Best Science Articles & Videos on the internet • Discoverology

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Read the best science articles from around the internet, or watch the most insightful science videos from platforms like Youtube, Vimeo or leading science publishers like The Smithsonian, Quanta Magazine, New Scientist, Pacific Standard and many more.

Water-Resistant And Biodegradable Plant-Based Plastic

Water-Resistant And Biodegradable Plant-Based Plastic

Innovation Science

A group of researchers at Japan’s Osaka University has developed an alternative type of plastic which is not only biodegradable in seawater but is also water-resistant under normal use. The plastic is made from cellulose nanofibers and starch, both of which were extracted from plants.

The Rise Of Junk Science

The Rise Of Junk Science

Long Reads Media Science

Fake publications are corrupting the world of research—and influencing real news. At the most benign level of the junk industry are papers, published in journals with no effective screening process, that are obvious nonsense.

Palantir’s Top-Secret User Manual For Cops

Palantir’s Top-Secret User Manual For Cops

Crime Science Tech

Palantir is one of the most significant and secretive companies in big data analysis. The company acts as an information management service for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, corporations like JP Morgan and Airbus, and dozens of other local, state, and federal agencies.

How Scientists Imagined And Built An Undersea Utopia For Humans

How Scientists Imagined And Built An Undersea Utopia For Humans

Architecture Cities History Science

During the late 1960s many believed revolutionary social and political change was imminent, and Jacques Cousteau was no exception. Soon there would be “undersea parliaments and new nations,” he wrote; “poets, architects, and painters would be needed to give expression” to this “new world.”

How Space Tries To Kill You And Make You Ugly

How Space Tries To Kill You And Make You Ugly

Long Reads Science

Outer space is the most noxious of substances: devoid of air and filled with a soup of deadly particles in the form of high-energy photons and energetic bits of atomic nuclei. The lack of gravity there affects every element of your being, as even the proteins in your body can’t figure out which way is up.

We're Getting Closer To The Quantum Internet, But What Is It?

We're Getting Closer To The Quantum Internet, But What Is It?

Explainers Innovation Science Tech

Instead of the bits that today’s network uses, which can only express a value of either 0 or 1, the future quantum internet would utilize qubits of quantum information, which can take on an infinite number of values. A quibit is the unit of information for a quantum computer; it’s like a bit in an ordinary computer.

The Rail Industry’s Secret, Decades-Long Fight Against The Climate

The Rail Industry’s Secret, Decades-Long Fight Against The Climate

Business Nature Science

For nearly 30 years, America’s four biggest rail companies—which move the majority of the country’s coal—have spent millions to deny climate science and block climate policy. They have joined or funded groups that attacked individual scientists and rejected reports from major scientific institutions.

Matt Rota

Inspiration
Matt Rota
How To Keep The Earth As Inhabitable As Possible

How To Keep The Earth As Inhabitable As Possible

Nature Science

We’ve been behind where we need to be for decades now, and the fact that we’ll be living in a hotter, less hospitable world is an inevitability. The only uncertainty left is how quickly we respond and how much damage we’re going to be able to prevent.

The Weird Power Of The Placebo Effect, Explained

The Weird Power Of The Placebo Effect, Explained

Health Science

Placebos seem to have the greatest power over symptoms that lie at the murky boundary between the physical and psychological. Placebos seem to move the needle on pain, nausea, asthma, and phobias, with more inconsistent results for outcomes like smoking, dementia, depression*, obesity, hypertension, insomnia, and anxiety.

The Race To Develop The Moon

The Race To Develop The Moon

Long Reads Science

For science, profit, and pride, China, the U.S., and private companies are hunting for resources on the lunar surface. It’s not difficult to imagine moon development, like all development, proceeding less than peacefully, and less than equitably.

A Banana Grown At Subzero Temps Also Has An Edible Peel

A Banana Grown At Subzero Temps Also Has An Edible Peel

Food Innovation Nature Science

A Japanese farm introduced a new crop this winter: an organic banana with a peel that’s thin enough to eat. In a nod to this appealing outer covering, Setsuzo Tanaka, the banana’s inventor, has named his creation the Mongee (“mon-gay”) banana — which means “incredible banana” in Japanese.

Joseph Ford

Inspiration
Joseph Ford
The Real Story Behind The Myth Of Area 51

The Real Story Behind The Myth Of Area 51

Science World

For decades, Nevada’s Area 51 Air Force facility has represented the eye of a conspiratorial hurricane that swirls around “evidence” that aliens exist and are hiding behind its walls. Books, TV shows, and even massive online “raids” have tried to glimpse beyond its stark signs warning against trespassers.

