Freelance sci-tech writer/editor SciAm, NYT, BBC, NOVA, PhysToday, PNAS, NSci, PS, AutoEng, Hakai, FQXi, NBC Modernist Cuisine: James Beard Cookbook of the Year
Joined April 2011
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Why boosting a satellite to a higher orbit is so hard.
A tugboat spacecraft must at least have enough fuel to reach the target, safely approach it, capture it and boost it.
Think of a tow truck that reaches a car but has no fuel to tow it home...
(Convo) theconversation.com/nasas-sw…
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Five ways countries COP out on their Paris Agreement climate commitments:
1. Claim they can’t afford it
2. Promise to fix it later
3. Water down their promises
4. Make promises, then fail to deliver
5. Make decisions without everyone at the table
(Convo) theconversation.com/5-ways-c…
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Skin sensors that detect heat and cold in female mice activate at higher temps, which appears to shift their preferred temp roughly 7 degrees F higher than that of male mice, and testosterone seems to influence this difference in activation...
(LS) livescience.com/health/neuro…
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A new, accordion-like protective barrier will help restore the shoreline of Harlem Meer in Central Park.
The temporary wooden slat barriers keep ducks/Canada geese away from wetland plants, giving them time to root deeply and stabilize the shoreline. The slats also slow wave action.
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Musk’s xAI has 8 old aircraft turbine engines powering a huge data ctr in Mississippi, w/ permitting to emit CO at 2X the site's usu rate and 25% more VOC pollutants.
Aeroengines are dirtier, less powerful and less efficient than std gas turbines...
(NYT) nytimes.com/2026/11/03/clima…
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AI companies say they are now seeing the early signs of recursive self-improvement, which is speeding up their research—and freaking everyone out. As this tech accelerates its own evolution, the risk is that we don't to keep pace and lose control...
(WSJ) wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-anthropic…
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Can the satisfaction of understanding ever replace the thrill of discovery?
(S) science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
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IBM has linked two 120-qubit Nighthawk quantum chips inside a liquid-helium refrigerator using four 80-cm-long, superconducting aluminum coaxial cables.
Modular inter-chip linking allows scale up without crowding a single chip into quantum instability...
(N) science.org/content/article/…
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New origami-based, flat-panel construction method assembles folded triangular Resch tessellations to form strong static structural systems comprising woven hexagonal grids of beams w/ high stiffness despite requiring only abt 2/3 as much material...
(MIT) news.mit.edu/2026/origami-ba…
“Solid,” “Likely,” “Lean” or “Toss Up”
Cookin' with gas at the last bastion of nonpartisan election wonkery that nearly everybody in DC trusts...
(WP) washingtonpost.com/politics/…
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As Americans eat more imported fruits and vegetables (w/ Mexico our main supplier), the FDA rarely inspects the foreign facilities exporting the vast majority of fresh produce, creating a major blind spot when it comes to US food safety...
(WP) washingtonpost.com/health/20…
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Electra's hybrid-electric Ultra Short aircraft landed and took-off from Downtown Skyport in Lower Manhattan, marking the 1st flight ops by a fixed-wing aircraft at the NYC heliport.
Its blown-lift wings and oversize control surfaces let it land at 30 kts...
electra.aero/news/no-runway-…
Liberal Lula pulled off a lulu of a last-minute win against rightist Bolsonaro...
(NYT) nytimes.com/interactive/2026…
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Scavengers are harvesting rare-earth metals like dysprosium and neodymium from retired wind turbines, whose giant generators can house huge rare-earth magnets worth close to $100,000...
(WSJ) wsj.com/business/energy-oil/…
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Modern horses arose in the lower Volga-Don region of the W Eurasian steppe in the Bronze Age. Ancient DNA shows that our horses belong to one genetic lineage, which spread rapidly across Europe/Asia b/c they were calm and strong enough to carry riders.
(N) science.org/content/article/…
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Removing CO₂ directly from the air (DAC) is complex, energy-intensive and costly.
Rather than trapping CO2 slowly in bulky filters, why not use thin coatings on conveyor belts that absorb and release it in secs, cutting costs and active materials?
(EMPA) empa.ch/web/s604/direct-air-…
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Since Turnip's return, he exempted 202 facilities from pending clean-air regulations, some among the nation's worst industrial polluters, incl chem mfgers, copper smelters and coal-burning power plants. About 3.3m ppl live within 3 miles of them...
(NYT) nytimes.com/2026/10/24/clima…
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Misbehaving AI agents are "buggy software allowed to run w/o proper guardrails".
AI safety eng principles:
Cld anyone see what the AI was doing and sound an alert?
Cld someone limit its behavior if it did something bad?
Cld the AI access the alerts/limits?
(WSJ) wsj.com/opinion/sensible-tal…
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