Surprising Science — March 7, 2014

How High Can We Build?

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The Eiffel Tower once shocked the world for being the tallest building in the world. Of course, it was surpassed by other structures. But how high can we build?

Our friends at VSauce explore this question and give a history of the “tallest structure built by man” competition:

Image credit: House of Hall/Flickr

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

A model of the Colossus depicting the grandeur of ancient Rome.

The Past

This virtual 3D model lets you wander the streets of ancient Rome

Archaeologist Bernard Frischer spent decades uploading the ruins of the Eternal City to the cloud. Here’s what it looks like.

The Past

You’ve heard of the Parthenon. But what about the Erechtheion?

The Parthenon embodies the ideals of perfection Classical Greeks sought from architecture. The neighboring Erechtheion offers something else.

A failure of a paper airplane constructed from crumpled paper.

The Learning Curve

How to find success with the 4 conditions of “intelligent failure”

When we prepare for our plans to go wrong, we build the foundations for lasting profit.

A man is working on a machine in a lab, using laser technology to apply precise pressure.

13.8

From fusion to exoplanets: How to squeeze matter with light

Light can be turned into heat, which can then be turned into motion, and the effect of that motion can be turned into a big squeeze.

13.8

Is the Universe conscious? A panpsychism Q&A with philosopher Philip Goff

We need a hypothesis that accounts for both the fine-tuning of physics for life but also the arbitrariness and gratuitous suffering we find in the world.

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