Gene Therapy, Song Preferences, and Paper Jams: Lux Recommends #118
Welcome to Lux Recommends #118, this week’s edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (and want to receive this by email? Sign up here).
Articles
The Jet Engine is a Futuristic Technology Stuck in the Past: “Rockets and turbofans have promised to realize dreams of transportation progress — for decades.” — Adam G
To Fight Fatal Infections, Hospitals May Turn to Algorithms: “Machine learning could speed up diagnoses and improve accuracy” — Adam G
Why Paper Jams Persist: “A trivial problem reveals the limits of technology.” Super fascinating. — Sam
The doctor responsible for gene therapy’s greatest setback is sounding a new alarm: “Toxic effects seen in animals raise questions about new gene therapies for children.” — Adam G
Poison pass: the man who became immune to snake venom: Becoming your own experiment. —Adam G
Branded in Memory: NFL Edition: “Considering how important the NFL and its teams are to millions of people, we asked over 150 people to draw 12 of the most popular team logos from memory. With nothing to go off of but their own recollection, we wanted to know just how well these sports icons stand out in the mind of NFL fans and non-fans alike. Here’s what they showed us.” — Sam
Scientists Know How You’ll Respond to Nuclear War — and They Have a Plan: “Now, researchers like Barrett, who directs the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech, have access to an unprecedented level of data from more than 40 different sources, including smartphones, satellites, remote sensors, and census surveys. They can use it to model synthetic populations of the whole city of DC — and make these unfortunate, imaginary people experience a hypothetical blast over and over again.” —Adam K
Last blog standing, “last guy dancing”: How Jason Kottke is thinking about kottke.org at 20: “I am like a vaudevillian. I’m the last guy dancing on the stage, by myself, and everyone else has moved on to movies and television.” — Sam
The Songs That Bind: “Songs that came out decades earlier are now, on average, most popular among men who were 14 when they were first released. The most important period for men in forming their adult tastes were the ages 13 to 16.” — Adam K
Ancient Trees: Woman Spends 14 Years Photographing World’s Oldest Trees: ‘All her pictures are captured in duotone and can definitely be termed as the best ever captured photos of old trees. Her photographs are published in the book named “ Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time”, which has a collection of 60 exquisite photographs of some of the oldest and most magnificent trees one would ever be able to view!’ — Adam K
Robots Can Do Lots Of Things Well, But At Least They Can’t Ski — Adam K
A Snowball Vending Machine In Minnesota — Sam
Videos
Virginia aquarium captures video of octopus being born — Adam K
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