Author: Admin

As I watched Donald Trump win the presidency on November 8th, 2016, I didn’t know that it meant my days of sleeping with Republicans were over. Why? For a start, it took me a few days to even accept the election results. Furthermore, I’d never sought out Republicans for intimacy-related reasons—it was one of those things that just happened, from time to time. But if I’m being honest with myself, the real reason is that I didn’t even realize a line in the sand existed until someone else articulated it. Before 2016, I dated Republicans without much shame. I didn’t…

Flapping and soaring: The tips of pelicans’ wings turn down when they fly near the surface of water. Aerodynamics experts are trying to understand why. (Courtesy: iStock/Aschen) For human-built aircraft, turbulence is an old and knotty problem. One of the first recorded human flight attempts, by an 11th-century monk called Eilmer, ended when his birdlike wood-and-leather wings couldn’t handle what the chronicler calls “the violence of the wind and the swirling of air”. A thousand years later, the same phenomenon continues to bedevil the aerospace industry, racking up costs in lost fuel, lost lunches, lost missions and even lost lives.…

When it comes to nonfiction, this year featured some truly stellar writing. This was a year in which we’ve seen the expansion of what this genre is, and who writes it. Our truest stories, sometimes molded in the form of poetic lyricism or sensational public spectacle, yielded a larger than life impact. Questions of displacement and longing, and the desire to root oneself in a chosen community, were widespread themes, alongside love, loss, and the practice of creating art—much of it told with humor and acerbic wit. There’s no doubt that some of our most crucial, vital storytellers are not…

Eskor David Johnson’s Pay As You Go is set in an imagined city, Polis, one that takes elements from New York to Chicago to London and magnifies them to grandiose size. Traversing Polis is an intrepid hero of sorts, Slide, whose rare mix of panache, naivety, earnestness, and humor makes him a mesmerizing act to follow through this urban jungle as he searches for a place to live. Johnson has written a necessary antidote to what is more common of the debuts of young, contemporary writers: books so steeped in solipsism that it is as though man can, in fact,…

Screen time: teams of scientists that work remotely are less likely to make big research breakthroughs, claims a new study (courtesy: iStock/AndreyPopov) The online world makes it easier for researchers to collaborate – but does not result in more groundbreaking work. That is according to a new study, which finds that teams of scientists working remotely are less likely to make big research breakthroughs. The discovery could help to explain a recently observed slowdown in the rate of innovation in science and technology (Nature 623 987). Carried out by a team led by Carl Frey, an economist at the University…

A Childhood That Defies Gravity Marcus Stewart Share article The Art of Levitation by Marcus Stewart Children hopped along the logs arranged as stepping-stones in the playground; Lewis stood next to them and stared at his shoes. Big, black shiny plastic shoes, with big black laces. He was sure the shoes didn’t affect it. He just had to concentrate. He was standing upright, ready to go, with his head tilted sharply downwards, looking at his shoes and the ground beneath them. Tarmac, with hundreds of little stones in it, in between which were little pockets of dirt and over which…

Diagnosing ADHD Using AI models to analyse children’s brain MRI scans could help find imaging biomarkers that can identify ADHD. (Courtesy: RadiologyInfo.org) RSNA 2023, the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) takes place this week in Chicago, showcasing recent research advances and product developments in all areas of radiology. This year’s event includes numerous papers, posters, courses and education exhibits focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning applications. Here’s a small selection of the studies being presented. Ascertaining ADHD traits from brain MRI scans Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common condition that affects…

Planetary harmony: illustration of the orbits of the six exoplanets of HD 110067. (Courtesy:Medienmitteilung/UniBE/UniGE/CHEOPS/TESS/Sextett/Planete/Walzer/Video©UniBE/HughOsborn) A rare system of six exoplanets, all smaller than Neptune but larger than Earth, has been found with orbits that are all resonant with each other. The system was discovered by astronomers led by Rafael Luque of the University of Chicago, who suggest that the planets have remained undisturbed in this configuration since their formation a billion years ago. The planetary treasure trove also provides one of the best opportunities for characterizing “mini-Neptunes”, which are a mysterious class of planet that are absent from the Solar…

Public fascination with con artists, scams, and heists has been on the rise, with stories of Anna Delvey, Rachel Dolezal, Caroline Calloway, and Elizabeth Holmes splashing across magazine covers in the last decade. Alongside it, my thirsty interest in literary scandals has grown, watered by “Bad Art Friend,” a mysterious manuscript thief, the pathological lies of an editor cum author, and the invented auteur JT LeRoy. Surely there must be fiction in this vein, I thought. We live in a literary soup of cultural appropriation, ghost writers, plagiarism, fabricated memoirs, artificial intelligence, autofiction, and nebulous influence. Who doesn’t love a…

