Blogs about Science

Economists must find academics confusing. When investors put money in a company, they have some control over what that company does. They vote to decide a board, and the board votes to hire a CEO. …

I've curated a stunning collection of 100 Google Earth images from the illustrious book Overview for your viewing pleasure!

The extraordinarily complicated yet important backstory to current UFO-related headlines takes yet another turn with John Greenewald's report on another successful Freedom of Information Act release. John provides a summary overview as well as the …

There’s not much in this post, but I wanted to mark a significant date. It is the first day of the rest of 2023, but in addition, it is the beginning of a new chapter …

Last time I presented a class of agent-based models where agents hop around a graph in a stochastic way. Each vertex of the graph is some ‘state’ agents can be in, and each edge is …

Open Academic Publication Posted 10/28/2023 I’m currently at a workshop on open practices across disciplines, and one topic of discussion is how to change the academic publishing process to be more accessible to both authors …

The dream of soaring in the sky like a bird has captivated the human mind for ages. Although many failed, some eventually succeeded in achieving that goal. These days we take air transportation for granted, …

In a Tablet Magazine article titled “How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers” posted on March 6, 2024, Professor of Statistics and Data Science Abraham Wyner from the Wharton School at the University …

Pre-registration is the best and possibly only solution to p-hacking. Ten years ago, pre-registrations were virtually unheard of in psychology, but they have become increasingly common since then. I was curious just how common they …

It’s now Round 5 of “benzene in your products is giving you cancer” – over the last three years, this “known human carcinogen” been found in hand sanitiser, sunscreen, deodorant, dry shampoo, and now benzoyl …

The effect varies for different people. Take a moment and look at this. Some people don’t see anything special: just a blue iris in a red eye. Image: CC-BY Tom Stafford 2022 For me though, …

The definitive New Things Under the Sun post.

In defense of Academia The Breslow saga Interview with Scott Alexander On Lockheed Martin's Skunkworks An interview with the founder of Cyclarity, a company working on reversing atherosclerosis On East Asian drinking culture The ultimate …

A few items on the science outreach front: The Oscars of Science were held Saturday night in Hollywood, with a long list of A-listers in attendance, led by Kim Kardashian. More here, here and here. …

In 2022, researchers at the Bee Sensory and Behavioral Ecology Lab at Queen Mary University of London observed bumblebees doing something remarkable: The diminutive, fuzzy creatures were engaging in activity that could only be described …

It is quite common that people get asked what they think is the most import development in technology or the most significant technological invention in human history. Apart from the ubiquitous wheel, which is almost …

Kumba Digdowiseiso Kumba Digdowiseiso, the dean of the economics and business faculty at Universitas Nasional in Jakarta, Indonesia, resigned on Thursday after a firestorm of criticism over the past week. The move, reported widely in …

I recently read that using artificial intelligence creates fewer carbon emissions than human labour. Really? The human brain doesn't have much going for it, but we know that it is much more energy efficient than …

Update (April 19): Apparently a bug has been found, and the author has withdrawn the claim (see the comments). For those who don’t yet know from their other social media: a week ago the cryptographer …

Dubbed “living drugs,” CAR T cells are bioengineered from a patient’s own immune cells to make them better able to hunt and destroy cancer. The treatment is successfully tackling previously untreatable blood cancers. Six therapies …