Tag Archives: Science Magazine

Covers: Science Magazine November 10, 2023 Preview

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Science Magazine – November 10, 2023: The new issue features Mode-locked “chip lasers” generating intense ultrashort pulses of light have been the backbone of ultrafast sciences and technologies. 

AI’s challenge of understanding the world

By MELANIE MITCHELL

In thinking about the challenge of getting artificial intelligence (AI) to understand our complex world, I recalled a Twitter post from a user of Tesla’s self-driving system. The user tweeted that his car kept stopping abruptly at a particular location for no apparent reason. Then he noticed a billboard advertisement on the side of the road, featuring a sheriff holding up a stop sign. The car’s vision system had interpreted this as an actual stop sign, and slammed on the brakes.

The Scottish wildcat has been wiped out by breeding with domestic cats

three captive Scottish wildcats
This trio of captive Scottish wildcats is part of the Royal Zoological Society’s Saving Wildcats Project.

After 2000 years of isolation, a few decades of interbreeding have rendered the animal “genomically extinct”

BY DAVID GRIMM

Though it lies in ruins on the northeast coast of England, Kilton Castle was once an imposing stone fortress, home to several noble families, and—it appears—at least eight cats. Archaeological excavations in the 1960s uncovered a well, at the bottom of which lay the bones of several felines dating back to the 14th century. The animals were an odd mix: Some were domestic cats, but other, larger specimens appeared to be European wildcats, a fierce, burly species that has inhabited the continent for hundreds of thousands of years.

Science Magazine – November 3, 2023 Issue

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Science Magazine – November 3, 2023: The new issue features Heavy Herbivory – Plant consumption limits restoration success; How a long-running rainforest study nurtured Peruvian science; No easy way to explain cosmic expansion mystery; Ancient fish reveal the origin of the shoulder in vertebrates, and more…

No easy way to explain cosmic expansion mystery

“Hubble tension” could be a signal of new physics. But deciphering it may not be simple

Ancient fish reveal the origin of the shoulder in vertebrates

Cleft in fossil skull suggests solution to a long-standing mystery: shoulder tissue evolved from gill arches

To “feel” better, sleep on it!

Emotional memories are consolidated during REM sleep

Science Magazine – October 27, 2023 Issue

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Science Magazine – October 27, 2023: The new issue features The Hypothalamus – Coordinating basic survival functions; High hopes for low-growing corn plants; A quantum process in a laser microchip….

Small and mighty: The hypothalamus

By MAROSO & PETER STERN

If you pause for a second and think about the activities that occupy most of your day, presumably sleeping, eating, and engaging in social interactions are among the first that come to your mind. Perhaps surprisingly, a small area buried deep inside the brain, called the hypothalamus, is responsible for coordinating neuronal signals related to these activities. By controlling the homeostasis of the neuroendocrine, limbic, and autonomic nervous systems, the hypothalamus is a key brain region for many physiological and pathological processes. Despite its small size, the hypothalamus has a complex cellular organization and circuitry that determine its structural and functional organization. It is composed of 11 nuclei grouped by their location and has vast, mostly bidirectional connections with many neuronal and endocrine systems.

HIGH HOPES FOR SHORT CORN

Plants bred or engineered to be short can stand up better to windstorms. They could also boost yields and benefit the environment

To an interstate traveler—or anyone lost in a corn maze—the most impressive feature of corn is its stature. Modern corn can grow twice as tall as a person, but height has drawbacks, making the plants vulnerable to wind and more difficult for farmers to tend. Plant scientists think corn can be improved by making it shorter, and leading seed companies are doing that through both conventional breeding and genetic engineering. Bayer has launched a short variety in Mexico, another company is selling its versions in the United States, and more are getting involved.

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Oct 20, 2023

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Science Magazine – October 20, 2023: The new issue features Copious Cicadas – Mass emergence alters food webs; A giant European telescope rises as U.S. rivals await rescue; Probe of Alzheimer’s studies finds ‘egregious misconduct’, and more…

A giant European telescope rises as U.S. rivals await rescue

ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) under construction at sunrise in the Chilean Atacama Desert.
In August, the Sun rose behind the Extremely Large Telescope, under construction in Chile.

Past the halfway point, Extremely Large Telescope prepares to receive first mirrors

A web of steel girders is rising from the flattened summit of Cerro Armazones, 3000 meters above sea level in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The dome it will support will be vast—with a footprint as big as a soccer field and almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty— and unexpectedly nimble: It will smoothly rotate on rails as a giant telescope inside tracks stars through the night.

