She Blinded Me With...

Our Top Five Science Pieces of 2023.

1. Science Enters the Mysterious Inner World of Consciousness

PHILLIP GOFF

Explaining how something as complex as consciousness can emerge from a grey, jelly-like lump of tissue in the head is arguably the greatest scientific challenge of our time. The brain is an extraordinarily complex organ, consisting of almost 100 billion cells – known as neurons – each connected to 10,000 others, yielding some ten trillion nerve connections.

Read the whole article here.

2. Max Planck and The Mind Behind All Matter

JOSHUA M. MORITZ

When Max Planck entered the University of Munich in 1875 for his doctoral studies in physics, he was warned by Professor Philipp von Jolly that his chosen subject was more or less finished and that nothing new could be expected to be discovered. Physics was almost complete, and only a few odds and ends remained to be tidied up. Planck, an extremely modest man with no interest in fame or worldly ambition, told Jolly that he "had no wish to make discoveries, but only to understand and perhaps to deepen the foundations already set." Planck would indeed come to deepen our understanding of physics, but in so doing, he would also begin a revolution in science that would shake the very bedrock of the foundations upon which physics is built.

Read the whole article here.

3. Just a Coincidence?

LALEH QUINN

In Jung’s seminal work, “Synchronicity,” he argues for a fourth organizing principle—alongside space, time, and causality—at work in the universe. As Jung experienced himself, there are some events experienced by humanity that cannot be explained on the basis of the first three principles, and thus there must be a fourth. This fourth is what Jung referred to as “synchronicity.” He defined it as an “acausal” principle, in that it did not seem to be governed by causation as normally defined within the standard scientific model.

Read the whole piece here.

4. A Monk In the Garden of Genetics

JOSHUA M. MORITZ

In the entire history of science, there is only one known instance where the creation of an entirely new branch of science sprang forth, fully formed from the mind of one man. This instance is the science of genetics, which owes its origin to one man, Gregor Johann Mendel, who expounded its basic principles at a monastery in Brunn on 8 February and 8 March of 1865.

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5. Are Human Feet Poorly Designed?

ADAM JACOBS

I have spent precious little time contemplating my feet. I’m flatfooted so I don’t love walking around without shoes, and I rub them from time to time when they get sore, but besides that, they’re very low on my daily list of priorities. Like many things in our lives that work so efficiently (until they break), we are hardly aware of them. But I have recently learned that the design of this critical body part is a mechanical wonder that combines strength, flexibility, and durability—all in a very small space. My feet, I hardly knew you!

Read the whole piece here.