Researchers from France and Spain have developed a theoretical model to forecast the movements of confined, densely packed crowds. The study, published in Nature, analyzed high-resolution video footage of the Chupinazo opening ceremony of the San Fermín Festival in Pamplona, Spain, and revealed a change in behavior akin to a phase change when the crowd…
research on The Soothsayer / page 6
Researchers from the University of Naples Federico II have discovered a method of cooking eggs that achieves perfectly cooked yolks and whites. By using periodic cooking, where the egg is alternately submerged in boiling and room-temperature water, the team was able to create a dish with a soft-boiled white and a sous vide-like yolk. This…
Google DeepMind’s AI problem solver, AlphaGeometry 2, has surpassed the level of the average gold medallist in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). The AI system, which was upgraded to include Google’s state-of-the-art large language model, Gemini, was able to solve 84% of all geometry problems set in IMOs over the past 25 years. This achievement…
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Boston has highlighted the uncertainty and turmoil facing the American scientific community. With thousands of scientists, advocates, and policy experts in attendance, the meeting has underscored the threats to funding, public data, and federal workers. The climate at institutions is described as chaotic, with…
Physicists at the University of New South Wales have successfully created and manipulated quantum superpositions of a single, large nuclear spin, a significant breakthrough in the field of quantum information processing. This achievement, which involves a Schrödinger’s cat state, has the potential to improve the accuracy of quantum computers and enable more efficient error correction….
Scientists have discovered the secret behind the mantis shrimp’s powerful punching limb, which can deliver deadly blows without damaging its own body. The study, published in Science, reveals that the shrimp’s club has a multilayered structure that absorbs shock waves, and researchers believe this could inspire the design of new artificial materials with useful properties….
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and Princeton University have discovered that bacterial cells in polymer solutions, such as mucus, form long cable-like structures that buckle and twist on each other, creating a “living gel.” This finding could lead to new treatments for bacterial infections in patients with cystic fibrosis and help scientists understand…
Researchers in Romania have made a groundbreaking discovery by analyzing diaries and documents from 16th century Transylvania to reconstruct the climate of the region during the Little Ice Age. The study found that the region experienced heat and droughts in the first half of the century, followed by increased rainfall. The findings offer a unique…
Researchers from Sweden and Estonia have discovered a new antiviral mechanism using nanoparticles, which could potentially tackle future viral outbreaks. The team found that triethanolamine terminated titania (TATT) nanoparticles showed significant antiviral activity against the enveloped swine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), but not against the non-enveloped encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV). The researchers propose that the antiviral…
Tech giant OpenAI has unveiled a pay-for-access tool called ‘deep research’, which synthesizes information from dozens or hundreds of websites into a cited report several pages long. This tool, similar to Google’s released in December, acts as a personal assistant, doing the equivalent of hours of work in tens of minutes. Scientists are divided on…