News

James Webb Telescope sun shield snags, further launch delays likely

Elon Musk’s Bacteria-Covered Space Car May Be a ‘Biothreat’

“ The load of bacteria on the Tesla could be considered a biothreat—or a backup copy of life on Earth.”

Toyota’s new magnet won’t depend on some key rare-earth minerals

Probabilistic Programming and Bayesian Methods for Hackers

Bayesian Methods for Hackers is designed as a introduction to Bayesian inference from a computational/understanding-first, and mathematics-second, point of view. Of course as an introductory book, we can only leave it at that: an introductory book. For the mathematically trained, they may cure the curiosity this text generates with other texts designed with mathematical analysis in mind.

Details emerge about Porsche’s new electric car, charging network

The electric vehicle market is finally about to get interesting. It has been some time since Tesla proved that EVs didn’t have to involve hair shirts, and at long last some other automakers are ready to enter the fray. Later this week at the Geneva Motor Show, Jaguar is going to reveal the I-Pace, which goes on sale shortly.

Forecasts of genetic fate just got a lot more accurate

African rainforests vanished for 600 years, then bounced back—why?

Three thousand years ago, dense old-growth rainforests covered most of central Africa. But around 2,600 years ago, an event that ecologists call the Late Holocene Rainforest Crisis occurred, and the forests suddenly gave way to savannas dotted with islands of trees. Six hundred years later, the forests grew back almost as swiftly as they had vanished.

The Poignant Gulag Art by Stalin’s Doomed Meteorologist

Imprisoned for ‘false weather forecasts’, Alexey Wangenheim sent sketches to the family he’d never see again.

We can learn to be more creative

You’ve probably heard someone say “I’m not really a creative type…”? When people say that, it’s quite rarely a positive thing. Probably never.

Western science catching up to Indigenous Traditional Knowledge

The latest discovery has taken this assessment to new heights, literally. A team of researchers led by Mark Bonta and Robert Gosford in northern Australia has documented kites and falcons, colloquially termed “firehawks,” intentionally carrying burning sticks to spread fire. While it has long been known that birds will take advantage of natural fires that cause insects, rodents and reptiles to flee and thus increase feeding opportunities, that they would intercede to spread fire to unburned locales is astounding.