All posts tagged: shape

Whisky terroir explained – does place shape flavour?

Whisky terroir explained – does place shape flavour?

Published by Sam Flores

Terroir – the wine world’s favourite way of saying something tastes like somewhere. It’s why Pinot Noir from Burgundy’s Cote d’Or carries subtle notes of red fruit and forest floor, while the same grape in Central Otago tastes brighter, louder and almost sunlit in its intensity. Terroir is the land’s signature, quietly signed onto a crop. Whisky, though, has been slower to embrace the language, despite being born from grain, water and wood. So why the reluctance? Mark Reynier, perhaps the whisky industry’s most outspoken champion of terroir, sees the resistance as largely cultural. “Firstly, terroir is a fancy French word with no adequate English equivalent. To non-wine drinkers it has an uncomfortable air of pretense, prejudice, and yahoo pomposity,” he said. “Secondly, it is an inconvenient truth for an industry that seeks homogenised, international supply. Local produce with provenance and identity then becomes nothing more than heretical.” Reynier’s perspective comes from a long career in drink. He spent 20 years as a wine merchant before leading the revival of Islay’s Bruichladdich in 2001 – …

How Did Aristotle Shape Ancient Greek Philosophy?

How Did Aristotle Shape Ancient Greek Philosophy?

Published by Sam Flores

Published: Mar 6, 2026written by Brian Daly, PhD Philosophy (in progress) Summary Father of Western Philosophy: Despite following in the footsteps of Socrates and Plato, it is the 4th-century BCE Greek philosopher Aristotle who holds this title. Material World: Aristotle moved from a focus on abstract forms to a method that prioritized direct observation of the material world as a source of knowledge. Four Causes: This led Aristotle to develop the Four Causes to explain change, which was not accommodated in earlier approaches. Prolific Philosopher: Aristotle was prolific and wrote about everything from biology to ethics but always starting from the principle of observation. Show more   The 4th-century BCE Greek philosopher Aristotle is often called the “Father of Western Philosophy” or even just “The Philosopher.” This is even though he was the student of Plato, who was in turn a student of Socrates, two of the biggest names in Greek philosophy. What did Aristotle contribute to the philosophical method to earn him these titles?   Who Was Aristotle? A Brief Biography Aristotle Refusing the …

Möbius strip-like molecule has an entirely new and bizarre shape

Möbius strip-like molecule has an entirely new and bizarre shape

Published by skeptic

Representation of the electrons in the “half-Möbius”-shaped molecule IBM Research and the University of Manchester Chemists have discovered a new molecular shape, and it is twice as odd as the twisty Möbius strip. The Möbius strip is a looped band with a twist, such that something tiny, such as an ant, would have to go around the loop twice to return to where it started on the same side of the strip. Igor Rončević at the University of Manchester in the UK and his colleagues now discovered a molecule with an even stranger “half-Möbius” shape. Their experiment may be the first step towards a new way to engineer useful molecules by tuning their 3D shapes, or topology. “This molecule is very new and very unexpected. The appeal is not just that we made a molecule with an unusual topology, but we also showed that this topology is possible, and no one really thought about it,” he says. To make the molecule, the researchers used 13 carbon atoms and two chlorine atoms assembled into a ring-like …

How a young bike racer helped shape America’s best-selling low-cost e-bike

How a young bike racer helped shape America’s best-selling low-cost e-bike

Published by skeptic

When most people think about America’s best-selling budget electric bike, they probably picture affordability, practicality, and maybe a folding frame that fits in the trunk of a car. What they probably don’t picture is a former high-performance mountain bike racer hammering through the Arizona desert. But that’s exactly part of the story behind Lectric eBikes and its wildly popular Lectric XP lineup. Luis Cerna, now a product manager at Lectric, didn’t grow up as part of the e-bike boom. He grew up riding good old-fashioned pedal bikes. Like many lifelong cyclists, he started exploring his neighborhood as a kid before getting serious about mountain biking at 12 years old alongside his father. That eventually led to racing in Arizona’s high school leagues and, later, to road cycling with the Arizona State University team. That kind of racing background might sound worlds away from designing an affordable, low-cost folding commuter e-bike. But Cerna argues it’s exactly the kind of experience that matters. Advertisement – scroll for more content Racing teaches riders to obsess over the small …

