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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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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
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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

Other news

Archaeology
Underwater caves yield clues that may help explain early expansion of Homo sapiens into Mediterranean islands
Social Sciences
Review of English-language textbooks from 34 countries reveals persistent pattern of stereotypical gender roles
Social Sciences
Study proposes a new bias: The tendency to assume one has adequate information to make a decision
Astronomy
Black hole destroys star, goes after another
Evolution
Study shows early human species benefited from food diversity in steep mountainous terrain
Social Sciences
Satellite data show massive bombs dropped in dangerous proximity to Gaza Strip hospitals in 2023
Plants & Animals
Discovered by drones: World-first method reveals new plant species in endemic Hawaiian genus Schiedea
Planetary Sciences
Fifteen years later, scientists locate a lunar impact site
Other
What are proteins again? Nobel-winning chemistry explained
Earth Sciences
Scientists show accelerating CO₂ release from rocks in Arctic Canada with global warming
Optics & Photonics
New photonics approach enhances quantum computation efficiency
Astronomy
Astronomers discover dozens of massive stars launched from young star cluster R136
Evolution
In studying the mating rituals of fruit flies, scientists may have learned something about how brains evolve
General Physics
Merging atomic clocks with quantum computers could lead to ultraprecise measurements of laws of nature
Mathematics
Are ideas contagious? How the structure of human-interaction networks affects spread of both illness and information
Biochemistry
Reprogramming wood-degrading mushroom enzymes for the biorecycling of plastic
Astronomy
Team discovers three new magnetic and helium-enriched hot subdwarf stars
Other
Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded to 3 scientists for work on proteins, building blocks of life
Plasma Physics
New AI models of plasma heating lead to important corrections in computer code used for fusion research
Condensed Matter
Novel technique for observing atomic-level changes could unlock potential of quantum materials

Are casinos making the right bet when it comes to slots?

With slot machines producing the bulk of profits in most of the world's casinos, gaming managers make it their business to keep slot players happy. So how do they prevent customers who are losing from walking away?

Court rejects fired physicist's intellectual freedom claim

Australia's highest court Wednesday dismissed an intellectual freedom claim by a university physicist who was fired in part over his public statements that scientists exaggerated damage to the Great Barrier Reef caused by ...

Why the United States dominates the Nobels

No fewer than eight of this year's 13 Nobel winners were American citizens, extending a historic trend tied to the strength of US academia and its ability to attract top world talent.

Economics Prize wraps up unpredictable Nobel season

The Nobel Economics Prize on Monday wraps up a Nobel season characterised by surprising picks, with a number of women in with a chance of scooping the traditionally male-dominated prize.

Dominant style stifled innovation in 19th century seascapes

Long into the 19th century, seascapes were considered an expression of patriotism. Artists who painted in a 17th century style were valued more. This tradition stifled innovation in the genre, Cécile Bosman has concluded. ...