Training AI chatbots to be warm and empathetic makes them less factually accurate

Training artificial intelligence chatbots to be warm and friendly comes with a hidden cost. A new study reveals that empathetic AI models tend to be less accurate and more likely to agree with a user’s false beliefs.

psypost.org

EM-DAT: Trump aid cuts could close database storing ‘world’s memory of disasters’ - Carbon Brief

The world’s most comprehensive disaster database is at risk of closing as a result of cuts to US foreign aid by the Trump administration

carbonbrief.org

I’m a weight-loss doctor. Here’s why I worry about GLP-1 ‘microdoses’

Long term, we don’t know what tiny doses of GLP-1s for cosmetic weight loss can do, writes a weight-loss doctor.

statnews.com

nature.com

We Can Now Weigh Galaxies Using Dead Stars As Scales

Researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville have found a new way to measure the mass of neighbouring galaxies using pulsars. Using the universe's most precise natural clocks it’s possible to detect tiny gravitational disturbances rippling through the Milky Way. By analysing 54 millisecond pulsars, the team directly measured the gravitational pull of both the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, including their dark matter. The same technique could eventually map dark matter across the entire Galaxy bringing us closer to understanding what it actually is.

universetoday.com

The woman behind the world’s biggest longevity competition

Jamie Justice of XPRIZE Healthspan on the most promising research and "purely scammy" treatments in the world of longevity.

statnews.com

Week in wildlife: a baby pangolin, a gorilla super-mum and Formula One geese

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

theguardian.com

The science of NBA superstar Victor ‘Wemby’ Wembanyama’s epic three pointers

Wemby’s height gives him an advantage in blocking and rebounding, but how does the tallest player in the NBA keep hitting all those threes?

scientificamerican.com

An Orbiting Satellite Triad Reveals Motions Inside Earth

Our planet's liquid iron outer core is slowly giving up its secrets to a trio of satellites launched by ESA in 2013. Called Swarm, the three probes have been studying Earth's magnetic field at the source. In the process, they've revealed startling changes in a molten layer region 2,200 kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean. In 2010, material in that area of Earth's outer core changed direction. Insteading of moving slowly westward, it's now headed east and picking up speed. Scientists are working to figure out why by using the European Space Agency's (ESA) Swarm data and additional information from ESA's CryoSat mission and ground-based instruments.

universetoday.com

Back-to-back chemical accidents raise alarm over EPA push to reduce oversight

A near-miss incident and a deadly chemical accident in a single week have affected thousands and drawn scrutiny to federal rules around risk management at chemical plants

scientificamerican.com

Blue Origin rocket explodes on the launch pad during an engine-firing test

A rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin exploded during a test at the launch pad Thursday night, ahead of a satellite launch planned for next week.

npr.org

Researchers develop a new process to get lithium out of rocks

If it scales up, it can help us diversify our sources of a key element.

arstechnica.com

White House proposes new rules giving political appointees final say on research grants

These proposed Office of Management and Budget regulations would render the federal research grant review process opaque

scientificamerican.com

Just Minutes of Intense Exercise Could Slash Disease Risk by 50%

A few breathless minutes of exercise each week could have a far bigger impact on your health than most people realize.

scitechdaily.com

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4900-4907: Pasadena, We Have a Drill Sample! - NASA Science

Written by Abigail Fraeman, Deputy Project Scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

science.nasa.gov

Painting the Growing Season in the Maize Triangle - NASA Science

Radar data from an agricultural area in South Africa, shown in a vivid color palette, reveal crop types and how they changed during the Southern Hemisphere's growing season.

science.nasa.gov

People Who Stop Ozempic Often Don’t Gain the Weight Back

A study of nearly 8,000 patients found that many people who stop Ozempic or similar drugs do not regain significant weight.

scitechdaily.com

Fungi Bloomed Twice around End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction | Sci.News

By studying fungal microfossils in 66-million-year-old rock samples from the Denver Basin in Colorado, Johns Hopkins University microbiologists have confirmed that the dinosaur-killing asteroid impact triggered a worldwide fungal takeover, and uncovered a second, previously unknown ecological crisis just before it.

sci.news

Why More People in Their 30s Are Suddenly Getting Colon Cancer

A major Swiss study found that colorectal cancer is becoming increasingly common in adults under 50, even as rates decline in older age groups.

scitechdaily.com

Blue Origin rocket, owned by Jeff Bezos, explodes during test in Florida

No personnel were harmed in the incident, the company said on social media, calling the explosion an ‘anomaly’

theguardian.com

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discovermagazine.com

Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Artificial Island Older Than Stonehenge in Scotland

A Scottish crannog older than Stonehenge has been mapped in new detail using a shallow-water 3D imaging technique.

scitechdaily.com

As Ebola outbreak in Central Africa grows, the U.S. turns itself into a fortress

The U.S. is taking extraordinary steps to keep Ebola out. But its policies may create risks for Americans infected overseas and discourage volunteers from responding to the outbreak.

statnews.com

Webb Spots Supermassive Black Hole Older Than Its Home Galaxy | Sci.News

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found an enormous black hole in the early Universe that appears to predate its own host galaxy, raising fresh questions about how the cosmos’ first supermassive monsters were born.

sci.news

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discovermagazine.com

Earthly Hors d'oeuvres For Hungry Red Dwarfs

We know that stars can engulf planets because stars that swell up to become red giants overwhelm any close-in planets. The Sun will do this to Venus, Mercury, and possibly Earth in a few billion years. But research shows that it can happen when low-mass stars first enter the main sequence. Lithium gives it away.

universetoday.com

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discovermagazine.com

The Secret Behind Indigenous Andeans’ “Digestive Superpower” May Be Potatoes

Summary: Scientists have uncovered evidence that the domestication of potatoes in the Andes influenced the evolution of human metabolism. A new study suggests ancient potato farming in the Andes may have shaped human evolution in an unexpected way. Indigenous communities in the Andes were the

scitechdaily.com

JWST Studies a Dark and Airless Super-Earth

There's a planet out there called LHS 3844 b, orbiting a star about 48 light-years away. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) found it in 2018 when the planet transited across the face of its star. The James Webb Space Telescope zxeroed in on the planet and found it to be a barren, rocky place with no atmosphere.

universetoday.com

The Brain Circuit That Decides Where One Memory Ends and the Next Begins

A mouse stands in a small chamber it has never been shocked in. The walls are smooth and white, the floor a particular texture, and nothing bad has ever

scienceblog.com