1. These are the lengths humans are willing to go to understand the structure of the universe.

"Two kilometers below ground in Canada, scientists deployed a specially designed sanding robot into the DEAP-3600 dark matter detector. After entering through a long, airtight neck into the interior cavity, which is about 2 meters wide, the robot extended two arms and shaved half of a millimeter off the entire interior surface. The robot’s purpose was to remove any radon the sphere might have absorbed during 18 months of underground assembly at SNOLAB near Sudbury, Ontario. Radon, an element that comes from the radioactive decay of uranium in soil, rock and water, would contribute to background noise—particle interactions that can obscure the phenomenon researchers are hunting for."

2. Xiaomi is the best-positioned tech company in the world: beloved by the 18-34 demographic in the world's largest country.

"That’s the norm in China (and much of Asia): children will live with their parents until they are able to afford to buy a place of their own (renting is frowned upon). This actually makes these customers quite valuable: they tend to have more disposable cash than if they were paying for all of their own housing, utilities, food, etc, and certainly Xiaomi’s extensive accessory offerings take advantage of this. What is more interesting, though, is what will happen when Han and his peers finally do get places of their own. They will need to buy TVs, and air purifiers, and all kinds of (relatively) high renminbi goods. And which brand do you think they will choose? If Apple can sell a battery charger to my coworker, I’m pretty certain Xiaomi can sell an air purifier to Mr. Han, and, sooner rather than later, just about everything he needs for his new house."

3. A dense, but fascinating survey of new thinking about the way biological innovation happens.

"The same proves to be true for many other organisms: You can obliterate many of their individual genes to no obvious effect. But this is no surprise if there are plenty of similar gene circuits that do much the same job as the original one. Looked at this way, robustness is complementary to innovation: Any network that can evolve new features and forms among a vast array of alternatives must necessarily be robust against small changes, because it almost certainly has an alternative on hand that performs equally well. This realization offers an antidote to an excessively deterministic view of genes: Exactly which genes you have may not matter so much (within reason), because the job they do is more a property of the network in which they are embedded."

4. These maps of old solar eclipse routes are :100:.

"The total solar eclipse of June 8, 1918 crossed the United States from Washington State to Florida. This path is roughly similar to the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse and was the last time totality crossed the nation from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The US Naval Observatory dispatched an expedition to Baker City, Oregon and successfully observed the eclipse. An artist, Howard Russell Baker, sketched the corona and made a fine painting of the eclipse. Baker City is also within the path of the 2017 eclipse."

5. Silicon Valley has been marketing speak from the jump.

"One day a couple of marketing guys called Don and said they were going to be in San Francisco that day and invited him to lunch. I worked with Don as a reporter for EN and tagged along. During the lunch conversation, one guy said something about 'Silicon Valley.' I saw Don’s eyes subtly light up like a poker player who had just filled a straight, as he asked, 'Silicon Valley? Where’d that come from?'"

debacle. The literal meaning is a breaking up of ice in a river; a sudden deluge that breaks down all barriers, carrying stone and other debris before it. Transf. & fig. it is any violent disruption or sudden breakdown.

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