The Mystics and Realists of Quantum Physics
It is said that when the 20th century is long gone, it will be remembered for two revolutionary theories – those of relativity and quantum physics.
Human Evolution and Frameshift Mutations
How did humans evolve from early primates? How did “human like” traits such as a smaller jaw relative to apes and hairlessness pop up when they don’t appear in the wild in any real frequency? The typical explanation for why humans have smaller jaws than early primates is that our diets changed and our brains got bigger, pressures that caused a smaller jaw. But there’s another way to look at this – what if our diets changed and our brains got bigger due to proto-human society dealing and adapting to an increasingly frequent and nearly catastrophic mutation of the jaw?
Chimpanzees and Neoteny
One of the biggest “human” questions is “where did we come from?”. While the mechanisms of evolution are well established, the route humanity took to get to its present state is not as well detemined.
Clever as a Fox
Sometimes we see things so often that we simply forget to ask “why are they like that?” For instance, let’s take a closer look at domestic animals. Dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs – animals that we live with, and who couldn’t live without us.
Koide’s Formula
Finding a beautiful and simple equation for something in the natural world is fascinating to me – it’s like picking at a corner of loose wallpaper in your room and suddenly seeing the scrolling green text of the Matrix on the wall behind it.
The Trees of Mars
Science is a far more dynamic process than many realize. The constant upheaval of new measurements and new data forces us to constantly reassess our theories and our very view of how well we know the world.
Elementary Cellular Automata
Oddly enough, this is not referring to an indie rock band or a Transformer – but rather to a very simple set of rules that has surprisingly complex results.
TED Talks – Mushrooms Can Save the World
Mushrooms can save the world – and Paul Stamets wants to tell you how. Thinking in unconventional ways is something he has spent a lifetime doing. Paul loves mushrooms – or more correctly, he loves fungi.
The Fracture Modes of Spaghetti
Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France have written a wonderful little paper on the fracture mechanics of thin brittle rods, aka spaghetti.
