The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has partnered with Google to produce earthmap.org, an app that lets you overlay regional data for changes in agriculture and climate on a map of the earth. If nothing else, it serves to illustrat...
2023-03-15 19:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
[This is a transcript with references.]
Welcome everyone to this week’s science news. Today we’ll talk about a potential breakthrough in room temperature superconductivity, new clues about the origin of water on Earth, the best ever model of our geological past, a recent report on academic freedom, an image of the moon taken with a meta-lens, hybrid coral reefs, a new institution dedicated to finding the origin of life in the universe, the first cross-country storage for c...
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Does an artificially intelligent chatbot understand what it’s chatting about? A year ago, I’d have answered this question with “clearly not”. It’s just a “turbocharged autocomplete” or a “stochastic parrot,” as people more eloquent than me have put it. Though for all I know, they too might be chatbots.
But I’ve now arrived at the conclusion that the AIs that we use today do understand what they’re doing, if not very much of...
I used to think that today's "artificially intelligent" bots are actually pretty dumb, but I've recently changed my mind. On Saturday I want to argue that they partly understand what they do, if not very much of it.
It doesn’t fly, but researchers from Aarhus University and Berkeley Laboratory have found a way to coax RNA molecules into custom shapes, and created a tiny satellite just to prove their point. Much of the advances in this technology come from improved imaging methods, such as Cryo-Electron Microscopy and X-ray scattering, and ways to quickly...
2023-03-08 20:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
[This is a transcript with references.]
Welcome everyone to this week’s science news. Today we’ll talk about a new LHC anomaly, wakefield acceleration, nuclear fusion progress, how to look around corners in augmented reality, the largest magnetic fields we’ve ever seen, engineers who have designed better wood, birds that change their colour, metamaterials that guide robots, and of course, the telephone will ring.
We just put to rest an LHC anomaly in January but now...
2023-03-08 16:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
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More than 200 million people use marijuana. It’s the most widely used drug worldwide, after alcohol, caffeine, and YouTube. In contrast to those three, marijuana is illegal in most of the world. But an increasing number of countries have begun legalizing cannabis, first for medical use, and now also for recreational use. Several US States, i...
2023-03-04 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThis weekend we'll talk about marijuana. What are the risks, what are the benefits, is it a good idea to legalize it? Despite never using it, I had many friends who did. I've always been in favor of legalization and I'm glad the Germans are finally getting there.
In my student days bought a T-shirt featuring very big cannabis leaves. I recently had to throw it away because it was literally falling apart and I'm still sad about it. Maybe it's time to buy a new one.
2023-03-03 12:50:45 +0000 UTC
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Researchers from the University of Texas have imprinted surfaces with nanometer-sized pyramids and found it to drastically increase the amount of dust that just slips off. They produced the method to prevent dust from sticking to devices in outer space, where no one’s around to dust them, but the discovery might also reduce the need for cleaning ...
2023-03-01 20:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[This is a transcript with references.]
Welcome everyone to this week’s science news. Today we’ll talk about computers made of human brain cells, galaxies that are too big to exist, how the Brits prevented a global chocolate disaster, what the Milky Way’s black hole is having for dinner, how to get radioactive compounds out of water, an impossibly efficient light sensor, better lithium-air batteries, Google’s second milestone on the way to quantum computing, and of cour...
2023-03-01 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
[This is a transcript with references.]
Imagine you come home on a cold winter day, take off the gloves, and turn on the heating. You heat with oil and feel a little bad about it, but we’ve got used to that worry. So here’s something new to worry about. What happens with the heat itself? Doesn’t that also, well, heat up the planet? It does. And it *will become a problem, eventually.
If that’s true, then why doesn’t anyone ever mention this? Can’t we just build...
2023-02-25 13:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostAll power plants create waste heat that contributes to global warming. At the moment, the contribution is fairly small, but if mankind flourishes it is bound to increase and eventually it will become a problem. The only thing we an do about it is to build an air condition for the planet. Scientists have come up with some ideas how to address the problem that I hope you will find entertaining.
2023-02-24 13:12:56 +0000 UTC
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The number of rocket launches per year has almost doubled in the past few decades, and many companies are planning on extensive satellite networks that will undoubtedly see the number of launches skyrocket (pun intended) even further. A group of researchers from New Zealand has now pointed out that this...
2023-02-22 20:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
[This is a transcript with references.]
Welcome everyone to this week’s science news. Today we’ll talk about whether dark energy is made of black holes, four types of solar systems, exoboots, whether banning short-haul flights makes sense, 3D printing with sound, smart contact lenses, how copper makes fuel, a new method to extract carbon dioxide from seawater, and of course the telephone will ring.
