Uncategorized
- Artificial Intelligence
Tech billionaires’ vision of an AI-dominated future is flawed — and dangerous
Adam Becker’s new book, More Everything Forever, investigates the dangers of a billionaire-driven tomorrow, in which trillions of humans live in space, served by AI.
- Health & Medicine
A drug for heavy metal poisoning may double as a snakebite treatment
An initial clinical trial in Kenya found no safety concerns, a first step toward testing unithiol as a treatment for venomous snakebites in people.
- Health & Medicine
Three U.S. tick species may cause a mysterious red meat allergy
Two cases of alpha-gal syndrome suggest that the lone star tick isn’t the only species in the United States capable of triggering an allergy to red meat.
- Science & Society
Federal cuts put help for mental health and drug addiction in peril
SAMHSA’s work is crucial to suicide and drug overdose prevention and mental health care. It may fall victim to changes to public health infrastructure.
- Artificial Intelligence
Spotting climate misinformation with AI requires expertly trained models
When classifying climate misinformation, general-purpose large language models lag behind models trained on expert-curated climate data.
- Paleontology
Could Spinosaurus swim? The fierce dinosaur ignites debate
Researchers are still divided about whether Spinosaurus was a swimmer or a wader. What’s clear is that confirming the first swimming dinosaur would be a game-changer.
- Science & Society
‘Pseudoscience’ digs into the allure and dangers of believing fake science
In their new book, Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen survey flat Earth theory, fake moon landings and other scientific myths and why people believe them.
- Animals
Bats wearing tiny mics reveal how the fliers avoid rush hour collisions
As thousands of bats launch nightly hunting, the cacophony of a dense crowd should stymie echolocation, a so-called “cocktail party nightmare.”
- Animals
Snakes are often the villains. A new book gives them a fair shake
From demon to danger noodle, human ideas about snakes can be as contradictory as the creatures themselves. In Slither, Stephen S. Hall challenges our serpent stereotypes.
- Health & Medicine
An overlooked organ may help the ovary function
No longer considered functionless, the “rediscovered” rete ovarii may be crucial for understanding “unexplainable” infertility and ovarian disorders.
- Paleontology
Scotland’s Isle of Skye was once a dinosaur promenade
New dinosaur fossil tracks on the Isle of Skye reveal that the once-balmy environment was home to both fierce theropods and massive sauropods.
- Animals
The story of dire wolves goes beyond de-extinction
Some question whether the pups are really dire wolves, or just genetically tweaked gray wolves. But the technology could be used to help at-risk animals.
