Category archives: Humanities & Social Sciences

MI weekly selection #132

MI weekly selection #132

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Scientists piece together what Milky Way might look like to outsiders Researchers have pieced together clues to conceptualize what our galaxy looks like from the outside. An artist’s concept shows the Milky Way’s four spiral arms. The Washington Post Friction all but disappears with new technique Scientists have created a technique that simulates friction down […]

Skepticism, a short uncertain story (3): medieval doubts

Skepticism, a short uncertain story (3): medieval doubts

EpistemologyPhilosophy of science

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

Perhaps you ignore that the most influential philosopher of the early Middle Ages did not really exist. This Zenoan paradox is explained by the fact that the writings of this philosopher were falsely attributed to a different, and much more authoritative person, and hence, after the counterfeit was established about one thousand years later by […]

Of flowers and burials. The remarkable case of the Red Lady of El Mirón

Of flowers and burials. The remarkable case of the Red Lady of El Mirón

AnthropologyArchaeology

By Invited Researcher

Authors: Maria-José Iriarte-Chiapusso is an Ikerbasque research professor at the Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Álvaro Arrizabalaga is a lecturer of Prehistory in the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Archaeology has been defined as the “Science of Trash”. However fortunate or unfortunate that definition might be, it […]

MI weekly selection #129

MI weekly selection #129

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

A extremely rare set of 4 quasars Astronomers have spotted an extremely rare grouping of four quasars within about 650,000 light-years of space. The odds against finding four so close together are 10 million to one. The rare quartet exists in an unusually bright nebula that has scientists scratching their heads as well. National Geographic […]

From gas to cash. The unexpected applications of statistical mechanics

From gas to cash. The unexpected applications of statistical mechanics

HistoryPhysics

By Pablo Rodríguez Sánchez

Mechanics and thermodynamics are two of the main pillars of physics. Mechanics, the branch of physics that studies movement, is considered to be well established since the publication of Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). Thermodynamics, the science dealing with heat and temperature, enjoyed its golden age in the 19th century, and was the […]

MI weekly selection #128

MI weekly selection #128

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Graphene, carbon nanotubes help spiders spin stronger webs Several spiders sprayed with mixtures of water and either graphene particles or carbon nanotubes went on to weave markedly stronger webs, according to researchers at the University of Trento in Italy. The scientists found that webs made by spiders sprayed with the nanotubes produced the strongest silk […]