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Deinococcus radiodurans has been nicknamed "Conan the Bacterium" for its ability to withstand intense levels of radiation. This microscopic organism can radiation thousands of times the level known to kill a human. Michael Daly hide caption

'Conan the Bacterium' can survive extreme radiation, and scientists finally know why

December 13, 2024 • In the 1950s, scientists exposed a tin of meat to a dose of radiation that they expected would kill all forms of life. But one organism defied the odds and lived: Conan The Bacterium. Turns out this microorganism, known to science as Deinococcus radiodurans, is capable of surviving extreme levels of radiation — thousands of times the amount that would kill a human. So what's Conan's secret?

Research about the degenerative brain disease known as CTE in athletes has largely focused on American football. But a new study of ice hockey players has found a link between the length of a player's career and their risk of developing the condition. Patrick Smith/Getty Images hide caption

Longer careers in ice hockey are linked to a greater risk of CTE, a new study finds

December 4, 2024 • A new Boston University study of 77 deceased male ice hockey players found that their chances of developing the degenerative brain disease known as CTE increased with each year they played the sport.

The Vertebrate Genomes Project is an international group of scientists who plan to sequence the genomes of about 70,000 species — starting with the platypus. ilbusca/Getty Images hide caption

The global effort to genetically map 70,000 animal species

December 4, 2024 • The Vertebrate Genomes Project: It's an ambitious effort by an international group of scientists to create a "Genome Ark" by sequencing the genomes of about 70,000 animal species. The hope is that through all of this gene sequencing, scientists will be able to answer some basic but important questions like: What makes a bird, well, a bird? What makes a mammal a mammal? Plus, with so many species on the verge of extinction, can scientists record their genetic information before they go extinct – or better yet, maybe help save the population from going extinct? Guest host Jon Hamilton, one of our favorite science correspondents, talks to Erich Jarvis, the chair of this project, to learn what this ark of animal genomes could mean for our future – and why a platypus qualified for early boarding.

In Kelly Lambert's lab at the University of Richmond, rats are trained to drive tiny cars. Researchers are studying how that training, and the anticipation associated with it, affects their brains. University of Richmond hide caption

These scientists taught rats to drive tiny cars. Turns out, it's good for them

December 3, 2024 • In neuroscientist Kelly Lambert's lab at the University of Richmond, rats hop into cars, rev their engines and skid across the floor of an arena. Researchers taught these tiny rodents to drive — and turns out, they really like it. But why?

A false color view of Uranus made from images taken by Voyager 2 in January 1986. AFP/via Getty Images hide caption

Opinion: Uranus was having a bad hair day. Hey, it was the '80s!

November 16, 2024 • Scientists are reconsidering old information about Uranus. NPR's Scott Simon explains the problem with photos taken of the planet 38 years ago.

ESSAY 11162024

A pocket gopher is seen in its home on a meadow in the Butte Camp area on the southern side of Mount St. Helens in southwest Washington state. Gophers were taken to the northern side, which had been devastated by a volcanic eruption. Bob Parmenter hide caption

Gophers needed 1 day after Mount St. Helens erupted to bring explosions of new life

November 15, 2024 • Scientists say the pocket gophers were cranky about being moved into a devastated landscape for a day in 1980. But decades later, their short visit still has visible, and vibrant, effects.

The mysterious Bathydevius caudactylus was observed by MBARI's remotely operated vehicle Tiburon in the outer Monterey Canyon off the coast of California, at a depth of approximately 1,900 meters. 2002 MBARI hide caption

Scientists unveil decades-long research about the deep-diving 'mystery mollusc'

November 15, 2024 • This critter lurks in the ocean's midnight zone, has a voluminous hood, is completely see through and is bioluminescent. It's unlike any nudibranchs deep sea experts have ever seen before — and now, the researchers who spent twenty years studying them have finally published their findings.

In the United States, one in every four households experiences a power outage annually. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working on a set of drones connected to a "smart" electric grid to try to help change that. Ali Majdfar/Getty Images hide caption

One unexpected solution to electric grid blackouts: drones

November 12, 2024 • One in four U.S. households experiences a power outage each year. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working on technology they hope will help fix electric grids: drones. They're betting that 2-ft. large drones connected to "smart" electric grids are a cost-effective step to a more electrified future.

