Sonya Stokes, an emergency room physician in the San Francisco Bay Area, braces herself for a daily deluge of patients sick with coughs, soreness, fevers, vomiting, and other flu-like symptoms. She’s desperate for information, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a critical source of urgent analyses of the flu and other public health… Continue reading Urgent CDC Data on Influenza and Bird Flu Go Missing as Outbreaks Escalate
Tag: Quantum Stuff
New Proofs Probe the Limits of Mathematical Truth
The world of mathematics is full of unreachable corners, where unsolvable problems live. Now, yet another has been exposed. In 1900, the eminent mathematician David Hilbert announced a list of 23 key problems to guide the next century of mathematical research. His problems not only provided a road map for the field but reflected a… Continue reading New Proofs Probe the Limits of Mathematical Truth
How to Calm Your Election Anxiety—Even after Polls Close
Just about everybody is really worried about the U.S.’s Election Day, which is coming up on us fast. In a recent poll from the American Psychological Association, 72 percent of people said they were concerned that the results of the election could lead to violence. And 56 percent said it could end democracy in the… Continue reading How to Calm Your Election Anxiety—Even after Polls Close
The Virus That Causes Mpox Keeps Getting Better at Spreading in People
November 1, 2024 5 min read The Virus That Causes Mpox Keeps Getting Better at Spreading in People Analysis of a strain of the virus circulating in Central Africa shows genetic mutations indicative of sustained human-to-human spread By Max Kozlov & Nature magazine Colorized transmission electron micrograph of monkeypox virus particles (pink and yellow) found… Continue reading The Virus That Causes Mpox Keeps Getting Better at Spreading in People
Voting Has Never Been More Secure Than It Is Right Now
Now is the best time in the history of the U.S. to cast a vote. Yes, American elections have flaws. They’re marred by voter disenfranchisement, gerrymandering, the inherent weirdness of the electoral college and recent cases of ballot box arson. But the act of voting itself has been unfairly tarnished, most notably by former president… Continue reading Voting Has Never Been More Secure Than It Is Right Now
The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA
We scored likelihoods from the model using experimental tests of protein function. We found that if a base pair has high likelihood under Evo, then that base pair is likely to preserve or improve the protein’s function. But if that base pair has low likelihood, then putting that base pair into a protein sequence will… Continue reading The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA
How Noether’s Theorem Revolutionized Physics
But symmetries go beyond shape. Imagine you do an experiment, then you move 10 meters to the left and do it again. The results of the experiment don’t change, because the laws of physics don’t change from place to place. This is called translation symmetry. Now wait a few days and repeat your experiment again.… Continue reading How Noether’s Theorem Revolutionized Physics
Cosmologists Try a New Way to Measure the Shape of the Universe
There are slight variations in the CMB: Some spots on the last scattering surface (where the CMB photons originated) are a bit warmer than average, while others are a bit cooler. These patterns were created by sound waves propagating through the plasma of the early universe. The waves themselves were triggered by minute quantum fluctuations… Continue reading Cosmologists Try a New Way to Measure the Shape of the Universe
Epic Gravity Lens Lines Up Seven-Galaxy View
November 4, 2024 2 min read Epic Gravity Lens Lines Up Seven-Galaxy View A galaxy cluster bends light from seven background galaxies around it, letting astronomers peer into space and time By Tom Metcalfe edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier The Carousel Lens (center) bends the light of seven background galaxies. DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE &… Continue reading Epic Gravity Lens Lines Up Seven-Galaxy View
How Does Life Happen When There’s Barely Any Light?
Their estimate is a conservative one, he added, and it’s possible even fewer photons got through. “The ice cover is quite heterogeneous,” he explained. Because some parts of the sheet might allow more light through than others, the research team selected the upper thresholds of their light measurements. “In the end there’s some variety, and… Continue reading How Does Life Happen When There’s Barely Any Light?