Srikar D

10 stories to read this weekend • Issue 232 • June 22, 2018

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 22:00:07 +0530

Is America Ready for a Global Pandemic?

The epidemics of the early 21st century revealed a world unprepared, even as the risks continue to multiply. Much worse is coming.

Has the quest for top-down unification of physics stalled?

After the success of the Standard Model, experiments have stopped answering to grand theories. Is particle physics in crisis?

Brains May Teeter Near Their Tipping Point

In a renewed attempt at a grand unified theory of brain function, physicists now argue that brains optimize performance by staying near — though not exactly at — the critical point between two phases.

Freeman Dyson: “I kept quiet for 30 years, maybe it’s time to speak.”

One of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, Freeman Dyson, is as much known for his significant contribution to science as he is for courting controversy throughout his life. Over six decades, he built a body of work that sits alongside some of the most renowned physicists, mathematicians, and intellectuals of our time.

Explainer: How scientists estimate climate sensitivity

The sensitivity of the Earth’s climate to increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration is a question that sits at the heart of climate science.

Joe and the Whale (via Nature Briefing)

Joe Howlett gave his life to save an animal that may already be past the point of no return. After ten centuries of annihilation, is there any way to undo the damage done?

Iran’s ancient engineering marvel

Dating back around 3,000 years, the qanat is an ingenious and sustainable solution to Iran’s dearth of easily accessible water.

The bizarre story of Australia’s floating hotel and its 14,000km round journey to North Korea

Australia was once home to the world’s first floating hotel, and over the past 30 years it’s been on a wild ride, from Singapore to the Great Barrier Reef — and eventually to North Korea.

The Boys From the Banlieues

The vast sprawl of suburbs and satellite towns around Paris, disdained by some as a breeding ground for crime and terrorism, is home to the greatest pool of soccer talent in Europe.

What Makes a Baseball Team Great?

Inside the wide-ranging search—led by economists and psychologists—for the elixir that turns good squads into great ones

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New issues are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Every World Cup goal ever scored

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 10:19:25 +0530

Every World Cup goal ever scored:

This interactive chart from The Economist lets you explore over 2,400 goals in FIFA World Cup history. The chart will be updated throughout the 2018 tournament.

10 stories to read this weekend • Issue 231 • June 15, 2018

Fri, 15 Jun 2018 22:00:22 +0530

Inside the battle against Russian influence at FIFA

Russia’s World Cup caps a decade of unrelenting efforts to speed that nation’s return to sporting superiority, employing some of the same tactics Vladimir Putin has used in politics.

The Politics of Now: The Last World Cup

The evidence for the premise that international sport spreads peace and goodwill has always been fairly thin: every major tournament is dressed up that way but the legacy is more often mothballed stadiums and simmering resentment, as was the case after South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014. Rarely, though, has a regime so brazenly signalled its indifference to the niceties of international sport, which require at least the pretence that bad behaviour gets put on hold. As the saying goes, hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, and this is the currency in which Fifa likes to trade. But Putin isn’t having any of it. He seems to have treated the award of the tournament as a licence to try his luck.

How Not to Scout for Soccer Talent

Two new books raise interesting questions about the ethics and effectiveness of the sport’s selection system, with its early and intense winnowing process for aspiring players.

Coder-Physicists Are Simulating the Universe to Unlock Its Secrets

Computer simulations have become so accurate that cosmologists can now use them to study dark matter, supermassive black holes and other mysteries of the real evolving cosmos.

In her short life, mathematician Emmy Noether changed the face of physics

Noether linked two important concepts in physics: conservation laws and symmetries

Digging for Clues to an Ancient Extinction — and the Planet’s Future

If volcano-driven climate change was behind the Permian-Triassic land extinction, scientists might learn something crucial about our own fate.

The Endling: Watching a Species Vanish in Real Time

On the frontlines of extinction in the Gulf of California, where the vaquita faces its final days.

China Is Genetically Engineering Monkeys With Brain Disorders

A visit to a facility in Guangdong province, where researchers are tinkering with monkey brains in order to understand the most severe forms of autism

The Wounds of the Drone Warrior

Even soldiers who fight wars from a safe distance have found themselves traumatized. Could their injuries be moral ones?

