Learning
The Feynman Lectures: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled"
Tam Gray writes: I first became truly aware of Richard Feynman when he testified in front of the Rogers Commission as to the possible cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. I had witnessed the explosion on television while a News Desk Editor at Time magazine; no other televised incident had to that point, and now after it, affected me with that level of sadness. more »
A Ten-Second Earthquake Alert: An Early-Warning System Across the US One Day
Japan has had a nationwide alert system since 2007 that provided seconds of warning after the devastating magnitude -9 Tohoku-Oki quake in 2011. Japan has had a nationwide alert system since 2007 that provided seconds of warning after the devastating magnitude-9 Tohoku-Oki quake in 2011. more »
Maryam Mirzakhani: "It's like solving a puzzle or connecting the dots in a detective case"
The first woman to ever win the Fields Medal – known as the 'Nobel Prize of mathematics' – in recognition of Mirzakhani's contributions to the understanding of the symmetry of curved surfaces. It has implications for the study of prime numbers and cryptography. Despite the breadth of applications of her work, she had said that she enjoys pure mathematics because of the elegance and longevity of the questions she studies. more »
Watching Schrodinger's Cat Die: "Gently recording the cat's paw prints both makes it die, or come to life"
If you put a cat inside an opaque box and make his life dependent on a random event, when does the cat die? When the random event occurs, or when you open the box? Though common sense suggests the former, quantum mechanics — or at least the most common "Copenhagen" interpretation enunciated by Danish physicist Neils Bohr in the 1920s – says it’s the latter. Someone has to observe the result before it becomes final. Until then, paradoxically, the cat is both dead and alive at the same time. more »