Author archives: Invited Researcher

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Outstanding researchers present their work and share their opinions in Mapping Ignorance.

Unusual red rocks in McGraths Flat are rewriting the rules on exceptional fossil sites

Unusual red rocks in McGraths Flat are rewriting the rules on exceptional fossil sites

Geosciences

By Invited Researcher

Author: Tara Djokic, Scientific Officer, Palaeontology, Australian Museum; UNSW Sydney Hidden beneath farmland in the central tablelands of New South Wales lies one of Australia’s most extraordinary fossil sites – McGraths Flat. It dates back between 11 million and 16 million years into the Miocene epoch, a time when many of today’s familiar plants and […]

Sora 2 and the environmental impact of  OpenAI

Sora 2 and the environmental impact of OpenAI

Computer scienceEconomicsEnergyEthics

By Invited Researcher

OpenAI’s recent rollout of its new video generator Sora 2 marks a watershed moment in AI. Its ability to generate minutes of hyper-realistic footage from a few lines of text is astonishing, and has raised immediate concerns about truth in politics and journalism. But Sora 2 is rolling out slowly because of its enormous computational […]

The euro stablecoins and their threat to eurozone’s fragile economy

The euro stablecoins and their threat to eurozone’s fragile economy

Economics

By Invited Researcher

Author: Sergi Basco, Associate Professor of Economics, Universitat de Barcelona On 25 September 2025, it was announced that 9 european banks, including UniCredit, ING and CaixaBank, have launched a consortium to issue a euro stablecoin – a cryptocurrency with a value pegged to the euro. While stablecoins are less volatile than regular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin […]

Building chips up: wafer-scale, MoS₂ electronics for BEOL integration

Building chips up: wafer-scale, MoS₂ electronics for BEOL integration

MaterialsNanotechnology

By Invited Researcher

When we think of faster, cheaper electronics, we usually think “smaller transistors.” But the future is also about stacking—adding new layers of components on top of finished silicon chips. That’s called back‑end‑of‑line (BEOL) integration, and it only works if everything you add can be made at low temperatures (generally below ~400–450 °C), otherwise you damage […]

Is space-time structure, substance or metaphor?

Is space-time structure, substance or metaphor?

Philosophy of sciencePhysics

By Invited Researcher

Author: Daryl Janzen, Observatory Manager and Instructor, Astronomy, University of Saskatchewan Few ideas in modern science have reshaped our understanding of reality more profoundly than space-time — the interwoven fabric of space and time at the heart of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Space-time is frequently described as the “fabric of reality.” In some accounts […]

Major theories of consciousness may have been focusing on the wrong part of the brain

Major theories of consciousness may have been focusing on the wrong part of the brain

Neuroscience

By Invited Researcher

What gives rise to human consciousness? Are some parts of the brain more important than others? Scientists began tackling these questions in more depth about 35 years ago. Researchers have made progress, but the mystery of consciousness remains very much alive. In a recently published article, I reviewed over 100 years of neuroscience research to […]

Adults with ADHD lose nearly a decade of life

Adults with ADHD lose nearly a decade of life

MedicineNeurobiology

By Invited Researcher

Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder in children worldwide, with an estimated prevalence of around 5%. Research shows that the condition often continues into adulthood in up to 90% of diagnosed children . Although ADHD has been recognised for decades, it has recently gained much greater visibility […]

Biodiversity needs single-species conservation

Biodiversity needs single-species conservation

BiologyEcologyEnvironment

By Invited Researcher

Autor: Chris Johnson, Professor of Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, University of Northern British Columbia and Justina C. Ray, Adjunct professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Toronto Through the federal Building Canada Act, “projects of national interest” are being fast-tracked while hundreds of major resource projects are already under construction or planned in the […]

When surgical tools don’t fit: how gender bias in design puts female surgeons at risk

When surgical tools don’t fit: how gender bias in design puts female surgeons at risk

BiomedicineMedicine

By Invited Researcher

Authors: Gráinne Tyrrell, Doctoral Researcher in Biomedical Device Design, School of Architecture and Product Design, University of Limerick; Eoin White, Associate Professor of Medtech Design, University of Limerick, and Leonard O Sullivan, Professor in Ergonomics and Human Factors, Department of Science and Engineering, University of Limerick “If you can’t handle this, you’ll never keep up […]

Biomarkers of chemoresistant leukemic cells in human T-ALL

Biomarkers of chemoresistant leukemic cells in human T-ALL

Biomedicine

By Invited Researcher

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is characterized by the accumulation of genetic lesions that induce differentiation arrest, survival and aberrant proliferation of immature T-cell progenitors . Although T-ALL prognosis has significantly improved due to intensive chemotherapy, relapses still occur in 20% of pediatric patients and 50% of adult patients, often with a dismal outcome. To […]