Mark Draper
3,815 Added | 4 Magazines | 26 Following | 42,142 Followers | @drapermk | Based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Two Conjectures Collide, Endangering the Naked Singularity
Physicists have wondered for decades whether infinitely dense points known as singularities can ever exist outside black holes, which would expose …
PhysicsYour Connected Devices Are Screwing Up Astronomy
By now, “Here Are Some Stupid Things on the Internet of Things” has become a full-on article genre. There’s even a Tumblr dedicated to the idea: “We …
Internet of ThingsPhysicists find new particle with a double dose of charm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have found an extra charming new subatomic particle that they hope will help further explain a key force that binds matter together.<p>Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe announced Thursday the fleeting discovery of a long theorized but never-before-seen type …
Large Hadron ColliderThe Universe Itself May Be Unnatural
When it comes to the physical Universe, we fully expect things obeying the same fundamental laws to unfold in similar fashions, and to be comparable to one another today. By the same token, if they obey vastly different rules, we expect them to be different from one another today. If aspects of the …
Space ScienceMiniscule Measurements Over 12 Years Confirm The Existence Of Orbiting Black Holes
In a ground-breaking study over ten years in the making, scientists have observed two supermassive black holes orbiting each other hundreds of millions of light years from Earth.<p>“For a long time, we’ve been looking into space to try and find a pair of these supermassive black holes orbiting as a …
AstrophysicsAre US Reimbursement Trends Stifling Medical Device Innovation?
The increasing clout of hospital General Purchasing Organizations (GPOs), insurers and other large payors in US medical device purchasing and …
Life SciencesLow Health Bills Slow Economy
Teasing out the link between moderation in health spending and subpar economic growth is a daunting but important task that could have a big and unpredictable impact on the American economy in the years and decades ahead.<p>On the one hand, the growth in health spending, which has been gobbling up a …
Health CareThe Quasar Main Sequence - Sky & Telescope
<b>A new diagram suggests two physical properties — how efficiently the black hole feeds and the system's orientation — lie behind quasars' …
Distant Black Hole’s Spin Clocked - Sky & Telescope
<b>A new measurement could be the farthest back in time astronomers have ever reached when measuring a black hole’s spin.</b><p>The quasar Q2237+0305 is split …
Astronomers Happen Upon The Most Distant Lensing Galaxy Ever Discovered
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spotted an elliptical galaxy 9.6-billion light years from Earth that is so colossal, its gravity …
The Bare Truth About Hospitals, And Why It's Time For A Revolution
Going to a hospital for patient care has become almost more painful than an ailment itself. Hospitals—whether wittingly or not—are very militaristic with their uniforms, processes galore, hierarchy and power struggles—the unfortunate byproduct of being raised in a world that subscribes to the …
Health CareGreat Discoveries Channel
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is set to make its first dive through the narrow gap between Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017. Because that gap is a …
In 2012, the Earth Dodged a Solar Bullet
In July 2012 the Earth dodged a bullet. Or more accurately, the bullet was misaimed. But had it hit, we’d have been in big trouble.<p>Phil Plait writes</b> …
Fermi Finds 'Transformer' Pulsar
For the first time, scientists have watched a pulsar transition from a low-energy system to a high one.
The Black Hole That Birthed the Big Bang
In his Allegory of the Cave, the Greek philosopher Plato described prisoners who have spent their entire lives chained to the wall of a dark cavern. …
Milky Way is about half as massive as Andromeda galaxy, say astronomers
Dark matter makes up 90% of the matter in both systems, the study finds.<p>Our Milky Way galaxy is less massive than astronomers previously thought, …
Collider Reveals First Glimpse of Higgs Boson at Work
An extremely rare collision of massive subatomic particles could reveal the nuts and bolts of how the subatomic particles called Higgs bosons impart mass to other particles.<p>The Higgs boson particle, which was detected for the first time in 2012, is essentially tossed around like a ball between two …
Any Insurer Angst On Obamacare Subsidies May Emerge This Week
If there is any anxiety from the health insurance industry in regard to the potential for certain Americans who signed up for medical coverage on the federally-run exchange to lose coverage, it could emerge later this week.<p>A parade of publicly-traded health insurance companies are expected to …
Health CareThe 5 Massive New Telescopes That Will Change Astronomy Forever
The biggest building boom in the history of astronomy is upon us. In Chile and Hawaii and in space, astronomers are getting powerful telescopes that …
Why Do Other Rich Nations Spend So Much Less on Healthcare?
The U.S. delivers roughly three times as many mammograms, two-and-a-half times as many MRI scans, and a third more C-sections per capita than the average OECD country.<p>Despite the news last week that America's healthcare spending will not be rising at the sky-high rate that was once predicted, the …
What If Healthcare Spending Doesn't Destroy America?
The politics of health and the psychology of planning for the future<p>One of my favorite lessons from Daniel Gilbert, the Harvard psychologist, is that the future is rarely as hellish or as heavenly as we imagine it to be. It's not an argument for ignoring future realities—savings are still crucial, …
America's Most Generous Companies
What is the most generous company in the United States? According to a new survey by <i>The Chronicle of Philanthropy</i>, New York-based aluminum giant Alcoa (together with its foundation) gave away the highest percentage of its profits, 12.1%, in 2013. In raw dollars, Alcoa’s $39 million in donations …
Alcoa