💡 Is Discovery Inevitable or Serendipitous?

The latest from Nautilus, the top science news, and more. [View in Browser]( | [Join Nautilus]( Did a friend forward this? Sign up here Together with Hello there Nautilus readers, and thanks for popping in. Today we reflect on the nature of scientific discovery: Are breakthroughs bound to happen? Are ideas “in the air,” waiting to be seized on? Or are luck and chance necessary ingredients in the march of intellectual progress? Plus, we marvel at the determination, and deceptive exterior, of a small amphibious resident of Costa Rica. Also, in the news: 3,500-year-old cheese, intergalactic-length black-hole jets, and more. Thanks for sharing, in response to our last question, where your curiosity would lead you if you had the opportunity to study something new. As for me, I would jump at the chance to study more philosophy of religion, ethics, and moral psychology—I’m fascinated by the different ways people throughout history and across cultures have understood what a good life is, and what a just society looks like. Check out today’s question (on your favorite animal sound) and free story (on conscious robots) below. Until next time! — Brian Gallagher The latest from Nautilus Is Discovery Inevitable or Serendipitous? The role of chance and predictability in scientific breakthroughs. [Continue Reading→]( This Tiny Frog Is Fierce The see-through amphibian goes big to protect its eggs. [Continue Reading→]( Don’t limit your curiosity. Enjoy unlimited ad-free Nautilus stories every month for less than $5/month. [Join now]( This Toilet Paper Just Might Save the Planet Every day, 27,000 trees are destroyed for toilet paper. That’s far too many, so this brand created luxury 3-ply from bamboo. It feels like regular high-end toilet paper, but doesn’t harm trees. Why bamboo? Not only does it grow 3 feet every 24 hours—it’s the fastest growing plant in the world!—but its short fibers are perfect for creating soft toilet tissue you can feel good about. Nautilus readers get 30% off their 1st shipment for the next 24 hours. Use code NAUT30. [Try bamboo]( *Thank you for supporting our sponsors. The top science news this week • Despite the seemingly clear differences among brain cells, skin cells, blood cells and others, scientists still struggle to say what, exactly, a cell type is. Could it be that “every cell is a special snowflake”? [Read on Nature→]( • Scientists sequenced DNA extracted from 3,500-year-old kefir cheese, the oldest in the archaeological record, which included traces of goat, cattle, and microbial genomes. [Read on Cell→]( • When the universe was half its age—around 6 billion years old—a black hole unleashed jets of energy, heading in opposite directions, that together stretched for such a distance, spanning the length of 140 Milky Way galaxies, or 23 million light-years. [Read on The New York Times→]( • The larger AI language models get—with greater computational power behind them—the more unreliable and inaccurate their utterances become. [Read on Nature→]( • Researchers found causal evidence of social status’ impact on people’s feelings of happiness. The results—participants desired high status not only in absolute terms, but also relative to their peers—lend support to Gore Vidal’s aphorism, “It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.” [Read on PLOS ONE→]( *Indicates sponsor/partner content. Thank you for supporting our sponsors. WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... What sound made by an animal do you find most remarkable or relaxing? Send us your answer! Reply to this newsletter with a brief explanation of your response, and we’ll reveal the top answers in a future newsletter. This question was inspired by “This Tiny Frog Is Fierce.” [Read on Nautilus→]( Top answers to our previous question: On What You Are Most Curious to Study I would like to study ancient civilizations. We seem to think of them in terms of their "primitive" behaviors, yet we still don't know how they did so many things! Built the pyramids in Egypt, erected the Moai on Easter Island, or devised Mayan and Aztec calendars! – Jeletta B. I have been fascinated by wolves for as long as I can remember and would love to spend some time studying them. They are so much like us in many ways—intelligent, adaptable, and family oriented; I feel we could learn much about ourselves from them. – Kathy V. I would like to study the origins of why humans are so in love with music. Music seems to have primal origins given that even advanced Alzheimer’s victims respond to music unlike any other stimulus. And music can tame our more violent tendencies. – Carl R. If I could do my career over, I would become a volcanologist. I am fascinated with what happens inside the Earth coming out onto the crustal realm. – Susan F. Get a Limited-Edition Nautilus Reali-Tee Shirt! A collaboration between Nautilus and French designer Mathieu Courbier of Almost Free Services, this [limited-edition t-shirt]( showcases the abstract nature of reality. [Buy now]( Today’s unlocked free story TECHNOLOGY We Need Conscious Robots How introspection and imagination make robots better. BY RYOTA KANAI People often ask me whether human-level artificial intelligence will eventually become conscious. [Continue reading]( P.S. The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov was born on this day in 1849. He developed what would become the famous method, called classical conditioning, using dogs. He’d play a tone for them and would afterward give them food. By accident, Pavlov realized he could cause dogs to salivate by just playing a tone. “But this subconscious learning works only as long as the two stimuli overlap with each other in time,” wrote neuroscientist and AI researcher Ryota Kanai. “When the experimenter delays the second stimulus, participants learn the association only when they are consciously aware of the relationship.” This suggests that at least [one of the roles consciousness plays is to expand our sense of time](—to “give the present moment,” Kanai wrote, “an extended duration.” Thanks for reading! What did you think of today's note? Inspire a friend to [sign up for the Nautilus newsletter](. Copyright © 2024 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 3112 Windsor Rd, Ste A-391 Austin, TX, 78703 Don't want to hear from us anymore? [Unsubscribe](