Imagine a world where light, instead of merely bouncing off surfaces or passing through transparent materials, is controlled in a completely new and unexpected way. Scientists have recently taken a major step in this direction by discovering what is called a “photonic axion insulator.” While this term might sound complicated, the underlying idea is both […]
Author: Ignacio López-Goñi, Professor of Microbiology, Universidad de Navarra On March 11 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. According to official data there have been more than 770 million cases of COVID, which have caused over 7 million deaths in 231 countries – almost 2.2 million of them in Europe. Other reports […]
Past neuroscience and psychology studies have shown that people’s expectations of the world can influence their perceptions, either by directing their attention to expected stimuli or by reducing their sensitivity (i.e., perceptual acuity) to variations within the categories of stimuli we expect to be exposed to. While the effects of expectations on perceptions are now […]
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a disease of older persons that has a dismal outcome and patients unfit for intensive chemotherapy exhibit a median survival of only 5 to 10 months . However, the therapeutic landscape of AML is changing with the appearance of new-targeted drugs such as BH3 mimetics that inhibit prosurvival BCL2 family […]
Genetic erosion poses hidden threat to species survival Research on the regent honeyeater, a critically endangered bird from southeastern Australia, reveals that despite severe population decline, the species retains high genetic diversity. Through whole-genome sequencing and ecological modeling, the study underscores the delayed impact of genetic erosion and the importance of integrating genetic data over […]
The interplay between the electron and phonon dynamics in 2D materials is a complex and fascinating subject. By examining the behaviour of NbSe₂ on graphene, a new study has provided new insights into how substrates influence superconductivity through moiré phonons. In recent years, the study of two-dimensional (2D) materials has transformed the field of condensed […]
Authors: Ralph Hertwig, Director, Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Stephan Lewandowsky, Chair of Cognitive Psychology, University of Bristol The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 paved the way for the democratisation of many eastern European countries and triumphantly ushered in the era of global liberal democracy that some […]
The electrification of road transport is no longer just a trend—it is a key step in reducing carbon emissions and addressing climate change. Beyond environmental benefits, it also carries strategic and geopolitical importance, prompting major automotive manufacturers to invest heavily in electric mobility . The success of this transformation depends on a crucial element: the […]
I shall end this series on the problem of verisimilitude by sketching the main methodological norms that can be derived from our favorite definition of “empirical truthlikeness” –remember: the verisimilitude of a hypothesis H on the light of the empirical data E, or Vs(H,E ), would be equivalent to p(H,E)/p(HvE). Remember as well that by […]
Geographic split of humans linked to emerging language A genomic analysis suggests that human language ability was present at least 135,000 years ago, coinciding with the first geographic split of Homo sapiens. The research suggests that humans developed the cognitive capacity for complex language before it entered social use. This capacity for symbolic thinking and […]