The Ship of Theseus Now this body of mine consists completely of the flesh of another person. Do I truly have a body now? Or do I have no body? If I think I have a body, what I have is completely a body of another; if I think I have no body, now I actually do […]
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Immortal Jellyfish One of the many features of video and computer games is the save or restart button. Make a mistake, fall down an abyss, lose a battle, and you can go anew at a previous game state. The real world doesn’t yet work that way for animate beings. Unless you’re one of a few
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Etna Vortex Rings One of the planet’s most famous and active volcanos sits on the island of Sicily, where the African and Eurasian Plates converge. Mt. Etna currently rises 11,014 feet (3,357 meters) above the Ionian Sea. It gains this altitude in under 12 miles from the water! The word “currently” must reside in the
Fibonacci, Da Vinci, and a Tree Walk into a Bar written by Deborah S. And Da Vinci said, “Hey, Tree, it looks like the cross-sections of your branches sum to the cross-section of the trunk!” Then Fibonacci said, “Hey, that sounds familiar…” The tree reacted, “Well, of course, it’s not like I want my branches
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The Golden Ratio and Leaves written by Deborah S. In our previous article, we learned about the Fibonacci Sequence. Today, let’s discuss another mathematical concept that is lesser known, yet also intricately linked: the Golden Ratio. Just as you may have heard of π (pi), which is equal to 3.14159…, and perhaps another constant, e, which
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Fibonacci and Trees written by Deborah S. 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144… You may recognize the numbers above as the famous Fibonacci Sequence. Developed by Leonardo Bonacci – that’s right, his name is not Fibonacci; Fibonacci is short for filius Bonacci, which means “son of Bonacci,” and was applied by historians to distinguish this
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Dinanthropoides Nivalis It showed up dark against the snow, and as far as I could make out, wore no clothes. –N.A. Tombazi, Royal Geographical Society photographer Many ancient Tibetans worshipped a being known as mi rgod, a term that translates to “wild man.” The Lepecha people of the Himalayas called him chu mung, which means
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The Great North American Eclipse Preview Perhaps the most anticipated natural or scientific event to occur since the advent of this project will cast shadows on Earth on 8 April 2024. Dubbed the Great North American Eclipse by many, on the afternoon of the second Monday in April, the moon will move between the sun and the
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Eclipse Glasses In North America, we’re on the precipice of a total solar eclipse. On 8 April 2024, a swath of the continent, from Mexico, through the heart of the United States, and a small part of Canada, will experience one of the natural world’s great expositions. In some places, for up to four minutes,
Kirkjufell If mountains were celebrities followed by alpine paparazzi, a few crags would garner A-list status. These top-tier megastars usually feature both eye-popping height and flash-popping resplendence. The same mountains appear constantly: Everest, K2, Mt. Fuji, Denali, and Kilimanjaro, among others. Some pop up often mostly for their looks, though I’d argue many pack serious elevation, too. The Matterhorn is the definition