The North Korean Axe Murders That Almost Started a War

In 1976, two American soldiers were axed to death over a poplar tree. What came next threatened to change the course of history.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New issues are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Einstein's travel diaries reveal 'shocking' xenophobia

Wed, 13 Jun 2018 09:48:40 +0530

Einstein's travel diaries reveal 'shocking' xenophobia:

This is depressing.

We Came to Win

Tue, 12 Jun 2018 10:49:02 +0530

We Came to Win:

Gimlet Media’s “We Came to Win” is an excellent podcast to binge before the 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off.

10 stories to read this weekend • Issue 230 • June 8, 2018

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 22:00:06 +0530

What Is Dark Matter and Why Hasn’t Anyone Found It Yet?

Five-sixths of the universe’s stuff seems to be missing, and we just can’t find it. It’s called “dark matter,” and scientists have gone looking for it with some of the world’s largest, most expensive experiments.
Time and time again, these experiments come up empty handed.

Plate Tectonics May Be Essential for Life

Life needs more than water alone. Recent discoveries suggest that plate tectonics has played a critical role in nourishing life on Earth. The findings carry major consequences for the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

There Is a Whole World Inside Every Plant

Plants have microbiomes, too, and they’re full of untapped secrets.

The only emotions I can feel are anger and fear

One in ten people struggle to recognise their emotions. New research suggests a vital link between our ability to sense our physical bodies and knowing how we feel.

The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

One of the world’s most hazardous jobs is known for its intense pressure.

Yashin

A great interactive on feature Lev Yashin, Russian who went from making bullets to becoming one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He is also the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or.

Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

People who are short on relatives can hire a husband, a mother, a grandson. The resulting relationships can be more real than you’d expect.

Tales from the far-flung Faroes

A visual peek into what life is like in the Faroe Islands.

Also See: Islands in the sky (video)

Secrets of the World’s Super-Explorers

For 111 years, a Manhattan mansion has been the gathering ground for adventurers who risk everything to reach the ends of the earth, depths of the oceans, and heights of the heavens.

The Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke

Two decades before Jamestown, settlers arrived in what is now North Carolina. What happened to them is a mystery, but there are some clues.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New issues are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

10 stories to read this weekend • Issue 229 • June 1, 2018

Fri, 01 Jun 2018 22:00:19 +0530

Ringing the chords of the Universe: how music influenced science

It’s no surprise that mathematics has influenced music. But did you know that the influence goes both ways?

Saving Africa’s wildlife

A 21st-century Noah’s ark transports animals back to places where they’ve been wiped out.

Training the Polar Bear Patrol

A grassroots guard learns how to keep people and polar bears safe in a small Arctic community.

Visiting the Mysterious Fairy Circles of the Namib Desert

In the landscape where Mad Max: Fury Road was filmed, a scientist is trying to understand a natural phenomenon that has eluded explanation for decades.

Shedding New Light on the Mysteries of Antarctica’s Long, Dark Winter

The continent’s winter months present one of the most challenging—and surprising—research environments on Earth.

What’s really behind ‘gluten sensitivity’?

As data trickle in, entrenched camps have emerged. Some researchers are convinced that many patients have an immune reaction to gluten or another substance in wheat—a nebulous illness sometimes called nonceliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). Others believe most patients are actually reacting to an excess of poorly absorbed carbohydrates present in wheat and many other foods.

The Mass Murder We Don’t Talk About

In Uganda, Ethiopia, and a small number of other countries, the Bush and Clinton administrations lavished development and military aid on dictators who in turn funneled weapons to insurgents in Sudan, Rwanda, and Congo. In this way, Washington helped stoke the interlinked disasters that have claimed millions of lives since the late 1980s and still roil much of eastern and central Africa today.

Why some countries come together, while others fall apart

Nations come with a vast array of peoples, languages and histories, but the strong ones share three simple things

The Best Books on Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece’s legacy can be seen all around us, including in our political system — but many of us don’t know that much about it. Fortunately, we have someone who has devoted his life to studying this remote time and place to give us a reading list. Chris Pelling, Emeritus Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford, recommends his top five books on Ancient Greece.

