A World Without Clouds

Global warming is disastrous, global warming without (or at least with far fewer) clouds would be much worse. Natalie Wolchover speaks to scientists who are studying periods of cloudless warming in the Earth’s past, and simulating what a future where the clouds were to vanish once again would be like.

Source: Quanta Magazine
Published: Feb 25, 2019

Hope Rekindled for Perplexing Proof

Did a solitary mathematician solve a famous conjecture?

Source: Quanta Magazine
Published: Dec 21, 2015
Length: 9 minutes (2,497 words)

The New Science of Evolutionary Forecasting

Scientists may not be able to predict what the world may look like 100 million years from now, but they may be able to look at how diseases like the flu will evolve in a few months, which has the potential to save lives: “Lässig hopes to be able to make predictions about future flu seasons that the World Health Organization could consult as they decide which strains should be included in flu vaccines. ‘It’s just a question of a few years,’ he said.”

Source: Quanta Magazine
Published: Jul 17, 2014
Length: 21 minutes (5,407 words)