Ella Alderson's articles EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Unseen Universe Has Finally Arrived Key Takeaways: In an unveiling that involved the president himself, the James Webb Space Telescope’s very first color image — Webb’s First Deep Field — was released yesterday evening at the White House. The detail-rich galaxy cluster is 4.6 billion years old and was taken with Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). The brighter star below is […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SCIENCE Are Science And Religion Compatible? Key Takeaways: There is perhaps no better time than now to address the role of faith in our society. Any hypothesis that wishes to be accepted as fact must have ways to be tested and falsified. When astronomy, medicine, and evolutionary biology have provided proof that contradicts the Bible, religious leaders integrate these findings into […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Testing The Self-Aware Machine Key Takeaways: If a machine cannot be conscious then we can’t ever hope to transfer ourselves into digital beings, extending our lives far beyond the typical century. Natural language interactions would question the machine’s inner workings to see if it experiences something other than the mere physical. Leaving an AI free to scour the internet […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Holy Grail Of Physics When I wrote about superconductors and called them “the technology that will change everything”, I couldn’t help but feel an itch in the back of my mind — a vague notion that graphene and superconductors had a deeper relationship that hadn’t yet been explored. Both were materials which held a rightful fascination in the world of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY 5 Ways Big Data Is Changing The World The primitive era had land — rich wilderness upon which the first civilizations were built. The industrial era had giant steel machines capable of carrying humans across the globe to expand our influence. And what about this age? What will we use to change the world? The answer, of course, is data. Information made of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY Uncovering One Of A.I.’s Deepest Mysteries Key Takeaways: The black box problem is a profound mystery surrounding AI. Not all machine learning systems are black boxes. Researchers observe what parts of the image are altered to make a more convincing result, thereby also learning what parts of the input are most important to the system. This has become equally fascinating and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY The Future Of Energy Key Takeaways: The dystopian nature of recent events should not be lost on anyone. The most important technology being developed today, therefor, is that which allows us to transition off of fossil fuels and to mitigate our impact on the planet. While some researchers do aim to make perovskite solar cells a replacement for traditional […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Tragic Story Of Cold Fusion Key Takeaways: The large majority of the scientific community won’t even talk about this idea. Many of them have yielded impressive results. Fusion tests in laboratories on Earth are even hotter still, approaching 180 million° Fahrenheit (100 million° Celsius). And not only could they demonstrate that cold fusion was real, their results suggested that they […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Mystery Of The Speed Of Light Key Takeaways: The speed of light is an assumption, not a certainty. The best we have been able to do, even with our most sophisticated modern technology, is measure the roundtrip speed of light and assume that the speed is the same in both directions. Since measurements of the roundtrip speed of light are always […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Dark Forest Theory Because my original article regarding The Dark Forest Theory has been one of my most beloved, I thought it would be an interesting new addition to have it illustrated for my readers. I worked alongside professional artist Nicole Bowden to bring you this visual guide. I hope all of you find it helpful and entertaining […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Haunting World Of The Mirrorverse Key Takeaways: There were just 1,000 particles ambling about on the screen, living in their digital world governed by Newtonian physics. They interacted under the guidance of gravity. Instead of relying on fine-tuning parameters and entropy, the physicists behind the experiment showed that gravity alone could result in us perceiving a certain direction to time. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Solving The Fermi Paradox I often wonder if the majority of us choose to believe in life on other worlds because of scientific reasons, or sentimental ones. There are, of course, plenty of encouraging numbers about the many Earth-like exoplanets and the many radiating stars around which habitats might form. The odds seem to be in the favor of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked Loading Load more
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Unseen Universe Has Finally Arrived Key Takeaways: In an unveiling that involved the president himself, the James Webb Space Telescope’s very first color image — Webb’s First Deep Field — was released yesterday evening at the White House. The detail-rich galaxy cluster is 4.6 billion years old and was taken with Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). The brighter star below is […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SCIENCE Are Science And Religion Compatible? Key Takeaways: There is perhaps no better time than now to address the role of faith in our society. Any hypothesis that wishes to be accepted as fact must have ways to be tested and falsified. When astronomy, medicine, and evolutionary biology have provided proof that contradicts the Bible, religious leaders integrate these findings into […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Testing The Self-Aware Machine Key Takeaways: If a machine cannot be conscious then we can’t ever hope to transfer ourselves into digital beings, extending our lives far beyond the typical century. Natural language interactions would question the machine’s inner workings to see if it experiences something other than the mere physical. Leaving an AI free to scour the internet […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Holy Grail Of Physics When I wrote about superconductors and called them “the technology that will change everything”, I couldn’t help but feel an itch in the back of my mind — a vague notion that graphene and superconductors had a deeper relationship that hadn’t yet been explored. Both were materials which held a rightful fascination in the world of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY 5 Ways Big Data Is Changing The World The primitive era had land — rich wilderness upon which the first civilizations were built. The industrial era had giant steel machines capable of carrying humans across the globe to expand our influence. And what about this age? What will we use to change the world? The answer, of course, is data. Information made of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY Uncovering One Of A.I.’s Deepest Mysteries Key Takeaways: The black box problem is a profound mystery surrounding AI. Not all machine learning systems are black boxes. Researchers observe what parts of the image are altered to make a more convincing result, thereby also learning what parts of the input are most important to the system. This has become equally fascinating and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY The Future Of Energy Key Takeaways: The dystopian nature of recent events should not be lost on anyone. The most important technology being developed today, therefor, is that which allows us to transition off of fossil fuels and to mitigate our impact on the planet. While some researchers do aim to make perovskite solar cells a replacement for traditional […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Tragic Story Of Cold Fusion Key Takeaways: The large majority of the scientific community won’t even talk about this idea. Many of them have yielded impressive results. Fusion tests in laboratories on Earth are even hotter still, approaching 180 million° Fahrenheit (100 million° Celsius). And not only could they demonstrate that cold fusion was real, their results suggested that they […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Mystery Of The Speed Of Light Key Takeaways: The speed of light is an assumption, not a certainty. The best we have been able to do, even with our most sophisticated modern technology, is measure the roundtrip speed of light and assume that the speed is the same in both directions. Since measurements of the roundtrip speed of light are always […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Dark Forest Theory Because my original article regarding The Dark Forest Theory has been one of my most beloved, I thought it would be an interesting new addition to have it illustrated for my readers. I worked alongside professional artist Nicole Bowden to bring you this visual guide. I hope all of you find it helpful and entertaining […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Haunting World Of The Mirrorverse Key Takeaways: There were just 1,000 particles ambling about on the screen, living in their digital world governed by Newtonian physics. They interacted under the guidance of gravity. Instead of relying on fine-tuning parameters and entropy, the physicists behind the experiment showed that gravity alone could result in us perceiving a certain direction to time. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Solving The Fermi Paradox I often wonder if the majority of us choose to believe in life on other worlds because of scientific reasons, or sentimental ones. There are, of course, plenty of encouraging numbers about the many Earth-like exoplanets and the many radiating stars around which habitats might form. The odds seem to be in the favor of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
