Week in Science: Chatbots have infiltrated scientific publishing

May 3—In this week's top stories, chatbots have infiltrated scientific publishing, the longest-ever COVID case, and threats of a solar superstorm are growing. All that and more below! -Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Top Stories

AI Chatbots Have Thoroughly Infiltrated Scientific Publishing One percent of scientific articles published in 2023 showed signs of generative AI's potential involvement, according to a recent analysis Chris Stokel-Walker

The Threat of a Solar Superstorm Is Growing—And We're Not Ready Someday an unlucky outburst from our sun could strike Earth and fry most of our electronics—and we've already had some too-close-for-comfort near misses Phil Plait

There Are Safer Ways to Bed-Share with a Baby For some parents, bed-sharing is the only way their baby can sleep. Rather than talking to parents about how to do it safely, we try to pretend it doesn't exist Amanda Ruggeri

Do Insects Have an Inner Life? Animal Consciousness Needs a Rethink A declaration signed by dozens of scientists says there is "a realistic possibility" for elements of consciousness in reptiles, insects and mollusks Mariana Lenharo; Nature magazine

Bird Flu Is Spreading in Cows. Here's What That Means for Milk H5N1 influenza virus particles have been detected in commercially sold milk, but it's not clear how the virus is spreading in cattle or whether their milk could infect humans Julian Nowogrodzki, partner content; Nature magazine

Collapsing Sheets of Spacetime Could Explain Dark Matter and Why the Universe 'Hums' Domain walls, long a divisive topic in physics, may be ideal explanations for some bizarre cosmic quirks Anil Ananthaswamy

The Science of '3 Body Problem': What's Fact and What's Fiction? The hit sci-fi show's adviser and two other researchers discuss its portrayal of scientists and their technologies Sumeet Kulkarni; Nature magazine

ADHD's Hidden Benefits Can Be 'Awesome' A new book by Penn and Kim Holderness seeks to correct misconceptions about ADHD and accentuate the plus side of the condition Clara Moskowitz

Wild Orangutan Uses Herbal Medicine to Treat His Wound Researchers say this may be the first observation of a nonhuman animal purposefully treating a wound with a medicinal plant Meghan Bartels

Exercise Helps Your Brain as Much as Your Body Instead of just asking questions about how exercise helps our bodies, let's also consider how it helps our brains J. David Creswell

Can You Eat Cicadas? Can Your Dog Do So? Here's what a chef, a vet and two anthropologists have to say about eating periodical cicadas Meghan Bartels

Longest-Ever COVID Infection Lasted More Than 600 Days A Dutch man with lymphoma and other blood disorders was infected with the COVID-causing virus for nearly two years, during which time the pathogen evolved numerous mutations Riis Williams, intern writer

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