A lot of people asked me to comment on a paper that made headlines la...
2023-02-22 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
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In 2007, the mayor of the small German town Staufen decided to do his part for the environment. He approved a drilling project to heat the old city hall with hot water from underground. The drilling began in early September and went 140 meters deep. About two weeks later the f...
2023-02-18 13:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThere's a lot of energy below our feet. But how much can geothermal energy realistically help with reaching net zero? What are the risks, what are the problems, and is it carbon neutral in the first place? On Saturday, I'll sort out the numbers for you.
A group of scientists from the University of Utah has proposed that we collect dust from the moon and spray it into space near the first Earth-Sun Lagrange point, where it would linger for about two years and block about 2% ...
2023-02-15 20:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
[This is a transcript with references.]
Welcome everyone to this week’s science news. Today we’ll talk about a mysterious laser beam over Hawaii, brain scans in court, a link between quantum chips, self-flying airplanes, better sensors for self-driving cars, how to weave a message into your sweater, the durability of solar panels, and of course the telephone will ring.
Many thanks to all our supporters on Patreon who make these videos possible, especially those of ...
The main bulk of our expenses, as probably those of many YouTubers, is covered by our sponsors. These are the integrations for special offers that you see at the beginning or the end of the video.
I pick those sponsors very carefully so that the offers are of high quality and, hopefully, of interest to our viewers. It's an arrangement that works for everyone: Our viewers learn of special offe...
[This is a transcript of the video.]
If you follow news about particle physics, then you know that it comes in three types. It’s either that they haven’t found that thing they were looking for. Or they’ve come up with something new to look for. Which they’ll later report not having found. Or it’s something so boring you don’t even finish reading the headline.
How come that particle physicists constantly make wrong predictions. And what’ll happen next? Tha...
From various exchange that I have had on social media in the past months I got the unfortunate impression that particle physicists are attempting to misunderstand my criticism on their methodology. I believe it's because most of them start from the assumption that of course what I say must be wrong. And since they can't be bothered to read my book in which I laid out the problem in much detail, and explained how to improve the situation, I decided to make a video about.
More seriously...
"Frontiers for Young Minds” is a science journal for children, freely available and open-access. They just published their...
2023-02-08 20:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[This is a transcript with references.]
Welcome everyone to this week’s science news. Today we’ll talk about how to look inside a nuclear reactor with muons, eight new signals that came up in a search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, why Germany wants to bring back direct current, the plausibility of climate goals, what air pollution does to your brain, how to stab a potato with paper, a scalable quantum simulator, a glass sphere that imitates the sun, true stories that...
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I thought I understood how carbon dioxide emissions cause global warming. Turned out I got it completely wrong. I was about to sweep my misunderstanding under the carpet. But then I thought, what if I’m not the only one. What if we’re all just pretending to kind of understand something we’re spending trillions of dollars on. Maybe I should talk about it after all.
So how does the greenhouse effect really work? How do we know t...
2023-02-04 13:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the things, if not THE thing, that bothers me most about science news is that journalists seem to have entirely given up explaining climate science. It's now just "the science is settled" and "we shall not question". Of course this doesn't sit well with a lot of people who actually want explanations. Like me, and, I guess, you.
So on Saturday you will witness my attempt to explain how the greenhouse effect really works. Which turns out to be not remotely as simple as they told u...
A study from the City University of London has found that connecting data points with a line leads to stronger expectations about the continuation of a trend, an effect that doesn’t occur with bar charts. Paper here, <...
2023-02-01 20:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
[This is a transcript with references]
Welcome everyone to this week’s science news. Today we’ll talk about changes in the Earth’s core, a quantum computer that folds a mini-protein, radioactive water that the Japanese want to dump into the ocean, NASA’s plans for a nuclear rocket and a transonic plane, how to send data without power, recovering signals from noise, light pollution, and of course, the telephone will ring.
If you trust recent headlines, which you sh...
2023-02-01 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
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The American NBA player Shawn Bradley is 7 foot 6. A genetic analysis found that his height score is more than 4 standard deviations above the population mean. If you could have picked the genetic makeup of your child, would you have chosen one that tall? Before you answer, consider the cost it’d take to adjust your door frames.
Just what ge...
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified the first small nuclear reactor in the country, VO...
2023-01-26 15:34:57 +0000 UTC View PostFew technology have the potential to shape society as much as choosing the genes that we pass on to our children. While gene editing is still somewhat in the future, genetic screening is already reality. On Saturday, I talk about the risks and benefits of genetic screening: what genetic tests are available, are they legal, what can they do?
