2026-10-23 -- control

#1 · news-in-context Jul 8, 2026

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a monthly 'jobs report' that tracks the unemployment rate, the number of Americans currently on payroll, and more.

Typically released on the first Friday of every month, the jobs report is calculated using two surveys.

The household survey calculates the unemployment rate, and the establishment survey details jobs lost and added each month.
The report has major implications for the economy at large, often moving financial markets.

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#2 · explainers Jun 18, 2026

Ebola virus, with an average fatality rate above 50%, has been responsible for at least 250 confirmed deaths during the 2026 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

Symptoms of Ebola infection begin with fever and fatigue, but quickly develop into severe vomiting, diarrhea, and internal and external bleeding.

The virus hijacks the human immune system to make replicas of itself and evade its defenses.
As the Ebola virus uses a host's cellular machinery to spread, the immune system may eventually trigger a cytokine storm, a defense mechanism in which the body rapidly releases too many cytokines—specialized proteins—into the bloodstream, causing massive inflammation and further damage.

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#3 · longform May 29, 2026

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

Frontline traced how the outbreak started and spread across West Africa. documenting first-hand accounts and patient experiences.

This Ebola outbreak was the deadliest to date, resulting in over 11,000 deaths.

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#4 · explainers Feb 14, 2025

The complicated use of rap lyrics as legal evidence

Rap artists are known for their vivid imagery, which can sometimes include gruesome acts of violence. That style has led to legal trouble for some artists (including popular acts like Young Thug) when songs are admitted as evidence in court cases. This legal analysis breaks down a history of the trend and explains why people are trying to stop it.

itk Rapper Eminem's former employee pleads guilty to copyright infringement charge for stealin sibling · sim 0.41 · keep 0.40 · score -2

#5 · curiosity Mar 24, 2026

How one trial tested the limits of satirical music

The rapper Afroman, who earned jokey hits in the '90s with songs like "Because I Got High," was taken into court by police officers by police officers in Adams County, Ohio, who alleged that he'd defamed them in his songs. The music in question was recorded after those officers raided his house and satirized the situation, often in graphic terms. The rapper beat the case, but not before his satirical songs were analyzed in court.

itk Rapper Eminem's former employee pleads guilty to copyright infringement charge for stealin sibling · sim 0.41 · keep 0.24 · score -1

#6 · curiosity Aug 21, 2026

In 2026, researchers successfully transported antimatter in a truck using a portable trap that employed electromagnetic fields to hold 92 antiprotons.

Because antimatter annihilates when making contact with its normal matter counterpart, scientists from CERN's BASE experiment, who had previously contained antiprotons in place for over a year, designed a device that included a superconducting magnet, liquid helium cryogenic cooling, power reserves, and a vacuum chamber to prevent the antimatter from interacting with anything while in transport.

The successful transport of antimatter opens the door to future collaborations by enabling its delivery to partner laboratories, where experiments can be conducted with greater sensitivity.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci sibling · sim 0.60 · keep 0.09 · score -1

#7 · experiences May 29, 2026

Microsoft has integrated AI across its software products with Copilot

It utilizes an underlying model from OpenAI—makers of ChatGPT—to assist users in creating documents, writing code, locating files, and more across Windows, Microsoft 365, Bing search and WhatsApp on desktop and mobile devices. Copilot Voice and Vision offer accessibility features for users who prefer not to use mouse/keyboard navigation.

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#8 · curiosity Oct 15, 2026

Vincent Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night' accurately depicts turbulent flow

Analysis of the swirling patterns in the painting found an alignment with the mathematics used to describe turbulence, despite Van Gogh's unfamiliarity with the science. The depiction may indicate he possessed an uncanny ability to capture nature's details.

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#9 · curiosity Apr 1, 2026

Scientists used mass spectrometry to determine the materials in a 1690 painting

Previously used to map the distribution of molecules on biological tissue samples, researchers combined the technique with machine learning to uncover six layers of pigments, binders, and a thin gold leaf layer within *The Marriage of the Virgin*, from a collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The technique may help identify and track artists' material use to learn about pieces of unknown provenance.

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#10 · news-in-context Sep 8, 2026

The monthly US employment report is eagerly anticipated by Wall Street and has significant impacts on markets.

On the first Friday of every month, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics typically releases its monthly "jobs report."

