Can the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 4-Jul-2025 12:10 ET (4-Jul-2025 16:10 GMT/UTC)
The intricate, hidden processes that sustain coral life are being revealed through a new microscope developed by scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The diver-operated microscope — called the Benthic Underwater Microscope imaging PAM, or BUMP — incorporates pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) light techniques to offer an unprecedented look at coral photosynthesis on micro-scales. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the new microscope will help scientists uncover precisely why corals bleach, and inform remediation efforts. While the bleaching process is known, it’s not fully understood, and it hasn’t been possible to study in depth in the field — until now.
Researchers have long been interested in how humans and animals make decisions by focusing on trial-and-error behavior informed by recent information. However, the conventional frameworks for understanding these behaviors may overlook certain realities of decision-making because they assume we make the best decisions after taking into account our past experiences. A newly released study by a team of scientists deploys AI in innovative ways to better understand this process. By using tiny artificial neural networks, the researchers’ work illuminates in detail what drives an individual’s actual choices—regardless of whether those choices are optimal or not.
Cognitive neuroscientists at Brown University investigated one of humanity’s favorite pastimes and discovered how people can spread gossip without the subject of that gossip finding out — at least not right away. In a study supported by a federal grant from the National Science Foundation, the researchers found that gossiping relies on a person’s ability to perform complex computational processes each time they decide to spread information, and that most people do this instinctively.