ScientistPankaj: Week in Science: Giant Joro spider summer

Friday, June 14, 2024

Week in Science: Giant Joro spider summer

Scientific American

June 14—This week, scientists create a compound with the radioactive element promethium, the first Neuralink patient describes what it's like, and some people with this lesser-understood type of insomnia think they're awake all night when they're actually asleep.

--Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Green, blue and purple dismantled cubes reassembled floating on dark blue background.

AI Will Become Mathematicians' 'Co-Pilot'

Fields Medalist Terence Tao explains how proof checkers and AI programs are dramatically changing mathematics

Christoph Drösser

Conceptual art shows the rare earth element promethium in a vial surrounded by an organic ligand.

Chemists Finally Made a Compound Containing Mysterious Element Promethium

Promethium, one of the rarest and most mysterious elements in the periodic table, has finally given up some crucial chemical secrets

Mark Peplow; Nature magazine

Orange, turquise and red numbers with connector lines on black background.Numbers Vector Pattern.

Prime Number Puzzle Has Stumped Mathematicians for More Than a Century

Experts have only started to crack the tricky twin prime conjecture

What It's like to Live with a Brain Chip, according to Neuralink's First User

Thirty-year-old Noland Arbaugh says the Neuralink chip has let him "reconnect with the world"

Illustration of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in space with star clusters reflected in the telescope's mirrors

JWST Detects the Earliest, Most Distant Galaxy in the Known Universe—And It's Super Weird

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observed an unusually large and highly luminous galaxy at a record-breaking 290 million years after the big bang

Riis Williams, intern writer

Simple black and white vector illustration depicting a woman in bed, eyes closed, sleeping, with a white line scribble above her head

Up All Night? You May Have Actually Been Asleep

You say you haven't slept all night. Brain scans say you have. New science says both inferences may be right

Sky appears red during nuclear test

What Happens if a Nuke Goes Off in Space?

Russia may be planning to put a nuclear weapon in orbit. We have known since the 1960s why that is a bad idea

Allison Parshall

A Joro spider with a yellow and grey body and long black legs on a brick wall

Giant Joro Spiders Are Coming: Here's What to Expect

Millions of hand-size Joro spiders are moving up the East Coast. Don't panic

Stephanie Pappas

Silhouette of little girl using mobile phone

Teens Are Spreading Deepfake Nudes of One Another. It's No Joke

Teens are sending deepfake nude images of classmates to each other, disrupting lives. Schools, technology developers and parents need to act now

Riana Pfefferkorn

Photo illustration of an aisle in a server room with a door open on one of the equipment cases

What Do Google's AI Answers Cost the Environment?

Google is bringing AI answers to a billion people this year, but generative AI requires much more energy than traditional keyword searches

Allison Parshall

A group of young elephants walking toward camera.

Elephants Call Each Other by Name Across the Savanna

Female elephants address one another with individualized rumbles

Industrial equipment in an inactive volcanic hilly landscape.

Carbon Removal Is Catching On, but It Needs to Go Faster

World leaders must make plans to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a new report says

Chelsea Harvey; E&E News