The report essentially tracks how US employment is doing, from the unemployment rate to the number of people in the US currently on payroll.
The information in the report helps color Wall Street's understanding of US economic health, as employment trends serve as a bellwether for how the economy is faring at any given point in time.

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#11 · explainers Jun 4, 2026

The 2026 Ebola outbreak is hampered by the lack of a vaccine against the relevant species of the virus, heightening the need for rapid tests to aid in disease control.

Clinics in the Democratic Republic of Congo saw patients with Ebola symptoms months before the disease was identified.

The identification lag was due to inadequate diagnostics that could not accurately or quickly identify the virus's myriad species. Contact tracing and better diagnostics will be required to tamp down the outbreak.

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#12 · explainers Apr 7, 2025

There have been close to 40 Ebola outbreaks since 1976

Ebola is a rare but deadly virus that causes severe illness, organ damage, and sometimes internal bleeding. It spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids and is most common in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. This explainer covers its symptoms, transmission, and treatment options.

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#13 · explainers May 21, 2026

Antimatter's rarity across the cosmos is one of the biggest problems in modern physics because the high-energy environment of the early universe should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter.

Through pair production, high-energy photons, which were abundant in the early universe, turn into matter and antimatter particles in equal amounts, as has been observed consistently in particle accelerator experiments.

The abundance of matter over antimatter, known as the baryon asymmetry problem, corresponds to one leftover particle of matter for every billion collisions between matter and antimatter in the early universe, which should have all produced pure energy.
In a universe with equal quantities of matter and antimatter, which are oppositely charged and attract one another, collisions between abundant quantities of each are expected to produce specific types of gamma ray bursts, but because they have not been observed, the matter-antimatter asymmetry is likely to exist across the universe.
The Standard Model—the most comprehensive theory of particle physics—provides no explanation for the abundance of normal matter, but research is ongoing to uncover a responsible mechanism.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci sibling · sim 0.53 · keep 0.09 · score -5

#14 · curiosity Aug 20, 2026

At CERN's Antimatter Factory, researchers create and guide antiprotons and antielectrons together to form antihydrogen, and all these antiparticles are analyzed to help scientists study the behavior of antimatter.

In the Antimatter Factory, protons are accelerated into iridium at 99.93% the speed of light to produce showers of quark-antiquark pairs, with some of these elementary particles occasionally coming together to form a composite particle made of two anti-up quarks and one anti-down quark—an antiproton.

After colliding electrons moving at up to 99.9% of the speed of light into tungsten, which causes them to slow down and emit light that can turn into electron-antielectron pairs, researchers at the Antimatter Factory can use electromagnetic fields to guide the antimatter for the eventual production of antihydrogen.
The production of antihydrogen also requires particle decelerators, which use lasers and electromagnetic fields to slow the antiprotons and antielectrons produced until they can combine into antihydrogen without passing one another.
Antimatter experiments at CERN include observing whether antimatter reacts to Earth's gravity in the same way as normal matter by releasing antimatter from electromagnetic traps.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci sibling · sim 0.56 · keep 0.41 · score -2

#15 · curiosity May 29, 2026

Efforts to find Majorana particles may finally lead to reliable quantum computers

Though the particle—which is its own antiparticle—remains theoretical, scientists from Microsoft to Google continue developing systems to mimic this property towards building error-resistant quantum computers. Scientists at UCSB have been attempting to get the particle using just pencil lead and Scotch tape.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci sibling · sim 0.56 · keep 0.18 · score -3

#16 · experiences Jan 15, 2025

Find your next book by prompting this AI

Have a general idea of the sort of book you'd like to read next, but don't know how to find a specific one? Try this fun and impressive tool. Describe the type of book you're looking for. It will suggest five options which attempt to meet your prompt. Find your next page-turner with this very cool tool.

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#17 · curiosity Jul 9, 2026

While robots tend to become more appealing the more humanlike they appear, beyond a certain point, humans have exhibited uneasiness and fear—a phenomenon known as the uncanny valley.

Hypothesized by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970, the negative reaction may result from sensory conflicts in the brain, such as a mismatch between a robot's lifelike appearance and its mechanical movements.

These conflicts can be intentionally used by creators to instill a sense of discomfort, as in a horror film, or to help inform animators and roboticists on how to best create characters that will be embraced by audiences.