The Doomsday Invention: Will Artificial Intelligence Bring Us Utopia Or Destruction?

The Doomsday Invention: Will Artificial Intelligence Bring Us Utopia Or Destruction?

Innovation Long Reads Science Tech

Philosopher Nick Bostrom argues that true artificial intelligence, if it is realized, might pose a danger that exceeds every previous threat from technology—even nuclear weapons—and that if its development is not managed carefully humanity risks engineering its own extinction.

What Would Happen If Earth Started To Spin Faster?

What Would Happen If Earth Started To Spin Faster?

Nature Science

The equator spins at 1,037 mph, whereas Chicago takes a more leisurely (approximately 750 mph) pace. If we could speed up Earth’s rotation by one mile per hour, the sea level around the equator would rise by a few inches as water migrates there from the poles.

Weaponizing Biotech: How China’s Military Is Preparing For A ‘New Domain Of Warfare’

Weaponizing Biotech: How China’s Military Is Preparing For A ‘New Domain Of Warfare’

Politics Science

Today’s advances in biotechnology and genetic engineering have exciting applications in medicine — yet also alarming implications, including for military affairs. China’s national strategy of military-civil fusion has highlighted biology as a priority, and the People’s Liberation Army could be at the forefront of expanding and exploiting this knowledge.

Why Do Smart People Do Foolish Things?

Why Do Smart People Do Foolish Things?

Psychology Science

Intelligence is not the same as critical thinking—and the difference matters. Most intelligence tests fail to capture real-world decision-making and our ability to interact well with others. This is why “smart” people do “dumb” things.

Bashir Sultani

Inspiration
Bashir Sultani
Could Air-Conditioning Fix Climate Change?

Could Air-Conditioning Fix Climate Change?

Innovation Nature Science

Air conditioning systems can replace the entire air volume in an office building five or 10 times an hour.  Machines that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—a developing fix for climate change—also depend on moving large volumes of air.  So why not save energy by tacking the carbon capture machine onto the air conditioner?

The Dark Side Of Electronic Waste Recycling

The Dark Side Of Electronic Waste Recycling

Business Nature Science Tech

Electronics can be hazardous when disposed of improperly, and the Basel Action Network, or BAN, investigates the underground world of the e-waste trade. The nonprofit group secretly embeds trackers in discarded devices, then hands them to recyclers to see where they end up, exposing bad practices in the process.

Defeated Chess Champ Garry Kasparov Has Made Peace With AI

Defeated Chess Champ Garry Kasparov Has Made Peace With AI

Science Tech

For almost two decades after becoming world champion in 1985, Garry Kasparov dominated the game with a ferocious style of play and an equally ferocious swagger. In 1997, at the height of his powers, Kasparov was crushed and cowed by an IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue.

The Internet Is Destroying Our Collective Attention Span

The Internet Is Destroying Our Collective Attention Span

Health Science Tech

The length of time our “collective attention” is on any given event has grown shorter, and topics become popular and then drop out of public view at an accelerating rate. It’s no surprise if it feels harder and harder to dwell deeply on any topic.

How I Rewired My Brain To Become Fluent In Math

How I Rewired My Brain To Become Fluent In Math

Psychology Science

Having a basic, deep-seated fluency in math and science—not just an “understanding,” is critical. The “fluency” part of me that loved literature and language was also the same part of me that ultimately fell in love with math and science—and transformed and enriched my life.

Is Our Brain Hard-Wired To Be Optimistic?

Is Our Brain Hard-Wired To Be Optimistic?

Psychology Science

Psychologists have found that 80% of people have, what they define as an optimism bias and that’s regardless of whether they believe themselves to be more pessimistic or realistic. The optimism bias is our tendency to underestimate the likelihood of negative events and overestimating the likelihood of positive events.

The Berwyn Incident

The Berwyn Incident

Long Reads Science

They made an improbable duo of UFO hunters— a plump Miss Marple and a gun-toting gamekeeper. The true story of their long-odds mission to solve the “Roswell of Wales” in Llandrillo, a small village built around a broad stream at the base of the Berwyn Mountains in North Wales.

What Makes A Person Charismatic?

What Makes A Person Charismatic?

Life Psychology Science

Why do some people so clearly have it and others don’t? Why do we fall so easily under its influence? Charismatics can make us feel charmed and great about ourselves. They can inspire us to excel. But they can also be dangerous. They use charisma for their own purposes, to enhance their power, to manipulate others.

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