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Category: Science/mathematics

America is at risk of losing a generation of scientists

America is at risk of losing a generation of scientists

Neel V. Patel writes: American science has been a beacon for aspiring researchers since the end of World War II, when a rivalry with the Soviet Union spurred the United States to make huge investments in science and technology research and recruit the most brilliant thinkers from abroad. Scientists saw the United States as a kind of nationwide laboratory for pursuing work under the best conditions possible — a remarkable combination of positive pressure and competition that pushed them to…

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Hundreds of scientists accuse Trump of censorship

Hundreds of scientists accuse Trump of censorship

The Verge reports: More than 1,900 scientists and engineers have signed a letter saying they “see real danger in this moment” as the Trump administration slashes federal support for scientific research. “Wise investments by the US government have built up the nation’s research enterprise, making it the envy of the world,” says the open letter published on Monday. “Astoundingly, the Trump administration is destabilizing this enterprise by gutting funding for research, firing thousands of scientists, removing public access to scientific…

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Trump’s science policies pose long-term risk for the U.S., economists warn

Trump’s science policies pose long-term risk for the U.S., economists warn

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s tariffs could drive up prices. His efforts to reduce the federal work force could increase unemployment. But ask economists which of the administration’s policies they are most concerned about and many point to cuts to federal support for scientific research. The Trump administration in recent weeks has canceled or frozen billions of dollars in federal grants made to researchers through the National Institutes of Health, and has moved to sharply curtail funding for…

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New study challenges the story of humanity’s shift from prehistoric hunting to farming

New study challenges the story of humanity’s shift from prehistoric hunting to farming

Phys.org reports: A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has turned traditional thinking on its head by highlighting the role of human interactions during the shift from hunting and gathering to farming—one of the biggest changes in human history—rather than earlier ideas that focused on environmental factors. The transition from a hunter-gatherer foraging lifestyle, which humanity had followed for hundreds of thousands of years, to a settled farming one about 12,000 years ago has been…

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The Trump administration’s attack on academic freedom

The Trump administration’s attack on academic freedom

Christopher L. Eisgruber writes: The United States is home to the best collection of research universities in the world. Those universities have contributed tremendously to America’s prosperity, health, and security. They are magnets for outstanding talent from throughout the country and around the world. The Trump administration’s recent attack on Columbia University puts all of that at risk, presenting the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s. Every American should be concerned. The rise of…

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Scientific research: ‘I fear we’ll lose a generation of talent that will take decades to recover’ — if at all

Scientific research: ‘I fear we’ll lose a generation of talent that will take decades to recover’ — if at all

Sam Stein writes: In the first month of the second Trump administration, the world’s richest man—underinformed, chronically online, and staffed by a coterie of teenaged and twentysomething former engineering interns—has been moving at warp speed to reshape, reduce, and even dismantle the United States government. But while Musk’s rampage has been feverishly covered, the scope of its impact remains largely underappreciated. Experts say it can’t be measured in weeks or months or even in government services affected. Rather, it will…

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How humanity moved from eternal to finite time

How humanity moved from eternal to finite time

Thomas Moynihan writes: Do you recall the first time you knew you would die? It’s a milestone, realising your time is limited. That things happened before you, and will happen afterward, in your absence. As we grow up, the understanding of death comes in stages, but it culminates in acknowledgment of one’s own – unavoidable yet unpredictable – mortality. Sometime between the ages of six and 10, children become aware that their time is inescapably bounded. Roughly the same might be said…

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To better understand the world, follow the paths of mathematics

To better understand the world, follow the paths of mathematics

Gordon Gillespie writes: In 1959, the English writer and physicist C P Snow delivered the esteemed Rede Lecture at the University of Cambridge. Regaled with champagne and Marmite sandwiches, the audience had no idea that they were about to be read the riot act. Snow diagnosed a rift of mutual ignorance in the intellectual world of the West. On the one hand were the ‘literary intellectuals’ (of the humanities) and on the other the (natural) ‘scientists’: the much-discussed ‘two cultures’….

