Author Peter Ward thinks he knows how the Earth will end. Well, perhaps not end, but cease being Earthlike -- the comfy place we know and love that supports mammalian life. By thinking across large spans of time (billions of years), Ward can extrapolate when Earth will cease to be habitable, due to natural planetary cycles. According to Ward's math, we're about halfway through the habitable stage of Earth -- but not to worry just yet: we've got many millions of years left. Ward studies mass... READ ON

I've pointed to nerdy analysis of Super Mario Brothers before. Back in February 2008, I came across a video that discussed Quantum Physics in Super Mario World, in which an anonymous blogger used a hacked Mario game to demonstrate a principal of theoretical quantum physics. Well, today we're moving from quantum physics to good old-fashioned regular physics. Specifically, the physics you learn in high school. High school physics teacher Glenn Elert's students write something called The Physics... READ ON

Netflix makes a business out of getting subscribers to add tons of DVDs to a list of discs that will later be mailed out. Theoretically, the more discs in that list, the longer that subscriber will remain with the service, since new movies will just keep coming. So a big part of Netflix's business is recommending titles to subscribers based on what they've previously enjoyed. Netflix calls its recommendation system... READ ON

In 1970, mathematician John Horton Conway invented a game called Life. Conway was intrigued by John von Neumann's theories about self-replicating automata: simple mathematical formulae representing virtual "life forms" that could be depicted in a virtual world. Of course, in von Neumann's day the "virtual world" was a piece of graph paper with some squares filled in (squares being the life forms), but still, it was a pretty cool idea. Conway took von Neumann's ideas a step further, creating a computer... READ ON