Science Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Bert Hubert) Welcome! In this post, we’ll be taking a character-by-character look at the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. (…) Now, these words may be somewhat jarring -
Science Squash kill shot (Darbois Texier) In squash, it exists a perfect killing shot which is almost impossible to catch. It occurs when the ball hit an edge of the court. In this situation the ball
Science Ridiculous math problems (Quora) (…) You may have seen such meme images before. They are always pure click-bait garbage: “95% of MIT graduates couldn’t solve this!”, where “this” is some inane, or ill-defined, or
Science Aneutronic fusion (Wikipedia) Aneutronic fusion is any form of fusion power in which the majority of the energy released is carried by charged particles. While the lowest-threshold nuclear fusion reactions release up to
Science Are Aerospike Engines Better Than Traditional Rocket Engines? (Tim Dodd, Everyday Astronaut) Ok, so you can’t really fire a vacuum optimized engine at sea level… and this, really, is where aerospikes come in. The idea behind aerospikes is you allow the
Science Some people are able to control their acoustic reflex to mute sounds around them Loud sounds can harm our ears, especially if the noise appears all of a sudden. It's because the so-called acoustic reflex has not enough time to take effect. A car
Science Breaking max efficiency of solar cells by activating 2 electrons with 1 photon (MIT news) In any conventional silicon-based solar cell, there is an absolute limit on overall efficiency, based partly on the fact that each photon of light can only knock loose a single
Science Engineers create synthetic, sound-silencing structure that blocks 94% of sounds (Eurekalert) Boston University researchers, Xin Zhang, a professor at the College of Engineering, and Reza Ghaffarivardavagh, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, released a paper in Physical
Science Lewis–Mogridge position: traffic expands to meet the available road space The Lewis–Mogridge position, named after David Lewis and Martin J. H. Mogridge, was formulated in 1990 and observes that as more roads are built, more traffic consequently fills these
Science About cookies, Skinner boxes and the addictive Candy Crush A few days ago, near my office, there was a promotional event for some random brand of cookies. You could get a box for free, but only if you picked
Science Multi-armed bandit In probability theory, the multi-armed bandit problem is a problem in which a fixed limited set of resources must be allocated between competing (alternative) choices in a way that maximizes
Science Universal Quantum Phenomenon Found in Strange Metals Experiments suggest that exotic superconducting materials share a “strange metal” state characterized by a quantum speed limit that somehow acts as a fundamental organizing principle. (...)The hypothesis is that electrons
Science The Riemann Hypothesis, explained (Jørgen Veisdal, 2016) Present an argument or formula which (even barely) predicts what the next prime number will be (in any given sequence of numbers), and your name will be forever linked to
Science Why small water drops move on hot pans: Leidenfrost wheels explained As reported in 1756 by Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost, volatile liquids on hot solids form “gleaming drops resembling quicksilver”, a consequence of their levitation on a vapour cushion.This makes the
Science How a Kalman filter works, in pictures Surprisingly few software engineers and scientists seem to know about it, [even if] it is such a general and powerful tool for combining information in the presence of uncertainty. (...)You
Science Physics beyond the Standard Model Recent CERN experiments have once again validated a prediction of the standard model. This is embarrassing for scientists, as they are looking for experimental clues of limits of the standard
Science Geometry and Elasticity of a Knitted Fabric (Physical Review X) Pulling on a knitted scarf can stretch it to twice its length, even though the thread it’s knitted from hardly elongates. Knitting is a timeworn craft, at least a
Science Spin this disk - What color do you see? Benham's top, also called Benham's disk, is named after the English newspaper-man, amateur scientist, and toymaker Charles Benham, who in 1895 sold a top painted with the pattern shown. When
Science How likely it is for a nuclear war to occur? (Jorge Cham, 2017) The author of PhD Comics has visited the Oak Ridge National Lab last year and has drawn a nice comic about what he learned there. It deals with the Nuclear
Science What makes a tree a tree? Despite numerous studies and 30-plus genomes under their belts, scientists are still struggling to nail down the defining traits of these tall, long-lived, woody plants.https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/
Science Ce que les travaux de Stephen Hawking ont apporté à la physique Le cosmologiste britannique a grandement contribué à mieux connaître la physique des trous noirs, des objets longtemps restés au stade de curiosité mathématique.Stephen Hawking, mort mercredi 14 mars à
Science What scientists found trapped in a diamond: a type of ice not known on Earth Trapped in the rigid structure of diamonds formed deep in the Earth's crust, scientists have discovered a form of water ice that was not previously known to occur naturally on
Science Thermodynamics puzzles: 2nd law always win Here are two thought experiments about thermodynamics that can puzzle uninitiated minds: the Brownian ratchet and Maxwell's daemon.The Brownian ratchetIn the philosophy of thermal and statistical physics, the Brownian
Science The zero-watt CPU may never exist: Landauer's principle Landauer's principle is a physical principle pertaining to the lower theoretical limit of energy consumption of computation. It holds that "any logically irreversible manipulation of information, such as the erasure
Science A spying bug that passively transmits your voice. The Thing, also known as the Great Seal bug, was one of the first covert listening devices (or "bugs") to use passive techniques to transmit an audio signal. It was