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Nine Minds by Daniel Tammet review – a new language for neurodiversity
In The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks wrote about two autistic men, twins who had an extraordinary relationship with numbers. Sacks recalled that during one of his sessions a matchbox fell from a table, disgorging its contents, and the twins cried out “111”, the exact number of matches that lay…
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What Twisters gets right — and wrong
When Hollywood producers showed up a few years ago at Sean Waugh’s office, he couldn’t wait to show them his thunderstorm-tracking equipment. Waugh, a meteorologist at the US National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, is a big fan of the 1996 film Twister, which stars Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as leaders of a…
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Freeze-dried woolly mammoths share their genetic secrets with scientists
A 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth was impeccably freeze-dried by nature, its swatches of fur remaining intact — remarkably enough — and allowing a global team of scientists to reconstruct the creature’s three-dimensional genome for the first time. A study published Thursday in the journal Cell about mammoths inspires a new way of looking at ancient DNA…
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Fresh guidance launched for nature-focused science-based targets
The SBTN has this week unveiled its new target-setting guide, with updated technical guidance and resources aimed at helping companies set science-based targets for nature. Last year, the SBTN launched a global initiative aimed at helping companies evaluate their environmental footprints and explore scientific strategies to mitigate them. As part of this initiative, a pilot programme…
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River Bend Nature Center to hold themed Sip’N Science event
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) – River Bend Nature Center will be holding a Sip’N Science event themed around Texas Hummingbirds on July 19. The event will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and is only $25 per person to attend. Attendees will learn about hummingbird diets, predators, and migration patterns from Penny Miller.…
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Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) across orbits
A visual summary of the 44 papers in the SOMA package is also available as a PDF version. All papers can be accessed in the collection page. Key laboratories and scientific leads for the SOMA resources Chris Mason, Weill Cornell Medicine, Mason Lab Afshin Beheshti, Blue Marble Space Institute of Science at NASA Ames Research Center, Beheshti…
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Structure-based prediction of T cell receptor recognition of unseen epitopes using TCRen
Abstract T cell receptor (TCR) recognition of foreign peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex protein is a major event in triggering the adaptive immune response to pathogens or cancer. The prediction of TCR–peptide interactions has great importance for therapy of cancer as well as infectious and autoimmune diseases but remains a major challenge, particularly for…
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A decomposition of light’s spin angular momentum density
Abstract Light carries intrinsic spin angular momentum (SAM) when the electric or magnetic field vector rotates over time. A familiar vector equation calculates the direction of light’s SAM density using the right-hand rule with reference to the electric and magnetic polarisation ellipses. Using Maxwell’s equations, this vector equation can be decomposed into a sum of…
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Canada just hiked PhD and postdoc pay — here’s how to get your country to do it, too
Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars often struggle to make ends meet, despite playing a crucial part in driving research and innovation. The cost-of-living crisis, which took root in many countries in late 2021, has worsened the situation. Respondents to a November 2022 Nature survey of early-career academics reported sometimes having to get groceries from food…
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How PhD students and other academics are fighting the mental-health crisis in science
On the first day of her class, Annika Martin asks the assembled researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland to roll out their yoga mats and stand with their feet spread wide apart. They place their hands on their hips before swinging their torsos down towards the mat and back up again. The pose,…
