the egregious Robert Mercer (Bloomberg) -------------------------- education Professors losing their freedom of expression? (Washington Post) "on campuses, no one should be censored or punished merely because of the ideas they express Trump dumps on science, education, and technology (NY Times) whereas China values them How to succeed outside of physics (Physics Today) since only 40% of physicists are employed in physics US students are in jeopardy: Can US education be rescued? (Scientific American) but smart school policies exist Are universities ignoring tech and big data? (NY Times) Should the virtual charter school experiment continue in NC? (Raleigh N&O) isn't low performance reason enough to close them, now? -------------------------- Lamar Smith (science idiot, but US House Science Chair) retires from Congress (Science) science Dinosaurs could have survived (NY Times) if the asteroid had hit in mid-ocean or mid-continent New thermodynamics: how quantum physics is bending the rules (Nature) Mail-order CRISPR sets (starting @ $159) (Scientific American) now anyone can hack DNA Protein was Life's first molecule (and not RNA) (Quanta) says a new model Fall foliage is here; what trees produce what colors (Vox) well, for almost everyone besides NC, where there's no change -------------------------- college Pay for US postdocs varies wildly by institution (Nature) 24 K - 115 K A university in Trump country confronts its skeptics (Politico) U Michigan -------------------------- college admissions College admissions discriminates among the poor (Vox) and how they do it 10 things to know to get into your dream college (NY Times) Everything: what colleges want in an applicant (NY Times) "college admissions process is out of whack" |