Category: Science

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A new era? The 2024 Nobel Prizes and the power of machine learning

October 11, 2024 admin

The 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry recognized Demis Hassabis, John Jumper and David Baker for using machine learning to tackle one of biology’s biggest challenges: predicting the 3D shape of proteins and designing them from scratch. This year’s award stood out because it honored research that originated at a tech company: DeepMind, an AI research startup that was acquired by Google in 2014. Most previous…

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Strong geomagnetic storm hit earth – what causes them? | Explained

October 10, 2024 admin

A geomagnetic storm lit up the night sky in parts of the US during the first weekend in October. South Africa’s National Space Agency (SANSA) told reporters that the storm had originated from a solar flare “that erupted from sunspot 3842 on October 3”. It said this was the strongest earth-facing solar flare recorded by…

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Sci-Five | The Hindu Science Quiz: On Bioprinting

October 10, 2024 admin

A prototype of a desktop 3D bioprinter that builds 3D living tissue out of human cells. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Q: What is the key difference between bioprinters and traditional 3D printers? Bioprinters work in almost the exact same way as 3D printers, with one key difference. Instead of delivering materials such as plastic,…

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Climate change and how hurricane Milton became a Category 5 storm

October 10, 2024 admin

This satellite image shows Hurricane Milton on October 8, 2024, as it moved across the Gulf of Mexico. | Photo Credit: NOAA Hurricane Milton became one of the most rapidly intensifying storms on record as it went from barely hurricane strength to a dangerous Category 5 storm in less than a day on a path…

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New sedimentary rock made from slag is a carbon-trapping champ

October 10, 2024 admin

Human activity has significantly altered the earth’s landscape — so much so that many scientists have said the planet began a new geological chapter called the Anthropocene era. Many of these changes have been wrought by deposits of materials like industrial waste and construction debris. These materials weather over time and mix with natural sediment,…

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Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024: Protein design and protein structure prediction DeepMind win | Explained

October 9, 2024 admin

2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners American biochemist David Baker, from left, American researcher John Jumper and Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind Technologies, the AI division behind Gemini. | Photo Credit: UW Medicine/Google DeepMind via AP/AP Photo/Jeff Chiu The story so far: The 2024 Nobel Prize for chemistry was jointly awarded to David Baker for…

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NASA to launch mission on Oct. 10 to look for habitable spots on Europa moon

October 9, 2024 admin

A view of Jupiter’s moon Europa created from images taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990’s, according to NASA, obtained by Reuters May 14, 2018. | Photo Credit: Reuters On October 10, NASA is launching a hotly anticipated new mission to Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, Europa. Called Europa Clipper, the spacecraft will conduct a detailed…

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People with autism, ADHD likelier to have eating disorders: study

October 9, 2024 admin

More than 1.1 million Australians are estimated to be living with an eating disorder. Around one-third of these people are neurodivergent. So why are neurodivergent people, such as autistic people and those with ADHD, more likely to experience eating disorders than the broader population? And how does this impact their treatment? First, what is neurodivergence? Neurodivergence, or the state of being neurodivergent,…

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Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 awarded to David Baker, along with Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper

October 9, 2024 admin

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with one half to David Baker “for computational protein design” and the other half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper “for protein structure prediction.” The Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2024 was shared by David Baker “for computational…

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