Tag Archives: Research

Research Preview: Science Magazine -January 12, 2024

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Science Magazine – January 11, 2024: The new issue features ‘Lost City’ – Ancient development in the Upper Amazon; What SARS-CoV-2’s mild cousins reveal about Covid-19; Specifying laws of friction and a Continued decline in sharks despite regulation…

The hottest year was even hotter than expected

Greenhouse gases, El Niño, and cleaner air fueled record heat in 2023

Tectonic plate under Tibet may be splitting in two

Peeled-apart Indian Plate could be affecting earthquake hazards

Research Preview: Nature Magazine January 11, 2024

Volume 625 Issue 7994

Nature Magazine – January 10, 2024: The latest issue cover features Steppe Change’ – Migration and lifestyle shifts in prehistoric Eurasia linked to raised genetic risk of multiple sclerosis.

Cancer-fighting CAR T cells could be made inside body with viral injection

Scientists are devising ways to edit the genomes of immune cells without having to extract them from the people being treated.

Japan earthquakes: the science behind the deadly tremors

A massive quake that triggered tsunamis, fires and multiple aftershocks was the largest on the country’s west coast in more than a century.

Boosting microbiome science worldwide could save millions of children’s lives

Studies of the microbes living on and in our bodies are conducted mainly in a few rich countries, squandering opportunities to improve the health of people globally.

Research Preview: Science Magazine – January 5, 2024

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Science Magazine – December 21, 2023: The new issue features a carnivorous Nepenthes gracilis pitcher plant luring an ant into a precarious position under the roof-like trap lid.

Dopamine regulates attitude toward risk

Specific brain pathways can lower or raise the willingness of monkeys to take risks

Magellanic cloud may be two galaxies, not one

Rethink of familiar object may boost odds that its name, offensive to some, will be changed

Research Preview: Nature Magazine January 4, 2024

Volume 625 Issue 7993

Nature Magazine – January 3, 2024: The latest issue cover features  an artist’s impression of a massive young star in the process of forming.

US nuclear-fusion lab enters new era: achieving ‘ignition’ over and over

NIF beamlines entering the lower hemisphere of the NIF Target Chamber, as seen from the ground floor of the Target Bay.

Researchers at the National Ignition Facility are consistently creating reactions that make more energy than they consume.

By Jeff Tollefson

In December 2022, after more than a decade of effort and frustration, scientists at the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) announced that they had set a world record by producing a fusion reaction that released more energy than it consumed — a phenomenon known as ignition. They have now proved that the feat was no accident by replicating it again and again, and the administration of US President Joe Biden is looking to build on this success by establishing a trio of US research centres to help advance the science.

DeepMind AI outdoes human mathematicians on unsolved problem

A player holds a hand of Set game cards over a green table.

Large language model improves on efforts to solve combinatorics problems inspired by the card game Set.

Davide Castelvecchi

The card game Set has long inspired mathematicians to create interesting problems.

Now, a technique based on large language models (LLMs) is showing that artificial intelligence (AI) can help mathematicians to generate new solutions.

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Dec 22, 2023

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Science Magazine – December 21, 2023: The new issue featuresAI-Powered Forecasting – Predicting worldwide weather and cyclone tracks with greater speed and accuracy; Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act, what’s next?; Long-sought quasiparticle could transform quantum computing and What Salvadorans feared about bitcoin…

The quantum phantom

A ghostly quasiparticle rooted in a century-old Italian mystery could unlock quantum computing’s potential—if only it could be pinned down

Are cryptocurrencies currencies? Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador

Preference for cash and privacy fears deterred bitcoin adoption in El Salvador.

Mimicking polar bear hairs in aerogel fibers

Encapsulated aerogel fibers offer thermal insulation, breathability, and strength

Research Preview: Nature Magazine Dec 21, 2023

Volume 624 Issue 7992

Nature Magazine – December 20, 2023: The latest issue cover features ten people who helped to shape science during the year. The cover takes its inspiration from one of the developments that dominated the year: artificial intelligence. 

From Einstein to AI: how 100 years have shaped science

Looking back a century reveals how much the research landscape has changed 

Earth is warming but Mount Everest is getting chillier

Winds triggered by climate change sweep cold air down from the summit of Mount Everest and other Himalayan peaks, leading to a cooling trend.

ChatGPT and science: the AI system was a force in 2023 — for good and bad

The poster child for generative AI software is a startling human mimic. It represents a potential new era in research, but brings risks.

Scientific American – January 2024 Preview

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Scientific American (December 19, 2023): The January 2024 issue features How Much Vitamin D Do You Need to Stay Healthy?; Inside Mathematicians’ Search for the Mysterious ‘Einstein Tile’; How Analyzing Cosmic Nothing Might Explain Everything; Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?; and Intervention at an Early Age May Hold Off the Onset of Depression…

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Dec 15, 2023

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Science Magazine – December 14, 2023: The new issue cover features The 2023 Breakthrough of the Year: Obesity meets its match – Blockbuster weight loss drugs show promise for a wider range of health benefits; Runners-Up: At last, modest headway against Alzheimer’s; and Breakdowns of the Year – What went wrong in the world of Science….

Obesity meets its match

Blockbuster weight loss drugs show promise for a wider range of health benefits

Obesity plays out as a private struggle and a public health crisis. In the United States, about 70% of adults are affected by excess weight, and in Europe that number is more than half. The stigma against fat can be crushing; its risks, life-threatening. Defined as a body mass index of at least 30, obesity is thought to power type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, fatty liver disease, and certain cancers.

At last, modest headway against Alzheimer’s

Medicine has had little to offer the tens of millions of people worldwide with Alzheimer’s disease, and the few approved treatments have only targeted symptoms. But in January, U.S. regulators greenlit the first drug that clearly, if modestly, slows cognitive decline by tackling the disease’s underlying biology; a second, related treatment is close behind. Neither comes close to a cure, and both have serious risks, but they offer new hope to patients and families.

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Research Preview: Nature Magazine Dec 14, 2023

Volume 624 Issue 7991

Nature Magazine – December 13, 2023: The latest issue cover features the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN), which presented nine papers that map the entire mouse brain in unprecedented detail.

BICCN: The first complete cell census and atlas of a mammalian brain

Generating a complete multimodal cell census and atlas of the mouse brain through collaborative data collection, tool development and analysis.

How immense mountains create one of the rainiest places on Earth

The western coast of Colombia can get more than 26 metres of rain a year, thanks to the influence of air jets hitting the Andes range.

This bird escaped extinction — but its genes hint at an ominous future

The extravagantly feathered Seychelles paradise flycatcher lacks genetic diversity, which might hamper its resilience to climate change and other threats.

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Dec 8, 2023

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Science Magazine – December 7, 2023: The new issue cover features new research that shows that farm animals may be capable of much cognitive powers than currently known…

What are farm animals thinking?

New research is revealing surprising complexity in the minds of goats, pigs, and other livestock

Delivering drugs with microrobots

Biomedical microrobots could overcome current challenges in targeted therapies

The unsustainable harvest of coastal sands

Sustainable management approaches are needed to protect coastal environments