573 words. Rare earths are actually neither rare nor earths. Most of them are quite abundant, but they are almost never found in their pure form. Instead, they come dissipated in very low concentrations within other minerals, like grains of pepper in a meatball. That makes them difficult and expensive to separate out. Many of … Read more
Number of words: 2,199 On July 11th, nearly a minute into the rocket trip carrying Richard Branson, the British billionaire, to space, a yellow caution light appeared on the ship’s console. The craft was about twenty miles in the air above the White Sands Missile Range, in New Mexico, and climbing, travelling more than twice … Read more
Number of words: 1,157 Resident Joe Biden and many lawmakers in Washington are worried these days about computer chips and China’s ambitions with the foundational technology. But a massive machine sold by a Dutch company has emerged as a key lever for policymakers — and illustrates how any country’s hopes of building a completely self-sufficient … Read more
Number of words: 530 London: The Food Trainer (FoodT app) trains people to tap on images of healthy foods — but to stop when they see unhealthy snacks, creating an association between these foods and stopping. The new study, by the universities of Exeter and Helsinki, found that playing the game about once a day for … Read more
Number of words: 1,623 Suspended beneath a thick canopy of trees, the sloth inches along with slow strides . Painfully slow. Intentionally slow. Crawling high up among the branches, traipsing along a 100-foot steel cable, the little creature is like a lethargic acrobat. But its goal is not to delight or to put on a show; in … Read more
Number of words: 445 From the lofty summit of this mathematical achievement, we had a commanding view of evolutionary dynamics. We could reveal the precise conditions for natural selection to favor cooperation over defection in populations that are structured around sets. One simple conclusion that we could draw from Corina’s work was that the more … Read more
Number of words: 132 Here’s a fascinating—and humbling—social experiment. Select one hundred people at random in New York City and ask them each to list all their friends, so you can figure out their average number of friends. Then, in turn, ask their friends how many friends they have. You will find that the latter’s … Read more
Number of words: 395 Thanks to the heroic efforts of Tina Tang, who scoured texts for examples, we were able to study the evolution of 177 irregular verbs over the past 1,200 years, from Beowulf to The Canterbury Tales to Harry Potter. We grasped something that no one thought could be measured and obtained striking … Read more
Number of words: 900 We can see the ingredients all around us, in the chemical signals that flicker on and off between cells, the waggle dance of bees, territorial calls of various creatures, and the remarkable repertoire of birdsong. There are the complex patterns of moans, cries, and chirps in the songs of whales. There … Read more
Number of words: 479 Language offers a way to take the thoughts of one person, encode them, and insert them into the minds of others. We can achieve that remarkable feat of thought transference without the pain, drilling, and bloodshed of trepanning. If someone has a great idea, it can spread instantly and does not … Read more
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