News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:First Shape Found That Can't Pass Through Itself by AmbroseBierce on Friday October 24, 2025 @07:24PM (#45700113)
For laymen's sake I think the title should say "First shape (without curves) found that [...]"
Re:First Shape Found That Can't Pass Through Itself by bonoboTP on Saturday October 25, 2025 @03:53AM (#45702089)
And not "pass through itself" but "pass through its copy"
Re:First Shape Found That Can't Pass Through Itself by KernalSanders on Saturday October 25, 2025 @04:42AM (#45702277)
The article isn't really for the layperson. It's confusing why several people are nitpicking at the title.
Re:First Shape Found That Can't Pass Through Itself by integralid on Saturday October 25, 2025 @05:36AM (#45702519)
Because not-laypoeople ale precisely the kind of people who would nitpick the technically incorrect title.
Re:First Shape Found That Can't Pass Through Itself by CoastalCoder on Saturday October 25, 2025 @07:50AM (#45703117)
I'm a lay person w.r.t. this topic, and I assumed the great exposition was meant exactly for persons like me.
Re:First Shape Found That Can't Pass Through Itself by blendergeek on Saturday October 25, 2025 @08:26AM (#45703357)
This is quanta magazine. It is for lay people. The reason people are "nitpicking" the title is that "shape" is not a technical term. The technical term for what was found is "convex polyhedron". I read so much of the article before I was sure that it was talking about convex polyhedra specifically because the title is so ambiguous.
Re:First Shape Found That Can't Pass Through Itself by ndsipa_pomu on Saturday October 25, 2025 @11:36AM (#45704688)
Quanta Magazine is very much designed for non-technical lay people.

From their About page: Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent online publication launched by the Simons Foundation in 2012 to enhance public understanding of science.

Re:First Shape Found That Can't Pass Through Itself by MountDoom on Saturday October 25, 2025 @12:37PM (#45705167)
Oh come on. Quanta Magazine basically writes for HN. They have very little online footprint elsewhere, but they feature here multiple times a week and I'm sure they know it. The titles are almost always in this mold, implying some profound yet vague discovery. Some real, recent examples:

  - "Researchers Discover the Optimal Way to Optimize"
  - "Origami Patterns Solve a Major Physics Riddle"
  - "A simple way to measure knots has come unraveled"
  - "The Hidden Math of Ocean Waves Crashes Into View"
I don't necessarily mind it, even if I don't find the articles very informative. But it's certainly fair game to nitpick this borderline-clickbait style.