Information technology
Clever Code Is Hard to Fix: Kernighan's Law
Kernighan's Law says that debugging is twice as hard as writing code, so code written as cleverly as possible can't be debugged by its own author. We look at where the line came fr
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Film & media
The Most Beautiful Light of the Day: Magic Hour
Magic hour is the short stretch just after sunrise or just before sunset when light turns red and soft. We look at why the light changes, a landmark example from film history, shoo
Library & information science
When Having Information Hurts More: Mooers’ Law
Mooers’ Law is the principle that no matter how good an information retrieval system is, it will not be used where having information is more painful and troublesome than not havin
Earth science
When Volcanoes Block the Sun: Volcanic Winter
A volcanic winter is a drop in global temperatures lasting several years after a huge, sulfur-rich eruption spreads tiny sulfuric acid droplets through the stratosphere and blocks
General knowledge
Suspect a Mistake Before Malice: Hanlon’s Razor
Hanlon’s Razor is a rule of thumb that says not to blame malice for what mistakes or foolishness can adequately explain. This piece covers where it came from, why we tend to read o
Physics
The Secret of Spinning Faster by Pulling In Your Arms: Conservation of Angular Momentum
Conservation of angular momentum means that when no outside force acts to change its rotation, the amount of rotation a spinning object has stays the same. This piece covers the co
Robotics
Smarter Together Than Alone: Swarm Robotics
Swarm robotics is the field of robotics that designs many simple robots to work together without a central leader, using only signals exchanged with nearby peers. This piece covers
Business administration
It Gets Cheaper the More You Make: The Experience Curve
The experience curve is the phenomenon in which the cost of making one unit falls by a fixed percentage every time cumulative production doubles. This piece covers its origins, fro
Earth science
The Whole Sea Comes Rushing In: Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of giant, very long waves created when a huge volume of seawater is displaced at once by an undersea earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption. This piece c
Physics
When Light Cannot Escape: Total Internal Reflection
Total internal reflection happens when light traveling from a material with a higher refractive index toward a lower one hits the boundary beyond the critical angle and is reflecte
Education
Complete Only When the Pieces Fit: The Jigsaw Classroom
The jigsaw classroom is a cooperative learning method in which each student masters one piece of the material and teaches it to the group. This piece covers Elliot Aronson’s 1971 c
Psychology
The Illusion That It’s Just Their Personality: The Fundamental Attribution Error
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to underestimate the situation and overestimate personality when explaining other people’s behavior. This piece covers Heider’s tw