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Insights puzzle

Illustration: black, numbered cats crossing a calendar. An extra "13" lurks in the background.
Insights puzzle

Is It Friday the 13th Again?

By Pradeep Mutalik
April 6, 2017
Read Later

How our society defines years, months and weeks can seem frustratingly arbitrary. Can you bring order to our unruly calendar?

Still illustration: changing genes
Insights puzzle

Solution: ‘A Ticking Evolutionary Clock’

By Pradeep Mutalik
April 3, 2017
Read Later

How to calculate when a gene’s rate of evolution will slow to a crawl.

GIF illustration: changing genes
Insights puzzle

A Ticking Evolutionary Clock

By Pradeep Mutalik
March 16, 2017
Read Later

How quickly will a gene’s rate of evolution slow to a crawl?

Illustration: balloon modelling as a metaphor for entanglement
Insights puzzle

Solution: ‘Taming Quantum Weirdness’

By Pradeep Mutalik
March 10, 2017
Read Later

A simple analogue could offer insights into one of the most astonishing results of quantum mechanics.

Illustration: balloon modelling as a metaphor for entanglement
Insights puzzle

How to Tame Quantum Weirdness

By Pradeep Mutalik
February 16, 2017
Read Later

Can balloon animals help blunt uneasy feelings about “spooky action at a distance”?

Illustration: bucket half-full of amoebas.
Insights puzzle

Solution: ‘How Many Half-Lives?’

By Pradeep Mutalik
January 27, 2017
Read Later

When do negative results from a half-life experiment mean a theory is dead?

Illustration: bucket half-full of amoebas.
Insights puzzle

How Many Half-Lives Do You Have?

By Pradeep Mutalik
January 12, 2017
Read Later

Gaining an intuition about half-life requires some unintuitive thinking.

Insights puzzle

Solution: ‘Hanging Far Out Over the Edge’

By Pradeep Mutalik
December 2, 2016
Read Later

A simple and elegant way to stack identical flat objects so that they project over an edge as far as possible.

Insights puzzle

How to Hang Far Out Over the Edge

By Pradeep Mutalik
November 17, 2016
Read Later

What formula describes the farthest you can stack flat blocks over the edge of a table to form a seemingly gravity-defying half-bridge to nowhere?


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