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#18 · curiosity Jan 27, 2025

How Van Gogh painted 'Irises' in an asylum

Van Gogh’s painting titled “Irises” (1889) remains one of his most-recognized works. Created soon after the artist checked himself into an asylum, the oil painting depicts flowers from the overgrown garden in the institution. Discover more about the work and other masterpieces Van Gogh constructed during a personally tumultuous time.

etc Researchers determine when Vincent van Gogh painted "Starry Night." sibling · sim 0.45 · keep 0.74 · score -3

#19 · news-in-context Jul 8, 2026

Over 1.9 million Americans—more than a quarter of those unemployed—have been classified as 'long-term' unemployed in a given month in 2026, meaning they've been out of work for at least 27 weeks.

US long-term unemployment has increased by about 55% since 2023 and by about 45% from 2019.

It's a symptom of the labor market's current “low-hire, low-fire” environment, meaning that companies are reluctant to increase headcounts.
That reluctance may stem from factors such as relatively high interest rates and the growth of AI.
After 10 years, long-term unemployed workers earned about 32% less on average than non-displaced workers, compared with only 9% less for short-term unemployed workers.

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#20 · explainers May 29, 2026

Three Ebola species are responsible for most large outbreaks of the disease, yet the only approved Ebola vaccine is known to work against just one of them.

The Ebola Zaire, Sudan, and Bundibugyo species are the three ebolaviruses responsible for most large outbreaks in Africa. Among these, Ebola Zaire is the deadliest, with as many as 90% of cases resulting in death.

Ebola Sudan has about a 50% fatality rate and has caused several outbreaks in Uganda. More recently discovered in 2007, Bundibugyo causes death in about 30% of people and has caused two large outbreaks in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Taï Forest virus is the rarest and is known to have infected a single person in the Côte d'Ivoire in 1994.

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#21 · explainers Jun 4, 2026

The 2026 Ebola outbreak in the DRC is spurring new Ebola vaccine development for the Bundibugyo species.

An experimental vaccine candidate from Moderna will use the company's mRNA vaccine platform—the same one that enabled the COVID-19 vaccine to be rapidly developed during the pandemic.

The global health organization Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations committed up to $50 million to Moderna for Phase 1 clinical testing for an experimental vaccine against this specific Ebola species and to support its manufacturing capabilities and further large-scale trials if the experimental vaccine seems promising.

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#22 · explainers May 12, 2026

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Just as the electromagnetic force attracts negatively charged electrons to positively charged protons in the nucleus to form stable atoms of normal matter, the same force can be used to build atoms of antimatter particles of opposite charge.

In muonium, an electron is paired with an antimuon—a short-lived, positively-charged antimatter particle in the same particle family as the electron.
Antimatter particles like antimuons can be created in high-energy collisions within a particle accelerator and controlled using electromagnetic fields.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci own · sim 0.51 · keep 0.48 · score -8

#23 · curiosity Apr 28, 2026

Foot-and-mouth disease, which affects animals, has been eradicated in many locations

The disease, which causes fevers and painful blistering in the mouth, muzzle, snout, teats, and feet—somewhat similar to hand, foot, and mouth disease in people—is transmitted via contact with infected animals or their fluids or eating infected foods or meat. Though it primarily affects cloven-hoofed animals, it's also been known to sicken camels and even elephants.

itk France confirms first-ever human case of Shamonda livestock virus in severely immunocompro own · sim 0.43 · keep 0.20 · score -1

#24 · curiosity Jun 10, 2026

Ahead of constructing a lunar base as part of the Artemis program, NASA will send a fleet of hopping drones to scout the moon's south pole.

These MoonFall drones will first launch in 2028 and be placed along a perimeter to gather information where the future lunar base is intended to be built.