Marianne Vos Is the Boss

The world’s best bike racer is a woman: Vos, a 31-year-old Dutch superstar with more than 300 podium finishes. She’s also an activist, taking on the fight against gender inequality in a sport whose future has to involve knocking down a few doors.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New issues are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

10 stories to read this weekend • Issue 228 • May 25, 2018What Is Consciousness? Scientists are...

Fri, 25 May 2018 22:00:14 +0530

10 stories to read this weekend • Issue 228 • May 25, 2018

What Is Consciousness?

Scientists are beginning to unravel a mystery that has long vexed philosophers.

Was Science Wrong About Being Right?

Handedness is an ancient trait, but researchers are rethinking its roots.

Extreme Athletes an Human Endurance

What extreme athletes can—and can’t—tell us about human endurance

Age of Enlightenment: The Promise of Circadian Lighting

The impacts of artificial lighting on human health are not fully understood, but many scientists say enough is known to warrant dramatic changes now.

Also see: A visual history of light (video)

Why there is no drug for Alzheimer’s disease

Over a century after Alzheimer’s was discovered, we still don’t have a good way to treat it. Why? Because the disease is way more complex than researchers ever thought

He Was Dying. Antibiotics Weren’t Working. Then Doctors Tried a Forgotten Treatment.

The treatment Strathdee had fixed on as a last-ditch hope is almost never used in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration has not licensed phage therapy, keeping it out of pharmacies and hospitals. Few physicians have used it even experimentally, and most civilians have never heard of it. But phages are a natural phenomenon, frequently deployed in the former Soviet Union. When used properly, they can save lives.

Native Knowledge: What Ecologists Are Learning from Indigenous People (via Robert Macfarlane)

From Alaska to Australia, scientists are turning to the knowledge of traditional people for a deeper understanding of the natural world. What they are learning is helping them discover more about everything from melting Arctic ice, to protecting fish stocks, to controlling wildfires.

Also see: Watchers of the earth

Scientists are using forensic techniques to help save African gray parrots, among the most illegally trafficked birds in the world.

How North Korean hackers became the world’s greatest bank robbers

The Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s equivalent to the CIA, has trained up the world’s greatest bank-robbing crews. In just the past few years, RGB hackers have struck more than 100 banks and cryptocurrency exchanges around the world, pilfering more than $650 million. That we know of.

How the American Aircraft Carrier Became King of the Seas

From makeshift beginnings to the ultimate power projection platform.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New issues are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Paul 🌹📚 Cooper on Twitter

Thu, 24 May 2018 09:29:34 +0530

Paul 🌹📚 Cooper on Twitter:

This is a fascinating Twitter thread about the remote Altai region in Central Asia, where rocket debris rains down from Russian launches. The Altai region sits downrange from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the world’s oldest and busiest spaceport.

10 stories to read this weekend - Edition 228 - May 18, 2018

Fri, 18 May 2018 22:00:27 +0530

We Depend on Plastic. Now We’re Drowning in It.

Imagine five plastic grocery bags stuffed with plastic trash, Jambeck says, sitting on every foot of coastline around the world—that would correspond to about 8.8 million tons, her middle-of-the-road estimate of what the ocean gets from us annually. It’s unclear how long it will take for that plastic to completely biodegrade into its constituent molecules. Estimates range from 450 years to never.

Also See: Plastic Bag Found at the Bottom of the Mariana Trench

Explainer: Six ideas to limit global warming with solar geoengineering

From sending a giant mirror into space to spraying aerosols in the stratosphere, the range of proposed techniques all come with unique technical, ethical and political challenges.

The Jaguar Is Made for the Age of Humans

A writer comes face-to-face with the cat deep in the Amazon jungle and left with a new understanding of its surprising resilience to poaching and habitat loss.

How Useful Is Fear?

Evolution has installed phobias in humans that are proving hard to shake.

Behavioral economics from nuts to ‘nudges’

Story and the description below were found via The Browser

Nobel laureate Richard Thaler recounts the growth of behavioural economics, and his own work in the field building on the founding insights of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. “Random errors cancel out on average. But if errors are predictable, departures from rational choice models can also be predictable. This was a crucial insight. It implies that, at least in principle, it would be possible to improve the explanatory power of economics by adding psychological realism”

On David Foster Wallace, Georg Cantor, and Infinity

Broadly speaking, there are two versions of infinity. The woollier, more mystical one, which might be called metaphysical infinity, is associated with ideas like perfection, the absolute, and God. The more hardheaded version, mathematical infinity, is the one that Wallace set out to explicate.

