The Manhattan Project was a secret, but it wasn't as secret a secret as you've been lead to believe, writes Rebecca Rosen at The Atlantic. Not only was the construction of an atomic weapon a topic of Washington gossip, but the entire "secret city in the desert" thing got blown open in 1944 when a columnist for a Midwestern newspaper ran across Los Alamos while on vacation. In light of our current debates about state secrets and security, it's probably less interesting that columnist Jack Raper found Los Alamos, and more interesting that he, and his paper, chose to buck the self-enforced system of silence that characterized World War II media.
How The Cleveland Press broke the story of Los Alamos a year-and-a-half before Hiroshima
A satellite has been jamming GPS over Europe
For years, GPS receivers scattered across Europe — from Svalbard to Spain — kept registering the same brief, total signal blackout at the exact same instant, in bursts of three… READ THE REST
New solar-power desalination device leaves no brine
University of Rochester researchers have built a solar-powered desalination device that doesn't leave behind brine — the concentrated saltwater that conventional plants dump back into the ocean, where it raises… READ THE REST
Why autism symptoms can ease during a fever — and how to mimic it
Parents and caregivers have long reported that when some autistic people run a fever from an infection, their autism-related symptoms ease for a while. MIT and Harvard Medical School researchers,… READ THE REST
Save time on crafting prompts with your expert AI assistant, Prompting Systems at just $48 for life
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Make your ideas come to life faster with a lifetime subscription to the Prompting Systems Silver Plan,… READ THE REST
ChatGPT Plus is $20/month—ChatOn packs in GPT, Claude & Gemini for 5 years for just $90.99
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: ChatOn bundles GPT, Claude, Gemini, Sonar, image generation, web search, and more into one app for $90.90… READ THE REST
Replace doomscrolling with smartscrolling—Headway lifetime subscriptions now just $70
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Learn in your free time with a Headway lifetime subscription, now $69.99 (reg. $299.95). Books are long… READ THE REST
