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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.

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Researchers unpack sign language's visual advantage
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Records show that churches monitored multilingual gossip in Elizabethan London
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The 'publish or perish' mentality is fueling research paper retractions—and undermining science
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Scientists become a source of hope and information on TikTok, Instagram
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Global crises are multiplying: Here's how science can help our public decision-makers
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Saturday Citations: Football metaphors in physics; vets treat adorable baby rhino's broken leg
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'The data on extreme human aging is rotten from the inside out,' says Ig Nobel winner
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Study looks at funded partnerships between nonprofit organizations and researchers
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Saturday Citations: Permian-Triassic mystery solved; cute baby sighted; the nine-day 2023 seismic event
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Backside breathing and pigeon bombers studies win Ig Nobel prizes
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Studies on pigeon-guided missiles, swimming abilities of dead fish among Ig Nobels winners
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First publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's collected poems offers new insights into author's personality
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This year's $890,000 Balzan Prizes awarded for research on aging, restorative justice, climate crisis
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Saturday Citations: Teen seals photobomb research site; cell phones are safe; serotonin and emotional resilience
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A mural honoring scientists hung in Pfizer's NYC lobby for 60 years. Now it's up for grabs
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US disinformation researcher laments 'incredible witch hunt'
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Researchers propose framework for contextual metadata
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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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Saturday Citations: Corn sweat! Nanoplastics! Plus: Massive objects in your area are dragging spacetime
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Claw machine games are Rio de Janeiro's new public enemy

Other news

Optics & Photonics
All-optical switch device paves way for faster fiber-optic communication
Plants & Animals
Worms and snails handle the pressure 2,500m below the Pacific surface
Political science
Megastudy tests crowdsourced ideas for reducing political polarization
Earth Sciences
Could injecting diamond dust into the atmosphere help cool the planet?
Astronomy
First results from the Axion Dark-Matter Birefringent Cavity experiment establish a new technique for axion search
Environment
Global study reveals people, including those most affected by climate change, do not understand climate justice
Plants & Animals
Bumblebee queens choose to hibernate in pesticide-contaminated soil, scientists discover
Astronomy
Physicists show that neutron stars may be shrouded in clouds of axions
Nanomaterials
New fabrication strategy enhances graphene aerogel sensitivity and durability for human-machine interfaces
Biochemistry
Team develops promising new form of antibiotic that makes bacterial cells self-destruct
Biochemistry
Lignin molecular property discovery could help turn trees into affordable, greener industrial chemicals
Nanophysics
Controlling sound waves with Klein tunneling improves acoustic signal filtration
Cell & Microbiology
Cellular senescence research identifies key enzyme to promote healthy aging
Plants & Animals
American lobster population and habitat preferences shifting, study finds
Cell & Microbiology
Scientists show how sperm and egg come together like a key in a lock
Earth Sciences
Scientists identify potential deep-ocean greenhouse gas storage solution
Analytical Chemistry
New strategy unlocks magnetic switching with hydrogen bonding at molecular level
Plants & Animals
Butterfly brains reveal the tweaks required for cognitive innovation
Biotechnology
Molecular 'cut and sew' process could accelerate drug design
Cell & Microbiology
Team achieves successful reproduction of hematopoietic stem cell developmental process in an in vitro culture system

Bloomberg donates $50 mn to Boston's Museum of Science

Billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday announced a $50 million gift for Boston's Museum of Science, fondly recalling hours spent there as a child that helped lay the foundation for his later success.

Recognizing scientific literacy and illiteracy

Scientific literacy – what it is, how to recognize it, and how to help people achieve it through educational efforts, remains a difficult topic. The latest attempt to inform the conversation is a recent National Academy ...

Who will shape the future of the data society?

The contemporary world is held together by a vast and overlapping fabric of information systems. These information systems do not only tell us things about the world around us. They also play a central role in organising ...

CO2 to fish food, other ideas advance in $20M XPRIZE contest

With dreams of turning carbon dioxide into everything from concrete to fish food, teams from six countries have advanced beyond the first phase of a $20 million XPRIZE contest to find profitable uses for CO2 emitted by power ...

Russian academics fight back against fraud, plagiarism

A dissertation council reviewing work on the mediaeval era is not normally national news, but Russia was abuzz this month when historians convened to pass judgement: was the culture minister a fraud?

Giving credit where credit is due

Solving today's environmental problems involves vast amounts of data, which have to be gathered, stored, retrieved, analyzed and—increasingly—cited in academic journals. That last step, however, presents a problem.

Does science require predictions?

While the past may seem like a foreign country, the future is a more mysterious land. Full of potential and promise, tragedy and heartache, people have always sought glimpses of a map of the future. Visions of Christmases-Yet-to-Come ...