What science tells us about ourselves and how we think; what to expect (or not expect) from research; and a few basic principles explained
On Episode 150 of their podcast Dear Hank and John, Hank and John Green were pondering this, haunting questions:
How many visitors to the Eiffel Tower would have to poop there when they arrive before the tower is covered in poop? How long would that take?
Well, let’s have at it!
While listening to the always brilliant Hello Internet podcast, I stumbled upon a shocking question: am I deceiving you, my beloved reader, when I try to present science as something exciting?
Among lightsabers, spaceships, and grandiose special effects, Star Wars: The Last Jedi also offers some reflection on who heroes are, and what part they play in history. And it made me think about my science heroes: Nobel prize winners. Continue reading “Star Wars, heroes, and Nobel Prizes”
Awarding the Nobel prize for physics to something related to gravitational waves was a matter of when—not if. Still, one could have argued it was too early: gravitational waves were not a surprise discovery.
You may have read around that a black hole “is a singularity”. But, if you are interested in artificial intelligence, you also heard about The Singularity, when robots will surpass us. So… robots in black holes? Actually, it all makes sense. Continue reading “A singular post”
Tuesday was Pi Day. The choice of which constant to celebrate probably had to do with its notoriety, but to celebrate a constant at all has much deeper roots. Continue reading Circles, social circles and Pi Day
… a little bit, it always has been and probably always will be. But it’s part of the process. Continue reading All physics is wrong!
Polls are wrong! Stats mean nothing! Numbers can’t describe people! Maybe. Or maybe we’re doing something wrong in handling them. Continue reading Things numbers do, things numbers don’t
Most predictions for the winners of this years Nobel prize for physics point to the biggest piece of science news we’ve had: gravitational waves. I’ll go out on a limb and say that I’m not convinced they will. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a great fan of team LIGO’s work, too. The discovery of gravitational waves was incredible, but so was the Higgs boson. LIGO … Continue reading What if gravitational waves don’t win the Nobel prize?
Some parts of the brain “light up” when we feel certain feelings, or listen to music, or tackle math problems. Certainly you’ve stumbled upon such news, given how frequently they end up in mainstream media. The technique used for these studies (and many others in neurosciences) is called functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (or fMRI), which is an amazing thing, but also seems to have a … Continue reading What the eff is an fMRI?
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