Pankaj Sharma is one of the world's premier speakers on Leadership and Personal Mastery. As a presenter, Sharma has the rare ability to electrify an audience yet deliver uncommonly original and useful insights that lead to individuals doing their best work, teams providing superb results and organizations becoming unbeatable.
Pankaj Sharma is also a Research Scientist.
Friday, June 23, 2023
Tessellations Hint at How 2D Materials Self-Assemble
Plus: Another Ramsey problem breakthrough; A faster algorithm for testing group isomorphism; The blood-brain barrier; New Quanta Science Podcast
The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think
Story by JOANNA THOMPSON; Podcast hosted by SUSAN VALOT
Depression has often been blamed on low levels of serotonin in the brain. That answer is insufficient, but alternatives are coming into view and changing our understanding of the disease.
Supernova-Sized Catastrophes If the nearby star Betelgeuse eventually goes supernova, it won't be catastrophic for life on Earth. But other supernovas can (and have) caused mass extinction events, as Matt O'Dowd explains for PBS Space Time. Muons produced during supernovas can blast through the atmosphere and damage living cells. In 2019, Rebecca Boyle reported for Quanta on research that suggested that cosmic muons were responsible for the extinction of many large prehistoric animals, including the megalodon.
Single-Photon Photosynthesis Scientists have finally observed what they've long suspected: Only one photon is needed to kick off photosynthesis, as Emily Conover reports for Science News. The new technique used to observe the onset of photosynthesis could also be used to investigate the role of quantum physics in biology. Peter Byrne spoke with one of the authors, K. Birgitta Whaley, about this connection for Quanta in 2013.
