Science
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” ― Albert Einstein
A Wild Orangutan’s Self-Medication Secret
Deep in the forests of Sumatra, scientists made an unexpected discovery - a wild orangutan was treating its own wound using plants in a way that provided the first evidence of active wound medication in great apes. Researchers observed a male Sumatran orangutan named...
Measuring the Thickness of Water’s Airy Interface
Aqueous interfaces are ubiquitous in many natural and artificial processes and their significance arises from the unique properties of water molecules within the interfacial region, with a crucial parameter being the thickness of its structural anisotropy or 'healing depthg'
The Mystery of the Disappearing Fireflies
Fireflies have illuminated summer evenings with their magical glow as long as humanity has observed the night sky, but now anecdotal reports from across North America have suggested that firefly populations have been declining.
Fighting the Nanoplastics
Most people are familiar with the scourge of microplastics pollution - the microscopic pieces of plastic debris that are pervasive in our waters. But an even smaller and more insidious form of plastic pollution is gaining attention from scientists - nanoplastics.
AI | Hallucinations and Illusions of AI in Science
A new perspective paper published in Nature warns that an overreliance on AI comes with epistemic risks that could undermine the very goals of increased productivity and objectivity that AI promises. See the April DarkDrug Editorial based on this paper
AI | Can AI Assist in Peer Review?
The constant growth in research output has placed tremendous strain on this system as the number of papers requiring expert evaluation increases each year. Could artificial intelligence (AI) offer a solution by assisting reviewers or automating certain tasks?
AI | Will AI Diminish the Rigor of Peer Review?
As the use of AI by researchers to aid them write abstracts and journal submissions grows, this research looks at the use of AI in reviewing them
Imaging Atoms in Quantum Wave Motion
Erwin Schrödinger's 1920 equation that predicts how particles-turned-waves should behave. is now being recreated in laboratories by researchers
Ocean Productivity Declines as Marine Heatwaves Intensify
Marine primary productivity is pivotal for transferring carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the ocean. This study shows a 65% decline in net primary production in the surveyed area.
Towards Printing the Brain
A 3D-printed 'brain phantom' has been developed, which is modeled on the structure of brain fibers and can be imaged using a special variant of magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI).
ACTIVITY | The Lyrid Meteor Shower: An April Sky Spectacle
Witness the Oldest Recorded Meteor Shower
- Tweaking isotopes sheds light on promising...on May, 2024 at 5:53 pm
Scientists have demonstrated that small changes in the isotopic content of thin semiconductor materials can influence their optical and electronic properties, possibly opening the way to new and advanced designs with the semiconductors.
- Stretchable e-skin could give robots human-level...on May, 2024 at 3:19 pm
A stretchy electronic skin could equip robots and other devices with the same softness and touch sensitivity as human skin, opening up new possibilities to perform tasks that require a great deal of precision and control of force.
- Towards transparent and antimicrobial surfaces...on May, 2024 at 3:17 pm
Researchers report the development of a durable and transparent antimicrobial surface containing copper nanoparticles. The nanostructured surface was obtained by dewetting ultrathin metal copper films on a glass substrate.
- New Nevada experiments will improve monitoring of...on May, 2024 at 10:43 pm
On an October morning in 2023, a chemical explosion detonated in a tunnel under the Nevada desert was the launch of the next set of experiments by the National Nuclear Security Administration, with the goal to improve detection of low-yield nuclear explosions around the world.
- New eco-friendly lubricant additives protect...on May, 2024 at 9:48 pm
Scientists have developed lubricant additives that protect both water turbine equipment and the surrounding environment.
Astronomers have uncovered a massive stellar black hole in the Milky Way, just 2,000 light-years from Earth. This black hole was discovered “by chance” from data collected by the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission. The black hole has been dubbed Gaia BH3, or BH3 in short. It is the second-closest known black hole to Earth. Discovery of a dormant 33 solar-mass black hole in pre-release Gaia astrometry. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2024; DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202449763
Header Banner: On 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announced they had each observed a new particle in the mass region around 126 GeV. This particle is consistent with the Higgs boson predicted by the Standard Model. The Higgs boson, as proposed within the Standard Model, is the simplest manifestation of the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism. Other types of Higgs bosons are predicted by other theories that go beyond the Standard Model. On 8 October 2013 the Nobel prize in physics (link is external) was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter Higgs “for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider”. The DarkDrug logo shows the Milky Way, the galaxy we call home and yet only explored a fraction of.