732 stories, newest first.
13 points by rbanffy | 10 comments
Science news article reporting a study estimating Europe's 2026 summer heat wave killed over 50,000 people in cities, with two-thirds of deaths attributed to climate change.
127 points by endorphine | 49 comments
An interactive map and dataset of all 1,709 named land and sea battles fought by the Romans from 753 BCE to 1475 CE, with opponents, results and records.
25 points by bariumbitmap | 4 comments
Crooked Timber blog post by Kieran Healy introducing his ASA paper draft "Fuck Nuance" arguing against demands for nuance in sociological theory, with reader comments.
44 points by teleforce | 5 comments
Guardian article on University of Sheffield researchers replicating the dichroic colour-changing glass of the 1,600-year-old Roman Lycurgus Cup.
148 points by edwardog | 80 comments
A project site presenting the 1505 Löffelholz Codex, a Nuremberg knight's tool book, page by page with facsimiles, transcriptions, modern readings and interpretations.
30 points by ersinesen | 7 comments
Open-access Science Advances research article showing 40.68 MHz ultrashort wave stimulation enhances glymphatic clearance in mice, reducing TBI edema and Alzheimer's deficits.
38 points by tokepi | 29 comments
Guest post on Terence Tao's blog announcing oai-math-revised, a GitHub community effort to improve and properly cite OpenAI's math write-ups, inviting contributors and reviewers.
15 points by rramadass | 1 comments
A simple landing page linking to a PDF titled "I Do Understand Relativity" by Douglas Ross of the University of Southampton.
367 points by rramadass | 296 comments
Index page for Douglas Ross's introductory article on quantum physics, with PDF chapters covering wave-particle duality, uncertainty, superposition, and interpretations.
57 points by laybak | 1 comments
Getty Museum article by conservator Susanne Gänsicke on conserving and reassembling a 5th–6th century clay Buddha head excavated at Merv, Turkmenistan.
10 points by robtherobber | 0 comments
Covering Climate Now newsletter article highlighting a Reuters investigation proposing the term "heat storms" for massive, cascading heatwaves, plus climate news roundup.
16 points by amichail | 5 comments
An interactive explainer of Wolfram's Rule 30 cellular automaton, its three open prize problems about the centre column, and observed order at the pattern's edges.
100 points by janandonly | 43 comments
Archaeology News article reporting the discovery of a large Iron Age salt-mining chamber complex, at least 300 meters long, beneath Hallstatt, Austria.
36 points by CharlesW | 48 comments
Frontiers news article on a Bristol study where brain organoids on electrode arrays relayed tactile Braille signals decodable by an SVM, with three organoids reaching 83% accuracy.
80 points by surprisetalk | 25 comments
An interactive 3D model of a U.S.-style power grid explaining how electricity is generated, transmitted, priced and kept at 60 Hz, with scenarios like Winter Storm Uri.
62 points by ibobev | 38 comments
ScienceAlert article on a rediscovered unpublished Schrödinger manuscript presenting a hidden-variable model rebutting 1940s claims that determinism was impossible.
![Screenshot of web.maths.unsw.edu.au: The recently proposed o(n log n) integer multiplication algorithm [pdf]](https://hn.urlbox.com/shots/renders/2026/10/22/031b3473-91fb-4202-9bf2-aa9a7fb3e59c.jpg)
295 points by craigcitro | 290 comments
A PDF by David Harvey (UNSW) on the recently proposed O(n log n) algorithm for integer multiplication.
31 points by aleph_minus_one | 22 comments
A GitHub pull request in CrocSwap/integer-mult-bounds claiming a conditional integer multiplication bound O(n (log n)^(1-0.00300105)) by combining query thinning and helper retiming.
337 points by mooreds | 101 comments
Scientific American article on Northwestern physicists trapping a single positron for a month to enable quantum measurements of its magnetic moment.
28 points by hn_acker | 10 comments
Texas Tribune article on a HARC report warning that Texas's data center boom could reverse decades of air quality gains, especially if powered by natural gas.