Jewelry found in the ruins of a house in Pompeii are displayed, backdropped by the casts of two adults and two children who died together, are seen housed at the British Museum in London in 2013. Lefteris Pitarakis/AP hide caption

New DNA evidence upends what we thought we knew about Pompeii victims

November 9, 2024 • The findings, which used DNA from the plaster casts of people who died in the Mt. Vesuvius eruption two millennia ago, challenge the traditional gender and familial assumptions about the Pompeiians.

Some scientists are searching for the origins of life on Earth by simulating prebiotic conditions at hydrothermal vents, like this "black smoker" in the Pacific Ocean. Ralph White/Getty Images hide caption

Did life start on the ocean floor — and what does that mean for alien life?

November 4, 2024 • How did life start on Earth? The answer is a big scientific mystery scientists are actively investigating. After talking with many scientists, host Regina G. Barber found that an abundance of water on Earth is most likely key, in some way, to the origin of life — specifically, in either deep sea hydrothermal vents or in tide pools. It's for this reason some scientists are also exploring the potential for life in so-called "water worlds" elsewhere in the solar system, like some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. This episode, Regina digs into two water-related hypotheses for the origin on life on Earth — and what that might mean for possible alien life.

An illustration of Notobatrachus degiustoi tadpoles and adults in a mid-Jurassic period pond. Gabriel Lío hide caption

The oldest tadpole ever found is 161 million years old and amazingly preserved

November 1, 2024 • For years, we've been asking, "Which came first: the chicken or the egg?" Maybe what we should have been asking is, "Which came first: the frog or the tadpole?" A new paper in the journal Nature details the oldest known tadpole fossil. Ringing in 20 million years earlier than scientists previously had evidence of, this fossil might get us closer to an answer.

Lots of mammals scream. Conservation biologist Dan Blumstein says those screaming sounds happen when an animal overblows their vocal folds, pushing air out much faster than normal. Getty Images | mlorenzphotography hide caption

What do horror movies and marmots have in common? Screams

October 30, 2024 • NOTE: This episode contains multiple high-pitched noises (human and other animals) that some listeners might find startling or distressing.

If you picked up a Honeycrisp apple at a grocery store in New York... and then a Honeycrisp in Texas... and then a Honeycrisp in California... they'd all be the exact same genetically. That's because they're all from the same original plant. Stan Dzugan/Getty Images hide caption

Baking the perfect pie is an art. So is breeding the perfect apple

October 28, 2024 • What's your favorite apple? Maybe it's the crowd-pleasing Honeycrisp, the tart Granny Smith or the infamous Red Delicious. Either way, before that apple made it to your local grocery store or orchard it had to be invented — by a scientist. So today, we're going straight to the source: Talking to an apple breeder. Producer Hannah Chinn reports how apples are selected, bred, grown ... and the discoveries that could change that process. Plus, what's a "spitter"?

Cobenfy, a new drug made by Bristol Myers Squibb and approved by the FDA last week, triggers muscarinic receptors instead of dopamine receptors. It's the first schizophrenia treatment to do so. Bristol Myers Squibb hide caption

For the first time in decades, we have a new kind of schizophrenia drug

October 23, 2024 • For the past 70 years, schizophrenia treatments all targeted the same chemical: dopamine. While that works for some, it causes brutal side effects for others. An antipsychotic drug approved last month by the FDA changes that. It triggers muscarinic receptors instead of dopamine receptors. The drug is the result of a chance scientific finding ... from a study that wasn't even focused on schizophrenia. Host Emily Kwong and NPR pharmaceutical correspondent Sydney Lupkin dive into where the drug originated, how it works and what it might shift for people with schizophrenia.