NASA also intends to land at least one lunar terrain vehicle, which can be remotely controlled from Earth in late 2028.
These efforts are part of phase one of the lunar base's construction, which runs until 2029 and is focused on identifying and securing reliable access between different sites.
From 2029 to 2032, phase two will involve establishing logistical operations, including surface-to-orbit communications networks, and deploying solar and nuclear surface power systems.
By 2032, continuous surface activity via rotating crews will help scale operations in semi-permanent habitation modules.

itk Expert panel recommends shortlist of lunar destinations NASA should prioritize for astrona own · sim 0.52 · keep 0.08 · score -4

#25 · curiosity Mar 9, 2026

Historians theorize Vincent Van Gogh suffered from Ménière's disease or epilepsy

A century after researchers suggested he suffered from epilepsy, some researchers in the 1990s began to support an alternate diagnosis: Ménière's disease, since he had suffered from severe, repeated attacks of disabling vertigo. Still, some researchers remain skeptical of the Ménière's diagnosis. One posits that Van Gogh had temporal epilepsy complicated by his absinthe consumption.

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#26 · curiosity Apr 6, 2026

Readers discovered AI prompts in several romantasy books

In 2025, readers discovered AI prompts in three writers' texts, with one even instructing the AI bot to make a passage sound more like another romance writer. This Futurism piece digs into the scandals and how it's contributed to readers' skepticism about the genre's more prolific writers.

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#27 · news-in-context Jul 8, 2026

The clearest sign of a recession is a steady increase in job losses and high unemployment.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) looks at changes in six key economic indicators to determine when the economy is experiencing a recession.

Those indicators include real personal income, non-farm payroll employment, and employment as measured by the household survey.
They also include personal consumption, manufacturing and trade sales, and industrial production.

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#28 · explainers May 29, 2026

See the evolution of Ebola vaccine and treatment development.

The recently approved vaccine and treatments against Ebola are the result of many years of investments and have reshaped how the world addresses Ebola outbreaks.

Four drugs were tested in the midst of the 2014 outbreak. Two proved to be so effective the clinical trial ended early.
The vaccine proved effective during the 2018-20 outbreak in the DRC.

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#29 · explainers May 29, 2026

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

Awareness of local burial and grieving traditions eventually helped healthcare workers fight the spread of the virus.

As healthcare workers and burial teams altered their procedures during the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, and as community leaders pressed people to adapt traditional ceremonies, the spread of Ebola began to slow.

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#30 · explainers Apr 3, 2026

A stock index is a group of companies clustered together, often providing a condensed snapshot of a market segment.

The top three indexes in the US are the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite.

The S&P 500 and DJIA are bellwether indexes, meaning they're created with the top companies across the economy and provide a snapshot of those companies’ performances.
Indexes themselves can’t be invested in, but index funds, which recreate the companies listed in an index, provide investors with a way to track the broader market.

itk US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 -1.2%, Dow +0.0%, Nasdaq -2.6%) as Brent crude oil p own · sim 0.50 · keep 0.40 · score -1

#31 · curiosity Apr 23, 2026

Elon Musk's $100M investment in SpaceX was lost to three failed rocket launches

The attempts with Falcon 1 endangered the company's future but provided valuable information from which to iterate and follow up with the successful first privately funded orbital launch in history and multiple ISS resupply missions.

itk Elon Musk reportedly invests roughly $1B in Skydance, the entertainment company that resul sibling · sim 0.45 · keep 0.56 · score -3

#32 · curiosity Apr 23, 2026

Overcoming industry skeptics, SpaceX provides low-cost, high-publicity spaceflights

From recovering and reusing rocket components to launching a mannequin and Tesla into orbit to the tune of David Bowie's "Starman," Elon Musk drove public interest and government contracts to his company as he transformed space launches into spectacles.

itk Elon Musk reportedly invests roughly $1B in Skydance, the entertainment company that resul own · sim 0.44 · keep 0.20 · score -5

#33 · curiosity Dec 16, 2022

Teaching a robot to laugh

Researchers have designed a shared-laughter AI system that responds to human laughter in order to build a sense of empathy into dialogue. Learn how they did it with this explainer.

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#34 · curiosity Mar 17, 2026

Court documents show that Anthropic bought and destructively scanned millions of books to gather high-quality text to train the software underlying its AI products.

In 2024, as part of Project Panana, Anthropic cut the bindings from millions of dollars' worth of purchased books to rapidly scan them at low cost and collect text data for its large language models, which power tools like Claude.

Despite hiring the former head of partnerships for the Google Books project, which scanned millions of books from libraries without damaging them before returning them, Anthropic's Project Panama resulted in the discarding of millions of damaged books.

