White House requests extension of agreement with China on joint research
President Joe Biden’s administration has given itself 6 months to reach a deal with China to preserve a 44-year-old agreement governing scientific cooperation between the two superpowers. But the rising tensions between the two countries and calls by congressional Republicans for the United States to end cooperation with China will require the White House to walk a political tightrope in renewing what has traditionally been a garden-variety diplomatic pact.
U.S. academics welcome the administration’s decision, first
reported by NBC News
, not to abandon an agreement that has been renewed in 5-year incre...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 24, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Watch a person unable to speak for years ‘talk’ using a new brain implant
When it comes to talking, our brain does the heavy lifting. It subconsciously directs the complex coordination of lips, tongue, throat, and jaws we need to pronounce words. And it keeps directing, even in people with paralysis or who are unable to turn these commands into speech.
Now, scientists have harnessed this phenomenon to create brain implants that transform this neural activity into text with unprecedented speed and accuracy. In two new studies—both reported today in
Nature
—the devices enabled two people to “speak” for the first time in more than a decade. The implants produced speech from ...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 23, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Giant black hole formed puzzlingly fast at dawn of cosmos
Astronomers have found by far the most distant and earliest quasar ever seen, a cosmic beacon shining so soon after the big bang that standard theory can’t explain how it was built.
Among the most luminous objects in the cosmos, quasars are powered by supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies, which suck in matter so voraciously that it becomes white hot from friction and glows brightly enough to be seen across the universe. Astronomers thought the black holes formed stepwise within early galaxies, as giant stars collapsed and merged, but quasars detected from when the universe was less than 1 billion year...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 22, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
If AI becomes conscious, how will we know?
In 2021, Google engineer Blake Lemoine made headlines—and got himself fired—when he claimed that LaMDA, the chatbot he’d been testing, was sentient. Artificial intelligence (AI) systems, especially so-called large language models such as LaMDA and ChatGPT, can certainly seem conscious. But they’re trained on vast amounts of text to imitate human responses. So how can we really know?
Now, a group of 19 computer scientists, neuroscientists, and philosophers has come up with an approach: not a single definitive test, but a lengthy checklist of attributes that, together, could suggest but not prove an AI is consc...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 22, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Chemists convert electricity into the fuel that powers the body ’s cells
Power plants incessantly burn fossil fuels to convert the solar energy stored by plants eons ago into electricity. But going the other direction—converting electricity into a biologically useful form of energy—has been much more difficult. Now, however, a simple chemical scheme can convert electrical energy into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the chemical fuel used by all cells, a research team reports. With the process, electricity from renewable sources might someday power biofactories to make everything from protein supplements to medicines.
“This is really exciting,” says Michael Jewett, a bioengineer at S...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 22, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
After scientists protest, Colombian lawmakers withdraw animal welfare bill
Aided by an aggressive social media campaign, a coalition of scientists in Colombia this week persuaded
lawmakers to withdraw a proposal they say would have severely limited the use of animals in laboratory and field research. Now, the researchers are pressing lawmakers to retract a second, similar proposal.
The controversy initially focused on legislation
introduced in late July
by lawmakers led by Juan Carlos Lozada Vargas, a member of Colombia’s House of Representatives representing the Liberal Party. Backed by animal rights groups including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and A...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 18, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
South Africa to ban fishing around African penguin colonies for 10 years
South Africa will impose a decadelong ban on commercial fishing around six areas home to the endangered African penguin starting next year. The measure, announced by the government on 4 August, comes after an expert panel concluded that a full ban on fishing was vital for the recovery of Africa’s only penguin species.