Two "ghost wolves" — southeastern coyotes that carry a substantial amount of genetics from the critically endangered American Red Wolf — stand in front of some brush. Bridgett vonHoldt hide caption

The American red wolf is endangered. These 'ghost genes' could save it

October 22, 2024 • Every American red wolf alive right now is descended from only 14 canids. In the 1970s, humans drove the red wolf to the brink of extinction. Because of that, red wolves today have low genetic diversity. But what if we could recover that diversity ... using "ghost genes"?

Boophis siskoi is one of seven newly described species of frog found in Madagascar. Mark D. Scherz hide caption

Meet 7 newly described frog species, all named after Star Trek characters

October 18, 2024 • In the humid rainforests of northern and eastern Madagascar reside seven newly described frog species. They often hang out near fast, flowing rivers. These treefrogs' high-pitched, "futuristic" sounds may help male frogs attract females over the sound of nearby rushing water. They also are what inspired their Star Trek- themed names.

A tourist rides a camel at the Treasury site in Petra, Jordan, in December 2022. Archaeologists have discovered a hidden tomb at the site. Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Archaeologists discover 12 skeletons at a buried tomb in Petra, Jordan

October 16, 2024 • The Treasury in Petra, Jordan, is a famous tourist site and features in an Indiana Jones movie. Now archaeologists say they've found a remarkable 12 complete skeletons in a hidden tomb beneath it.

An artist's concept of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft as it flies by this moon of Jupiter (depicted in the background). NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption

NASA's Europa Clipper has launched — and it's searching for signs of life

October 16, 2024 • NASA's Europa Clipper mission launched Monday, beginning its years-long journey to the distant icy moon it's named after. This mission is designed to tell scientists more about the structure, the interior and the habitability of Europa, one of the four large moons of Jupiter. Host Regina G. Barber talks with astrobiologist and friend of the show Mike Wong about why their mutual love for this fascinating moon and what it means for the search for life outside of Earth. Plus, they talk about other icy moons that may also have the trifecta of ingredients needed to sustain life: liquid water, specific elements and an energy source.

The fruit fly connectome contains a wide range of information, from cell types and synapses to neurotransmitters and network properties. Here, cells are color-coded by their defining chemical messenger. Amy Sterling for FlyWire, Princeton University, (Dorkenwald et al., Nature, 2024) hide caption

Fruit flies are hard to swat. Mapping their brain might tell us why

October 7, 2024 • Fruit fly brains are smaller than a poppy seed, but that doesn't mean they aren't complex. For the first time, researchers have published a complete diagram of 50 million connections in an adult fruit flies brain. The journal Nature simultaneously published nine papers related to this new brain map. Until now, only a roundworm and a fruit fly larva had been mapped in this way.

Lightning off the coast of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. Bashaar Tarabay/Getty Images hide caption

How do scientists study lightning? With a spy plane and some big storms

October 4, 2024 • Lightning: It happens all the time, and yet the exact details of how it's made has long eluded scientists. That is, until now. New research out this week in the journal Nature holds new insights into the precursor to lightning. To figure it out, researchers flew a NASA ER-2 – essentially the research version of a spy plane – over several tropical thunderstorms. What they found: The same high energy radiation is found in places like neutron stars and around black holes.

Samples of yeast collected around Baltimore, that are being stress-tested at the Casadevall lab at Johns Hopkins University. Casadevall Lab hide caption

These scientists are trying to build a fungal-resistant future

October 1, 2024 • Over six million fungal species are believed to inhabit planet Earth. Outsmarting them is the work of Arturo Casadevall's lifetime. What If Fungi Win? is the question at the heart of Arturo's new book, co-authored with journalist Stephanie Desmon. In this episode, Emily and Regina take a trip to Arturo's lab at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and meet a group of scientists thinking about the fungal consequences of climate change, urban heat islands, and scooping up microbes with candy.

This semi-aquatic lizard produces a bubble over its nostrils to continue breathing underwater. Lindsey Swierk hide caption

Meet the scuba diving lizards breathing by bubble

September 20, 2024 • What's scaly, striped and breathes underwater like a scuba diver? Water anoles! These lizards can form a bubble over their head to support breathing underwater. They're found in the tropical forests of southern Costa Rica.