103 points by giuliomagnifico | 62 comments
OIST research news release describing 'plasticorals', coral rubble fused with melted plastic found on Okinawa beaches, published in Marine Pollution Bulletin.
22 points by mdrzn | 3 comments
Website for Patch the Planet, a project whose landing page was not captured; it likely relates to climate or planetary repair efforts.
31 points by fedecaccia | 2 comments
Wikipedia biography of Cecilia Berdichevsky, an Argentine computer scientist who programmed the Ferranti Mercury computer "Clementina" from 1961.
8 points by DeepLogin | 1 comments
UN News article reporting that global warming will exceed the 1.5°C limit but that deep, rapid emissions cuts could bring temperatures back down.
3 points by oddorbitapp | 0 comments
Odd Orbit is a free web app showing a live 3D globe with layers for earthquakes, weather, aircraft, satellites, plus UFO, cryptid and folklore reports.
166 points by sohkamyung | 162 comments
Practical Engineering article and video transcript on the history of exterior fire escapes in US cities and why building codes replaced them with enclosed stairways.
45 points by throwaway2037 | 10 comments
Yale Environment 360 feature presenting the second-place short documentary in its 2026 film contest, about a bicycle trip documenting the conversion of Brazil's Cerrado savanna to farmland.
502 points by velo_aprx | 814 comments
UN Regional Information Centre article on the UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2026 stating that the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C warming goal is no longer viable.
130 points by unprovable | 80 comments
Quanta Magazine explainer on Hilbert space, the abstract mathematical realm used to describe quantum phenomena.
7 points by gumby | 0 comments
CleanTechnica article on cities worldwide sinking due to groundwater depletion and how the subsidence process can be reversed.
29 points by NaOH | 2 comments
A 2016 CU Boulder magazine column by Jeff Mitton explaining atmospheric optics at dawn and dusk, including the Earth's shadow, the Belt of Venus, and alpenglow.
75 points by XzetaU8 | 36 comments
Open-access Antiquity research article using tooth-enamel lead levels from cemeteries to date and examine the social dynamics of Peak District lead production, AD 600–1500.
52 points by gmays | 5 comments
University of Cambridge news article on research suggesting the spread of collagen-degrading enzymes to aerobic bacteria explains the decline of soft-bodied fossils after the Ediacaran.
288 points by speckx | 196 comments
A Yale Environment 360 digest article reporting that deep sea life around the Deepwater Horizon spill site shows few signs of recovery sixteen years later.
38 points by surprisetalk | 2 comments
Asimov Press podcast episode and transcript interviewing plant biologist Nick Desnoyer about engineering novel flowers, including a paintable petunia called Paintunia.
57 points by YeGoblynQueenne | 148 comments
A Science magazine Books et al. reflection revisiting a 1960 Science paper that predicted a population singularity in 2026, noting the forecast was far off.
251 points by bryanrasmussen | 62 comments
BBC News article on the rediscovery in West Papua of a pygmy long-fingered possum and a ring-tailed glider thought extinct for 6,000 years.
15 points by benbreen | 4 comments
JHI Blog essay on how late-medieval writers like Oresme, Mézières, and Froissart used mechanical clocks, which needed constant maintenance, as metaphors for cosmic and political order.
74 points by thunderbong | 25 comments
An NSIDC Ask a Scientist article explaining the Karakoram Anomaly, where Karakoram glaciers have gained mass, and the proposed causes and open questions.
132 points by wffurr | 58 comments
Ars Technica article on Endurance Energy's first subsea geothermal power plant test near an underwater volcano, which briefly produced net-positive electricity.
21 points by royalroad | 5 comments
An essay on the science blog The Last Word On Nothing titled "My Neighbor, Me, and a Grand Principle."
109 points by ibobev | 54 comments
Blog post describing how narrating one's thoughts aloud, like LLM chain-of-thought or rubber duck debugging, improved the author's puzzle solving in The Witness.
24 points by pseudolus | 5 comments
Science news feature by Lizzie Wade on how new radiocarbon dates show the Inca Empire lasted longer than thought and faced more resistance.
325 points by rbanffy | 98 comments
IEEE Spectrum feature on organ-on-a-chip and other technologies emerging as alternatives to animal testing in biomedical research.