“Blood Vessel”, a Netflix Original, is set to premiere on December 8th. The Nollywood thriller is executive-produced by Charles Okpaleke from Play Network Studios and directed by Moses Inwang. In this upcoming Nigerian original film, the mystery and crime thriller unfolds in the Niger Delta region. The plot revolves around six individuals brought together by chance, escaping a town devastated by oil pollution, who inadvertently become stowaways on a mysterious ship, unaware of the dangers that await. What was meant to be a shot at a better life becomes a fight for survival, testing friendship, betrayal, love, vulnerability, time, and…

Slippery slope: a polymer coating made the toilet bowl on the left more slippery than the untreated one on the right. (Courtesy: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2023/DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c11352) Going into a public toilet is sometimes not for the faint hearted. Not only could there be visible evidence of previous use, but also the unseeable germs that may lurk on surfaces. Now researchers in Germany and Turkey have come up with a new transparent coating that makes porcelain more water-repellent and toilets cleaner. They used an oil containing the silicone polymer polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS, and milled the solution for an…

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover for the novel Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, which will be published by One World on June 18th 2024. Preorder the book here. A year in the life of the unforgettable Catalina Ituralde, a wickedly wry and heartbreakingly vulnerable student at an elite college, forced to navigate an opaque past, an uncertain future, tragedies on two continents, and the tantalizing possibilities of love and freedom. When Catalina is admitted to Harvard, it feels like the fulfilment of destiny: a miracle child escapes death in Latin America, moves to Queens to be raised by her undocumented…

Our street is the kind resplendent with trees that escort your car along its morning commute, their eager branches bending over the road. Old Victorian mansions are chopped into infinitesimal apartments very much like our own—a big red brick thing that was once a nursing home, though the only suggestions of its past are showers that slip right into the floor and the eerie shrouded feeling that comes with walking its halls. My favorite part of the neighborhood, however, is the science museum that sits down the street. Brutalistically gray and unassuming, the science museum watches over its surrounding homes…

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast looks at two very different and very difficult challenges — how to build a quantum computer that can overcome the debilitating noise that plagues current processors; and how to ensure that the UK meets its target for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Our first guest is the nuclear physicist and sustainable energy expert, Martin Freer, who coordinated the writing of a report from the Institute of Physics (IOP) called Physics Powering the Green Economy. Freer, who is at the University of Birmingham, explains why more investment and support will be needed…

In a year packed with noteworthy novels, it can be hard to remember that big, important, vital ideas sometimes come in small packages. Many of the year’s best collections represent a return to form for some of the greatest writers of our time, and while the stories may be brief, their impact is felt long after they’ve been read. In these pages you’ll find heartbreak and longing, estrangement, fear, desire, and political upheaval, told in the forms of  myth, folktales, and yes, everyday realism. All of these collections, from widely varied vantage points, get at the heart of what it…

In her 1993 poem, “won’t you celebrate with me,” author and educator, Lucille Clifton, invites us to wonder at the life she has created: “… i had no model born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what did i see to be except myself?  i made it up.”  As a Black woman existing at the intersections of these marginalized identities (“both nonwhite and woman”), Clifton finds herself rendered invisible in the mainstream and—consequently—creates herself in the process. 30 years onwards, Black women writers continue to take on the mantle of rendering themselves visible across genres and constructing models for future…

Today #TheSimonettaLeinShow continues its highly anticipated 6th Season, as the show welcomes one of the most in-demand comedians working today, Brad Williams! Brad has appeared on “The Tonight Show,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and in the films “Little Evil,” “Mascots,” and “Reno 911: It’s A Wonderful Heist.”! His first one-hour special, “Fun Size,” was the highest rated special on Showtime and Brad’s Netflix special “The Degenerates,” garnered huge ratings and rave reviews! Recently, he became the first comedian in the history of Cirque du Soleil to headline and sell out the show, “Mad Apple,” in a brand new 1200 seat theater at the New…

Quantum leap: the report says that Ireland is ideally situated to capitalize on quantum for industry. (courtesy: iStock/agsandrew) The Irish government has published a national strategy for quantum research in the country. Many of the top technology companies have operations in Ireland and the report – Quantum 2030 – A National Quantum Technologies Strategy for Ireland – describes Ireland as being ideally situated to capitalize on quantum for industry, noting the potential for quantum technologies in computing, communication, simulation and sensing. “This initiative is a brilliant step in the right direction, says quantum physicist J C Seamus Davis from University…