Last update:

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 ...

More news

Other
'The data on extreme human aging is rotten from the inside out,' says Ig Nobel winner
Other
Study looks at funded partnerships between nonprofit organizations and researchers
Other
Saturday Citations: Permian-Triassic mystery solved; cute baby sighted; the nine-day 2023 seismic event
Other
Backside breathing and pigeon bombers studies win Ig Nobel prizes
Other
Studies on pigeon-guided missiles, swimming abilities of dead fish among Ig Nobels winners
Other
First publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's collected poems offers new insights into author's personality
Other
This year's $890,000 Balzan Prizes awarded for research on aging, restorative justice, climate crisis
Other
Saturday Citations: Teen seals photobomb research site; cell phones are safe; serotonin and emotional resilience
Other
A mural honoring scientists hung in Pfizer's NYC lobby for 60 years. Now it's up for grabs
Other
US disinformation researcher laments 'incredible witch hunt'
Other
Researchers propose framework for contextual metadata
Other
First Nations people are three times more likely to die on the road. Here's how to fix Australia's transport injustice
Other
Saturday Citations: Corn sweat! Nanoplastics! Plus: Massive objects in your area are dragging spacetime
Other
Claw machine games are Rio de Janeiro's new public enemy
Other
Best of Last Week—How humans really killed mammoths, making AI systems smarter, mitochondria fling their DNA
Other
Saturday Citations: Tarantulas and their homies; how mosquitoes find you; black holes not mysterious at all
Other
World's second largest diamond found in Botswana
Mathematics
New research analyzes 'Finnegans Wake' for novel spacing between punctuation marks
Other
Saturday Citations: Citizen scientists observe fast thing; controlling rat populations; clearing nanoplastic from water
Other
Study sheds light on creative thinking

Other news

Astronomy
'Islands' of regularity discovered in the famously chaotic three-body problem
Cell & Microbiology
Targeting 'selfish' bacteria could optimize inhibitors that fight antibiotic resistance
Molecular & Computational biology
High-resolution structural data shows how a supercomplex links mRNA translation and decay
Social Sciences
Deleting your Facebook may increase your well-being but reduce your political knowledge
Ecology
Landscape effects of hunter-gatherer practices reshape idea of agriculture
Earth Sciences
Geologist helps track lead pollution in a Tibetan glacier, revealing global impact of human activities
Agriculture
What yields per acre reveal about the impact of extreme weather
Earth Sciences
Study finds it could take over 40 years to flush PFAS out of groundwater
Plants & Animals
Red milkweed beetle genome offers evolutionary insights into plant-insect interactions
Astronomy
A sharper view of the Milky Way with Gaia and machine learning
Environment
Climate change can alter methane emission and uptake in the Amazon
Condensed Matter
Theoretical study demonstrates existence of giant photocaloric effects in ferroelectric perovskites
Molecular & Computational biology
AI-driven approach challenges traditional views on protein structure
Nanophysics
A new plasma-based technological design boosts graphene production by more than 22%
Cell & Microbiology
From chaos to structure: How a bunch of seemingly disorganized cells go on to form a robust embryo
Plants & Animals
European forest plants are migrating westwards: Research suggests nitrogen is the main cause
Earth Sciences
Microscopic marine organisms can create parachute-like mucus structures that stall CO₂ absorption from atmosphere
Analytical Chemistry
Innovative approach to catalytic alkane activation offers new chemical pathways
Earth Sciences
Loss of lake ice has wide-ranging environmental and societal consequences, analysis suggests
Evolution
Playing songs to Darwin's finches helps confirm link between environmental change and emergence of new species

Disappearance of Utah monolith won't prompt major probe

Police won't be opening a major investigation into the disappearance of a mysterious silver-colored monolith that generated international attention and a mess when curious visitors made their way to the site of the discovery ...

Museum to record Londoners' COVID dreams

The Museum of London on Thursday announced a project to collect the dreams of Londoners during the coronavirus pandemic as a way to document the impact of the crisis.

Economist publishes research on traffic camera effectiveness

Between 300 and 400 cities in the U.S. employ traffic camera programs, according to Montana State University assistant professor Justin Gallagher. Even so, there has long been debate over whether the programs are effective ...

2020 Nobel Peace ceremony won't be held in person in Oslo

The winner of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize—the World Food Program—and the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Wednesday they have jointly agreed to postpone the in-person award ceremony in Oslo next month because of the coronavirus ...