Probe of Alzheimer’s studies finds ‘egregious misconduct’

Co-developer of biotech’s drug couldn’t supply original data

U.S. hands out $7 billion for hydrogen hubs

Gas could replace fossil fuels and fight climate change—if it is made cleanly

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Oct 13, 2023

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Science Magazine – October 13, 2023: The new issue features the genetic organization of the human brain; Diversity of primate brain cells unraveled; A single-cell genomic atlas for maturation of the human cerebellum during early childhood, and more…

A family portrait of human brain cells

A cell census provides information on the source of human brain specialization

The brain is composed of multiple regions associated with distinct functions, which have become further specialized in the human lineage. To define how this specialization is implemented, how it arises during development, and how it has emerged over the course of human evolution, a detailed understanding of the cells that make up the human brain is required. 

The ecology of whales in a changing climate

Some whale populations are exhibiting unexpected cycles of boom and bust

Research Preview: Science Magazine – October 6, 2023

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Science Magazine – October 6, 2023: The new issue features Ancient DNA; The risks of radioactive waste water release; Dating the arrival of humans in the Americas; and more…

The risks of radioactive waste water release

The wastewater releas e from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is expected to have negligible effects on people and the ocean

In 2011, the east coast of Japan suffered an earthquake and tsunami that resulted in the meltdown of three of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. This led to an uncontrolled release of large amounts of radioactive material to the surrounding land and to the Pacific Ocean. 

Dating the arrival of humans in the Americas

A debate about the age of ancient footprints continues

Dating the oldest evidence for the presence of Homo sapiens in the Americas is a matter of ongoing debate. One view is that the earliest such evidence is from 16,000 to 14,000 years ago, after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), when people would have crossed the Beringian strait from Siberia over a dry land bridge.

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Sept 29, 2023

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Science Magazine – September 29, 2023: This special issue examines the threats to human health and how they can be mitigated.

AN UNHEALTHY CLIMATE

Introducing a special issue of Science

Earth scientists often call climate change a “great global experiment,” which humanity is heedlessly performing as we pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The dire consequences are already becoming clear—not just for the workings of the planet, but for our own health. Over the next few days, the stories in this special package will explore the threats, and how we can minimize them.

Will flu outbreaks ease in a warming world?

From cold viruses to influenza to respiratory syncytial virus, viruses that spread through the air cause billions of infections each year. That makes it important to understand how they will respond to climate change. But little is known so far, except that different viruses will react differently. Measles, for instance, spreads efficiently in all climates, suggesting global warming will make little difference to its transmission.

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Sept 22, 2023

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Science Magazine – September 22, 2023: This illustration depicts a human form out of a collage of heatmaps (red and blue squares).

Peak solar activity is arriving sooner than expected, reaching levels not seen in 20 years

The Sun’s flare-ups can threaten satellites and electric grids, highlighting need for better forecasts

Quantum algorithm offers faster way to hack internet encryption

Scheme to factor giant numbers could be more efficient than 30-year-old Shor’s algorithm

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Sept 15, 2023

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Science Magazine – September 15, 2023: Blue jays, similar to other corvid songbirds, are known for their impressive cognitive abilities, presumably due to their relatively large brains. 

Mars Sample Return risks consuming NASA science

Forthcoming cost estimate for budget-busting mission could lead to strict caps from Congress

Iran prepares to erect a digital wall

Researchers feel increasingly isolated as government moves to restrict internet access

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Sept 8, 2023

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Science Magazine – September 8, 2023: Reducing single-use cutlery with green nudges: Evidence from China’s food-delivery industry; Anatomy of a volcanic eruption undersea, and more…

Anatomy of a volcanic eruption undersea

Submarine flows from the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai eruption decimated seafloor cables

In December 2021, an undersea volcano in the southern Pacific Ocean, the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai (hereafter called the Hunga volcano) began erupting. In January 2022 the eruption reached a powerful climax, triggering atmospheric waves that traveled around the globe and a tsunami that swept across the Pacific Ocean. An estimated 75% of Earth’s volcanoes are underwater, and 20% of all fatalities caused by volcanic eruptions since 1600 CE have been associated with underwater volcanism (3).

Reducing single-use cutlery with green nudges: Evidence from China’s food-delivery industry

China’s high demand for online food delivery resulted in an increase in the use of disposable, single-use cutlery. Disposable cutlery increases plastic pollution, and paper napkins and wooden chopsticks contribute to environmental degradation that endangers wildlife and marine species and compromises human health. Informed by the literature on “green nudges, ” which are prompts to promote environmentally friendly behaviors, He et al. collaborated with Alibaba to use its mobile food delivery platform, Eleme, in a longitudinal field study across China.