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Free-energy machine for combinatorial optimization
Abstract Finding optimal solutions to combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) is pivotal in both scientific and industrial domains. Considerable efforts have been invested on developing accelerated methods utilizing sophisticated models and advanced computational hardware. However, the challenge remains to achieve both high efficiency and broad generality in problem-solving. Here we propose a general method, free-energy machine…
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Why Africans should be telling the story of human origins
Changemakers This Nature Q&A series celebrates people who fight racism in science and who champion inclusion. It also highlights initiatives that could be applied to other scientific workplaces. One of the world’s top hunters of hominid fossils, palaeoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie, appears on the Zoom screen from his home in Arizona, wearing a casual collared shirt.…
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Does sharing first authorship on a paper carry a penalty? What the research says
A second-place slot on a paper’s author list did not reduce a co-first author’s perceived academic competence, a study found. Credit: Getty Who gets to be first? The question of whether a paper should have more than one first author can lead to fraught negotiations. And the discussions can be just as thorny when deciding…
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What CERN does next matters for science and for international cooperation
Researchers at CERN in 2012, including its then director-general Rolf-Dieter Heuer (second right) and current director-general Fabiola Gianotti (centre), anxiously await confirmation that the Higgs boson had finally been found.Credit: Denis Balibouse/Reuters Fresh from their historic discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, researchers using CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the main particle accelerator at…
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Book Review: ‘The Social Genome,’ by Dalton Conley; ‘The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire,’ by Henry Gee
THE SOCIAL GENOME: The New Science of Nature and Nurture, by Dalton Conley THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE HUMAN EMPIRE: Why Our Species Is on the Edge of Extinction, by Henry Gee In 2012, NPR reported the startling news that a fancy preschool on Manhattan’s Upper West Side would require its little applicants to…
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‘It’s Spring: Let’s Talk Plants’ to bring day of nature-themed activities to Science Central Saturday
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – Science Central is celebrating the start of spring with a special event on Saturday. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the organization will be hosting “It’s Spring: Let’s Talk Plants”, bringing a day of nature-themed activities to the Summit City. Organization leaders say the event will feature presentations, demonstrations, and…
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We Explored the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Joss and I spent most of Spring Break in Denver. This included a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, which I’d never been to before. It was huge! We spent several hours there and only saw maybe a third of everything there was to see. But here’s some information about it, if…
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‘Little Beasts’ Is a First-of-Its-Kind Museum Collaboration Reveling in Art and the Natural World
Jacopo Ligozzi, “A Groundhog or Marmot with a Branch of Plums”. (1605), brush with brown and black wash, point of the brush with black and brown ink and white gouache, and watercolor, over traces of graphite on burnished paper, sheet: 13 x 16 5/8 inches. All images courtesy of The National Gallery of Art, Washington,…
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Life science ecosystems in Asia: biomedical innovation trends over the past decade
The United States and Europe have long been centres of biomedical innovation, accounting for ~90% of all new molecular entities (NMEs) approved between 1990–2014 (Drug Discov. Today 20, 500–504; 2015) and home to most of the top 25 biopharma companies globally. Previous studies have evaluated emerging centres of life science innovation, in particular China and…
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Diversity-aware population modeling
We propose a diversity-aware population modeling framework using Bayesian multilevel regression and post-stratification to quantify sociodemographic disparities in cognitive development. Our approach improved subgroup estimates, guiding targeted public health strategies and addressing biases in traditional models to support more equitable decision-making. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Access…