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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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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
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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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Saturday Citations: Tarantulas and their homies; how mosquitoes find you; black holes not mysterious at all
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World's second largest diamond found in Botswana
Mathematics
New research analyzes 'Finnegans Wake' for novel spacing between punctuation marks
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Saturday Citations: Citizen scientists observe fast thing; controlling rat populations; clearing nanoplastic from water
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Study sheds light on creative thinking
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Flood of 'junk': How AI is changing scientific publishing
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Saturday Citations: A rare misstep for Boeing; mouse jocks and calorie restriction; human brains in sync

Other news

General Physics
Physics team uncovers a quantum Mpemba effect with a host of 'cool' implications
Nanophysics
Reducing energy loss in metal nanostructures by altering geometrical dimensions
Analytical Chemistry
Iron catalyst study provides insights into ammonia decomposition
Plants & Animals
Mexican jumping beans jump to safety in a dynamic world—light could influence how moth larvae avoid extreme heat
Plasma Physics
Neural networks boost fusion research with rapid ion temperature and rotation velocity predictions
Cell & Microbiology
Study shows small RNA plays a crucial role in intestinal colonization
Ecology
Study reveals how parasites thrive by balancing specialization with exploiting diverse species communities
General Physics
Nobel Prize in physics awarded to 2 scientists for discoveries that enabled machine learning
Earth Sciences
Research suggests Earth's oldest continental crust is disintegrating
Astrobiology
Ryugu sample analyses show asteroids may have delivered compounds needed to start life on Earth
Earth Sciences
Researchers reveal the dynamic processes that sculpt the Arctic seafloor
Cell & Microbiology
Yeast study shows ribosomes hibernate on mitochondria during cellular stress
General Physics
Detecting Planck-scale dark matter by leveraging quantum interference
Social Sciences
Gender rating gap in online reviews study reveals women are less likely to share negative experiences
Archaeology
Tunisian snail remains provide insights on a possible 7700-year-old local food tradition
Archaeology
With advanced scanning technique, confiscated Iron Age Iranian swords proven to be pastiches
Bio & Medicine
Platform combines graphene oxide with antibodies to enhance CAR-T cell therapy
Condensed Matter
Highly sensitive quantum sensors for medicine: First successful demonstration of a dual-media NV diamond laser system
Ecology
Findings suggest that fungal mycelia can 'recognize' shapes
Planetary Sciences
Webb allows researchers to use new method of finding atmospheres in distant planets

Design evolution through the martial art of Capoeira

Could an ancient martial art created by African slaves in Brazil unlock new perspectives on design? For his doctoral thesis, defended at Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University, Nicholas Torretta drew upon his native ...

Constipated scorpions, love at first sight inspire Ig Nobels

The sex lives of constipated scorpions, cute ducklings with an innate sense of physics, and a life-size rubber moose may not appear to have much in common, but they all inspired the winners of this year's Ig Nobels, the prize ...

Distinguishing scientific results from experimental artifacts

While conducting fieldwork at a lab at Princeton University, Talia Dan-Cohen, associate professor of sociocultural anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, observed a common but perplexing problem. For her book ...