Archive - Confections & Reputations

Why is physics so good at math?

Physical insights drawn from the real world are inexplicably useful for solving abstruse problems in mathematics.

Sep 4 •

Ananyo Bhattacharya

April 2024

"He spoke of computers with some awe"

Margaret Mead, John von Neumann, and the prehistory of AI

Published on Res Obscura • Apr 9

December 2023

Why do people hate maths?

And what should we do about it?

Dec 13, 2023 •

Ananyo Bhattacharya

November 2023

When Does Science Self-Correct? Lessons from a Replication Crisis in Early 20th Century Chemistry

Guest post by Paul von Hippel (Univ. of Texas)

Published on The Good Science Project • Nov 15, 2023

Labatut's 'Frankenstein'

'The MANIAC' reveals more about the author than about von Neumann

Nov 4, 2023 •

Ananyo Bhattacharya

September 2023

The Coming of Enki X

The final part of a previously unpublished science fiction story

Sep 30, 2023 •

Ananyo Bhattacharya

Four ways of thinking

Your hometown skeptics called it champagne problems

Published on Logging the World • Sep 28, 2023

August 2023

The Coming of Enki IX

Part nine of a previously unpublished science fiction story

Aug 31, 2023 •

Ananyo Bhattacharya

Age of Invention: Does History have a Replication Crisis?

Back in 2011, the field of psychology went into crisis. Some of the most famous and widely-cited experimental results could not be replicated by others…

Published on Age of Invention, by Anton Howes • Aug 29, 2023

Expectancy Theory

A science fiction story that got mistaken for actual science

Aug 17, 2023 •

Ananyo Bhattacharya

Age of Invention: Cash Cows

He was born, farmed, and died at Dishley, much like his father before him. But Robert Bakewell, unlike most people, caught the improving mentality, or…

Published on Age of Invention, by Anton Howes • Aug 10, 2023

July 2023

Oppie and Johnny, best frenemies of the Atomic Age. Part I

A fraught relationship helped spawn nuclear bombs and modern computers

Jul 18, 2023 •

Ananyo Bhattacharya

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