The spectacular power of Big Lens

On 1 March, regulators in the EU and the US gave permission for the world’s largest optical companies to form a single corporation, which will be known as EssilorLuxottica. The new firm will not technically be a monopoly: Essilor currently has around 45% of the prescription lenses market, and Luxottica 25% of the frames. But in seven centuries of spectacles, there has never been anything like it. The new entity will be worth around $50bn (£37bn), sell close to a billion pairs of lenses and frames every year, and have a workforce of more than 140,000 people.

A Silver Thread: Islam in Eastern Europe

The world of Islamic Eastern Europe is an undiscovered continent. Exploring its history means spelunking in obscure journals and forgotten offprints. Even with a good research library at your back, it is a struggle. For literature, the situation is even worse. But there are treasures waiting for the enterprising translator.

The Pearl of Lao Tzu’s Twisted History

A tale of ancient philosophers, alien abductions, murder-for-hire—and how the world’s largest pearl came to be the centerpiece of an 80-year-old hoax

Barcelona star Lionel Messi manages to stay hidden despite his fame

Lionel Messi only seems like the least interesting man in the world. Listen closely and his silence speaks louder than most athletes’ shouts.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

10 stories to read this weekend - Edition 227 - May 11, 2018

Fri, 11 May 2018 22:00:24 +0530

When Mountains Fall into the Sea

As glaciers melt, unstable slopes are being exposed and are on the precipice of collapse.

California burning: life among the wildfires

People used to roll their eyes at my gloomy talk of climate change. Then the big blaze came.

How Posture Makes Us Human

The philosophy and science of standing up straight.

When Homer envisioned Achilles, did he see a black man?

The Greeks didn’t have modern ideas of race. Did they see themselves as white, black – or as something else altogether?

Palmyra

On this latest visit, I went into the town to find streets clogged with war detritus, water and sewage pipes crumbled and buildings collapsed with their innards exposed to the elements. Barely a hundred people out of an estimated pre-war population of 70,000 have returned

Sick building syndrome: is it the buildings or the people who need treatment?

In Finland, people whose sickness is linked to certain buildings fear being labelled as mentally ill, while scientists search for evidence that their condition is ‘real’.

How the Manhattan Project’s Nuclear Suburb Stayed Secret

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, once home to 75,000, went up fast and under the radar. But it was built to last, too.

The forgotten founder of ornithology

Elizabeth Yale relishes a biography of Francis Willughby, a seventeenth-century polymath with a gift for collaboration.

The Marathon World Record Holder the World Forgot

Two weeks after Kathrine Switzer made headlines at Boston in 1967, 13-year-old Maureen Mancuso quietly shattered the women’s world record. Few people noticed.

The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code

Bill Benter did the impossible: He wrote an algorithm that couldn’t lose at the track. Close to a billion dollars later, he tells his story for the first time.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

10 stories to read this weekend - Edition 226 - May 4, 2018

Fri, 04 May 2018 22:00:08 +0530

Alzheimer’s disease: Following a couple from diagnosis to the final stages (via Nature Briefing)

For 10 years, Dr. Jon LaPook has been checking in on Carol Daly, a woman diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and her caregiver husband, Mike. After a decade, the disease has had a devastating impact on each of them

Why do the temperamentally blessed sail through life’s storms?

Just one in five people will be lucky enough to avoid mental health problems throughout their life. How do they do it?

Who Keeps Track of All the Craters on the Moon?

For generations, women have been critical to bringing order to the chaos of the solar system.

How Dyson Saw Feynman

Nine letters by Freeman Dyson portray his relationship with the Nobel Laureate.

How Picasso’s Journey From Prodigy to Icon Revealed a Genius

Intense, provocative, disturbing, and captivating, the legendary artist led a life of restless brilliance.

Bombers and Pterosaurs Were Both Before Their Time

The evolution of B-2s and lizards.

The Puzzles and Pitfalls of Reconstructing the Largest Ever Land Mammal

Piecing together a giant prehistoric rhinoceros is as hard as it looks.