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#35 · news-in-context Jul 8, 2026

The unemployment rate is calculated using a monthly survey that the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to identify those who are employed or actively looking for work.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts part-time workers as employed.

However, it excludes people who are not actively looking for work, like retirees and discouraged workers.
California had the highest unemployment rate at 5.3% as of April 2026.
At 2.1%, South Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate at the time.

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#36 · explainers May 29, 2026

An Ebola vaccine was developed during the 2018 west African Ebola outbreak, but the 2026 Ebola outbreak is with a different species of the virus, not the one that the vaccine is approved to treat.

A study found that Merck's rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine (called Ervebo) was 84% effective against infection during the 2018-20 Ebola outbreak. This effect was observed for both sexes and among children and adults.

The vaccine is approved to help provide protection against that one specific species of the Ebola virus, and it is unknown how effective it would be against other species of Ebola.

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#37 · explainers May 29, 2026

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

Containing a contagious disease like Ebola requires strict protective measures. There are several specialized medical wards at hospitals across the U.S. to treat deadly infectious diseases.

Emory University has one such unit, where 4 patients were treated during the 2014 outbreak.

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#38 · explainers Oct 22, 2026

French students blockaded schools to demand repairs and more teachers, just as France's borrowing costs hit a 24-year high.

High school students launched demonstrations in September 2026 to protest teacher shortages, underfunding, and deteriorating facilities.

Labor unions and farmers, angry over rising fuel and agricultural costs, joined the student marches, some of which turned to looting, arson, and vandalism.
A sell-off in French bonds pushed 10-year borrowing costs above 5%, a 24-year high, leaving less room to fund the school repairs and hiring protesters demand.
Interest payments on France’s debt, which, as of October 2026, is roughly 115% of its GDP, have climbed since the COVID-19 pandemic and now account for a growing share of the budget.

itk France bans some protests across multiple cities after days of riots, looting sibling · sim 0.50 · score -1

#39 · curiosity Mar 10, 2026

In 1910, riots swept Champagne over unfairness in the winemaking industry

The French are well known for protesting, and their winegrowers are no exception. After years of disastrous harvests caused by bad weather, disease, and deceptive practices by large Champagne houses, smaller vintners fought back.

itk France bans some protests across multiple cities after days of riots, looting sibling · sim 0.43 · keep 0.41 · score -2

#40 · curiosity Feb 27, 2026

Toddler delivers tear-jerking speech at her mom and dad's wedding

Three-year-old Evie brought her father to tears while sharing loving words before her mother walked down the aisle.

itk Bride is brought to tears after her husband secretly includes footage of himself asking he sibling · sim 0.52 · keep 0.48 · score -1

#41 · curiosity Feb 7, 2025

How AI helped the Beatles win their eighth Grammy

It’s been decades since the legendary British rock band broke up, yet they still managed to snag a Grammy at the 2025 awards ceremony. This feat is thanks to AI, specifically machine-learning technology, to isolate and clean up different components of a late 1970s recording. This mini-documentary shows how the band's surviving members crafted “Now and Then” with the modern technology.

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#42 · curiosity Jun 29, 2026

In 2012, the Pulitzer board chose not to award a prize for literature

The literary world was shocked in 2012 when, for the first time in more than three decades, the Pulitzer board decided not to award a prize for literature. The jury had selected three finalists—Karen Russell's "Swamplandia!," David Foster Wallace's "The Pale King," and Denis Johnson's "Train Dreams"—but no winner.

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#43 · news-in-context Mar 13, 2026

Explore why layoffs are the biggest driver behind unemployment in the US with this interactive.

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#44 · explainers May 29, 2026

Watch what the Ebola virus does inside our cells and organs in order to spread and survive.

Once infected, the virus targets the body's immune cells, spreading the infection throughout the body. Patients exhibit severe flu-like symptoms.

Ebola then targets the liver and adrenal glands, which control blood pressure.
The immune system overreacts to the infection, releasing a cytokine storm that can result in shock, multiple organ failure, and death.

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#45 · curiosity May 29, 2026

Marburg virus, related to Ebola, is also extremely deadly, and has no available vaccine.

Discovered nine years before Ebola, Marburg is part of the same filovirus family.

While this virus is less contagious, it can still be deadly. Currently, no vaccines exist to combat this disease.