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Paleolithic ingenuity: 13,000-year-old raised-relief map discovered in France

Paleolithic ingenuity: 13,000-year-old raised-relief map discovered in France

University of Adelaide: Researchers have discovered what may be the world’s oldest three-dimensional map, located within a quartzitic sandstone megaclast in the Paris Basin. The research is published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology. The Ségognole 3 rock shelter, known since the 1980s for its artistic engravings of two horses in a Late Paleolithic style on either side of a female pubic figuration, has now been revealed to contain a miniature representation of the surrounding landscape. Dr. Anthony Milnes from…

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How the search for beauty drives scientific enquiry

How the search for beauty drives scientific enquiry

Bridget Ritz and Brandon Vaidyanathan write: When Paulo was an undergraduate, he was tasked with taking photographs of neurons. ‘A single cell,’ he came to notice, ‘it’s a whole universe.’ Looking at cells beneath a microscope is not unlike gazing at stars in the sky, Paulo realised. ‘We all know they are there, but until you see them with your own eyes, you don’t have that experience of awe, of wow.’ It was then, as he put it, that he…

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All of statistics and much of science depends on probability — but no one’s really sure what it is

All of statistics and much of science depends on probability — but no one’s really sure what it is

David Spiegelhalter writes: Life is uncertain. None of us know what is going to happen. We know little of what has happened in the past, or is happening now outside our immediate experience. Uncertainty has been called the ‘conscious awareness of ignorance’ — be it of the weather tomorrow, the next Premier League champions, the climate in 2100 or the identity of our ancient ancestors. In daily life, we generally express uncertainty in words, saying an event “could”, “might” or…

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The extraordinary memories of food-caching birds

The extraordinary memories of food-caching birds

Matthew Hutson writes: A while ago, I searched for a beard trimmer in my bedroom. I spent probably forty-five minutes looking in every likely location at least twice, and every unlikely location at least once. I swore up a storm; the trimmer never turned up. I’ve played similar games with pants. There’s a reason for the burgeoning market in electronic tags that track your belongings. Our poor memories can seem mystifying, especially when you consider animals. This time of year,…

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‘Unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth: Scientists call for halt on ‘mirror life’ microbe research

‘Unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth: Scientists call for halt on ‘mirror life’ microbe research

The Guardian reports: World-leading scientists have called for a halt on research to create “mirror life” microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an “unprecedented risk” to life on Earth. The international group of Nobel laureates and other experts warn that mirror bacteria, constructed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could become established in the environment and slip past the immune defences of natural organisms, putting humans, animals and plants at risk of lethal infections. Although…

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The growing enthusiasm among tech elites for genetically engineering their children

The growing enthusiasm among tech elites for genetically engineering their children

Emily R. Klancher Merchant writes: In the Operation Varsity Blues scandal of 2019, 50 wealthy parents were charged with trying to get their children into elite universities through fraudulent means. The story dramatically demonstrated the lengths to which some parents will go to ensure their children’s acceptance into places like Stanford, Yale, Georgetown, and USC. Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, bribed athletic coaches to recruit their children for sports they did not play. Actress Felicity Huffman…

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The U.S. could soon face a threat ‘more powerful’ than nuclear weapons

The U.S. could soon face a threat ‘more powerful’ than nuclear weapons

Ashish K. Jha, Matt Pottinger and Matthew McKnight write: President Richard M. Nixon’s bold 1969 decision to renounce biological weapons and spearhead a treaty to ban them helped contain the threat of a man-made pandemic for half a century. But our inheritance from Nixon is now fading. And in this age of synthetic biology, unless we act quickly to deter our adversaries from making and using bioweapons, we could face disaster in the near future. The nightmare of a biological…

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‘We need to be ready for a new world’: scientists globally react to Trump election win

‘We need to be ready for a new world’: scientists globally react to Trump election win

Nature reports: Scientists around the world expressed disappointment and alarm as Republican Donald Trump won the final votes needed to secure the US presidency in the early hours of 6 November. Owing to Trump’s anti-science rhetoric and actions during his last term in office, many are now bracing for four years of attacks on scientists inside and outside the government. “In my long life of 82 years … there has hardly been a day when I felt more sad,” says…

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