Author archives: Invited Researcher

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

Why do giraffes have such long legs?

Why do giraffes have such long legs?

Biology

By Invited Researcher

Authors: Roger S. Seymour, Professor Emeritus of Physiology, University of Adelaide and Edward Snelling, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria If you’ve ever wondered why the giraffe has such a long neck, the answer seems clear: it lets them reach succulent leaves atop tall acacia trees in Africa. Only giraffes have direct access to […]

Dinosaur ‘mummies’

Dinosaur ‘mummies’

Geosciences

By Invited Researcher

Author: Paul C. Sereno, Professor of Paleontology, University of Chicago Dinosaur “mummies” couldn’t have been further from my mind as I trudged up a grassy knoll on the Zerbst Ranch in east-central Wyoming, followed by University of Chicago undergraduates on a field trip linked to my “Dinosaur Science” course. As a university professor, I realized […]

Quantum memory matrix: information could be a fundamental part of the universe

Quantum memory matrix: information could be a fundamental part of the universe

Cosmology

By Invited Researcher

Author: Florian Neukart, Assistant professor of Physics, Leiden University For more than a century, physics has been built on two great theories. Einstein’s general relativity explains gravity as the bending of space and time. Quantum mechanics governs the world of particles and fields. Both work brilliantly in their own domains. But put them together and […]

DEK::NUP214 acts as an XPO1-dependent transcriptional activator of essential leukemia genes

DEK::NUP214 acts as an XPO1-dependent transcriptional activator of essential leukemia genes

Biomedicine

By Invited Researcher

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with t(6;9)/DEK::NUP214 is recognized as a separate entity in the World Health Organization classification of myeloid neoplasms, accounting for 1% of all AML cases and characterized by a high relapse rate and young age at diagnosis . The t(6;9) chromosomal rearrangement results in the fusion of almost the entire peptide sequence […]

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 […]