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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

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Nanomaterials
Novel etching technique enhances absorptivity of powders for metal 3D-printing
Cell & Microbiology
Detailed images of key protein complexes provide new insights into bacterial photosynthesis
Biotechnology
Microplastic-free carrier system for pesticides shows potential for sustainable agriculture
Earth Sciences
Scientists uncover details of a catastrophic volcanic eruption and flood over 1,000 years ago
Earth Sciences
Arctic river erosion linked to permafrost thaw
Paleontology & Fossils
Scientists now know what the head of the biggest bug to ever crawl the Earth looked like
Paleontology & Fossils
Earliest known fossil examples of predatory birds discovered: New species may have hunted like modern hawks and owls
Cell & Microbiology
Calcium-mediated effect plays key role in cell disposal, researchers discover
Mathematics
In double breakthrough, mathematician helps solve two long-standing problems
Archaeology
Underwater caves yield clues that may help explain early expansion of Homo sapiens into Mediterranean islands
Cell & Microbiology
Symbiotic bacterium affects reproduction of pest-controlling insect, study reveals
Archaeology
Microscopic study of milk teeth reveals mystery of Iberian culture newborns buried inside homes
Astronomy
Black hole destroys star, goes after another
Other
Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded to 3 scientists for work on proteins, building blocks of life
Optics & Photonics
New photonics approach enhances quantum computation efficiency
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
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
Earth Sciences
Scientists show accelerating CO₂ release from rocks in Arctic Canada with global warming

How rainbow colour maps can distort data and be misleading

The choice of color to represent information in scientific images is a fundamental part of communicating findings. However, a number of color palettes that are widely used to display critical scientific results are not only ...

Using dendrochronology to date old musical instruments

Dendrochronologists, Paolo Cherubini with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, has published a Perspective piece in the journal Science outlining the use of dendrochronology to determine the ...

Scientists create winning microscopic images

The natural world served as the inspiration for the Ohio State University scientists whose microscope images were announced Monday (Sept. 13) among the top 20 winners in the 2021 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition.

Tongue-in-cheek award with cult status for cinema air study

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor scientific achievements that "should first make people laugh and then make them think". The spoof prizes, first awarded by the US journal Annals of Improbable Research in 1991, have long since acquired ...