The translucent exterior of a plastic soda bottle hides a secret in plain sight: hundreds of synthetic chemicals embedded in its seemingly innocuous material. These chemicals give the plastic its structure, flexibility and durability, among other qualities—the same traits that also make plastic last for centuries, causing it to accumulate and endure in nature. Before… Continue reading How Do Chemicals in Plastics Impact Your Endocrine System?
Tag: Quantum Stuff
The Mystery of the Missing Multicellular Prokaryotes
The genomes of prokaryotes, however, tend to collapse in size in the face of genetic drift, as suggested by work done by Howard Ochman of the University of Texas, Austin and Louis-Marie Bobay, now at North Carolina State University. It’s not clear why, but it may be because gene regulation in prokaryotes is much less… Continue reading The Mystery of the Missing Multicellular Prokaryotes
COVID-19 Leaves Its Mark on the Brain. Significant Drops in IQ Scores Are Noted.
COVID-19 Leaves Its Mark on the Brain. Significant Drops in IQ Scores Are Noted Research shows that even mild COVID-19 can lead to the equivalent of seven years of brain aging By Ziyad Al-Aly & The Conversation US Eva Almqvist/Alamy Stock Vector The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication… Continue reading COVID-19 Leaves Its Mark on the Brain. Significant Drops in IQ Scores Are Noted.
A Rosetta Stone for Mathematics
In 1940, from a jailhouse in Rouen, France, André Weil wrote one of the most consequential letters of 20th-century mathematics. He was serving time for refusing to join the French army, and he filled his days in part by writing letters to his sister, Simone, an accomplished philosopher living in London. In a previous letter,… Continue reading A Rosetta Stone for Mathematics
Dogged Dark Matter Hunters Find New Hiding Places to Check
If or when SLAC’s planned project, the Light Dark Matter Experiment (LDMX), receives funding — a decision from the Department of Energy is expected in the next year or so — it will scan for light dark matter. The experiment is designed to accelerate electrons toward a target made of tungsten in End Station A.… Continue reading Dogged Dark Matter Hunters Find New Hiding Places to Check
New AI Tools Predict How Life’s Building Blocks Assemble
They’ll be especially useful for creating rough predictions that can then be tested out computationally or experimentally. The biochemist Frank Uhlmann had the opportunity to pretest AlphaFold3 after running into a Google employee in a hallway of the Francis Crick Institute in London, where he works. He decided to look up a protein-DNA interaction that… Continue reading New AI Tools Predict How Life’s Building Blocks Assemble
What Does Milk Do for Babies?
Milk is more than just a food for babies. Breast milk has evolved to deliver thousands of diverse molecules including growth factors, hormones and antibodies, as well as microbes. Elizabeth Johnson, a molecular nutritionist at Cornell University, studies the effects of infants’ diet on the gut microbiome. These studies could hold clues to hard questions… Continue reading What Does Milk Do for Babies?
How the Solar Eclipse Will Impact Electricity Supplies
This article is part of a special report on the total solar eclipse that will be visible from parts of the U.S., Mexico and Canada on April 8, 2024. The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. During the most recent total solar eclipse visible in… Continue reading How the Solar Eclipse Will Impact Electricity Supplies
Moving Trees North Could Save Forests from a Changing Climate
On a brisk September morning, Brian Palik’s footfalls land quietly on a path in flickering light, beneath a red pine canopy in Minnesota’s iconic Northwoods. A mature red pine, also called Norway pine, is a tall, straight overstory tree that thrives in cold winters and cool summers. It’s the official Minnesota state tree and a… Continue reading Moving Trees North Could Save Forests from a Changing Climate
Does AI Know What an Apple Is? She Aims to Find Out.
What does “understanding” or “meaning” mean, empirically? What, specifically, do you look for? When I was starting my research program at Brown, we decided that meaning involves concepts in some way. I realize this is a theoretical commitment that not everyone makes, but it seems intuitive. If you use the word “apple” to mean apple,… Continue reading Does AI Know What an Apple Is? She Aims to Find Out.