HOW low can you go? Dedicated deep cavers plumb the depths for an answer, and a newly announced expedition may just get to the bottom of it all. For decades, cavers have competed informally to find the world’s deepest cave, pushing the boundaries of science along the way. It’s a perpetual quest –
I wrote about the upcoming redefinition of the kilogram for Nautilus.
Your weight is about to be redefined Read More »
A seemingly endless variety of food was sprawled over several tables at the home of Judith L. Baxter and her husband, mathematician Stephen D. Smith, in Oak Park, Ill., on a cool Friday evening in September 2011. Canapés, homemade meatballs, cheese plates and grilled shrimp on skewers crowded against pastries, pâtés, olives, salmon with dill
The Whole Universe Catalog Read More »
Matt Covington didn’t sleep much the night before his big swim. Who could blame him? For two days, the wiry caver had, with the help of ropes and ladders, been making his way down through J2, a deep cave in the mountainous Mexican province of Oaxaca. Marcin Gala, an experienced caver from Poland, joined him
Uncharted underground Read More »
For more than a century, researchers have used statistics to study writing style in a sort of literary forensics technique called stylometry. In 1901, physicist T. C. Mendenhall famously measured word-length frequency in William Shakespeare’s works and reported that the writer’s style was awfully close to that of fellow writer Christopher Marlowe, fueling rumors
Charting the history of western art with math Read More »
It’s no stretch to say that batteries won’t continue to be rigid and blocky forever. Engineers inspired by Japanese paper craft have designed a battery that can expand to 150 percent of its original length. The battery can power a computerized watch known as a smart watch even as it flexes. “Any kind
Children can be many things. Joyful, energetic and exasperating. Curious, playful and sad. For P.J. Lukac, who is finishing his pediatrics residency at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, children are also a source of inspiration and hope. “They’re a joy to work with, and theymake me laugh,” says the 30-year-oldpediatrician of the children under his care. “Even
On a bright day in the first week of August, Julianna Deardorff escorted five Chilean scientists from Berkeley to The Farm, an agricultural center and farm in Salinas, California, about 100 miles south of the Bay Area. The Farm has been in the same family for four generations; the brothers who run it now have made
Looking for the roots of risk Read More »
If the results from an experiment look too good to be true, look again. Those are wise words to remember. Consider, for example, a recent case of what looked like a breakthrough in treating the deadly virus HIV. The findings turned out to be bogus. All it took was a second look.
Retractions: Righting the wrongs of science Read More »
“He had been trying to get his colleague Charles Kane to listen to him, but Kane wasn’t having any of it.” This article about lattices from Physics World covers some arcane ground but was fun to work on. Image: CC James Mallos via flickr
Edging into the spotlight Read More »
