Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Gizmodo
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by Ryan:
What We Will Never Know
Science and technology have evolved, but some things may always be beyond human knowledge. → Read More
New Shazam for Birds Will Identify That Chirping for You
I tested Merlin Bird ID's new machine-learning powered Sound ID tool and was impressed by its accuracy. → Read More
Young Physicists Are Shaping the Next Generation of Discoveries
Early career scientists like Jessica Esquivel are driving innovations at major experiments like Muon G-2. → Read More
Physics Mystery Gets Even Deeper After Long-Awaited Muon Reveal
Inside a locked cabinet, an envelope held a number that was poised to rock the physics community, regardless of its contents. On a recent video call, 170 scientists gathered to watch the envelop opening. → Read More
How to Jellify Your Favorite Beverages
I wish I had a noble reason for lying in bed and sampling jellified beer from a cocktail glass on a Friday morning—but the actual explanation is, well, anime. Anime has served as my and my spouse’s pandemic hobby, and we have watched at least two dozen series in the past year. We recently finished The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., a show about an all-powerful high school psychic desperately… → Read More
Developing Algorithms That Might One Day Be Used Against You
Brian Nord is building a coalition of physicists and computer scientists to fight for more oversight in AI algorithm development. → Read More
The Physics of Tenet Is Shaky, but It Still Kicks Ass
“Don’t try to understand it,” a scientist tells the protagonist of Tenet, as she briefly explains the physics of Christopher Nolan’s $205-million, time-traveling spy thriller. Sure, the physics is often unrealistic and confusing, but it’s fascinating. And with its many Easter eggs, Tenet sets up some nice jumping-off points for Wikipedia rabbit holes. (Sator square? T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow… → Read More
John James Audubon Was Never Good
The most famous name in American ornithology is that of a slave owner, grave robber, and fraud who invented birds and falsified scientific results. Birders and ornithologists are grappling with John James Audubon’s legacy today, but problematic behavior doesn’t stop at a single 19th-century naturalist. Some in the field are considering a complete rethinking of which naturalists we idolize with… → Read More
Extremely Sensitive Dark Matter Experiment Detects Something Weird
A mysterious signal has appeared in an extremely sensitive dark matter-hunting experiment. And after more than a year of trying to convince themselves that they were looking at noise, scientists think they might have found something new. → Read More
Neutrinos: Why the U.S. Is Betting It All on the Most Puzzling Particle in the Universe
Nearly 14 billion years ago, a universe appeared in an unthinkably high-energy blast. Particles started to materialize out of that energy, as did their antiparticles, which are kind of like evil twins, a mirror image with the opposite electric charge. Each and every particle had an antiparticle, scientists believe, and they would annihilate each other in a pop of energy. Most particles met their… → Read More
Look at These Cool Birds I've Seen
A few years ago, I stopped being afraid of birds and realized that, actually, I really liked them. It just clicked one day. It’s cool that there are so many that I can see relatively close to my house, they make for challenging photo subjects, and, in general, I love any subject that provides a large number of random facts to memorize (and later dispense). → Read More
Researchers Accidentally Got High on Laughing Gas From Penguin Poop
When studying penguins, there’s a surprise you’ve gotta watch out for: the laughing gas produced by their poop. → Read More
How Do We Know the Nukes Still Work?
Scientists at U.S. National Laboratories are still testing nuclear weapons among the mountains, desert, and chaparral of the American West. High-tech machinery and warehouses stocked with supercomputer processors take data on warheads and explosions—yes, there are still explosions, which crack like rifle fire on schedule in the distance. → Read More
5 Things That Could Be Making the Spooky Sounds in My House
Like many people, I live in an apartment. I don’t really know how old my building is, but it must be kind of old: it has a dark and dirty basement, the ceiling has cracks in it, and there are a few exposed metal pipes. As you can probably imagine, my old apartment makes a lot of really spooky noises. → Read More
Cold War Nuclear Testing May Have Caused Extra Rain Around the World
A new study has found that nuclear radiation during Cold War-era weapons testing could have induced significant short-term changes in the amount of rainfall far across the globe.. → Read More
Hunk of Chinese Rocket Falls to Earth as Uncontrolled Space Debris
A large, out-of-control piece of space debris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean yesterday, passing over much of the United States. → Read More
This Philosopher Is Challenging All of Evolutionary Psychology
It’s not often that a paper that attempts to take down an entire field. Yet, this past January, that’s precisely what University of New Hampshire assistant philosophy professor Subrena Smith’s paper tried to do. “Is Evolutionary Psychology Possible?” describes a core problem with evolutionary psychology, called the matching problem. → Read More
Lava Lake Is Now Water Lake Atop Kilauea Volcano
Satellite images have captured the result of a lake of lava collapsing on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, revealing an enormous new lake of water. → Read More
These Physicists Cannot Rest Until They Understand the Motions of Drunk Worms
You wake up, slightly intoxicated as tap water rinses over your body. You don’t remember why you’re here, but you’re joined by hundreds of fellow sludge worms, wriggling slowly. You start to remember: The temperature changed. The water filled with alcohol. And then the spinning begins again. → Read More
How to Cook a 'Murder Hornet'
This week, the New York Times introduced many of us to the “murder hornet,” more accurately known as the Asian giant hornet. But a small subset of us were already familiar with this bug, because we’d eaten it. → Read More