The Math Trick Behind MP3s, JPEGs, and Homer Simpson’s Face

Plus: this week’s Behind the Scenes with Jonathan Balcombe; why is that funny?; how eugenics shaped statistics; and more. [View in browser]( | [Become a member]( EDITORS’ CHOICE October 22, 2022   Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here](. Good Morning! Start your Sunday with some of the most popular stories from Nautilus—plus this week’s Behind the Scenes with biologist Jonathan Balcombe below [READ NOW](   [TECHNOLOGY]( [We’ve Got News for You About Supercharging Your Brain]( Today’s brain-computer interfaces perform medical miracles. Beyond the clinic is another story. BY SIDNEY PERKOWITZ In 2019, Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco, opened the skull of a 36-year-old man, nicknamed “Pancho,” and placed a thin sheet of electrodes on the surface of his brain.1 [Continue reading →]( Experience the endless possibilities and deep human connections that science offers [SUBSCRIBE TODAY](   [It's Time for Oceans]( Meet the watch collection that’s fighting ocean pollution. [TRIWA]( (Transforming the Industry of Watches) introduces the world's first collection of watches made from 100% recycled ocean plastic. [Make eco-friendly fashion a part of the solution](by bringing awareness to ocean plastic pollution with the Time for Oceans collection. Learn More   Popular This Week [EVOLUTION]( [Why Is That Funny?]( How evolution made us laugh. BY BRIAN GALLAGHER [Continue reading →]( [SOCIOLOGY]( [Why Do Americans Own More Guns Per Capita Than Anyone Else?]( One question for Jennifer Carlson, a sociologist at the University of Arizona. BY BRIAN GALLAGHER [Continue reading →]( [SOCIOLOGY]( [How Eugenics Shaped Statistics]( Exposing the damned lies of three science pioneers. BY AUBREY CLAYTON [Continue reading →]( [MATH]( [The Math Trick Behind MP3s, JPEGs, and Homer Simpson’s Face]( This theoretical physicist’s idea has an astounding legacy. BY AATISH BHATIA [Continue reading →](   BEHIND THE SCENES [Jonathan Balcombe Takes Us Behind “That Snapper You’re Eating Might Be 80 Years Old ”]( When I asked biologist Jonathan Balcombe how he got interested in science, he responded, “I was born.” The author of[What a Fish Knows](, a New York Times bestseller, and[Super Fly](, can’t remember a time when he wasn’t enraptured by the creatures he discovered around him. “From my earliest memory,” he told me recently, “I’ve had an unending fascination with animals and what they do.” As soon as he was old enough to explore his backyard, he was out there looking at wasps, flies, mosquitoes, ants, and whatever he could find. He felt not only curiosity but concern, too. He said, “I remember as a child, if I was walking with someone and they stepped on an ant or a caterpillar deliberately, I felt more alienated from that kid than I did from the victim under their shoe.” His passion for understanding animals, and his compassion toward them, come through in “[That Snapper You’re Eating Might Be 80 Years Old](,” his recent Nautilus story. What inspired him to write it? “We underestimate animals. That’s always an impetus for me, is to try to provide people with information that will hopefully raise eyebrows and drop jaws and, who knows, maybe even change behavior.” That might mean whether you go fishing or not, or what food you choose at the supermarket. “These are all really important issues in terms of planetary health,” he said. “It’s estimated that fish populations have declined about 50 percent in the last 50 years or so. Same thing for insects. We are living in the Anthropocene.” [In our conversation](, he told me he was “shocked” to learn, from a 2018 [study](, that you can just about say the same thing about wild animals. “Wild vertebrate animals on the planet make up 4 percent of the whole,” he said, “the remaining 96 percent is 36 percent humans and 60 percent livestock, animals raised for human consumption.” What we collectively choose to eat, he said, is a “critical component of the dysfunctionality and the imbalance of life we currently have on the Earth in the Anthropocene. I think it’s a really powerful word, Anthropocene, the era that is dominated by human activity.” We also discussed the possibility that long-lived fish play pivotal roles in their communities as bearers of wisdom, and why fish psychology might be understudied. “Who knows what kind of wisdom they might carry in their minds?” Balcombe wondered. [Watch here](. —Brian Gallagher, associate editor   [Liberating Ocean Data]( Ready to contribute to ocean conservation? The World Economic Forum's [UpLink Ocean and Friends of Ocean Action]( wants your ideas to scaling the ocean data for a sustainable ocean future. Submit your proposal by November 13, 2022, and the winner will be announced at the WEF’s Annual Meet in Davos next year. [Submit Your Solution](   [“The technological imperative should not be our sole guide to how humanity can help itself evolve.”]( [Physicist Sidney Perkowitz on the transformations brain-machine interfaces have in store for us.](   More in Technology [A New Doorway to the Brain]( Neuroscientists can now explore the “wild west” in our heads in incredible detail—a boon to medicine and understanding what makes us tick. BY ELENA RENKEN The brain’s lifeline, its network of blood vessels, is like a tree, says Mathieu Pernot, deputy director of the Physics for Medicine Paris Lab. [Continue reading →]( [The Chess Cheat in the 21st Century]( If only the 18th-century hoaxer could see his “Mechanical Turk” now. BY JIM DAVIES Wolfgang von Kempelen, the 18th-century inventor and author, once claimed to have created a chess-playing robot, called the Mechanical Turk. [Continue reading →](   Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher   GIVEAWAY [Discover What Marine Masterpieces Lay Below the Waves]( Nautilus is proud to partner with Phaidon to bring you [Ocean: Exploring the Marine World.]( Published by Phaidon, this stunning book explores our relationship with the marine world. To celebrate the release, five lucky people can win this compelling book. To enter, follow [@phaidonpress]( and [@nautilusmag](, then tag a friend on our [Instagram post](. The contest runs through 10/31, and five winners will be randomly selected. See the full rules [here](. Additionally, as a member of the Nautilus community, you can [purchase your copy today]( receive 20% off with code OCEAN20. [Claim Your Discount](   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2022 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from nautil.us. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? Click here to [unsubscribe](.