Induced side-channel leakage, social proximity affects homeostasis, improved plywood adhesive formulation, octopus-inspired high-DOF actuator, and a sugar-alcohol thermal battery
Ideas and Innovations Newsletter – 202609.19
Clues on 3I/Atlas's formation environment, Rocket Lab challenges Blue Origin for Mars infrastructure, science says reading is good for you, special spin feature, taking T. Rex's temperature, and 3D printing with sound
Types of Stories
Storytelling theory has potential as another tool in the writer’s toolbox, and it was with that mindset that I became intrigued by a 2016 paper purporting to identify six basic emotional arcs which all stories share.
Artificial Intelligence in Storytelling
The paper examines the comparative creativity of stories written by people who did not use AI, or who had access to AI.
Information about Misinformation on Disinformation
While the terms are often conflated, misinformation and disinformation are not equivalent, and efforts both to study and address them should take care of that distinction.
Tuning the Universe
Are we a mere accident, the chance result of comingling molecules in a primordial soup, brought into consciousness by a fluke of probability inevitable in an infinite universe? Are we a necessary extension of ever-increasing entropy, biological machines evolved to accelerate and further entropy’s conquest of order? Are we, rather, divinely created, the protagonists for which this setting was formed?
Linguistic Reference Frames
I came across a paper in Science Advances called "Different reference frames on different axes: Space and language in indigenous Amazonians."
Triboelectric Nanogenerators
Learning about these in a recent paper is part of why I keep reading scientific papers - because every now and then, you come across one that informs you of a technology that might just change the world.
Society’s Origins
When I unearth an article that I can make applicable to writing and storytelling, I have no compulsions against sharing it with you. This week, that’s a paper from Science Advances on how societies initially arose: “Disentangling the Evolutionary Drivers of Social Complexity: A Comprehensive Test of Hypotheses.”
New Carbon Nanotube Technology
The research paper is “Versatile acid solvents for pristine carbon nanotube assembly,” and it describes a new acid solvent system that does not feature the extremely challenging types of acids traditionally used in carbon nanotube production.
