science

This a screenshot of an OpenGL program I wrote in my spare time during my undergraduate course to draw scenes with special-relativistic effects.

In this scene the spheres are orbiting clockwise around the centre sphere which is stationary (relative to the camera). The scene is illuminated with two black-body lights from behind the camera, and one green light from the top to show off the Doppler effect (red and blue shift).

If you are interested I have put the program on GitHub.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/onion/p/1095595/fish-take-naps-during-the-day-too

I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me sooner. Even if you just use a junk account to like and subscribe it’s the cheaper version of donating.

PBS Terra, for one, has actual climate change news and science. In addition to all the other cool things, and, ofc, PBS kids.

Here’s the list: NOVA PBS official, PBS, PBS Terra, American Experience PBS, Frontline PBS Official, PBS Documentaries, PBS NewsHour, PBS kids, PBS Eons, PBS Origins, PBS SpaceTime.

Article : https://www.earth.com/news/water-captured-on-video-forming-out-of-thin-air-for-the-first-time/

Despite Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s pledge to provide “radical transparency,” the agencies under his control continue to suppress scientific research that conflicts with his anti-vaccine agenda.

On Tuesday, The New York Times reported confirmation from the Department of Health and Human Services that the Food and Drug Administration had blocked the publication of studies showing the safety and efficacy of vaccines against COVID-19 and shingles. The revelation follows a report from The Washington Post last month that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrapped a scientifically vetted study previously scheduled for publication that found COVID-19 vaccines sharply cut the risk of emergency care and hospitalization among healthy adults. The study was ultimately rejected by Kennedy’s acting CDC director, who claimed to have concerns about the study’s methodology.

Similarly at the FDA, two studies on COVID-19 vaccines by agency scientists were accepted for publication at medical journals, according to the Times. But unnamed FDA officials directed the agency scientists to withdraw the studies. While a preliminary abstract of one of the studies presented at a conference last fall remains online, the Times obtained a copy of the full manuscript, the conclusion of which reads, “Given the available evidence, FDA continues to conclude the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks.”

In addition, the Times learned that FDA officials did not allow agency scientists to submit two abstracts for studies on Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, to a major drug safety conference. The studies reportedly bolstered known efficacy and safety data of the vaccines.

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Explained: the UFO that seems to fly around a wind farm and change direction with no visible means of propulsion

A video that some call impossible to explain actually has a very plausible explanation. But you might not like it.

It's probably a balloon.

Scientists discovered remarkably preserved dinosaur-era bird wings trapped inside amber for nearly 100,000,000 years, with feathers and tissue still visible

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1089756/tiktoks-algorithm-favored-republican-content-in-2024-us-elections

Social media platforms increasingly mediate political information exposure, yet the role of algorithmic curation in shaping political exposure remains contested. This question is difficult to resolve on platforms in which users retain substantial control over their feeds. The ‘For You’ feed of TikTok, which delivers content almost entirely through algorithmic recommendation, offers a setting in which user agency is sharply constrained. Here we show, through 323 audit experiments with controlled ‘sock puppet’ accounts seeded with Democratic or Republican content across three US states, that accounts seeded with partisan content exhibited systematic, asymmetric differences in partisan exposure. Across more than 280,000 recommendations collected over 27 weeks during the 2024 US presidential election campaign, Republican-seeded accounts received about 11.5% more co-partisan content than Democratic-seeded accounts, whereas Democratic-seeded accounts were exposed to about 7.5% more cross-partisan content—largely anti-Democratic material—even after adjusting for engagement metrics. These asymmetries are concentrated among high-reach Republican channels and in specific policy domains, including immigration, crime and foreign policy for Democrats, and abortion for Republicans. Our findings show partisan imbalances in political information exposure on a platform dominated by algorithmic recommendations, with implications for platform governance and democratic discourse.

Curiosity has started a new drilling campaign on Mars at the “Atacama” site, exploring layered sulfate bedrock on Mount Sharp for the first time since leaving the boxwork terrain.

Scientists are analyzing these ancient rocks to uncover more about Mars’ geological history and past environment.

Article: https://science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4873-4878-welcome-to-the-atacama-drill-target/

Abstract: This article reclaims mathematics from the measures of profit and control by first presenting an anarchist analysis of mathematics’ status quo societal uses and pedagogic activities. From this analysis, a vision for an anarchist math education is developed, as well as suggestions for how government school practitioners sympathetic to anarchism can insert this vision into their current work. Aspects to this vision include teacher autonomy, freedom from hierarchical curriculum structure and math class as a non-coercive, happy place. Finally, mathematics is argued to be essential knowledge for anarchistic society for three potentialities: in solving social and technological problems through application, as an analytic technology and for increasing individual happiness via the aesthetic dimension.

I am sympathetic to the bad reputation mathematics often endures. Some of society’s well-known uses of mathematics cloud our understanding of the knowledge and its place in a visionary, anarchist society; similarly, the status quo pedagogy of mathematics education might suggest that mathematical knowledge should be left out of an anarchist education. I describe this situation with a heavy heart, however, because I also happen to have passion for mathematics as a knowledge for myself to use and enjoy, and as something I can share with others. In this article, I argue that mathematics finds a home in anarchist education, and again that mathematical knowledge is not in conflict with anarchist society. To begin, I offer a handful of examples from such societal uses and status quo pedagogy that work against three commonly agreed on anarchist values: collectivism, fraternity, and freedom from social hierarchy. These representations will guide an understanding for what anarchist society and education are and are not. Next, the article discusses the role mathematics can play in anarchist education and finally society. Put another way, this article first presents an anarchist analysis of current mathematical behaviors, both pedagogic and otherwise, and then develops an anarchist mathematics.

Before I proceed with the connections between mathematics/mathematical behaviors and anarchism, I describe briefly the anarchist theory that informs this article. One definition describes anarchism as “a political theory which aims to create a society within which individuals freely cooperate together as equals” (McKay 2008, 19). In particular, I am highlighting three tenets related to this definition: collectivism, fraternity, and freedom. Collectivism denotes the curtailment of property rights, especially as they relate to ownership of capital. Fraternity describes an inclination for individuals to recognize the needs and desires of all other people, and accordingly to act in the spirit of mutual aid. Freedom indicates a lack of coercive actions by any person, group, or social institution on any one person, as well as individual autonomy within the boundaries of imposing on another’s freedom. I review these anarchist tenets when I describe an anarchist math education, but first I use them to expose problematic mathematical activities in society.

Referenced and related: A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart (PDF)

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1090825/study-finds-ai-outperforms-doctors-in-emergency-diagnoses

Study.

In one of the largest studies to compare artificial intelligence and physicians on a wide array of clinical reasoning tasks including real emergency department data, a team of physicians and computer scientists at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center evaluated whether an AI system could do what physicians do every day: review a messy patient chart and use that information to determine diagnosis and next steps.

In a new study published April 30, 2026 in Science, co-senior authors Arjun (Raj) Manrai, assistant professor of biomedical informatics at HMS and Adam Rodman, MD, MPH, a hospitalist and clinical researcher at BIDMC and team report that a large language model (LLM) outperformed physicians across many common clinical reasoning tasks including emergency room decisions, identifying likely diagnoses, and choosing next steps in management.

A new analysis shows that the Trump administration has terminated more than 100 advisory committees to science agencies—and reduced the transparency and independence of those that remain.