AI is already helping many of us with things we do every day. It’s also fueling breakthroughs in research that hold promise of reshaping things on a global scale, like the discovery of new materials and improving medical care. Two new research papers published this week in scientific journals, one in Nature and one in…

Snake venom can cause paralysis, tissue damage and death.Credit: Ingo Schulz/imageBROKER via Getty Proteins designed using artificial intelligence (AI) can block the lethal effects of toxins delivered in the venom of cobras, adders and other deadly snakes. The AI-designed proteins could form the basis of a new generation of therapies for snakebites — which kill…

By combining several probabilistic AI algorithms, a recent study demonstrates experimentally that the inherent noise and variation in memristor nanodevices can be exploited as features for energy-efficient on-chip learning. 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…

Abstract Deep learning has significantly advanced molecular modelling and design, enabling an efficient understanding and discovery of novel molecules. In particular, large language models introduce a fresh research paradigm to tackle scientific problems from a natural language processing perspective. Large language models significantly enhance our understanding and generation of molecules, often surpassing existing methods with…

Michael Kratsios (left) was chief technology officer during the first US presidency of Donald Trump (right).Credit: PBH Images/Alamy For almost half of Donald Trump’s first US presidency, which ran from 2017 to 2021, he did not have an official science adviser. His second term is shaping up to be different. As he prepares to take…

Calling nature “unnatural” is a massive oxymoron, but we really don’t know what else to call its more peculiar happenings. It’s probably our own beefed-up egos telling us that the way we experience the world around us is “normal.”  Things like the quantum realm, distant space, the deep sea and all those creepy, slimy little…

The Biodiversity Survey of the Cape (BioSCape) in South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region aims to test the limits and potential of remote sensing for biodiversity applications. Integrating field biodiversity measurements and local knowledge with advanced remote sensing, BioSCape brings us closer to measuring key biodiversity variables globally from space. Download PDF Addressing biodiversity loss,…

As Donald Trump prepares for his second term as president of the United States, two starkly different outlooks are emerging among scientists and engineers. Some technology companies, space enthusiasts, artificial intelligence (AI) developers and others expect favourable policies for their fields in the coming years, and are hugely excited about the possibilities for exploration and…