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#46 · explainers Mar 12, 2026

Antimatter particles possess the same mass and spin as their normal particle counterparts, but possess an opposite charge and transform into pure energy upon colliding with normal matter.

When an antimatter particle, such as the positron, collides with its normal matter counterpart, such as the electron, their combined mass is released as pure energy, according to E = mc².

Although multiple antimatter particles can be combined to form antimatter versions of elements, such as antihydrogen, creating a large amount of antimatter, such as for a potential fuel source, is challenging because it must be isolated from any surrounding normal matter to prevent its premature destruction.
Besides charge, antimatter also possesses the opposite quantum properties to normal matter, including magnetic moment and quantum numbers such as baryon and lepton numbers.
High-energy photons—particles of light that are their own antimatter particles—can collide with one another and produce pairs of matter and antimatter particles in equal quantities, as occurs in particle accelerators.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci sibling · sim 0.50 · keep 0.47 · score -9

#47 · curiosity Mar 16, 2026

By combining special relativity with quantum mechanics, antimatter was predicted four years before it was observed, though the math suggested it possessed negative energy.

Paul Dirac set out to make quantum mechanics compatible with special relativity by combining Schrödinger's equation, which describes the evolution of quantum states, with Albert Einstein's equation for relativistic energy.

By 1928, the combination of the mathematics of both frameworks suggested that an electron could exist in four quantum states, including two that had negative energy, which was nonsensical.
However, Dirac's equation was validated by accounting for previously unexplained colors of light emitted by energized hydrogen, contributed in part by electrons in quantum states called spin up and spin down.
Three years after deriving his relativistic wave equation, Dirac reframed the negative-energy electron as representing an antielectron—the antiparticle version of an electron.
Dirac argued that antielectrons would be difficult to detect because they would quickly combine with one of the many electrons in nature and disappear.
In 1932, Carl Anderson discovered the antielectron, or positron, while conducting an experiment to track the products of collisions between atmospheric gases and cosmic rays—high-energy particles from space.
Arthur Schuster coined the term antimatter in letters to Nature in 1898, in which he described antiatoms and antisolar systems with negative gravity.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci sibling · sim 0.53 · keep 0.64 · score -4

#48 · curiosity Aug 21, 2026

Antimatter was discovered by examining debris from collisions between atmospheric gases and cosmic rays—high-energy matter particles from space.

While most cosmic rays are deflected by Earth's magnetic field, those that strike atoms in Earth's atmosphere can produce showers of exotic particles from their energy, including pairs of matter and antimatter particles that can be observed in particle detectors.

Cosmic rays were discovered in 1912, when Austrian physicist Victor Hess identified increased radiation in detectors flown in a balloon to an altitude of 5,300 meters (17,000 feet), as trillions of these particles strike Earth daily.
While cosmic rays and their collision products pose no greater threat to those on Earth's surface than the background radiation there, they can threaten astronauts, damage spacecraft, and cause software glitches by striking memory chips and flipping bits of binary code.
Cosmic rays are detected using a variety of space- and ground-based instruments, including scientific balloons, the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, and the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory in China, to determine their origin and characteristics.
About 90% of cosmic rays are protons, and 9% are alpha particles—helium nuclei—with the remaining 1% consisting of heavier atomic nuclei, such as carbon, oxygen, and iron.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci sibling · sim 0.52 · keep 0.24 · score -6

#49 · explainers May 10, 2022

Science says being a jerk doesn't pay off

The evidence is in: Nice guys and gals don’t finish last, and being a selfish jerk doesn’t get you ahead. A longitudinal study lasting for more than a decade revealed subjects who displayed manipulative, selfish, or combative behavior were less successful professionally than control groups—a finding that held even in highly competitive organizations.

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#50 · news-in-context Oct 6, 2026

The US federal government employs roughly 3 million people

Tracking began in 1939, when the federal workforce consisted of about 1 million people. The total peaked in 1990 at 3.4 million, and hit a recent low in 2014 at 2.7 million.

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#51 · explainers May 29, 2026

Ebola infects and disables immune cells, triggering a cascade of events that leads to small blood clots throughout the body, weakening blood vessels and interrupting blood flow to key organs.

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#52 · curiosity May 29, 2026

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

Filovirus is derived from the Latin word "filum," meaning "thread." That term describes its thin, flexible, threadlike appearance.

