Category: Insight

Empire of the Ants: What Insect Supercolonies Can Teach Us

John Whitfield in The Guardian: It is a familiar story: a small group of animals…

Ibn Khaldun on a Failed Nation–Seven Hundred Years Ago

“A defeated nation always admires the conqueror, imitating his dress and adopting the signs of…

Human Artificial Chromosomes Could Ferry Tons More DNA Cargo Into Cells

by Shelly Fan at Singularity Hub: The human genetic blueprint is deceptively simple. Our genes…

Does AI Understand Things?

Have Large Language Models (LLMs) demonstrated “theory of mind”?; Do LLM representations map onto the…

Echoes of Electromagnetism Found in Number Theory

A new magnum opus posits the existence of a hidden mathematical link akin to the…

These ‘Movies’ of Proteins in Action are Revealing the Hidden Biology of Cells

Ewen Callaway in Nature: Since the 1950s, scientists have had a pretty good idea of how…

How I Lost and Found My Scientific Creativity

In my new job, I tried to heed this epiphany. I made a point to…

The Surprising Science of Alpha Males

Primatologist Frans de Waal (Author of ‘Chimpanzee Politics’) draws surprising parallels between how humans and…

What is Economic Inclusion? How Do We Measure Economic Inclusion?

Economic inclusion is when people not only have their basic subsistence needs met but also…

The Theory of Mind That Says Artificial Intelligence is Possible

by Tim Sommers in 3 Quarks Daily: Does your dog feel pain? Or your cat?…

AI Systems Still Confound Researchers

By BEN BRUBAKER in Quanta: An open secret about artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT is…

The Math Hiding in Plain Sight

Sarah Hart, the professor of geometry at Gresham College, sees symmetry everywhere–humans are detectors of…