Recent scientific breakthroughs that could change the world

From green energy to medical marvels

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1. Designing a sunlight reactor

2. panda stem cells, 3. monkey communication, 4. finding the root cause of lupus, 5. restoring brain cells, 6. menstrual blood as a diagnostic tool, 7. cell therapy for melanoma, 8. rhino ivf.

Scientists are making new discoveries every day. Although some may fly under the radar, many of these findings are groundbreaking and have the potential to change the world as we know it.

Scientists have created a prototype reactor that can harvest hydrogen fuel using only sunlight and water. Green hydrogen , a "climate-neutral process that uses renewable energy sources to create hydrogen," has been a "growing conversation among renewable fuel experts," said Popular Mechanics . However, "only .1% of all hydrogen production can be described as 'green,'" because it "requires so much renewable energy to create, making the process cost prohibitive."

A paper published in the journal Frontiers in Science details a reactor built with photocatalytic sheets that can split water into its elements (hydrogen and oxygen) using the power of the sun. "Obviously, solar energy conversion technology cannot operate at night or in bad weather, but by storing the energy of sunlight as the chemical energy of fuel materials, it is possible to use the energy anytime and anywhere," said Popular Mechanics. However, the product is still in its infancy. "The most important aspect to develop is the efficiency of solar-to-chemical energy conversion by photocatalysts," a senior author of the paper, Kazunari Domen, said in a statement . "If it is improved to a practical level, many researchers will work seriously on the development of mass production technology and gas separation processes, as well as large-scale plant construction."

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Although giant pandas are no longer considered endangered , they are still a vulnerable species. The good news is that scientists may have found a way to support their survival by taking giant panda skin cells and transforming them into stem cells, according to a study published in the journal Science Advances . The stem cells can then be "nudged into becoming any kind of cell in the body" and "could help researchers breed more giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and develop treatments for their diseases," said Science News .

Stem cells are a "self-renewing, inexhaustible source of material from endangered species, capable of regenerating various cell types as needed," and they "could serve as a crucial tool in preventing species extinction," said the study. Successfully creating the stem cells was a difficult process because researchers have to go "back to the basics" for every animal — and "what worked on humans and mice did not work for pandas," Pierre Comizzoli, a gamete biologist at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, said to The Scientist . While it will still be a while before we see a lab-grown giant panda, scientists want to use the cells to create panda embryos.

Marmoset monkeys use names to refer to each other, according to a study published in the journal Science . Scientists "recorded spontaneous 'phee-call' dialogues between pairs of marmoset monkeys," said the study. "We discovered that marmosets use these calls to vocally label their conspecifics. Moreover, they respond more consistently and correctly to calls that are specifically directed at them." This type of behavior had only been seen in humans, elephants and dolphins previously. "This is the first time that we have seen this in non-human primates," David Omer, the lead author of the study, said to CNN . ​​

The study raises questions as to whether this form of communication is rare or if it has simply not been researched enough. "I think that as we refine our paradigms and our techniques of acoustic analysis, we will find that many other social animals have more complexity in their communication systems than we currently realize," Con Slobodchikoff, a professor emeritus of biology at Northern Arizona University, said to The Washington Post . "This paper is a good nudge toward us changing our views about animal capabilities and intelligence."

Scientists have discovered a cause of lupus and a possible way to reverse it. A study published in the journal Nature points to abnormalities in the immune system of lupus patients that is caused by a molecular abnormality. "What we found was this fundamental imbalance in the types of T cells that patients with lupus make," Deepak Rao, one of the study authors, said to NBC News . Specifically, "people with lupus have too much of a particular T cell associated with damage in healthy cells and too little of another T cell associated with repair," NBC News said.

The good news is that this could be reversed. A protein called interferon is mainly to blame for the T-cell imbalance. Too much interferon blocks another protein called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, which helps regulate how the body responds to bacteria or environmental pollutants. In turn, too many T-cells are produced that attack the body itself. "The study found that giving people with lupus anifrolumab, a drug that blocks interferon, prevented the T-cell imbalance that likely leads to the disease," said NBC News.

