A Quantum Crossword, Peak Culture, and Map of the Internet: Lux Recommends #280

Editor
2 min readMay 28, 2021

By Sam Arbesman, PhD

Welcome to Lux Recommends #280, this week’s edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (want to receive this by email? Sign up here).

Articles

The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill: “All pandemic long, scientists brawled over how the virus spreads. Droplets! No, aerosols! At the heart of the fight was a teensy error with huge consequences.” — Sam

Gene Therapy, High-Tech Goggles Restore Some Vision to Blind People: “New treatment using optogenetics has restored limited vision to people blinded by hereditary retinal disease” — Shaq

Map of the Internet 2021Sam

Dozens Of Animals Laugh Too, Study Shows Deena

The Profound Potential of Elon Musk’s New Rocket: “An aerospace engineer explains why SpaceX’s Starship will change everything.” — Sam

Subway Swabbers Find a Microbe Jungle — And Thousands of New Species: “A team of international researchers has assembled an atlas of microorganisms present in 60 cities around the world.” — friend of Lux Jeff Cooper

This is what peak culture looks like: “Is the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe a sign of art in decline? It’s common for people to assert that film, art, music and literature are getting worse. This is why they’re wrong.” — Sam

Mustafa’s Meditative Songs of Mourning: “the Toronto poet-turned-singer-songwriter talks about getting to the heart of his community’s grief, rage, and love on his upcoming debut project, When Smoke Rises.” — Alex

Quantum crossword: “Most crosswords have a single correct solution. A quantum crossword has several.” — Sam

Television

Great Electric Airplane Race on Nova: “Can new emission-free electric planes replace our polluting airliners and revolutionize personal transportation in our cities? NOVA takes a ride in some quiet, energy-efficient, prototypes that are vying for success as electric flight takes off.” — Zack

Films

Our Towns: “a documentary that paints a remarkable picture of America and how the rise of civic and economic reinvention is transforming small cities and towns across the country.” — friend of Lux Tom Kane

Videos

Two bees opening a soda bottle together Adam K

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