Explorers Journey Into Africa’s Okavango Delta

A multinational team of conservationists spent a grueling, transcendent four months on a 1,500-mile expedition to save the Okavango Delta—but the mission’s just beginning.

What Refugees Face on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route

A doctor on a boat that rescued hundreds of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea recounts how these trips are becoming more dangerous for NGOs and refugees.

Copenhagen Architect Jan Gehl Takes on Smart Cities

Architect and planner Jan Gehl looks back on how he helped transform Copenhagen into one of the world’s most livable cities and talks about how people can reclaim the streets.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Inside a Lost African Tribe Still Living in India Today

Thu, 03 May 2018 10:10:31 +0530

Inside a Lost African Tribe Still Living in India Today:

A sad but important look at the Siddi people in India.

You can also watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/B_a1WS5ncDk

Note: The narrator is speaking in Kannada, which is my mother tongue.

10 stories to read this weekend - Edition 225 - April 27, 2018

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 22:00:30 +0530

How to blow up a star

Supernova simulations are resolving a 50-year-old mystery about stellar death throes.

Can Dirt Save the Earth?

Agriculture could pull carbon out of the air and into the soil — but it would mean a whole new way of thinking about how to tend the land.

The Unlikely Upside of Cape Town’s Drought

Surprising, even beautiful things can happen when it feels as if the world is about to end.

How DNA Transfer Framed Lukis Anderson for Murder (via The Browser)

We leave traces of our genetic material everywhere, even on things we’ve never touched. That got Lukis Anderson charged with a brutal crime he didn’t commit.

Pasta Is Good For You, Say Scientists Funded By Big Pasta

Facing pressure from the low-carb movement, Barilla and other companies are funding and promoting research that argues pasta is healthy.

Mas Subramanian’s Quest for a Billion-Dollar Red

The world has never had truly safe, stable, and bright pigment. The trail may start with YInMn, the first blue created in two centuries

In Search of the Vanished Destination

The Bering Sea is one of the deadliest places on the planet. But for the fishermen who harvest crab there every winter, their work had steadily been getting safer—they hadn’t lost a boat in a decade. That all changed on February 11, 2017, when the 110-foot Destination disappeared off the coast of Alaska with its six-man crew.

How China Is Buying Its Way Into Europe

The continent saw roughly 45 percent more China-related activity than the U.S. during this period, in dollar terms, according to available data.
The volume and nature of some of these investments, from critical infrastructure in eastern and southern Europe to high-tech companies in the west, have raised a red flag at the European Union level

The Avengers: How Joss Whedon & Marvel Made the Battle of New York

Joss Whedon, Kevin Feige, and other creatives weigh in on how they pulled off the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s defining moment.

Floyd Landis: The Man Who Brought Down Lance Armstrong

Floyd Landis, a former teammate of the cyclist’s, just won more than $1 million in a legal case against Armstrong. Here are his thoughts on the suit, cycling, and his onetime rival.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

10 stories to read this weekend - Edition 224 - April 20, 2018

Fri, 20 Apr 2018 22:00:06 +0530

The Hunt for Wonder Drugs at the North Pole

In a race against antibiotic resistance, a Norwegian research team sails into the Arctic darkness.

How a cocktail of live viruses can work when antibiotics fail

When antibiotics fail, could phage therapy succeed? The germ’s-eye view of infection might open up revolutionary treatments

How the sufferings of one generation are passed on to the next

War, famine and persecution inflict profound changes on bodies and brains. Could these changes persist over generations?

What can we learn when a clinical trial is stopped?

An early halt to a trial of deep brain stimulation for depression reveals little about the treatment but more about the changing nature of clinical trials.

The Bloody Toll of Congo’s Elephant Wars (via Digg)

In Garamba National Park, in Democratic Republic of Congo, 13 park rangers have been killed in the past three years, and 256 elephants have been taken for their tusks—and these days, the poachers often arrive in uniform, with an arsenal of weapons to match.

The Spinal Tap That Changed My Life

After a spinal tap led to a cerebrospinal leak, my life of travel and food changed overnight. To mark ten years of long term travel, I wanted to share what really happened after the lumbar puncture, and during the craziness of these last seven months trying to fix the leak.

