News

New Shepard flies again, bringing suborbital space tourism closer

Sunday’s flight was Blue Origin’s eighth overall launch of the New Shepard system and the second time this particular spacecraft and booster have flown. They last flew in December. It is believed that this capsule, the third one built by the company, will undergo extensive testing before crew flights begin in the fourth vehicle.

Archaeologists investigate what life was like after dark in the ancient world

An API Journey: From Idea to Deployment the Agile Way

What tech calls “AI” isn’t really AI

First, the problem itself is poorly defined: what do you mean by intelligence? Nature, with all her blind hideous strength, endless experimentation and wild wastes of infinite time, has only managed the trick once (by our narrow definition), with one species of tree-ape on a rolling green world. Even if you believe there’s intelligent biological life elsewhere, the stats aren’t promising.

Scottish island experiment could make Scotland world automation leader

According to Glasgow Provan MSP Ivan McKee, Scotland could become a leader in automation by mounting a full-scale island experiment to test the technologies of the future. The Scottish Government should make a “moon shot statement”, he told the Sunday Herald, and pledge to transform one of its communities with tech advances like self-driving cars and economic redesigns such as introducing a citizen’s income.

Blue light like that from smartphones linked to some cancers, study finds

Lost in Math: Beauty != truth

In Lost in Math, Hossenfelder delves briefly into the history of particle physics in order to explain the success of the Standard Model of particles and forces. She touches on why we’ve not had any unexplainable data from experimental particle physics for the last 50 years. She then takes us on a tour of the data that make us think we should be looking for physics that is not explained by the Standard Model—dark matter, dark energy, and cosmic inflation.

Clouds of atoms, vibrating mirrors show their quantum side

To say the quantum world is unintuitive is a staggering understatement. Particles end up in more than one place at a time, and the instances interact with each other. Decisions made after a photon has traversed an obstacle course determine the path it took through it.

Motorist who sat in passenger seat of Tesla on UK motorway banned for 18 months

How mirror neurons affect the experience of fandom

You won’t have seen it on the podium, but the human brain’s mirror neuron system could have medaled at this year’s Olympic Games, or basically any sporting event with an audience. The mirror neuron system is a network of neurons that activates both when you watch someone do something and when you do it yourself, and it turns out to be an important part of the subjective experience of being a fan.