Originally isolated in 1976, the microscopic image of the Ebola virus is now famous, even portrayed in the movie "Outbreak."

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#53 · explainers May 21, 2026

Particle accelerators detect subatomic particles using millions of sensors

Calorimeters measure the energy of particles. Tracking devices can measure momentum and charge from the trajectory of particles, which is determined by recording tiny electrical signals. Time-of-flight detectors provide particle velocities directly and particle mass indirectly, giving physicists a suite of properties to compare with those of known matter.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci sibling · sim 0.50 · keep 0.13 · score -10

#54 · curiosity Aug 21, 2026

In 1997, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory identified 'positron geysers'—fountains of antimatter particles—emerging from near the center of the Milky Way.

Gamma-ray telescopes can indirectly detect antimatter through the powerful light emissions produced when it interacts with normal matter and annihilates.

Data suggest that the geysers of antielectrons emit energy 3,500 light-years from the center of the Milky Way and produce 10 tredecillion (10 million trillion trillion trillion) antimatter particles per second, though it is unclear what is producing them.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci sibling · sim 0.51 · keep 0.32 · score -7

#55 · curiosity Jun 17, 2026

Within ALICE—A Large Ion Collider Experiment—at the Large Hadron Collider, scientists have created quark-gluon plasma—an exotic form of matter present in the moments after the Big Bang.

One of the densest known forms of matter in the universe, the soup of elementary matter particles and the force particles can produce extremely rare, rapidly decaying composite particles.

Among these are antihypernuclei, or nuclei consisting of antimatter versions of strange quarks, which are themselves more massive versions of the down quarks found to comprise protons and neutrons.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci sibling · sim 0.50 · keep 0.09 · score -11

#56 · explainers Oct 1, 2026

Find out what it's like to work in the gig economy

If you're thinking about being a gig worker—for example, an Airbnb host, Lyft driver, or DoorDash delivery person—keep this article in mind before you start. This article outlines particular concepts prospective gig workers should think about before signing up for gig work, such as upfront costs and budgeting for taxes.

etc Airbnb cracks down on hosts putting guests to work. any_band · sim 0.42 · keep 0.49 · score -1

#57 · news-in-context Jul 8, 2026

The US unemployment rate soared to over 24% during the Great Depression, the highest in recorded history.

The Great Depression was a devastating and prolonged economic downturn that followed the crash of the US stock market in 1929.

By contrast, in early 1929, the US unemployment rate was 3.2%.
Despite government intervention, the unemployment rate was still more than 18% in 1938.

lead Economic Mixed Signals own · sim 0.43 · keep 0.27 · score -10

#58 · explainers May 29, 2026

Watch the cumbersome, but necessary, precautions healthcare workers must take to care for and protect themselves while caring for Ebola patients.

Treating someone with Ebola involves a painstaking process of suiting up (donning) and peeling off (doffing) protective gear. Doctors follow detailed CDC guidelines.

Properly suiting up is key to protecting against fluids that transmit Ebola, and correctly removing a suit that could be contaminated with the virus is also critical.

lead Ebola Crisis Convening sibling · sim 0.41 · keep 0.58 · score -16

#59 · curiosity Jun 2, 2026

Ebola species have historically been named after where they were discovered, stigmatizing residents who live there, including Bundibugyo, in Uganda.

This occurred with Ebola Zaire (now the DRC), Sudan, and Bundibugyo, a region in western Uganda composed largely of cocoa farmers.

Uganda's link to the Bundibugyo virus is that the species was discovered there almost 20 years ago, in a November 2007 outbreak.

lead Ebola Crisis Convening any_band · sim 0.43 · keep 0.14 · score -13

#60 · explainers Feb 7, 2022

Scientists are experimenting with ways to probe the multiverse theory

Researchers are simulating vacuum bubbles—the theorized starting points of universes—using quantum computers, digital models, and exotic lab setups to study how they form, expand, and possibly collide. One experiment aims to "blow" artificial universe-like bubbles inside ultra-cold quantum gases, potentially capturing real-time glimpses of cosmic birth processes in a lab.

itk Physicists trap single antimatter particle for months, potentially allowing for more preci own · sim 0.49 · keep 0.24 · score -12

Jobless Claims, World Series, and an Airbnb Crackdown