Category: Science and Nature

  • Corvallis Science & Nature: Book Events, Wild Night Out, Star Party and More

    Corvallis Science & Nature: Book Events, Wild Night Out, Star Party and More

    It may not be official, but with Labor Day in the rear view mirror and students about to start back at OSU for a new academic year, it is starting to feel like Fall. Summer is set to have at least one more gasp of life, with temperatures set to hit 100 at the end…

  • Intellectual property and data privacy: the hidden risks of AI

    Intellectual property and data privacy: the hidden risks of AI

    Although ChatGPT and other generative AI chatbots are transformative tools, risks to privacy and content ownership are baked in.Credit: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Getty Timothée Poisot, a computational ecologist at the University of Montreal in Canada, has made a successful career out of studying the world’s biodiversity. A guiding principle for his research is that it must be…

  • Massive Attack’s science-led drive to lower music’s carbon footprint

    Massive Attack’s science-led drive to lower music’s carbon footprint

    Working scientist profiles This article is part of an occasional series in which Nature profiles scientists with unusual career histories or outside interests. In 2019, Carly McLachlan took a call from Mark Donne, a producer with the band Massive Attack. The BRIT award-winning, UK trip-hop band’s music — a fusion of hip-hop and electronica —…

  • Hibernation science harnessed to treat obesity and modify metabolism

    Hibernation science harnessed to treat obesity and modify metabolism

    By understanding the biology of hibernating animals, scientists are developing new treatments to trigger weight loss and alter metabolic pathways. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Access through your institution Change institution Buy or subscribe /* style specs start */ style{display:none!important}.LiveAreaSection-193358632 *{align-content:stretch;align-items:stretch;align-self:auto;animation-delay:0s;animation-direction:normal;animation-duration:0s;animation-fill-mode:none;animation-iteration-count:1;animation-name:none;animation-play-state:running;animation-timing-function:ease;azimuth:center;backface-visibility:visible;background-attachment:scroll;background-blend-mode:normal;background-clip:borderBox;background-color:transparent;background-image:none;background-origin:paddingBox;background-position:0 0;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto auto;block-size:auto;border-block-end-color:currentcolor;border-block-end-style:none;border-block-end-width:medium;border-block-start-color:currentcolor;border-block-start-style:none;border-block-start-width:medium;border-bottom-color:currentcolor;border-bottom-left-radius:0;border-bottom-right-radius:0;border-bottom-style:none;border-bottom-width:medium;border-collapse:separate;border-image-outset:0s;border-image-repeat:stretch;border-image-slice:100%;border-image-source:none;border-image-width:1;border-inline-end-color:currentcolor;border-inline-end-style:none;border-inline-end-width:medium;border-inline-start-color:currentcolor;border-inline-start-style:none;border-inline-start-width:medium;border-left-color:currentcolor;border-left-style:none;border-left-width:medium;border-right-color:currentcolor;border-right-style:none;border-right-width:medium;border-spacing:0;border-top-color:currentcolor;border-top-left-radius:0;border-top-right-radius:0;border-top-style:none;border-top-width:medium;bottom:auto;box-decoration-break:slice;box-shadow:none;box-sizing:border-box;break-after:auto;break-before:auto;break-inside:auto;caption-side:top;caret-color:auto;clear:none;clip:auto;clip-path:none;color:initial;column-count:auto;column-fill:balance;column-gap:normal;column-rule-color:currentcolor;column-rule-style:none;column-rule-width:medium;column-span:none;column-width:auto;content:normal;counter-increment:none;counter-reset:none;cursor:auto;display:inline;empty-cells:show;filter:none;flex-basis:auto;flex-direction:row;flex-grow:0;flex-shrink:1;flex-wrap:nowrap;float:none;font-family:initial;font-feature-settings:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-language-override:normal;font-size:medium;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;font-style:normal;font-synthesis:weight style;font-variant:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-position:normal;font-weight:400;grid-auto-columns:auto;grid-auto-flow:row;grid-auto-rows:auto;grid-column-end:auto;grid-column-gap:0;grid-column-start:auto;grid-row-end:auto;grid-row-gap:0;grid-row-start:auto;grid-template-areas:none;grid-template-columns:none;grid-template-rows:none;height:auto;hyphens:manual;image-orientation:0deg;image-rendering:auto;image-resolution:1dppx;ime-mode:auto;inline-size:auto;isolation:auto;justify-content:flexStart;left:auto;letter-spacing:normal;line-break:auto;line-height:normal;list-style-image:none;list-style-position:outside;list-style-type:disc;margin-block-end:0;margin-block-start:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-inline-end:0;margin-inline-start:0;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;margin-top:0;mask-clip:borderBox;mask-composite:add;mask-image:none;mask-mode:matchSource;mask-origin:borderBox;mask-position:0 0;mask-repeat:repeat;mask-size:auto;mask-type:luminance;max-height:none;max-width:none;min-block-size:0;min-height:0;min-inline-size:0;min-width:0;mix-blend-mode:normal;object-fit:fill;object-position:50% 50%;offset-block-end:auto;offset-block-start:auto;offset-inline-end:auto;offset-inline-start:auto;opacity:1;order:0;orphans:2;outline-color:initial;outline-offset:0;outline-style:none;outline-width:medium;overflow:visible;overflow-wrap:normal;overflow-x:visible;overflow-y:visible;padding-block-end:0;padding-block-start:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-inline-end:0;padding-inline-start:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-top:0;page-break-after:auto;page-break-before:auto;page-break-inside:auto;perspective:none;perspective-origin:50% 50%;pointer-events:auto;position:static;quotes:initial;resize:none;right:auto;ruby-align:spaceAround;ruby-merge:separate;ruby-position:over;scroll-behavior:auto;scroll-snap-coordinate:none;scroll-snap-destination:0…

