Physicists Nail Down the ‘Magic Number’ That Shapes the Universe

Natalie Wolchover writes via Quanta Magazine: As fundamental constants go, the speed of light, c, enjoys all the fame, yet c’s numerical value says nothing about nature; it differs depending on whether it’s measured in meters per second or miles per hour. The fine-structure constant, by contrast, has no dimensions or units. It’s a pure number that shapes the universe to…

The 41 Books Mark Zuckerberg Has Recommended on Facebook

Last week Slashdot featured “the 61 books Elon Musk has recommended on Twitter,” as compiled by a slick web site (with Amazon referrer codes) called “Most Recommended Books.” But the same site has also created a page of books recommended by Mark Zuckerbeg. Zuckerberg’s list includes books by Peter Thiel (Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the…

AI Site Claims Simulated Conversations With Famous Dead Scientists

Slashdot reader shirappu writes: AI|Writer is an experiment in which artificial intelligence is used to simulate both real and fictitious famous personalities through written correspondence. Users can ask questions and receive explanations from simulated versions of Isaac Newton, Alfred Hitchcock, Marie Curie, Mary Shelley, and many more. The Next Web calls it “a new experiment by magician and novelist Andrew Mayne,”…