Apple's Heart Study Is the Biggest Ever, But With a Catch
Last November, Apple Watch owners began receiving recruitment emails from Apple. The company was looking for owners of its smartwatch to participate in the Apple Heart Study—a Stanford-led investigation into the wearable's ability to sense irregular heart rhythms. Joining was simple: Install an app and wear your watch. If the watch's optical sensors detected an…
Jargon Watch: Silicages Could Make Gene Therapy Less Risky
Silicage ('sil-i-'kāj)n. A nanostructure made of silica that may provide a safer carrier for gene therapy. Viruses are nature’s Trojan horses—they replicate by smuggling their genes into a host’s cells, turning them into mini virus factories. So in the late ’80s, researchers got the clever idea of sucking out the viral innards and inserting good…
How to Easily Locate the Accelerometer in an iPhone
Everyone should probably know that I'm obsessed with both physics and smart phones. If I can use my phone for a physics experiment, I'm good to go. That's exactly what I am going to do right now—use some physics to find the location of the accelerometer in the iPhone 7. Your smart phone has a…
Tonight: Watch SpaceX Try to Land Its First Rocket on California Soil
For the first time since July 25, a Falcon 9 sits perched atop SpaceX’s California launch pad, ready to fly. Its mission: to deposit an Argentinean Earth-observing satellite, dubbed SAOCOMM-1A, into orbit. What’s new with this flight is that SpaceX will attempt to have the rocket touch down in the middle of a new landing…
What Should I Tell My Relative Who Wants to Try Cannabis?
Q: One of my relatives wants to get into cannabis (which is legal in their home state, of course). Should I tell them to smoke weed or do edibles? A: Ah, the joys and terrors of exploring cannabis. We’ve all heard tales about overdoing it—maybe like me you once stood in line at an ice…
How Los Angeles Is Helping Lead the Fight Against Climate Change
Los Angeles doesn’t have a great environmental reputation. It’s the car capital of the United States. It’s famous for its curtains of smog, and for stealing a bunch of water once. But the city is in the midst of a metamorphosis. With fewer, yet stronger storms on the horizon, it’s begun an ambitious plan to…
Slime Molds Remember—But Do They Learn?
Slime molds are among the world’s strangest organisms. Long mistaken for fungi, they are now classed as a type of amoeba. As single-celled organisms, they have neither neurons nor brains. Yet for about a decade, scientists have debated whether slime molds have the capacity to learn about their environments and adjust their behavior accordingly. Quanta…
We Know Exactly How to Stop Wildfires—With Money
Wild lands are practically worthless. They’re not worthless to the things that live in them, of course. They love ‘em. And they aren’t worthless aesthetically, if that’s your bag. Any place with plants slurps up carbon dioxide, providing a bulwark against climate change. And they probably have value as a matter of public health; some…
We Need Massive Change to Avoid Climate Hell
On Sunday night, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change dropped an urgent report on the state of global warming. Simply put: The laws of the physical universe say that we can keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the optimistic goal set out in the Paris Agreement, but we’re quickly running…
A Mind-Bending Avalanche Animation That Could Save Your Life
On the surface, a so-called slab avalanche doesn’t make sense. Take a good look at the rendering above. The snowman represents a skier or snowshoer venturing where they shouldn’t. It barely disrupts the snow, but uphill the accumulated powder suddenly snaps and flows down the hill, devouring our brave test subject. Avalanches are awesome, in…