Scientists have found a way to repair brain cells impaired by a rare genetic disorder. A study published in the journal Nature found that a drug called antisense oligonucleotide allowed human neurons to develop normally despite carrying a mutation due to a genetic disorder called Timothy syndrome. "It's the beginning of a new era for many of these diseases that we first thought were untreatable," Dr. Huda Zoghbi, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, said to NPR .

Timothy syndrome is caused by a mutation of a single gene in a person's DNA . The new drug develops an "antisense nucleotide, a small piece of synthetic genetic material that alters the proteins made by a cell," said NPR. The antisense nucleotide for Timothy syndrome was designed to replace a defective protein with a healthy version — "in effect counteracting the mutation responsible for the disorder." This same approach could potentially be used to treat other genetic disorders, "including some that cause schizophrenia, epilepsy, ADHD and autism spectrum disorder."

Menstrual blood can potentially be used to measure blood sugar. In early 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new diagnostic menstrual pad called the Q-Pad and A1C Test by the biotechnology research company Qvin. The Q-Pad is an organic cotton period pad that "collects the blood, which a laboratory then uses to analyze the individual's average blood sugar over three weeks through the A1C biomarker," said Forbes .

"There is a lot of clinically relevant information in this bodily fluid that comes every month," Sara Naseri, the CEO and co-founder of Qvin, said to Axios . The company wants to "prove that period blood is a noninvasive, convenient medium that doctors have been overlooking when it comes to performing a variety of tests," said The New Yorker . Diagnostic capabilities can potentially be extended to diagnose HPV or endometriosis.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first cellular therapy for aggressive forms of melanoma . The treatment, called Amtagvi, is "designed to fight off advanced forms of melanoma by extracting and replicating T cells derived from a patient's tumor," said NPR . These cells are also called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). T cells are integral in the immune system but can become "dysfunctional inside tumors."

"The approval of Amtagvi represents the culmination of scientific and clinical research efforts leading to a novel T cell immunotherapy for patients with limited treatment options," Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement . The treatment won't work for everyone, but research by the National Institutes of Health showed a "56% response rate among patients with melanoma, and 24% of patients had a complete disappearance of their melanoma, regardless of where it was," Axios said. "This is the tip of the iceberg of what TIL can bring to the future of medicine," Patrick Hwu, the CEO of Moffitt Cancer Center, said to Axios .

Scientists were able to impregnate a southern white rhino using in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Researchers in Kenya implanted a southern white rhino embryo into another of the same species using the technique in September 2023, resulting in a successful pregnancy. The technique could be used to save the northern white rhino from total extinction. "We achieved together something which was not believed to be possible," Thomas Hildebrandt , the head of the reproduction management department at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, said in a press conference.

There are two species of white rhinos: northern and southern. The northern white rhino is on the verge of extinction due to poaching, with only two females remaining. Luckily, scientists have sperm preserved from the last male rhino, which could be combined with an egg from the female and implanted into a southern white rhino female to act as a surrogate. Using a white rhino embryo to test the procedure was a "proof of concept" which is a "milestone to allow us to produce northern white rhino calves in the next two, two and a half years," Hildebrandt said.

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 Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.  

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Top Science News

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Thursday, december 12, 2024.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2024

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Monday, December 9, 2024

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Thursday, December 5, 2024

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Monday, December 2, 2024

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Thursday, November 28, 2024

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Researchers uncover new role of mutant RAS proteins in some of the deadliest cancers

• Posted: November 11, 2024

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Mutant RAS helps release EZH2 from a protein complex transported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Once released, EZH2 facilitates the breakdown of the DLC1 tumor suppressor protein, leading to uncontrolled tumor growth.  

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their collaborators have discovered a new way in which RAS genes, which are commonly mutated in cancer, may drive tumor growth beyond their well-known role in signaling at the cell surface. Mutant RAS, they found, helps to kick off a series of events involving the transport of specific proteins in the nucleus that lead to uncontrolled tumor growth, according to a study published November 11, 2024, in Nature Cancer .

