High-speed video of experiments on a robotic hula hooper, whose hourglass form holds the hoop up and in place. Some version of the Hula-Hoop has
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Ten cool science stories we almost missed
There is rarely time to write about every cool science paper that comes our way; many worthy candidates sadly fall through the cracks over the
Read moreThe physics of ugly Christmas sweaters
‘Tis the season for many holiday traditions, including the Ugly Christmas Sweater—you know, those 1950s-style heavy knits featuring some kind of cartoonish seasonal decoration, like
Read moreCould microwaved grapes be used for quantum sensing?
There are thousands of YouTube videos in which DIY science enthusiasts cut grapes in half—leaving just a thin bit of skin connecting them—and put the
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‘People Are Terrible at This’: Why We Suck at Judging the Strength of Knots
A study asked participants to identify the stronger of two knots by sight alone. They failed spectacularly.
Read moreGoogle gets an error-corrected quantum bit to be stable for an hour
On Monday, Nature released a paper from Google’s quantum computing team that provides a key demonstration of the potential of quantum error correction. Thanks to
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