Scientists and environmental groups have praised the move. “This is an extremely important decision, made in an emerging economy context, where so often short-term socioeconomic imperatives override longer term environmental concerns,” says Guy Midgley, interim director of the School for Climate S...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 17, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Revolutionary x-ray sensor to probe workings of black holes and supernovae
The first one failed to reach orbit. The second died soon after getting to space, when its helium coolant was accidentally dumped. The third one lasted for 37 days before its spacecraft broke apart in a fatal spin.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is hoping the fourth time is the charm for a revolutionary x-ray instrument that will give astronomers unprecedented views of the hot gases around supernovae and black holes and within galaxy clusters. On 26 August, the agency plans to launch the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), a telescope fitted with a NASA-developed device to do something that...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 16, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Without hands, some birds wing it with their feet
For the ability to soar among the clouds, birds made an evolutionary compromise: when their forelimbs became wings, they no longer had the option of using those limbs to eat, build homes, and care for their young. Many species opted to use their beak for those tasks instead. But some birds also evolved to be “pedal dexterous”—able to accomplish with their feet tasks that other animals undertake with nimble hands. Now, researchers have finally discovered where that handy trait got its roots: in a common ancestor of parrots and raptors that lived in trees more than 60 million years ago.
The research,
pub...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 15, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Laser mapping reveals detailed secrets of one World War II ’s most notorious battle
War leaves many scars—on soldiers’ bodies, in survivors’ minds. But it also inflicts damage on the natural environment that can persist long after human witnesses have died. Now, archaeologists have applied laser-based remote sensing technology to carefully examine the geographic scars left behind by the Battle of the Bulge, one of World War II’s bloodiest confrontations. Their work sheds new light on how the hilly, forested landscape influenced the movement of troops and shaped the course of the fighting.
The “benchmark” study, published today in
Antiquity
, “sets a standard” for
h...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 14, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
‘Still in shock.’ Amid wildfire tragedy, Maui scientists assess their research losses
In the wake of a series of powerful wildfires that ripped through Maui’s dry forests and the historic city of Lahaina this week killing more than 50 people, researchers on the island remain concerned about the personal fallout for fellow scientists and their families. Some are reeling from disruption to their projects: Studies of whales may be disrupted, for example, and a rare plant facility sustained damage. “We’re still wrapping our heads around what this really means, because right now, most of us are still in shock,” says marine mammal ecologist Marc Lammers. “And, of course, we’re thinking about our colle...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 11, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Does the latest measurement of the muon hint at new physics?
Two years ago, physicists confirmed that a subatomic particle called
the muon was slightly more magnetic than predicted
by the standard model, the theory that describes fundamental particles and their interactions. The find raised hopes that scientists might finally be seeing signs of something beyond the standard model that would reinvigorate particle physics. Now, the same team has reported a new measurement of the muon’s magnetism that’s twice as precise as the previous one. But whether the finding challenges the standard model remains unclear.
That’s not because the new measurement doesn’t agree...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 10, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
NIH withdraws opposition to unionization effort
After questioning the legal standing of a unionization effort by early-career researchers, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) now says it won’t oppose a vote by potential union members. “I am excited the NIH has chosen to do the right thing,” says Marjorie Levinstein, a neuropharmacology postdoc at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and an organizer for the proposed union, called NIH Fellows United.
In June, Levinstein and other organizers filed paperwork with the Federal Labor Relations Authority requesting to hold an election to determine whether the majority of the 4800 nonpermanent researchers w...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 10, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
News at a glance: A win for obesity drugs, NIH unionization roadblocks, and Mexican fireflies under threat
CONSERVATION
Researchers raise alarm over threat to Mexican fireflies
Scientists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) last week delivered a letter to the Mexican government requesting it regulate tourism centered on the threatened firefly species
Photinus palaciosi
. Endemic to Mexico’s Tlaxcala forests,
P. palaciosi
is one of the few species that glow in synchrony, offering an annual spectacle that attracts thousands of visitors during summer mating season. The letter describes how littering, artificial light, and noise interfere with the insects’ ...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 10, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
How Indigenous people shaped Australia ’s curious geography of plants
On shady, densely wooded riverbanks in eastern Australia, the black bean tree is easily missed. It can reach 12 stories tall, but
Castanospermum australe
mostly blends in with its rainforest peers. Each November, however, it catches the eye as sprays of large red and orange blossoms adorn its dark, glossy leaves. Six months later, cylindrical pods longer than a banana encase three to five large seeds.
The seed pods are buoyant, so those that end up in the water can drift away, allowing the seeds to germinate far from the parent tree. But each seed weighs about as much as a mouse—too heavy to be carried of...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 10, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
