Bronze Age combat, moral philosophy and Reddit's AITA, Mondrian's fractal tree, and seven other fascinating papers.



There is rarely time to write about every cool science paper that comes our way; many worthy candidates sadly fall through the cracks over the course of the year. But as 2024 comes to a close, we've gathered ten of our favorite such papers at the intersection of science and culture as a special treat, covering a broad range of topics: from reenacting Bronze Age spear combat and applying network theory to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, to Spider-Man inspired web-slinging tech and a mathematical connection between a turbulent phase transition and your morning cup of coffee. Enjoy!

Reenacting Bronze Age spear combat
Physics of Ned Kahn’s kinetic sculptures
How brewing coffee connects to turbulence
Network theory and Bach's music
The philosophy of Reddit's AITA
Fractal scaling of trees in art
IDing George Washington’s descendants
Spidey-inspired web-slinging tech
Solving a mystery of a 12th century supernova
Reviving a “lost” 16th century score

...read more at arstechnica.com