“Neil deGrasse Tyson: pedantry in space”

“You are trapped in the world of the popular TV astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and you know this, because here the sunrise isn’t a sunrise at all. In fact, the earth is a sphere orbiting the sun, so the sun does not in any sense actually ‘rise’ — it’s…

“When Bitcoin Grows Up”

“The ten pound note is worth what it claims it is because the state, in the form of the Bank of England, says so, and we choose to believe it. This is what students of currency call ‘fiat’ money, money whose value has been willed into being by the state. The value of fiat money is an…

“Will LiFi Take Big Data And The Internet Of Things To A New Level?”

“LiFi is a category of Visible Light Communication; an LED light flickers at speeds undetectable to the naked eye to transmit data — a bit like high tech morse code. In fact, scientists have demonstrated in a lab…

“After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight”

“It has to do with resting metabolism, which determines how many calories a person burns when at rest. When the show began, the contestants, though hugely overweight, had normal metabolisms for their size, meaning…

“How an internet mapping glitch turned a random Kansas farm into a digital hell”

“There are lots of different ways a company like MaxMind can try to figure out where an IP address is located. It can “war-drive,” sending cars around the U.S. looking for open wifi networks…

“The arrival of man-made earthquakes.”

“Keranen and her team had gathered likely the best data we have on a new phenomenon in Oklahoma: man-made earthquakes.

At the time, earthquakes were a relatively rare event for Oklahomans. Now they’re reported on daily, like the…

“UCSF Researchers Control Embryonic Stem Cells With Light”

“UC San Francisco researchers have for the first time developed a method to precisely control embryonic stem cell differentiation with beams of light, enabling them to be transformed into neurons in response to a precise external…

“The Accidental History of the @ Symbol”

“Tomlinson’s challenge was how to address a message created by one person and sent through Arpanet to someone at a different computer. The address needed an individual’s name, he reasoned, as well as the name of the computer, which might service many users…

“A scientist’s attempt to help: Round-up of open access blogs and journal articles on gun violence”

“As a scientist, a ban on studying anything is appalling. In the spirit of open access to knowledge for all, here are some resources to equip you with the facts…