Science

What Is The Cosmic Microwave Background?

March 5, 2024

The CMB is a snapshot of the oldest light in the universe, imprinted on the sky when the universe was just a baby in cosmic terms.

It is essentially the afterglow radiation from the hot, dense state of the universe just 380,000 years after the Big Bang, a time known as the recombination era. At this point, the universe had cooled enough for protons and electrons to combine into neutral hydrogen atoms, allowing photons (light particles) to travel freely for the first time without being constantly scattered by charged particles.

What’s It Like To Get Sucked Into A Black Hole?

September 12, 2023

black hole

Imagine, just for a moment, that you are aboard a spaceship equipped with a magical engine capable of accelerating you to any arbitrarily high velocity.

This is absolutely and utterly impossible, but it turns out it’ll be okay, for reasons you’ll see in a second.

Because you know your engine can push you faster than the speed of light, you have no fear of black holes.

What Is The Simulation Universe Theory

August 11, 2023

what is the simulation universe theory

Here’s how this theory goes. If a society gets advanced enough they would eventually be able to create a simulation of their universe that would be extensive enough to cover everything down to subatomic particles.

Once a society gets this advanced, eventually they are going to run such a simulation, to test theories on universal evolution, or even societal evolution. Maybe even theories on sentience itself.

How Does an Atomic Bomb Work?

July 19, 2023

Atomic bombs harness the immense power locked inside the nucleus of atoms to create cataclysmic explosions. But how exactly do these devastating weapons unleash their incredible energy? Let’s break down the underlying nuclear science step-by-step.

VO2 Max: A Crucial Fitness Metric You Might Be Overlooking

July 18, 2023

If you’re a fitness enthusiast or on a journey to enhance your health, you’re likely exploring ways to enhance your performance, push your boundaries, and track various fitness indicators such as heart rate, calories burned, and steps taken. You might even be aware of your basal metabolic rate. However, there’s another vital fitness metric you might not be familiar with yet: Your VO2 max.

How is Cultivated Meat Made?

June 22, 2023

Cultivated meat, also known as lab-grown meat, cultured meat, or cell-based meat, is produced using many of the same tissue engineering techniques traditionally used in regenerative medicine. The process involves several steps:

What is Entropy?

June 20, 2023

what is entropy

Entropy is a concept in science that helps us understand how energy works. You can think of it like this: Imagine you have a box of building blocks, all neatly stacked. This is a low entropy state because everything is ordered and organized.

[Read more…] about What is Entropy?

How Does Porn Rewire Your Brain?

April 13, 2023

When we feel something pleasurable, our brain releases dopamine. This dopamine hit leaves us feeling you euphoric. It leaves us feeling pleasure and joy and satisfaction.

And every time you masturbated to pornography, your brain released dopamine. And the more you did it, the more dopamine was released.

What Is A Black Hole

March 16, 2023

what is a black hole

It’s basically impossible to give a short, succinct description of black holes that is also in any way even vaguely correct. They are so completely different from anything we encounter in daily life that even metaphors fail.

So the best way to think of it, for the layperson just going about life wanting to be essentially educated as to how the universe works, is to imagine a very large, very old star. This star has used up all its fusion “fuel,” if you will, and will soon collapse, exploding spectacularly in an apocalyptic cataclysm of radiation that will, briefly, outshine its whole galaxy.

[Read more…] about What Is A Black Hole

What is the Turing Test?

February 28, 2023

In 1950, Alan Turing wrote his landmark paper COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE , where he probes the question “Can machines think?”

At the time, it was widely believed that there was something special about human intelligence and that computers would never be able to perform certain tasks, like understand language or play chess at a high level. Part of the paper was a point by point takedown of all the common objections to machine intelligence.