Scientists warn that the devastating wildfires in southern California are a harbinger of a new era of urban firestorms, fueled by climate change and population growth. These blazes are fundamentally different from wildland fires, as they involve buildings becoming fuel, driving the spread of flames in densely populated areas. Researchers are racing to understand the…
Earth on The Soothsayer / page 5
Donald Trump’s second term as US President is shaping up to be different from his first, with the appointment of three key science-advisory positions. Michael Kratsios, a tech expert, has been nominated to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and serve as the President’s science adviser. David Sacks, a tech…
Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery in understanding the progression of Huntington’s disease, a fatal genetic condition that affects movement, balance, and cognition. The study found that a faulty DNA-repair mechanism in neurons leads to the accumulation of repeat errors, which eventually causes the neurons to die. This knowledge has led scientists to identify DNA-repair…
Scientists have made a breakthrough in cancer treatment by disguising tumours to look like pig organs, tricking the immune system into attacking the cancerous cells. This innovative approach has shown promising results in monkeys and humans, with some tumours shrinking or even disappearing. However, further testing is needed to confirm the efficacy of this novel…
The European Commission is proposing ways to boost dual-use research, which has met resistance from some universities and researchers. The push comes amid increasing militarization of European research, driven by the geopolitical context. The EU is exploring ways to harness the potential of dual-use research, including introducing it into the main civilian-research programme. Forecast for…
The social-media platform Bluesky has become increasingly popular among researchers following the changes at X, formerly known as Twitter. Bluesky’s early-day Twitter-like atmosphere has attracted many researchers who share their work, network, and engage with the public. As a result, Nature is interested in understanding how scientists are utilizing Bluesky and whether it has become…
OpenAI’s latest experimental chatbot model, o3, has achieved a high score on the Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus for Artificial General Intelligence (ARC-AGI) test, marking progress towards artificial general intelligence (AGI). The test, created by AI researcher François Chollet, assesses a system’s ability to reason and generalize. While the achievement is significant, experts caution that it’s…
A recent survey of almost 100 authors found that researchers who made honest mistakes in their papers, leading to retractions, experienced extreme stress. The study, published in Royal Society Open Science, identified 18 types of data-handling mistakes, with incorrect data processing and analysis being the most common. This highlights the emotional toll of retractions on…
A group of 58 researchers has proposed a revised definition of obesity, shifting the focus from body mass index (BMI) to excess body fat and its impact on the body. This new approach aims to improve clinical care, public-health policies, and societal attitudes toward obesity, which affects over 1 billion people worldwide and is linked…
A recent study by Paul Jensen, a microbial-systems biologist at the University of Michigan, has revealed that just ten bacterial species account for half of all publications, while nearly three-quarters of all named bacteria don’t have a single paper devoted to them. This bias towards a small number of model organisms has significant implications for…