science

The UCL study also found physically punished children were more likely to struggle in school

Their crime: handing out copies of an editorial, published in the journal Diabetes Care on April 29, sharply criticizing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on scientific research

Experts say dismantling the ocean observation system will ‘severely degrade’ the accuracy of weather predictions

At the Long Marine Laboratory in Santa Cruz, California, a 16-year-old sea lion named Ronan loves to put on a show. With her head bobbing in time to a percussive beat, she hits her marks not just with accuracy — but with flair. Her timing is so precise, researchers say, it outpaces even the best of us.

Dual-use research that leads to applications for both civilian and military or security purposes is geographically widespread and more scientifically influential than is research that has strictly civilian applications.

With the publication today of five deeply researched and peer-reviewed papers, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) and dozens of collaborating physicists have cemented our confidence in the core plasma physics assumptions at work within our upcoming ARC fusion power plant.

There’s a phenomenon called the rhyme-as-reason effect that says people are more likely to believe something is true if it rhymes. A 2000 study published in the journal Psychological Science with the excellent title Birds of a Feather Flock Conjointly examined this phenomenon. 100 volunteers were given aphorisms that either rhymed (“Life is mostly strife”) or were modified to not rhyme (“Life is mostly struggle”) and asked to rate them for accuracy. The group that was given the rhyming versions rated them as more accurate.

“Mathematicians should find it quite striking that tech companies are suddenly interested in their work,” said Kevin Buzzard, a mathematician at Imperial College London, in a statement. “The Leiden Declaration is a well-thought-through response to what is currently happening, as AI continues to disrupt this space.”

An experiment with 2,520 participants backs Richard Feynman’s answer to every diner’s dilemma: do I want to try something new?

Doctors have hailed “unprecedented” trial results that show a triple-action cancer jab can eradicate entire tumours in patients.

US’ Office of Management And Budget head Russ Vought is trying to push through changes that will allow the Trump administration extensive control over how science is done in this country, leaving it open to graft, mismanagement, and bias. This blog post gives some context on what’s happening, links to an extensive discussion of the changes being proposed, and helps explain how you can help.

A research team in Germany has published new data on how pigeons use magnetic fields as a navigation method when visibility is limited. A key part of the long-sought answer could lie in an unexpected organ, their livers.

In the long term, this work could play a similar role in digital security as atomic clocks do for timekeeping: a physically certified source of randomness that other systems can rely on. Possible applications range from the encryption of sensitive communications and digital identities to public randomness services for lotteries and blockchain applications.

Always had a feeling this was true: Sleep the right amount, live longer, sleep the wrong amount, age faster!

The study, The Bright Side of Life: Optimism and Risk of Dementia, found that higher levels of optimism were linked with a decreased risk of dementia.