Number of words: 192 A preliminary analysis of numbers from NYC’s boroughs shows a strong correlation between automobile commutes and Covid cases. There are multiple things happening here. Some of them a commentary on human behaviour, some a little more. Since travel brings us in contact with others at our destinations (stores, jobs, restaurants), the … Read more

Number of words: 1,693 My name is Rebecca, and I’m a cyborg. Specifically, I have 32 computer chips inside my head, which rebuild my sense of hearing. This is called a cochlear implant. You remember the Borg from Star Trek, those aliens who conquered and absorbed everything in sight? Well, that’s me. The good news … Read more

Number of words: 388 After revisiting decades-old data from the Voyager 2 flyby in Jan 1986, NASA scientists have found a shocking discovery. The analysis has revealed a “zigzag” in the magnetic data, just lasting one minute in the Voyager 2’s 45-hour flyby. The zigzag was previously not detected as the data was not analyzed … Read more

Number of words: 143 Technology makes for easier persuasion and nudging — what B.J. Fogg at Stanford calls persuasive technology — and makes it far more potent. So, the British government’s Central Office of Information, they’ve said, “Look we’ve tried advertising with seatbelts for years. It didn’t really work. And so, we made it illegal … Read more

Number of words: 631 It is hard for me to remember now, but when I joined Ogilvy in 1988, to perform almost any kind of work, you had to be in an office. This was where your post and faxes arrived. Your desk phone was where people called you. The office was also home to … Read more

Number of words: 1,207 One of the many aspects of Uber which often surprises people is that not only does the passenger rate the driver, but the driver also rates the passenger. Recently, I was surprised to learn from an Uber driver that my own current passenger rating (4.9 out of 5) is, in the … Read more

Number of words: 278 The intimate link between space and time was well known in astronomy, in a different context, long before relativity theory. Astronomers and astrophysicists deal with extremely large distances, and here again the fact that light needs some time to travel from the observed object to the observer is important. Because of … Read more

Number of words: 316 In atomic physics, many of the paradoxical situations are connected with the dual nature of light or – more generally of electromagnetic radiation. On the one hand, it is clear that this radiation must consist of waves because it produces the well-known interference phenomena associated with waves: when there are two … Read more