Any advice for learning how to spot legitimate physics from kooks?
Not really looking for folks to decode something for me, just seeking general advice. Physics is my weakest subject and the one I have the least interest in...
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Scientists settle decade-old proton size mystery with lasers
Scientists measured the proton's radius with record precision, helping resolve a decade-old physics puzzle.
A Hidden Virus Found in Gut Bacteria Is Linked to Colorectal Cancer
Researchers have made a significant step forward in understanding how gut bacteria, and specifically a newly discovered virus, can contribute to one of the most...
The future of science – Ken's Blog
I was in an on-line meeting today with some fellow scientists. The topic got around to the future of science research in the United States. One person on the c...
Special relativity and diffracting beams
Say there is a beam of light at 1 um (f=300 THz), and there is a particle traveling at constant speed along the axis of the beam, which is, say, a few mm or...
Ancient Oceans Began Losing Oxygen Millions of Years before End-Triassic Mass Extinction
Chemical traces preserved in ancient rocks indicate that marine environments were deteriorating long before the catastrophe that wiped out vast numbers of speci...
The light from the Andromeda Galaxy — the most distant object visible to the naked human eye — left its source about 2.5 million years ago, which means when you look at it on a clear night, you are se
On a clear, moonless autumn night, away from city lights, the patch of sky between the constellations Andromeda and Cassiopeia contains a faint, fuzzy smudge th...
The Next-Generation Very Large Array Prototype (ngVLA) Gathers its First Light
The prototype ngVLA antenna tested its systems by observing and tracking the Crab Nebula, also known as Taurus A (3C144), the remnant of an exploded star.
Birds Masturbate More Often Than We Thought and Scientists Say It’s Completely Normal
A new evolutionary analysis suggests the behavior appears across many bird groups
Want to ‘Optimize’ Your Happiness? This Happiness Expert Says: Don’t.
Are you happy? It’s a deceptively simple question, but for me, at least, a difficult one to answer.Another tough question: Why is it so hard to be happy for...
How Early Earth's Unlikely Chemical Hero Appeared
Though it's a toxic chemical, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is also important for the development of life. It's a precursor to things like amino acids and nucleic acid...
Are Climate Models “Just Physics”?
...any policy can only benefit from a better understanding of how climate models are constructed, their physical basis, how they can be tested, and how to asses...
Cerebral Disconnect
Cerebral contents pale in complexity and significance within the greater ecological universe. Why are worldviews so drastically different? Why is it that obvio...
Scientists find a way to wash clothes in space without using any water
The method might not remove all stains, but it will kill the bacteria that could make astronauts sick and compromise their mission.
New ways to remove CO2 from atmosphere must grow much faster, report says
Novel forms of CO<sub>2</sub> removal must expand at ‘highly ambitious rates’ if world is to limit global heating to 1.5C, says study
Massive Booms Shook the East Coast for over 300 Years. Scientists Finally Found the Source of the Sonic Explosions.
The cannon-like sound could be heard for hundreds of miles, but its cause long remained a mystery.
Readers’ wildlife photos
Do send in your photos if you have good one; we are missing many regulars, though I won't drop names. But today we have some plant photos by Rik Gern of Austin,...
Tuesday: Hili dialogue
Welcome to the cruelest day: Tuesday, June 2, 2026 and National I Love My Dentist Day. Although I don't love my dentist, he is honest, cautious, won't do work...
Media Advisory: Southern Newfoundland Slope: Discovery Beneath the Surface
OTTAWA, Ontario, on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People, June 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHAT: Marine sci...
Sound travels about four times faster underwater than it does through air — which is why whale songs can travel hundreds of miles across the ocean, and why early submarine sonar operators sometimes pi
Sound in air travels at about 343 metres per second, the figure that fighter pilots cross when they break the sound barrier. Sound in seawater travels at about ...
Semantic Knowledge Is Key to Human Innovation
Semantic knowledge is our cognitive toolbox, doubling innovation when combined with social learning.
64 spirals across 12 science domains, same three equations. Nobody was looking.
I wrote a paper on it. Someone should investigate.
Federal scientists prepare to fight for public science as bargaining begins
OTTAWA, ON, June 1, 2026 /CNW/ - Federal scientists are entering a new round of bargaining, warning that continued cuts to public science are weakening Canada's...
Popperians, Bayesians and Ramseyians — LessWrong
Bayesians and Popperians disagree about induction, probability, and the status of scientific laws. That dispute is well-trodden. Less familiar is a t…
Why It’s Hard to Go Again: The Science (and Secrets) of the Sexual Refractory Period
What can be done about the underfunding of prostate cancer?
We talk about anxiety as if it starts in the mind — but for some people, the eyes may be the first place it shows up
The first sign was never a thought. It was visual. Something in the way the room looked. The walls would seem slightly farther away than they had been a moment ...
Can Our Model of the Cosmos Work Without Dark Energy? New Research Says It Can
There’s a way to make the math work without a hypothetical form of energy, a new study argues.
The total eclipse of bioinformatics: From disruption to convention, and a gentle warning
Citation: Ouzounis CA (2026) The total eclipse of bioinformatics: From disruption to convention, and a gentle warning. PLoS Comput Biol 22(6): e1014287. https:/...
Histology-informed spatial domain identification through multi-view graph convolutional networks
Author summary Identifying spatial domains in spatial transcriptomics is key to understanding tissue structure and gene expression patterns, yet existing approa...