111 points by smilelamp | 148 comments
Guest post by Francesco Maggi on Terence Tao's blog discussing whether AI and large language models will bring a golden or dark age for mathematics and science.
107 points by Kaibeezy | 4 comments
Open-access Nature Communications paper showing that blocking intercellular Prox1 transfer restores the regenerative potential of Müller glia in the retina.
18 points by benbreen | 1 comments
Wikipedia article on Ui-te-Rangiora, a legendary Polynesian navigator said to have sailed into Antarctic waters around the 7th century.
28 points by sks_15 | 5 comments
A blog post by Eli Bendersky explaining the roots of unity, starting from real-number roots and building up to complex roots.
322 points by gmays | 193 comments
ScienceAlert article reporting research suggesting dogs, like humans, associate the word 'bouba' with round shapes and 'kiki' with spiky ones.
![Screenshot of youtube.com: There's never been a better time to go into math (by: 3blue1brown) [video]](https://hn.urlbox.com/shots/renders/2026/10/18/cd65365e-6f6d-4b41-be70-e0902d2707dc.jpg)
521 points by mdp2021 | 728 comments
A 3Blue1Brown YouTube video arguing there has never been a better time to go into mathematics, discussing AI's role in math.
57 points by marojejian | 9 comments
Quanta Magazine 'The Joy of Why' episode in which biologist Toby Kiers explains how fungal networks trade nutrients with plants and store carbon underground.
125 points by samizdis | 128 comments
Phys.org news article on research showing rabbits were a royal luxury in medieval England until the Black Death; the capture shows only a Cloudflare verification page.
624 points by xbmcuser | 390 comments
pv magazine article reporting that global solar generation surpassed nuclear for the first time in 2025, according to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2026.
335 points by crescit_eundo | 86 comments
Substack post describing an attempt to make chicken tissue transparent by soaking it in tartrazine, the yellow dye found on Doritos, based on a research paper.
68 points by klamike | 3 comments
lpviz is a browser-based interactive tool for visualizing and solving linear programming problems on a 2D/3D graph canvas.
47 points by felipevb | 79 comments
NOS news video showing wildlife camera footage of how wild boar and deer in the Netherlands are adapting their behavior to returning wolves.
![Screenshot of jetp.ras.ru: Propagation of Sound in Strongly Viscous Liquids (1966) [pdf]](https://hn.urlbox.com/shots/renders/2026/10/18/ab54765c-93be-40d0-b752-9edf6ebf6138.jpg)
7 points by peter_d_sherman | 1 comments
A 1966 physics paper PDF from the journal JETP on how sound propagates through strongly viscous liquids.
344 points by sohkamyung | 87 comments
Smithsonian Magazine article on how removing small, often obsolete dams in northeastern US streams and rivers is helping herring and other fish return.
535 points by alkyon | 115 comments
Nature news article reporting that bleached coral fragments recover within days by forming tissue bridges with healthy neighbours that supply microalgae.
105 points by zdw | 54 comments
The Atlantic article by Cara Giaimo about invasive giant African land snails in Florida and how the state combats them.
9 points by levmiseri | 2 comments
Grimoire.bio is a web app where users ask biology questions and browse 3D-rendered bio objects, concepts, and guides.
141 points by wawayanda | 51 comments
A Works in Progress feature by Charles C Mann exploring porcelain and the engineered stone material Dekton, prompted by a pricey kitchen stove.
62 points by practal | 53 comments
A Xena Project blog post by Kevin Buzzard's group on how to formalize all of mathematics using the Lean theorem prover.
189 points by vinipolicena | 382 comments
New York Times article about mathematician Terence Tao and a crisis in mathematics, apparently related to AI; the page loaded as a captcha check.
4 points by crookedroad44 | 0 comments
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment page describing Metals-as-a-Service, a model where companies lease critical minerals rather than sell them to keep materials in use.
9 points by dcminter | 0 comments
Vesuvius Challenge Substack post announcing the award of a $50,000 First Letters Prize for reading text in Herculaneum scroll PHerc 343.