How to get rich quick in Silicon Valley

Corey Pein took his half-baked startup idea to America’s hottest billionaire factory – and found a wasteland of techie hustlers and con men

The murder that shook Iceland

In a country with one of the lowest murder rates in the world, the killing of a 20-year-old woman upended the nation’s sense of itself

Stan Lee Needs a Hero: Elder Abuse Claims and a Battle Over the Aging Marvel Creator

At Marvel in New York in the ‘60s, he created the comic book characters that dominate the box office today. But at 95 and reeling from his wife’s death and a fight with his daughter, Lee stands at the center of a nasty battle for his care (and estate) as one friend pleads for help: “He’s in need of a superhero himself.”

James Harden Isn’t Playing Around

The outrageous blossoming of the NBA’s most exciting player.

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

10 stories to read this weekend - Edition 223 - April 13, 2018

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 22:00:22 +0530

How gravitational waves could solve some of the Universe’s deepest mysteries

With the first detections behind them, researchers have set their sights on ambitious scientific quarry.

Your Body Is a Teeming Battleground

It’s time to rethink the quest to control aging, death, and disease—and the fear of mortality that fuels it.

I’m a Neuroscientist Who Studies Mental Illness. Here’s What Happened When I Lost My Own Mind. (via Digg)

I’ve studied mental illness my entire career. Yet when I began my descent into the very same sort of madness that I’d researched, I had no idea what was happening. This is the story of my journey into insanity—and back.

Rescue on the Killer Mountain

When two climbers were stranded near the summit of Nanga Parbat last winter, they sent out a desperate call on their satellite device. A hundred miles away, a Polish team of extraordinary climbers answered the call, prompting one of the most daring rescues in mountaineering history.

Chasing the Man Who Caught the Storm: An Interview With Brantley Hargrove

Samaras was a tornado chaser with a simple but absurdly treacherous goal: to get close enough to a twister to glean data from within its core. Hargrove, who spent months on the road chasing tornadoes for the reporting of the book, retraces and recreates Samaras’ most dramatic missions, culminating on May 31, 2014 in El Reno, Oklahoma, where he would face off with the largest tornado ever recorded. That same tornado would take Samaras’ life along with those of his son, Paul, and fellow chaser Carl Young.

The Boat at the Bottom of the Sea (via Digg)

More than a year after a Seattle-based crabber vanished in Alaska’s Bering Sea, its final hours remain a mystery. The surviving family of the Destination’s crew—and one intrepid investigator—seek to uncover the secrets the ocean still keeps.

The dizzying story of Symphony of the Seas, the largest and most ambitious cruise ship ever built (via NextDraft)

This is the inside story of how cruise ships went from pensioners’ pastime to floating cities engaged in an all-out entertainment arms race

As Innocuous as Plant No. 1

William Vollman enters the radioactive red zone to visit the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Life Inside China’s Social Credit Laboratory

The party’s massive experiment in ranking and monitoring Chinese citizens has already started.

The World’s Emptiest Airport Is a Red Flag (via @DamnInteresting)

In a remote corner of Sri Lanka, China built billions of dollars of high-end infrastructure that now sits virtually abandoned. Was that the plan all along?

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Take a virtual tour of the Moon in all-new 4K resolution, thanks...

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 11:30:52 +0530

Take a virtual tour of the Moon in all-new 4K resolution, thanks to data provided by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. As the visualization moves around the near side, far side, north and south poles, we highlight interesting features, sites, and information gathered on the lunar terrain.

10 stories to read this weekend - Edition 222 - April 6, 2018

Fri, 06 Apr 2018 22:00:24 +0530

New evidence about the human occupation of Asia is cascading in

New evidence about the ancient humans who occupied Asia is cascading in: the story of our species needs rewriting again

How We, The Indians, Came to Be

A breath-taking new study, with some of the most well-regarded names in population genetics, archaeology and anthropology as authors, unpeels the layers of our pre-history concerning the Indus Valley, Vedic Aryans and Dravidian languages.

When the Heavens Stopped Being Perfect

The advent of the telescope punctured our ideals about the nighttime sky.

What makes a tree a tree? (via Kottke.org)

Despite numerous studies and 30-plus genomes under their belts, scientists are still struggling to nail down the defining traits of these tall, long-lived, woody plants

How science fiction feeds the fuel solutions of the future

Fantasies about new power sources for human ambitions go back a century or more. Could these past visions energise our own future?

