Surprising Science — May 18, 2010

Matter Matters

According to Einstein, the universe should be equal parts matter and anti-matter; in other words, we shouldn’t exist, so why do we? Some physicists in Chicago may have the answer.

bigthinkeditor

According to Einstein, the universe should be equal parts matter and anti-matter; in other words, we shouldn’t exist, so why do we? Some physicists in Chicago may have the answer. “In a mathematically perfect universe, we would be less than dead; we would never have existed…And yet we exist, and physicists (among others) would dearly like to know why.”

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Culture & Religion

The Shudder

Frank Kermode tries to suss out what Eliot meant by having “a shudder” while reading, a standard by which Eliot defined good poetry and prose, such as in Tennyson’s In Memoriam.