Samir Varma

How Easter Island’s giant statues “walked” to their final platforms Workers with ropes could make the moai “walk” in zig-zag motion along roads tailor-made for the purpose.

How Easter Island’s giant statues “walked” to their final platforms - Ars Technica arstechnica.com/science/2025...

OpenAI's Nick Turley on transforming ChatGPT into an operating system | TechCrunch In an interview, OpenAI's Head of ChatGPT discusses the company's push into developing an AI operating system full of third-party apps.

OpenAI's Nick Turley on transforming ChatGPT into an operating system | TechCrunch techcrunch.com/2025/10/08/o...

Fat-loss drug Mounjaro now India's No. 2 pharma brand | India News - The Times of India India News: Eli Lilly's weight-loss drug Mounjaro is rapidly climbing the ranks in the Indian pharmaceutical market, nearing GlaxoSmithKline's antibiotic Augmenti

Fat-loss drug Mounjaro now India's No. 2 pharma brand | India News - The Times of India timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/fat-lo...

Claude Sonnet 4.5 knows when it’s being tested Anthropic's new model appears to use "eval awareness" to be on its best behavior

Claude Sonnet 4.5 knows when it’s being tested www.transformernews.ai/p/claude-son...

Prediction Markets Are Very Accurate - Marginal REVOLUTION alexmccullough at Dune has a very good post on the accuracy of Polymarket prediction markets. First, how do we measure accuracy? Suppose a prediction market predicts an event will happen with p=.7, i.e....

A very nice post from @Atabarrok. Prediction Markets Are Very Accurate - Marginal REVOLUTION

What is India's true national religion? How did it come about? open.substack.com/pub/samirvar...

AI-Designed Phages A new paper shows that a generative AI model can design viable bacteriophages.

AI-Designed Phages www.asimov.press/p/ai-phages?...

Scientists find that ice generates electricity when bent A study co-led by ICN2 reveals that ice is a flexoelectric material, meaning it can produce electricity when unevenly deformed. Published in Nature Physics, this discovery could have major…

Scientists find that ice generates electricity when bent phys.org/news/2025-09...

IBM wows with Granite 4 LLM launch and hybrid Mamba/Transformer architecture venturebeat.com/ai/western-q...

Wild Dogs Follow Familiar Routes When Traveling, Unlike Free-Spirited Wild Cats That Explore New Places Learn about the different ways that wild cats and dogs travel in nature, reflecting long-standing evolutionary strategies.

Wild Dogs Follow Familiar Routes When Traveling, Unlike Free-Spirited Wild Cats That Explore New Places www.discovermagazine.com/wild-dogs-fo...

I had an excellent time talking to Gwendolyn (@profdolske.bsky.social) and Rudy about Free Will and AI: www.goodisinthedetails.com/podcast/epis... and podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g.... They both ask superb questions.

China's oyster-inspired 'bone glue' bonds fractures in minutes A new oyster-inspired Bone-02 adhesive can revolutionize bone repair without metal fasteners.

China's oyster-inspired 'bone glue' bonds fractures in minutes interestingengineering.com/science/chin...

Scientists want to treat complex bone fractures with a bone-healing gun It’s a bit like a handheld 3D printer, with all the accuracy challenges that implies.

Scientists want to treat complex bone fractures with a bone-healing gun arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Indians are the world's largest consumers of Whiskey. Need I say more? Yes! open.substack.com/pub/samirvar...

Quantum computers have finally achieved unconditional supremacy For the first time, researchers have mathematically proven that a quantum computer can solve a particular task faster than an ordinary computer, in a way that can never be beaten

Quantum computers have finally achieved unconditional supremacy www.newscientist.com/article/2496...

World's first ‘behavior transplant’ between species achieved In a breakthrough study, scientists have transferred a courtship behavior from one species to another, triggering the recipient to perform this completely foreign act as if it was its own. While genes...

World's first ‘behavior transplant’ between species achieved newatlas.com/biology/unkn...

Self-Assembly Gets Automated in Reverse of ‘Game of Life’ | Quanta Magazine In cellular automata, simple rules create elaborate structures. Now researchers can start with the structures and reverse-engineer the rules.

Self-Assembly Gets Automated in Reverse of ‘Game of Life’ | Quanta Magazine www.quantamagazine.org/self-assembl...

AI Music Artist Lands Multi-Million Dollar Record Deal — Report AI musician Xania Monet has reportedly signed a multi-million dollar record deal. Read on to learn all about it.

AI Music Artist Lands Multi-Million Dollar Record Deal — Report  www.mandatory.com/news/1663026...

Physicists achieve first entangled measurement of W states – Physics World Breakthrough in Japan could pave the way for robust quantum communication and scalable networks

My daughter's first, "Physics World" (ie, non technical) article: physicsworld.com/a/physicists...

Top News, Latest headlines, Latest News, World News & U.S News - UPI.com UPI delivers the latest headlines from around the world: Top News, Entertainment, Health, Business, Science and Sports News - United Press International

Study: Chimps consume the equivalent of two alcoholic drinks per day - UPI.com www.upi.com/Odd_News/202...

Just how ridiculous is the Indian property market? My new post is up: open.substack.com/pub/samirvar...

India’s New Universities Offer Hope as Study-Abroad Dreams Fade An uptick in private universities indicates an inflection point for the higher-education sector

India’s New Universities Offer Hope as Study-Abroad Dreams Fade: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

You can't eval GPT5 anymore — LessWrong The GPT-5 API is aware of today's date (no other model provider does this). This is problematic because the model becomes aware that it is in a simul…

You can't eval GPT5 anymore — LessWrong www.lesswrong.com/posts/DLZokL...

An eight-year asymptomatic retention of a knife blade in the chest: a case report academic.oup.com/jscr/article...

This Year’s Nobel Prize in Physics Is Awarded to Three Scientists for Work in Quantum Mechanics John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work showing how bizarre microscopic quantum effects can infiltrate our large-scale, everyday world

The world really is quantum all the way down. This has consequences. Read my book for many of them! amzn.to/4aMQJD1

2025 Nobel Prize in Physics Goes to Researchers Who Brought Quantum Mechanics into the Macroscale World | Scientific American www.scientificamerican.com/article/2025...

Cannabis extract found to be effective for lower back pain A clinical trial has found that VER-01, a drug derived from cannabis, eases chronic lower back pain without serious side effects or signs of addiction

Cannabis extract found to be effective for lower back pain | New Scientist

Fractal Chaos Discovered in Prime Numbers Mathematicians have found a new way to predict how prime numbers behave

Mathematicians Discover Prime Number Pattern in Fractal Chaos | Scientific American www.scientificamerican.com/article/math...

My second post on India's (normal) language chaos is up! open.substack.com/pub/samirvar...

Policing, motherhood, obesity Justin Bieber family values. Institutions of motherhood. Policing Podcast. Health: My panel chat on obesity. Autism: Naomi Fisher against determinism. Innovation circles.

Another excellent post from @benyeohben: substack.com/home/post/p-...

AI has had zero effect on jobs so far: Yale study : Other studies are finding the same thing

AI has had zero effect on jobs so far: Yale study www.theregister.com/2025/10/01/a...