RAS genes are the second most frequently mutated genes in cancer, and mutant RAS proteins are key drivers of some of the deadliest cancers, including nearly all pancreatic cancers, half of colorectal cancers, and one-third of lung cancers. Decades of research have shown that mutant RAS proteins promote the development and growth of tumors by activating specific proteins at the cell surface, creating a constant stream of signals telling cells to grow.

“This is the first study to show that mutated RAS genes can promote cancer in an entirely new way,” said study author Douglas Lowy, M.D., deputy director of NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI). “The finding of the additional role for RAS proteins has exciting implications for improving treatment.”

Drugs that block mutant RAS proteins have been available as cancer treatments for only a few years and have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat lung cancer and sarcoma. Although their development was a major scientific success, RAS inhibitors have thus far had a limited impact on patient outcomes, improving survival by only a few months in most people. 

Over 35 years ago, a group led by Dr. Lowy contributed to the early studies that identified RAS as a cancer-causing gene and helped explain how it promotes tumor growth. In this new study, the research team found that mutant RAS is directly involved in the process of releasing a nuclear protein called EZH2 from a complex transported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Once released, EZH2 facilitates the breakdown of a tumor suppressor protein called DLC1. Blocking mutant RAS stopped EZH2 from being released, restoring the activity of DLC1.

In experiments in human lung cancer cell lines and mouse models of lung cancer, the researchers found that combining RAS inhibitors with different targeted cancer drugs that reactivate DLC1’s tumor suppressor activity had potent activity against cancer—more potent than that of RAS inhibitors alone.

The study also found evidence that mutant RAS proteins perform this same function in other cancer types, suggesting that this mechanism may be a general feature of cancers with mutated RAS genes.

The researchers believe their finding may have potential applications for the treatment of RAS-fueled cancers. They have started to look at how this function for RAS works in pancreatic cancer in particular because there are so few effective treatments for this type of cancer.

“New treatment combinations could one day be developed that take this new role for RAS into consideration,” Dr. Lowy said.

About the National Cancer Institute (NCI): NCI leads the National Cancer Program and NIH’s efforts to dramatically reduce the prevalence of cancer and improve the lives of people with cancer. NCI supports a wide range of cancer research and training extramurally through grants and contracts. NCI’s intramural research program conducts innovative, transdisciplinary basic, translational, clinical, and epidemiological research on the causes of cancer, avenues for prevention, risk prediction, early detection, and treatment, including research at the NIH Clinical Center—the world’s largest research hospital. Learn more about the intramural research done in NCI’s Center for Cancer Research . For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI website at cancer.gov or call NCI’s contact center at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):  NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit  nih.gov .

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• 03 December 2024

Huge randomized trial of AI boosts discovery — at least for good scientists

• Davide Castelvecchi

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Scientists at an unnamed corporate laboratory were randomly assigned a machine-learning tool. Credit: Eugenio Marongiu/Getty

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming ubiquitous in applied research, but can it actually invent useful materials faster than humans can? It is still too early to tell, but a massive study suggests that it might.

How close is AI to human-level intelligence?

Aidan Toner-Rodgers, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, followed the deployment of a machine-learning tool at an unnamed corporate laboratory employing more than 1,000 researchers. Teams that were randomly assigned to use the tool discovered 44% more new materials and filed 39% more patent applications than did the ones that stuck to their standard workflow, he found. Toner-Rodgers posted the results online last month, and has submitted them to a peer-reviewed journal.

“It is a very interesting paper,” says Robert Palgrave, a solid-state chemist at University College London, adding that the limited disclosure of the trial’s details makes the results of the AI deployment hard to evaluate. “It maybe doesn’t surprise me that AI can come up with a lot of suggestions,” Palgrave says. “What we’re kind of missing is whether those suggestions were good suggestions or not.”

Materials maker

Toner-Rodgers had access to internal data from the lab and interviewed the researchers under the condition that he would not disclose the name of the company or the specific products it designed. He writes that it is a US firm that develops new inorganic materials — including molecular compounds, crystal structures, glasses and metal alloys — for use in “healthcare, optics, and industrial manufacturing”.

Researchers built an ‘AI Scientist’ — what can it do?

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Nature 636 , 286-287 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03939-5

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