Year: 2022

  • Particle Hunters Can Spend a Lifetime Searching for Answers

    IceCube is an example of how big science, and particularly particle physics, now often works on generational time scales. Getting from the idea of IceCube to actually drilling its neutrino sensors into a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice to pinpointing a high-energy neutrino source took 30 years. In that time, key personnel retired, passed away,…

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  • 20 Last-Minute Father’s Day Deals (2022)

    Relax and take a deep breath. There’s still time to find Dad a gift. And not just any gift, like a tie or a boring wallet, but a gift that he’ll cherish and talk about for years to come. You just have to act fast. From rocking out to walking out, we’ve got you covered…

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  • Can Democracy Include a World Beyond Humans?

    There was once an orangutan named Ken Allen at the San Diego Zoo who was notorious for carrying out complex escape plans. He found every nut and bolt in his cage and unscrewed them; in his open enclosure he threw rocks and feces at visitors. On one occasion, he constructed a ladder out of some…

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  • ‘Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ Helps Me Manage My Productivity Obsession

    Now is not the time to be talking about a quest to be more productive—yet here we are. Amidst high levels of stress, deteriorating work-life boundaries, and a terrible news cycle, listening to that inner monologue about what you could or should be doing at any moment is hard on one’s mental health. But still,…

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  • What Black One Direction Fans Reveal About Activism

    Gabrielle Foster had been a fan of One Direction since she was 11 years old. “We all come from different backgrounds. We all bond over Harry, but we don’t personally know what’s going on in each other’s lives,” she told me. “I just want there to be more representation for everybody.” Now in her early…

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  • The US Can Halve Its Emissions by 2030—if It Wants To

    That said, he adds that it’s not a permanent solution. A future grid that runs entirely on renewables needs to be more flexible, since operators won’t be able to burn fossil fuels to fill temporary gaps between energy demand and generation. (At night during a heat wave, for instance, people could be running lots of…

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  • Russia Is Taking Over Ukraine’s Internet

    Russia is also trying to control mobile connections. In recent weeks, a mysterious new mobile company has popped up in Kherson. Images show blank SIM cards—totally white with no branding—being sold. Little is known about the SIM cards; however, the mobile network appears to use the Russian +7 prefix at the start of a number.…

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  • Nobody Knows How to Watch Movies Anymore

    If you tell a friend you saw a movie last night, and your friend knows perfectly well you never left your apartment, they’d have every right to call you a liar. You can’t see a movie at home, unless you have a weak grasp of grammar. You can only see a movie in, yes, a…

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  • It’s Hard to Do Climate Research When Your Glacier Is Melting

    His team spends a lot more time on the glacier “roped up”—where each team member is tied to the others, so if one person falls through a thin patch of ice, the others can stop their fall. This makes moving on the glacier much slower. And when a snow bridge over a crevasse becomes so…

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  • 16 Great Deals: Switch Games, Headsets, and More

    In many parts of the United States, we’re in the thick of summer and it’s time to admit: It’s not getting any cooler out. It would be a great time to go to the pool or the beach. Alternatively, if you’d rather weather the heat waves indoors with air conditioning, it’s a great time to…

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