The 10 Enduring Ideas of Plato That Still Shape Our World

The 10 Enduring Ideas of Plato That Still Shape Our World

Published by Sam Flores

Published: Feb 27, 2026written by Michael Arnold, BA Art History, MA Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David, 1787. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York   If the concerns of Classical Greek philosophy could be reduced to three words, they would be truth, beauty, and goodness. To contemplate these ideals with sincerity is to approach what Plato believed to be the intelligent order behind the universe, a realm the human soul is meant to rediscover.   A disciple of Socrates, Plato developed ideas that gave birth to Platonism and later Neoplatonism. These traditions shaped early Christian thinkers such as St. Augustine and influenced Western thought for centuries. Plato and Socrates were concerned with The Good, The Beautiful, truth, justice, the higher self, and the nature of the soul. These themes appear throughout the Socratic dialogues.   In The Republic, Plato discusses the organization of states, but he begins with the interior life of the human soul, linking the harmony of the individual to that of society. Above all, he emphasizes the …

Baptists have helped shape debate about religious freedom for over 400 years – up to today’s 10 Commandments laws

Baptists have helped shape debate about religious freedom for over 400 years – up to today’s 10 Commandments laws

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — Louisiana can proceed with a law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments, according to a federal court decision on Feb. 20, 2026. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals voted that it is too early to determine whether the requirement violates the First Amendment of the Constitution, which protects religious liberty and prohibits the government from establishing religion. The judges heard arguments in Louisiana’s law and a similar Texas one in January 2025 but have yet to rule on the latter. One of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the Texas law is Rev. Griff Martin, a Baptist pastor. Martin has criticized the Ten Commandments mandate as not just a violation of American precepts but religious ones as well. In a press release by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which is representing the plaintiffs, he stated that “the separation of church and state (is) a bedrock principle of my family’s Baptist heritage.” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who represents Louisiana, is also the country’s most prominent …

US cybersecurity agency CISA reportedly in dire shape amid Trump cuts and layoffs

US cybersecurity agency CISA reportedly in dire shape amid Trump cuts and layoffs

Published by skeptic

U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA is reportedly in dire shape, according to bipartisan lawmakers and industry leaders who fear that the agency’s ability to perform its core mission has been diminished and left it unprepared for a cybersecurity crisis. News site Cyberscoop’s Tim Starks spoke with sources across Congress, the private cyber industry, and beyond, and what came back reflected a general consensus that CISA has suffered under cuts and layoffs during the Trump administration’s first year. Over that time, CISA has lost around one-third of its staff, which cost it programs, personnel, and expertise, including the agency’s counter-ransomware initiative and efforts to promote secure software development. Some of these have included several members of its election security team, TechCrunch reported last year. CISA is the federal agency responsible for election security. Some warned that Trump’s ongoing obsession with promoting false claims about the 2020 election has led to the administration deprioritizing CISA. CISA also reassigned hundreds of other staffers to aid other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security as part of the Trump administration’s broad …

Religious ties shape how Black Americans define family, Pew study finds

Religious ties shape how Black Americans define family, Pew study finds

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Black Americans are more likely to consider people not related to them by blood or marriage part of their families, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. Religious affiliation, Pew found, is a key factor in forming these alternative family networks. Pew’s 93-page report, based on a survey of 4,271 Black adults and 2,555 adults of other races, examines how Black Americans define and experience family, and how people support one another. Overall, 77% of Black Americans said their family includes at least one nonrelative, compared with 63% of adults of other races. Kiana Cox, the senior researcher of the survey, noted the research examined the trope of Black Americans’ referring to people who are not relatives as cousins. “It’s sort of tongue in cheek,” she said. “We use the term ‘play cousin,’ because that’s the term that some Black people might be familiar with.” Cox said one of the key findings is the extent to which relatives and nonrelatives serve as sources of financial and emotional support, as well …

Programmable hydrogel ‘smart skin’ can hide images, shift texture, and morph shape

Programmable hydrogel ‘smart skin’ can hide images, shift texture, and morph shape

Published by Jenni Sidey

At first glance, it looks like a plain, slightly glossy sheet. Then it goes through a quick bath, the temperature shifts, and a famous face comes back from nowhere. In one demonstration, a film made from hydrogel, a water-rich material that feels a bit like soft contact lens plastic, suddenly brought the Mona Lisa into view. The image was not printed with ink. It was encoded into the material itself, and it stayed invisible until the right conditions flipped the switch. That trick is part of a broader effort at Penn State to make what the researchers call a programmable “smart synthetic skin,” a thin, shape-shifting material that can be tuned to change its appearance, texture, and mechanical behavior when exposed to outside triggers like heat, solvents, or physical stress. Hongtao Sun, an assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering at Penn State and the project’s principal investigator, said the concept was inspired by cephalopods, including octopuses, which can control the look and feel of their skin to blend in or signal to each other. …