How to survive climate change: a lesson from Hurricane Maria

The rest of the world can learn from Puerto Rican communities rallying together to recover from a natural disaster fuelled by climate change.

A People in Limbo, Many Living Entirely on the Water

Floating villages spread across the surface of the Mekong River’s waterways, playing host to ethnic Vietnamese whose status in Cambodian society is perpetually adrift.

The ISIS Files: When Terrorists Run City Hall

We unearthed thousands of internal documents that help explain how the Islamic State stayed in power so long.

Why good people turn bad online

Meet the scientists finding out how we can defeat our inner trolls and build more cooperative digital societies.

How a Young Woman Lost Her Identity

Hannah Upp disappears for weeks at a time, forgetting her sense of self. Can she still be found?

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

10 stories to read this weekend - Edition 221 - March 30, 2018

Fri, 30 Mar 2018 22:00:14 +0530

How human embryonic stem cells sparked a revolution

After 20 years of hope, promise and controversy, human embryonic stem cells are reshaping biological concepts and starting to move into the clinic.

Divided by DNA: The uneasy relationship between archaeology and ancient genomics

Two fields in the midst of a technological revolution are struggling to reconcile their views of the past.

Meet Vaclav Smil, the man who has quietly shaped how the world thinks about energy

Through dozens of books, Vaclav Smil has helped shape how people think about the past and future of energy.

The World’s Water Crisis Explained

Many more cities than Cape Town face an uncertain future over water. But there are emerging solutions.

Nathalie Cabrol Searches the Earth for the Secrets of Life on Mars

In some of the world’s most extreme and dangerous environments she hunts for organisms that live in conditions like those on the red planet.

Why He Kayaked Across the Atlantic at 70 (for the Third Time)

For Aleksander Doba, pitting himself against the wide-open sea — storms, sunstroke, monotony, hunger and loneliness — is a way to feel alive in old age.

The World’s Best Hitchhiker on the Secrets of His Success

People generally believe hitching takes no particular know-how, but it takes a tremendous amount of skill to travel quickly, safely and in the right direction like Juan Villarino.

Also see: Tragically Lost in Joshua Tree’s Wild Interior

Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women

Lonely seniors are shoplifting in search of the community and stability of jail.

Masha Gessen: Inside the Gulags of the Soviet Union

The Gulag was not a single entity—there were dozens of them: the Gulag of Timber Production, the Gulag of Railroad Construction, and the like. The Gulags contained camp directorates, which in turn contained multiple lagpunkts—“camp units”—the individual camps that made up the archipelago. But the camp itself was a vanishing act: It was created for a specific task—a construction project, a dig, a mine—and when the job was completed, when the tower was built, when the canal was dug, when the mine was depleted, when the forest was decimated—the camp disappeared, often without a trace.

The last whalers: commuting from the North Sea to Antarctica

Men from the Shetland Islands worked the whaling expeditions to the Antarctic. Until the whales were gone

Note: “10 stories to read this weekend” is a weekly feature of this blog. New editions are published every Friday at 22:00 IST / 16:30 GMT

Transsiberian Dream - 7.923 km from Beijing to Moscow The...

Sun, 25 Mar 2018 14:50:10 +0530

Transsiberian Dream - 7.923 km from Beijing to Moscow

The Trans-Siberian Railway, another dream come true! The world’s longest railway line starts from Moscow and runs 9,288 kilometers through seven time zones to Vladivostok. In May 2017 I was able to document this unique 16-day trip aboard the legendary Zarengold train together with my colleague Christopher Schmid. We traveled the route in the opposite direction and deviated a little from the original route (Trans-Mongolian Railway). Our journey took us along 7,923 km (nearly 5,000 miles) of rail from Beijing via Erlian, through the Gobi desert to Ulaanbaatar, on to Ulan-Ude, along Lake Baikal to Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Kazan and finally to Moscow. From the rickshaw ride through Beijing, a night in a Mongolian yurt, a bath in the five degrees Celsius cold Lake Baikal and the legendary vodka tasting aboard the Zarengold train - I sum up the highlights in my new short “TRANSSIBERIAN DREAM”. All aboard!