Guest Thinkers — October 6, 2011

ALMA Telescope Shows First Pictures of Deep Space

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The world’s most expensive and complex ground-based telescope Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has just offered its unique views of deep space, including images of two galaxies colliding, here:

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Starts With A Bang

Most planets in the Universe are orphans without parent stars

Known as orphaned planets, rogue planets, or planets without parent stars, these “outliers” might be the most common type of planet overall.

The letters "AI" appear with a glitch effect in multicolored pixels against a black background.

The Present

AI skeptic Gary Marcus on AI’s moral and technical shortcomings

The cognitive scientist argues the current AI environment is failing us as consumers and a society. But it’s not too late to change course.

Starts With A Bang

The 16 stories that shaped physics and astronomy in 2024

There was a lot of hype and a lot of nonsense, but also some profoundly major advances. Here are the biggest ones you may have missed.

Wind turbines on grassy hills under a clear blue sky.

The Future

Should we turn the electricity grid over to AI?

And can we run the grid of the future without AI?

A close-up of the quantum AI processor labeled "Willow" rests on a textured metallic surface, hinting at the mysteries of quantum computation and whispers of parallel universes.

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Does quantum computation occur in parallel universes?

By improving quantum error correction, quantum computations are now faster than ever. But parallel universes? That’s utter nonsense here.

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Guest Thinkers

Beyond Columbus the Hero, the Slave Driver, or the Bumbling Idiot

In his new book, 1493, Charles Mann gives us a rich, nuanced account of how the Columbian Exchange continues to reunite the continents and globalize the world.