  • Progress on nuclear clocks shows the benefits of escaping from scientific silos

    Progress on nuclear clocks shows the benefits of escaping from scientific silos

    Researchers have made progress in precision timekeeping by using thorium-rich crystals and a type of laser called a frequency comb in a vacuum chamber.Credit: Ye Labs, JILA, NIST and Univ. Colorado What do you get when you put a nuclear physicist, an optical physicist and a crystal-growing maestro together in a laboratory? This is not…

  • Science convergence in affective research is associated with impactful multidisciplinary appeal rather than multidisciplinary content

    Science convergence in affective research is associated with impactful multidisciplinary appeal rather than multidisciplinary content

    Abstract Affectivism is a research trend dedicated to the study of emotions and their role in cognition and human behavior. Affectivism both complements and competes with cognitivism, which typically neglects affect in explaining behavior. By the nature of their subject, both affectivism and cognitivism constitute fertile grounds for studying the confluence of conceptual knowledge from…

  • Herbarium collections remain essential in the age of community science

    Herbarium collections remain essential in the age of community science

    Abstract The past decade has yielded more biodiversity observations from community science than the past century of traditional scientific collection. This rapid influx of data is promising for overcoming critical biodiversity data shortfalls, but we also have vast untapped resources held in undigitized natural history collections. Yet, the ability of these undigitized collections to fill data…

  • Herbarium collections remain essential in the age of community science

    Herbarium collections remain essential in the age of community science

    Abstract The past decade has yielded more biodiversity observations from community science than the past century of traditional scientific collection. This rapid influx of data is promising for overcoming critical biodiversity data shortfalls, but we also have vast untapped resources held in undigitized natural history collections. Yet, the ability of these undigitized collections to fill data…

  • Corvallis Science & Nature: Garden Tour and Talk, Avery Park Volunteering, Sunrise Walk

    Corvallis Science & Nature: Garden Tour and Talk, Avery Park Volunteering, Sunrise Walk

    There are two definitions of summer in Corvallis. There’s the standard calendar meaning, that puts the end of summer and start of fall at the end of September. But summer also means the quiet season when OSU students disappear. Neither one is quite over, but both are on the wane. Classes may not begin for…

  • Covert racism in AI chatbots, precise Stone Age engineering, and the science of paper cuts

    Covert racism in AI chatbots, precise Stone Age engineering, and the science of paper cuts

    Download the Nature Podcast 28 August 2024 In this episode: 00:31 Chatbots makes racist judgements on the basis of dialect Research has shown that large language models, including those that power chatbots such as ChatGPT, make racist judgements on the basis of users’ dialects. If asked to describe a person, many AI systems responded with…