56 points by jacquesm | 11 comments
NL Times news article about a southern ground hornbill at Amsterdam's Artis Zoo receiving world-first 3D printed beak prostheses.
78 points by smilelamp | 31 comments
A guest post by Rikab Gambhir on Terence Tao's blog reflecting on why mathematicians and physicists do their work as AI reshapes research.
19 points by kreyenborgi | 3 comments
A blog post from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture's Material Matters site about lant, stale urine historically used as an industrial resource.
237 points by gliffie | 118 comments
BIPM page for Resolution 5 of the 28th CGPM (2026), on technical actions needed to ensure the continuity of UTC, including ending leap second insertions.
230 points by aaraujo002 | 184 comments
Simons Foundation news release announcing a $15 million initiative to help mathematicians use AI tools and adapt to changes in the field.
16 points by rbanffy | 19 comments
Wired article on a first-of-its-kind simulation war-gaming solar geoengineering, showing how geopolitics could turn sun-dimming into a dangerous arms race.
![Screenshot of math.pku.edu.cn: A History of Curves and Surfaces in Computer Aided Geometric Design [pdf]](https://hn.urlbox.com/shots/renders/2026/10/18/446ed254-a594-4c6a-bf1e-57d899482389.jpg)
27 points by mbustamanter | 4 comments
Gerald Farin's paper giving a historical account of curves and surfaces in Computer Aided Geometric Design up to the mid-1980s.
127 points by stmw | 44 comments
Imperial War Museums article on Churchill's top secret SIGSALY encrypted telephone hotline to the US President from the Churchill War Rooms.
22 points by peter_d_sherman | 4 comments
Wikipedia article on the orbital angular momentum of light, a property of light beams associated with their helical wavefront structure.
18 points by ldite | 2 comments
Wikipedia article on the shit flow diagram (excreta flow diagram), a tool for visualizing how human waste is managed in urban sanitation systems.
42 points by speckx | 5 comments
Yale Environment 360 digest item, republished from The Guardian, about scientists teaching birds to sing songs their populations have lost.
35 points by routeroff | 32 comments
An interactive lesson where a program predicts which key (D or F) you'll press next, beating chance, followed by an explanation of how it works.
24 points by EvgeniyZh | 5 comments
QuEra blog post describing how the company uses AI to automatically lock and tune the lasers in its neutral-atom quantum computer.
136 points by mikk14 | 30 comments
Blog post by Michele Coscia applying economic complexity analysis to the economy of the Western Roman Empire.
103 points by giuliomagnifico | 18 comments
Johns Hopkins news article about wireless magnetic millirobots designed to deliver medicine inside the beating heart.
69 points by elsewhen | 44 comments
SFGATE article about the Great Crack, an 8-mile-long fissure in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park whose formation remains poorly understood.
42 points by gumby | 8 comments
Ars Technica article on a study using high-speed video showing honey bee stingers use valves acting as collapsible pistons to pump venom.
113 points by andrewl | 88 comments
ScienceAlert article reporting on a new reinforced 'super ice' material said to be ten times stronger than normal ice, approaching concrete's strength.
76 points by list | 47 comments
Pessimists Archive newsletter post on the 1976 computer-assisted proof of the Four Color Theorem and the debate it sparked among mathematicians.
45 points by EndXA | 2 comments
Natural History Museum news article from 2021 on research showing the extinct Haast's eagle of New Zealand hunted moa in a way unlike any other bird of prey.
205 points by vunderba | 108 comments
Interactive web game where you say or type numbers as randomly as you can while the page predicts each next number before you reveal it.
386 points by karakoram | 634 comments
An Our World in Data insight by Hannah Ritchie showing UK electricity generation per person has fallen by a third since its 2003 peak, below 1970s levels.
36 points by jruohonen | 12 comments
A For Better Science blog post critiquing an apparently AI-generated academic book on water pollutant removal materials, illustrated with an AI-style infographic.
62 points by surprisetalk | 46 comments
GitHub markdown analysis of a 10-state Turing machine shown to run at level f_(ω+1) of the fast-growing hierarchy, implying BB(10) exceeds Graham's number.