🦻 What Can We Hear in Space?

The latest from Nautilus, and this week’s Facts So Romantic. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( This Thursday, read the latest stories from Nautilus—and this week’s Facts So Romantic below [PHILOSOPHY]( [Who Controls Your Thoughts?]( Our minds are being coerced in covert ways. BY KATHERINE HARMON COURAGE In 2017, Simon McCarthy-Jones wrote an article about schizophrenia for The Conversation.[Continue reading→]( The latest from Nautilus [ENVIRONMENT]( [Tropical Forests in Big Trouble]( Over a third of all species of trees on the planet may face extinction. BY SYRIS VALENTINE [Continue reading→]( [ASTRONOMY]( [What Can We Hear in Space?]( The music of the cosmos is stranger than you think. BY CASPAR HENDERSON[Continue reading→]( [HEALTH]( [Why I See Static Everywhere]( What we know about a mysterious condition called visual snow. BY CLARISSA WRIGHT [Continue reading→]( [ENVIRONMENT]( [The Landslide Problem]( Where natural disasters are getting more deadly. BY SUMMER RYLANDER[Continue reading→]( WE'RE CURIOUS TO KNOW... Who (or what) has had the most surprising influence on your thinking and decisions? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by [“Who Controls Your Thoughts?”]([)]( Top Answers to Our Previous Question(On the Abnormal Way You Experience the World) - I hear electricity. Lights are the loudest indoors, but outdoor power lines are ridiculously loud. – Aimée C. - Everything I look at jiggles slightly, especially if it is at the edges of my field of vision. I still can't handle things like wallpaper patterns, as those really move. I had seizures up to the age of eight. When I was in school, I had a host of visual problems up to and including hallucinations. Watching my high school teachers as they lectured, I would be focused on the hair on a freckle on their chins, and I would panic. – Tracy F. - I too have visual snow. In fact I wrote an article for VICE in 2016 that brought international attention to the condition. At the time, I was told the condition was unlikely to worsen (it hasn’t). But it does continue to affect my reality and place in the world. – Kate R. FACTS SO ROMANTIC The 5 Best Things We Learned Today During World War II, the British needed a cover story for their pilots downing German planes in the dark using new radar technology, so they said British pilots were eating carrots in vast quantities. [Nautilus→]( Roughly 20,000 to 25,000 tree species are threatened with extinction globally in tropical forests alone. [Nautilus→]( By the time you’re 50 miles up, the atmosphere is so thin that the only sounds that can pass through it are at frequencies typically below the range of human hearing such as those from earthquakes. [Nautilus→]( At the center of Messier 87, a giant galaxy 55 million light-years from Earth, is a darkness 24 billion miles across and as massive as 6.5 billion suns—a trapdoor to infinity called a black hole. [The New York Times→]( The smallest, tightest knot is just 54 atoms long. [Nature Communications→]( [“People would prefer to give themselves an electric shock than sit quietly with their thoughts.”]( [Simon McCarthy-Jones talks to Nautilus about what freedom of thought is, and what it would mean to protect it.]( From The Porthole—short sharp looks at science [PSYCHOLOGY]( [Thinking About God May Encourage Risk-Taking]( How faith can provide a psychological safety net. BY JIM DAVIES Most God-fearing Americans feel the Almighty has got their back: Some 97 percent of those who believe in the God of the Bible say God has protected them at some point. [Continue reading→]( Your free story this Thursday! [EVOLUTION]( [Why Social Science Needs Evolutionary Theory]( Evolutionary theory has the potential to transform education and, through it, society. BY CRISTINE H. LEGARE My high school biology teacher, Mr. Whittington, put a framed picture of a primate ancestor in the front of his classroom—a place of reverence. [Continue reading for free→]( We want to reward YOU for being a Nautilus reader Starting today, you can earn money just by sharing the stories you already love and helping to grow our subscriber community. When you sign up for [our new affiliate program](, you’ll get a unique tracking link you can share with anyone. Anytime someone clicks that link and subscribes to Nautilus, you’ll get paid up to $50. It’s as easy as that. Join us, and start earning today. [JOIN THE NAUTILUS AFFILIATE PROGRAM]( P.S. The Ukrainian evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky was born on this day in 1900. He’s well known for the observation that “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” (the title of his 1973 [essay](). Cristine H. Legare wrote that if Dobzhansky’s right, then “[nothing in human psychology, behavior, and culture does either.](” Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading. [Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. Plus, [browse our archive]( of past print issues, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2023 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? [Unsubscribe](