Science

"Almost all crank movements will eventually devolve to sectarian strife... It’s the only upside of watching these idiots is knowing this fate." Dr. Mark Hoofnagle

The post Doctors Who Rose to Power Bashing the Medical Establishment Are Now the Medical Establishment. Good Luck With That. first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Astronomers have discovered a protoplanetary disks where planets are born thrive in the most violent region of our Galaxy. For years the galactic center was thought to be too chaotic and hostile for planet formation. This is wrong. New ALMA observations have seen planet nurseries flourishing in the turbulent Central Molecular Zone near our Galaxy's heart, challenging everything we thought we knew about how worlds are born. Planets find a way.

A new gene editor may soon open the door to gene therapies for a wider array of diseases.

A new study explores how EOS transmits ultrashort laser pulses through crystals that change in response to an applied electric field. This technique allows researchers to accurately capture the shape and timing of electric fields across a broad range of frequencies.

A new study explores how EOS transmits ultrashort laser pulses through crystals that change in response to an applied electric field. This technique allows researchers to accurately capture the shape and timing of electric fields across a broad range of frequencies.

Whether bismuth is part of a class of materials highly suitable for quantum computing and spintronics was a long-standing issue. Research has now revealed that the true nature of bismuth was masked by its surface, and in doing so uncovered a new phenomenon relevant to all such materials.

Whether bismuth is part of a class of materials highly suitable for quantum computing and spintronics was a long-standing issue. Research has now revealed that the true nature of bismuth was masked by its surface, and in doing so uncovered a new phenomenon relevant to all such materials.

Sometimes it's fun to look back at old missions that never were. There are more of those than the missions that receive funding and are launched, but many of those were influenced by the ones that were funded that came before. A great fountain of mission ideas is the Alpbach Summer School, held annually in Austria. Every year, at least two teams publish papers defining a complete mission concept as part of their capstone experience at the school. One published in 2014 describes a mission designed to look at Venus' tectonic activity, and even though the concept is over 11 years old, the scientific questions it sought to answer are still outstanding today.

Several recent experiments showcase a sharp increase in the number of quantum bits that can be entangled, echoing Moore’s law for increasing computing power on traditional chips

The Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft has successfully completed its initial commissioning following the October 14, 2024, launch. Scheduled to arrive in the Jovian system in 2030, the spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and ultimately perform repeated close flybys of the icy moon Europa. Previous observations show strong evidence for a subsurface ocean of liquid water that could host conditions favorable for life.

The Small Magellanic Cloud is one of our closest galactic neighbours. It's a dwarf irregular galaxy about 200,000 light-years away, containing several hundred million stars. New research based on massive stars in the SMC shows it's being stretched along two different axes.

An infant with a severe genetic condition has shown signs of improvement after receiving a gene-editing treatment tailored to his specific mutation

Computational Fluid Dynamics. Those words are enough to strike fear into the heart of many an undergraduate engineer. Modeling how liquids move through a system is mathematically challenging, but in many cases, absolutely vital to understanding how those systems work. Computational Fluid Dynamics (more commonly called CFD) is our best effort at understanding those complex systems. A new paper from researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) applies those mathematical models to an area critical for the upcoming era of space exploration - propellant production from in-situ resources.

In Project Chimera, a game lab combines a VR computer game with educational problems in order to convey scientific content in a motivating way.

In Project Chimera, a game lab combines a VR computer game with educational problems in order to convey scientific content in a motivating way.

Location data is considered particularly sensitive -- its misuse can have serious consequences. Researchers have now developed a method that allows individuals to cryptographically prove their location -- without revealing it. The foundation of this method is the so-called zero-knowledge proof with standardized floating-point numbers.

Researchers have discovered the mechanism for supercurrent rectification, in which current flows primarily in one direction in a superconductor. By using a specific iron-based superconductor, they were able to observe this phenomenon over a broad range of magnetic and temperature fields. This understanding paves the way for the design and construction of superconducting diodes and other ultra-low energy electronics.

Researchers have discovered the mechanism for supercurrent rectification, in which current flows primarily in one direction in a superconductor. By using a specific iron-based superconductor, they were able to observe this phenomenon over a broad range of magnetic and temperature fields. This understanding paves the way for the design and construction of superconducting diodes and other ultra-low energy electronics.

Agents, chatbots and other tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly used in everyday life by many. So-called large language model (LLM)-based agents, such as ChatGPT and Llama, have become impressively fluent in the responses they form, but quite often provide convincing yet incorrect information. Researchers draw parallels between this issue and a human language disorder known as aphasia, where sufferers may speak fluently but make meaningless or hard-to-understand statements. This similarity could point toward better forms of diagnosis for aphasia, and even provide insight to AI engineers seeking to improve LLM-based agents.

Charge transfer, or the movement of electrons, can occur either within a molecule or between two molecules. Combining the two types of charge transfer is challenging. Now, scientists have developed a hybrid charge transfer crystal using a novel pyrazinacene molecule. This crystal is capable of reacting with naphthalene to produce a reversible color shift, from greenish-blue to red-violet. Such color-changing crystals can have various potential applications in materials science.