Category: Science and Nature

  • Food without agriculture

    Food without agriculture

    Abstract Efforts to make food systems more sustainable have emphasized reducing adverse environmental impacts of agriculture. In contrast, chemical and biological processes that could produce food without agriculture have received comparatively little attention or resources. Although there is a possibility that someday a wide array of attractive foods could be produced chemosynthetically, here we show…

  • An evidence-based approach to accelerate flight reduction in academia

    An evidence-based approach to accelerate flight reduction in academia

    Abstract On the path towards net zero emissions in academia, reducing flight emissions is of high importance, yet particularly difficult to achieve. Flight emissions have a major share of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of research institutions but reducing them is challenging, because flying has become an essential part of academic culture. While there…

  • 15NH3 in the atmosphere of a cool brown dwarf

    Abstract Brown dwarfs serve as ideal laboratories for studying the atmospheres of giant exoplanets on wide orbits as the governing physical and chemical processes in them are nearly identical1,2. Understanding the formation of gas giant planets is challenging, often involving the endeav our to link atmospheric abundance ratios, such as the carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio, to…

  • Daily briefing: Countries begin weaving an AI safety net

    Daily briefing: Countries begin weaving an AI safety net

    Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. A high-level global summit on AI safety was held at Britain’s historic code-breaking facility in Bletchley Park.Credit: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Countries begin weaving an AI safety net The United States and the United Kingdom…

  • Large language models and agricultural extension services

    Large language models and agricultural extension services

    Abstract Several factors have traditionally hampered the effectiveness of agricultural extension services, including limited institutional capacity and reach. Here we assess the potential of large language models (LLMs), specifically Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), to transform agricultural extension. We focus on the ability of LLMs to simplify scientific knowledge and provide personalized, location-specific and data-driven agricultural…

  • ‘Oceans are hugely complex’: modelling marine microbes is key to climate forecasts

    ‘Oceans are hugely complex’: modelling marine microbes is key to climate forecasts

    Marine microorganisms are crucial for ocean health. Bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae and viruses make up most of the biomass in the seas and form the base of marine food webs. They support nutrient cycling and drive crucial biogeochemical processes, including key steps in the carbon, nitrogen and silicon cycles. But the climate crisis is putting…

  • Rapid and sensitive detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by isothermal amplification combined with Cas12a-mediated detection

    Rapid and sensitive detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by isothermal amplification combined with Cas12a-mediated detection

    Abstract CRISPR based technologies have been used for fast and sensitive detection of pathogens. To test the possibility of CRISPR based detection strategy in Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections, a combined method of recombinase polymerase amplification followed by Cas12a-mediated detection via fluorescence reader or lateral flow biosensor (named Cas12a-RCFL) has been established in this study. The Cas12a-RCFL…

  • Overlooking vegetation loss outside forests imperils the Brazilian Cerrado and other non-forest biomes

    The global emphasis on halting forest loss has failed to recognize the biodiversity and ecosystem services provision of non-forest biomes such as the Brazilian Cerrado. Here, we stress the urgent need to address their destruction, including at the upcoming UN Conference of the Parties (COP28), and for coordinated efforts to protect these non-forest ecosystems amid…

  • Five ways in which rookie lab leaders can get up to speed

    Five ways in which rookie lab leaders can get up to speed

    Credit: miakievy/Getty Shortly after launching her laboratory last year, Catherine Schrankel began looking for people to fill it. Without a team, Schrankel had to do everything: hire students, organize freezers and establish protocols, among the many other responsibilities of a new principal investigator (PI). “I was just not prepared for how tired I would be…

  • A model-independent redundancy measure for human versus ChatGPT authorship discrimination using a Bayesian probabilistic approach

    A model-independent redundancy measure for human versus ChatGPT authorship discrimination using a Bayesian probabilistic approach

    Abstract The academic and scientific world in general is increasingly concerned about their inability to determine and ascertain the identity of the writer of a text. More and more often the question arises as to whether a scientific article or work handed in by a student was actually produced by the alleged author of the…