I just stumbled upon this TED talk by Deb Roy, a cognitive scientist at the MIT media lab. He did something amazing, something I would never consider doing – he set up video cameras in every room of his house to record his family’s waking moments. This is what he refers to as the “ultimate memory machine”, recording 90,000 hours of home video in the first years of his son’s life. All of those hours yielded a remarkable amount of data, from which Roy and his research team learned about a baby’s acquisition of language. The data visualizations they created are stunning.
All the Fancy Measuring Devices Used in Science Rely on Two Stone-Age Techniques
The many methods we use to gather data ultimately boil down to either counting or comparing.
Rhett Allain
Quantum ‘Jamming’ Could Help Unlock the Mysteries of Causality
To keep communications secure in a post-quantum world, cryptographers are digging down into the concept of cause and effect.
Matt von Hippel
Why Garlic Repels Mosquitoes and Keeps Them From Breeding
Garlic, as your grandmother may have told you, repels mosquitoes; it also completely blocks them from mating and laying eggs. Diallyl disulfide, it turns out, deserves the credit.
Fernanda González
Build a Radio Wave Detector With Balls of Aluminum Foil!
Here’s how you can hack together a radio transmitter and receiver out of stuff you have at home—and explore the weirdness of wireless.
Rhett Allain
The US Has a Plan to Combat Screwworm. It Involves a Lot More Flies
Releasing sterilized flies can crash a local population of flesh-eating screwworms. But the US currently has limited capacity to produce them.
Emily Mullin
The First Atomic Bomb Test in 1945 Created an Entirely New Material
The discovery from the Trinity nuclear test site shows how extreme conditions can result in materials never before seen in nature or in the lab.
Marta Musso
Not to Alarm Anyone, but Flesh-Eating Screwworms Have Entered the US
The USDA this week confirmed the first known infection of the carnivorous fly larva, which feast on the flesh of living mammals, after the United States eradicated the nightmare bugs in the 1960s.
Beth Mole, Ars Technica
The Universe Is Full of ‘Impossible’ Black Holes. Scientists Now Know Why
There are black holes that are too big to be born from the death of a star but aren’t quite supermassive either. There’s finally evidence for where those came from.
Jorge Garay
Acer Promo Codes: 40% Off
From 40% off accessory bundles to verified student and military discounts, here's how to save on Predator, Nitro, and Swift laptops and monitors at Acer.com.
Luke Larsen
How to Watch Google I/O
Google I/O is back with updates to Search, Android, Gemini, and a fresh peek at upcoming Android XR smart glasses. Here's how to watch the announcements live and what to expect.
Boone Ashworth
Old Oil and Gas Wells Could Find Second Life Producing Clean Energy
States across the US are looking to take major sources of pollution and use them to generate much-needed power.
Maria Gallucci
I Gave My OpenClaw Agent a Physical Body
The coding skills of AI models are about to make it much easier to build and deploy robots.
Will Knight