“An Interactive Guide To The Fourier Transform”

“The Fourier Transform changes our perspective from consumer to producer, turning What did I see? into How was it made?

In other words: given a smoothie, let’s find the recipe.

Why? Well, recipes…

“Why ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ Sound So Similar in So Many Languages”

“But when we’re talking several millennia, even closely related languages have a way of morphing beyond recognition. For example, Welsh is also a child of that language from Ukraine, but neither French nor English has managed…

“I’m Sorry Mr. Zuckerberg, But You Are Wrong”

“Just because Silicon Valley has desperately wanted to believe for twenty years that communities can self-police does not make it true. Point to one example where this has worked. Twitter is a cesspool — one which you are rapidly joining. Google gave…

“Have We Hit Peak Whiteness?”

“Teeth-bleaching may be the peak of the Western world’s obsession with getting whites whiter. It’s the same impulse we see in our laundry detergents and sparkling consumer products. “In our society, it’s perceived that whiter and brighter is better,” Perry says.

“Shitstorm In Academia As Professors Receive Packets Of Poop”

“All four philosophy professors were embroiled in a 2014 academic brawl over what they perceived as an abuse of power within their field. Now, they say someone is sending them shit in an attempt to shut them up.

“Why Wikipedia + Open Access = Revolution”

“Many of the world’s highest quality and highest impact journals sit behind expensive paywalls that prevent all but the most privileged and well-resourced from gaining access. So it wouldn’t be at all surprising if Wikipedia editors tended to ignore these…

“The scientists who support Donald Trump”

“David Deming, a geophysicist at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, doesn’t think it matters whether Trump and Clinton have much personal knowledge of science. “Trump said he’d appoint good people and I believe him,” says Deming, who has written…

“The More I Learn About Breast Milk, the More Amazed I Am”

“More compelling to me are the straightforward facts about breast milk: It contains all the vitamins and nutrients a baby needs in the first six months of life (breast-fed babies don’t even need to drink water, milk provides all…

“Can Facebook Solve Its Macedonian Fake-News Problem?”

“The Macedonian millennials aren’t (necessarily) looking to influence the election or analyze U.S. politics — they want to draw in American visitors through Facebook and make money off of sales of display ads on their bootleg politics…

“Update the Nobel Prizes”

“Dr. Paine coined a term to describe the starfish’s outsize influence: keystone species. Keystone species have since been identified in forests, in grasslands, in the ocean and even in the human gut. The concept has become one of ecology’s guiding theoretical principles, and it has…