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The extraordinary life of Alfred Nobel

The Nobel prizes may be one of the most famous and prestigious awards in the world—but who was the man behind them? As I explain in my lectures about Alfred Nobel, the inventor and entrepreneur has left a lasting legacy ...

Winning the Nobel 'an earthquake', says Ruvkun

US scientist Gary Ruvkun, who on Monday won the Nobel Prize in Medicine with fellow American Victor Ambros for their discovery of microRNA, said winning the honor was like "an earthquake".

Publisher Springer Nature makes stock market debut

Leading academic publisher Springer Nature made its stock market debut Friday, one of the few initial public offerings in Frankfurt this year despite the exchange's strong performance.

2024 Nobels offer glimmer of hope as global crises mount

Next week's Nobel Prize announcements will crown achievements that made the world a better place, a glimmer of optimism amid a spiraling Middle East conflict, war in Ukraine, famine in Sudan and a collapsing climate.

Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?

Artificial intelligence is already disrupting industries from banking and finance to film and journalism, and scientists are investigating how AI might revolutionize their field—or even win a Nobel Prize.

Researchers unpack sign language's visual advantage

Linguists have long known that sign languages are as grammatically and logically sophisticated as spoken languages—and also make greater use of "iconicity," the property by which some words refer to things by resembling ...

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This year's $890,000 Balzan Prizes awarded for research on aging, restorative justice, climate crisis
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First Nations people are three times more likely to die on the road. Here's how to fix Australia's transport injustice
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Best of Last Week—How humans really killed mammoths, making AI systems smarter, mitochondria fling their DNA
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World's second largest diamond found in Botswana
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New research analyzes 'Finnegans Wake' for novel spacing between punctuation marks
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Astrobiology
Ryugu sample analyses show asteroids may have delivered compounds needed to start life on Earth
Social Sciences
Study questions link between cooperation and societal benefits
Ecology
A new toolbox to predict global change impact on wildlife
Ecology
Findings suggest that fungal mycelia can 'recognize' shapes
Cell & Microbiology
Collaboration sheds light on how tissues grow with sharply defined structures
Earth Sciences
Research suggests Earth's oldest continental crust is disintegrating
General Physics
Nobel Prize in physics awarded to 2 scientists for discoveries that enabled machine learning
Planetary Sciences
Webb allows researchers to use new method of finding atmospheres in distant planets
Plants & Animals
Male locusts serve as parasols for females during egg laying in the hot sun
Archaeology
Tunisian snail remains provide insights on a possible 7700-year-old local food tradition
General Physics
Detecting Planck-scale dark matter by leveraging quantum interference
Astronomy
Anti-glitches detected in gamma-ray pulsar PSR J1522-5735
Plants & Animals
Documenting the impact of a fungal outbreak on a forest over half a century
Plants & Animals
Adding fall blooming plants may help both managed and wild bees in cities
Earth Sciences
Scientists explore geothermal energy potential in supercritical reservoirs
Plants & Animals
Reconstruction of fruit fly's anterior visual pathway may lead to insights into animal navigation
Cell & Microbiology
Single-celled eukaryote employs unconventional cytoskeletal components for dynamic shape-shifting
Plants & Animals
Sperm whale departure linked to decline in jumbo squid population in Gulf of California
Biotechnology
Artificial proteasome offers insights for new trichomoniasis treatments
Planetary Sciences
Curiosity rover provides new insights into how Mars became uninhabitable