Article archives

Living beings: systems all the way back to their chemical origins

Living beings: systems all the way back to their chemical origins

BiochemistryBiologyChemistryEvolution

By Invited Researcher

A uthor: Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo, Permanent Researcher, University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) The effort of mapping ignorance in biology is especially frustrating –or, if the mood and attitude of the scientist afford it, especially motivating– because solid, definite answers remain minimal compared to the amount of open issues and uncertainties that new discoveries in this […]

A field experiment on social preferences using Google Answers

A field experiment on social preferences using Google Answers

Economics

By José Luis Ferreira

The literature of experimental economics has documented that individuals consistently make voluntary payments. Two methodological questions arise from this fact. First, which are the precise drivers of this pro-social behavior and, second, whether these findings can be extended to real life situations. Tobias Regner (2014) addresses these questions comparing theoretical and laboratory results with the […]

The Grand Bazaar of Wisdom (and 6): Mathematical models in the economics of science

The Grand Bazaar of Wisdom (and 6): Mathematical models in the economics of science

EconomicsPhilosophy of science

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

The most distinctive feature of modern economics is probably its reliance on the methodology of mathematical model building. The final aim of scientific model building is illuminating real phenomena; furthermore, models are basically logical arguments, whose main virtue is that they allow us to see very clearly what follows, and also what does not follow […]

Hawking’s information preservation and weather forecasting mess

Hawking’s information preservation and weather forecasting mess

AstrophysicsCosmologyPhysics

By Mario Herrero-Valea

Last month, a lot of newspapers and websites have been promoting this article on Nature referring to a recent preprint uploaded by Stephen W. Hawking to the internet repository ArXiv. In this work, summarizing what he talked about in a conference given last August, the English physicist argue that, since event horizons, the definitory property […]

New hope against tuberculosis: spectinamides

New hope against tuberculosis: spectinamides

BiologyBiomedicineMicrobiology

By Ignacio López-Goñi

Tuberculosis (TB) represents a serious public health problem. The latest reports estimate an incidence of 8.7 million cases in 2001 and over 1.4 million deaths per year. The disease is usually be treated with a first-line drugs, isoniazid and rifampin, the two most potent anti-tuberculosis agents. However, the prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis cause by […]

MI weekly selection #65

MI weekly selection #65

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Lone gene determines wing mimicry in butterflies One gene can determine the wing patterns of female swallowtail butterflies, making them resemble a different, and toxic, butterfly species, according to a study published in Nature. The finding adds to the debate over mimicry and how it helps put off would-be predators. A team of evolutionary biologists […]