Science 2.0

Biogen recently announced that it was abandoning its late stage drug for Alzheimer’s, aducanumab, causing investors to lose billions of dollars.

They should not have been surprised.

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Using ancient fire remains from 11 well-preserved and overlapping open-air hearth structures, scholars have inferred Neanderthal group mobility and settlement patterns which indicate specific occupation episodes, perhaps according to season

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At the very large and very small levels, gravity does not really work the way it should. At the very large level, instead of contracting, the universe has both expanded and accelerated despite detectable forces that should cause it. 

Measurements to determine how fast the Universe is expanding over time are known as the Hubble constant. It has been determined by a cosmic distance ladder, calculated by observing pulsating stars called Cepheid variables in a neighboring satellite galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud, 162,000 light-years away.

When defining the distances to galaxies that are further and further away, these Cepheid variables are used as milepost markers. 

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A new index of scientific output has been released and it finds that the United States continues to dominate in research, bolstered by the private sector accounting for nearly 70 percent of science funding, where most other developed countries instead rely on government.

The analysis factored in the number researchers as percentage of population, patents, papers released, and GDP spending. 

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Scholars recently characterized plasma levels of the biomarker dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulfated form (DHEAS) – jointly referred to as DHEA(S) – to be biological determinants of chemobrain, difficulties related to memory and attention in cancer patients even months after completing their treatment.

DHEA(S) are neurosteroids that help to regulate brain development, but it was previously unknown whether their levels correlate with cognitive function or are associated with the onset of chemobrain.

The study showed that early-stage breast cancer patients with higher plasma DHEAS levels prior to chemotherapy were found to have a lower risk of developing chemobrain in the specific domains of verbal fluency and mental acuity.

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When we think of Mt. Everest, it's usually imagery like Sir Edmund Hillary and his guide Tenzing Norgay in parkas and with oxygen tanks making the hazardous 29.000 climb. And then there are the dead bodies, nearly 300 of them, those who perished on the trek to the summit.

What we don't think of is a man running, yet that is what Kilian Jornet Burgada did part of the way in famous photos - and then after 26 hours and 31 minutes, the fastest climb ever(1), he came back down, rested, and did it again, all within a week.

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Poor people live in areas with more pollution, but pollution is relative in 2019.

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Smart spacesuits and solar surfing may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but they are just two of the technology concepts NASA ha

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Experimental particle physics, the field of research I have been involved in since my infancy as a scientist, consists of folks like you and me, who are enthusiastic about constructing new experiments and testing our understanding of Nature. Some spend their life materially designing and building the apparata, others are more attracted by torturing the data until they speak. 

To be precise, data analysts can be divided further into two classes, as I was once taught by my friend Paolo Giromini (a colleague in the late CDF experiment, about whose chase for new physics I have writtein in my book "Anomaly!"). These are aptly called "gatherers" and "hunters".

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To say ‘business ecosystem’ or ‘innovation ecosystem’ is to commit the teleological fallacy. That means assuming a purpose where there is no purpose.

Charles Darwin said species evolve to adapt to changing environments. Natural ecosystems – species and their environments – have no ‘purpose’; they just are.

Now, if you believe in a creator deity, you might hold that biological ecosystems do have a (divine) purpose. We’ll come back to this point.

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Environmentalists may hate science but they love to ignore inconvenient truths about alcohol - namely that it is a toxic carcinogen the way they wish BPA, atrazine, fracking, vaccines (insert whatever they are raising money on this week) could be.

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Almost nobody seems to report the positive side of our recent climate change action. It’s remarkable what we’ve done in two years, which gives us much hope that we can indeed rise to the challenge. I have never in my life seen such a coming together of nations worldwide to solve a problem.

And the young particularly are driving action, as in Greta Thunberg’s emotional speech to EU leaders.

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Testosterone is the main sex hormone in men. It’s best known for its role in the development of male sexual characteristics and physical features, but there are also many surprising and lesser known functions of testosterone that make it an important hormone in health and disease. Identifying whether someone has too much or too little testosterone can predict future diseases and even treat them. But knowing what is high, low or normal for an individual isn’t straightforward.

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These days, anybody with an internet connection can be a publisher.

That doesn’t make everybody a journalist.

This distinction has become more important than ever in light of two recent events.

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The discovery of an ancient painted vase in the Central America lowlands offers new clues into the mysterious breakdown of ancient Maya civilization - because it bears one of the longest hieroglyphic texts ever found.

The shattered vessel was discovered in excavations at the Maya site of Baking Pot in Belize, found amid artifacts associated with the abandonment of the royal palace complex. The fragments were found in a corner near a palace entrance. The archeology team also unearthed blades, pendants, inkpots, fragments of flutes — and human bones - in burial sites.

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Surveys show that on issue after issue, women are more liberal than men, save for one: Men are more likely than women to support the legalization of marijuana.

Americans are becoming more supportive of marijuana legalization each year but the gender gap remains a constant: While 68 percent of men now support marijuana legalization, only 56 percent of women do.

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Zooey Deschanel, whose picture could be in the dictionary under "adorkable" thanks to starring roles in "Elf" and "New Girl", isn't well regarded in science, and hasn't been since for as long as she's been undermining it, which is as long as people have known her name. That's now a long time, since "Almost Famous" is about to turn 20.

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The European Commission pays close attention to document the work of the projects that benefited of its funding. With that intent, the AMVA4NewPhysics network has been described, along with its goals, in a 2016 article on the Horizon magazine.

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People choose a life partner who is likely to have a comparable life expectancy and who share similar risks of illnesses - such as high blood pressure or heart disease - according to a genetic study.

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The conjugative transfer of anti-antibiotic resistance genetic elements could lead to development of probiotic bacteria that re-sensitize resistant bacteria to antibiotics, providing a solution to a crucial problem - how to get new antibiotics when countries cap what companies can charge for medicine, meaning they might never be profitable.

Bacteria become resistant due to the use of antibiotics and the exchange of resistance genes between bacteria.

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