110 articles from FRIDAY 14.1.2022

Hubble Views a Tranquil Galaxy with an Explosive Past

Portal origin URL: Hubble Views a Tranquil Galaxy with an Explosive PastPortal origin nid: 476613Published: Friday, January 14, 2022 - 08:00Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: The lazily winding spiral arms of the spectacular galaxy NGC 976 fill the frame of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This spiral galaxy lies around 150 million...

The free-energy principle explains the brain

The free-energy principle can explain how neural networks are optimized for efficiency, according to new research. This finding will be useful for analyzing impaired brain function in thought disorders as well as for generating optimized neural networks for artificial intelligences.

‘Menace to public health’: 270 doctors call out Spotify over Joe Rogan’s podcast

An open letter expresses concern about Covid misinformation and specifically addresses an episode with virologist Robert MaloneA total of 270 US doctors, scientists, healthcare professionals and professors have written an open letter to streaming company Spotify, expressing concern about medical misinformation on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, listed as the platform’s most popular program.The...

The radical intervention that might save the “doomsday” glacier

In December, researchers reported that huge and growing cracks have formed in the eastern ice shelf of the Thwaites Glacier, a Florida-size mass of ice that stretches 75 miles across western Antarctica. They warned that the floating tongue of the glacier—which acts as a brace to prop up the Thwaites—could snap off into the ocean in as little as five years. That could trigger a chain...

Could a global farmers’ assembly help cut agriculture pollution?

Ammonia from animal waste and fertilisers used to grow feed create air pollution and poorer suffer mostWe think of industry and traffic as the main sources of air pollution and overlook farming and food production.A new study from the Chinese University of Hong Kong examined the impacts from changing diets and increased meat production in China since the 1980s. Initially, the changes in...

New study of 1980s Mars meteorite debunks proof of ancient life on planet

Scientists who were part of original 1996 study stand by their observations claiming new findings are ‘disappointing’A four billion-year-old meteorite from Mars that caused a splash here on Earth decades ago contains no evidence of ancient, primitive Martian life after all, scientists have said.In 1996, a Nasa-led team announced that organic compounds in the rock appeared to have been left by...