WELCOME
Thanks for coming to visit my website. I write about science, technology, foreign affairs, and other subjects.
Follow me on Twitter: @kkakaesDrones and Aerial Observation
I edited and wrote part of a short book published by New America in July 2015 and freely available online, about how drones are being used in new ways around the world. It's meant to be useful to people who want to fly drones.The Pioneer Detectives
I published a short book with The Millions.
It's the story of the Pioneer Anomaly, a long-standing mystery. The book is short and fun—the length of a novella—but also, in the words of Amazon's reviewer, "powerful and sad". If you've got any curiosity about how NASA works behind the scenes or why scientists believe what they do, I think you'll enjoy the book.
It is available on Amazon as a Kindle Single and also on Apple's iBooks.Drone Wars
I wrote a chapter on the long history of drone technology going back to the early 20th century in this edited Cambridge University Press volume.
Announcing “Transformation”
10 September 2026
I’m writing a weekly (more often when news merits) newsletter on math and AI for the fine folks over at Quanta Magazine. Check it out!
[Quanta Magazine]
AI Has Helped Solve of Math’s $1 Million Millennium Prize Problems
8 September 2026
Mathematicians at OpenAI showed that the Navier-Stokes equations, which describe how fluids flow, can sometimes “blow up.” But the massive result is not without controversy. This article tells some of the story of how the ideas behind the proof were developed by Diego Córdoba of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Madrid and Luis Martínez-Zoroa of CUNEF University.
[Quanta Magazine]
The Quietest Mathematician Has Always Been Worth Listening To
23 July 2026
John Pardon sees connections between different areas of math that others don’t. For that vision, he’s now been awarded a Fields Medal.
[Quanta Magazine]
The AI Revolution in Math Has Arrived [Podcast]
26 May 2026
A conversation with Quanta’s Editor-in-Chief, Samir Patel, about how artificial intelligence is changing math.
Two Researchers Are Rebuilding Mathematics From the Ground Up
20 May 2026
By replacing the most fundamental concept in topology, Peter Scholze and Dustin Clausen are taking the first step in a far bigger program to understand why numbers behave the way they do.
[Quanta Magazine]
clips, Mathematics
tags: Quanta Magazine
How Alexander Grothendieck Revolutionized 20th-Century Mathematics
20 May 2026
Grothendieck is revered in the world of math; outside of it, he’s known for his unusual life, if he’s known at all. But what were his actual mathematical contributions?
[Quanta Magazine]
The AI Revolution in Math Has Arrived
13 April 2026
AI is being used to prove new results at a rapid pace. Mathematicians think this is just the beginning.
[Quanta Magazine]
‘Open Space’ Review: Orbiting the Problem
20 March 2026
Our dependence on satellite technology means that private citizens now wield enormous power over communications, transportation and war.
[Wall Street Journal]
‘The Tower and the Ruin’ Review: Seeking Tolkien’s Past
12 December 2025
Was a real privilege to review a moving analysis of some of my favorite books which shows how literary criticism can be a way to show your family how much you love them.
[Wall Street Journal]
Book Reviews, clips, Essays
tags: Wall Street Journal
Artificial Intelligence Didn’t Deserve the Physics Nobel Prize
11 October 2024
Why the 2024 Physics Nobel shouldn’t have gone to computer science research, however impactful it has been.
[Nomial]
The Year In Math 2023
24 December 2023
A retrospective of 2023’s mathematical discoveries.
[Quanta Magazine]
The Year in Math 2022
24 December 2022
A retrospective of 2022’s mathematical discoveries.
[Quanta Magazine]
How Elon Musk sped up the future
19 July 2022
An interview with Lori Garver, former deputy administrator of NASA.
“Time and time again, things that came up that typically would take an organization weeks or months to work through that SpaceX could do in hours or days,” she said.
[POLITICO]
clips, Science and Technology
tags: POLITICO
Elon Musk’s Biggest Worry
26 April 2022
‘Don’t Leave the Space Open’ — How the West Can Defeat Putin
26 March 2022
An interview with Molly McKew, a former adviser to the Georgian government.
She lays out an argument for aggressively combatting Russian disinformation without compromising free speech.
[POLITICO]