Waiting for the Best Option Lowers Your Standards, Spies Can Eavesdrop Using Light Bulbs, and Why Atoms Don’t Look Like the Solar System

Learn about how spies can use light bulbs to eavesdrop on conversations; why atoms remind us of our solar system; and how you predictably lower your standards when waiting for the best option.

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Spies can eavesdrop on conversations by measuring changes in light output from a lightbulb by Grant Currin

• Greenberg, A. (2020, June 12). Spies Can Eavesdrop by Watching a Light Bulb’s Vibrations. Wired; WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/lamphone-light-bulb-vibration-spying/
• Lamphone. (2020). Ben Nassi. https://www.nassiben.com/lamphone

Why do atoms and the solar system look alike? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Mohana)

• Dutch, S. (2005, updated 2020). What Do Atoms Really “Look Like?” Stevedutch.net. https://stevedutch.net/petrology/whatatomslooklike.htm
• PBS Space Time. (2016). Why is the Earth Round and the Milky Way Flat? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj6Kc1mvsdo&t=643s

When waiting for the best option, you lower your standards in a predictable way by Kelsey Donk

• Decide now or wait for something better? (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/uoz-dno061820.php
• Baumann, C., Singmann, H., Gershman, S. J., & Helversen, B. von. (2020). A linear threshold model for optimal stopping behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(23), 12750–12755. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2002312117
• Secretary Problem (A Optimal Stopping Problem) - GeeksforGeeks. (2017, October 20). GeeksforGeeks. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/secretary-problem-optimal-stopping-problem/

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