Category Today I Learned (TIL)

health, fitness, medicine, environment, ecology, how to learn tricky topics in science and math, new discoveries, news, current events

Breakthrough in Quantum Computing

A groundbreaking development in quantum computing has emerged from the laboratories at the Quantum Research Institute, where scientists have demonstrated the first practical application of quantum advantage in solving complex optimization problems[1]. This achievement marks a pivotal moment in the…

Friendly Fires

As climate change gets worse, more and more reports of disastrous forest fires have been hitting the news. But not all fires in the woods are bad—some of them can actually be instrumental in keeping an ecosystem healthy! Fire ecology…

Lie Detector Pseudoscience: Why Polygraphs Fail

How often have you heard a mention of a machine called a “lie detector?” According to pop culture, members of law enforcement organizations, and even the U.S. government, a polygraph or lie detector is a machine that records certain vital…

origami jellyfish

Origami & Bio-inspired Design

You’ve probably seen pictures of origami before, or even folded some yourself! Origami is an ancient art form that originated in China in the 2nd century AD. It made its way to Japan around the 6th century, where it became…

Daguerreo-what? The Chemistry Behind Early Photography!

Before smartphones and DSLRs were everywhere, photography was a physical, hands-on process. I’ll give you a quick overview of the chemistry behind the first type of photograph, the daguerreotype! Daguerreotypes were invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in France in 1839. They…