Science & Tech
Why Does AI Art Screw Up Hands and Fingers?
It’s breathtaking. It’s a digital masterpiece. Why do its hands look like that?
Created with OpenAI/DALL-E
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-nclc-01581)
Rise of the Machines: Pros and Cons of the Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution, the period in which agrarian and handicraft economies shifted rapidly to industrial and machine-manufacturing-dominated ones, began in the United Kingdom in the 18th century and later spread throughout many other parts of the world.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-nclc-01581)
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artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI), the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as
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5 Unforgettable Moments in the History of Spaceflight and Space Exploration
Finding the final frontier.
Optogenetics: Controlling the Brain with Light
In the early 2000s, breakthroughs enabling the combined use of genetic and optical technologies to study the brain gave rise to optogenetics.
The Perils of Industry: 10 Notable Accidents and Catastrophes
Innovation has its price.
Why does AI art screw up hands and fingers?
It’s breathtaking. It’s a digital masterpiece. Why do its hands look like that? In July 2022 OpenAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) company, introduced DALL-E 2, one of the first AI image generators widely available to the public. Users could type in a prompt—anything from “Beyoncé eating pizza”
6 Questions About DNA Answered
Important questions asked and answered, briefly.
Spotlight: Mummification
A team of scientists recently recreated the face of Peru's most famous mummy, "Juanita," or the "Ice Maiden." The girl is thought to have been sacrificed when she was between the ages of 13 and 15 some 500 years ago. Mummified by centuries of ice and snow, the body was well-preserved and is just one example of how mummification can occur naturally.
Quizzes
Name That Magnified Object!
Can you figure out what these common items are when they're extremely magnified?
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Taking this quiz requires guts.
Name That Thing: Science
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Guess the Animal Eyes Quiz
Can you tell these creatures just by looking at their peepers?
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How volcanoes work, explained by a volcanologist
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7 Wonders of the Natural World
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Biology
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A quick refresher course in biology!
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13 Questions About How the Human Body Works Answered
Blood, brains, lungs, skin, and more.
Astronomy
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Were they ever out there to begin with?
Why Are Planets Round?
There are a lot of strange things in the universe, so why are planets round instead of every shape imaginable?
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Mathematics
al-Khwārizmī
Al-Khwārizmī Muslim mathematician and astronomer whose major works introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and the concepts of algebra into European mathematics. Latinized versions of his name and of his most famous book title live on in the terms algorithm and algebra. Al-Khwārizmī lived in Baghdad,
Unusual Counting Systems
In everyday life we use a base-10 counting system, but that is not something that has always been used in history.
Euclid
Euclid was the most prominent mathematician of Greco-Roman antiquity, best known for his treatise on geometry, the Elements. Of Euclid’s life nothing is known except what the Greek philosopher Proclus (c. 410–485 ce) reports in his “summary” of famous Greek mathematicians. According to him, Euclid
Aryabhata
Aryabhata was an astronomer and the earliest Indian mathematician whose work and history are available to modern scholars. He is also known as Aryabhata I or Aryabhata the Elder to distinguish him from a 10th-century Indian mathematician of the same name. He flourished in Kusumapura—near