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Congress wants to ban AI companies from selling your health data
The new proposal bans selling health and location data info — including data entered into your favorite AI chatbot.
Databricks and Nvidia Launch Genesis Workbench for AI Scientists
AI is becoming an increasingly important tool for drug discovery. However, for many pharmaceutical and biotech companies, the challenge isn’t finding more powerful models. It’s getting existing models to work […]
Templafy data reveals shifts in enterprise AI document workflows
Enterprises face AI challenges as generic tools cause content inconsistency and dilute brand identity, affecting business-critical document quality.
New data shows consumers dropped health coverage after Republicans let subsidies expire
Republican officials don’t deny the accuracy of the data, though they’ve repeatedly tried to argue that the reduction is a positive development. It’s not.
BCBSM billing change could limit access to mental health care, psychiatric offices say
A recent billing change announced by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan will affect access to mental health care across the state, according to psychiatric offices. The insurance provider says the change is in line with up-to-date guidance.
Naughty Dog Chose The Last of Us Remake Over Uncharted Remake, It's Claimed
Naughty Dog is no stranger to a remake, and evidence suggests an Uncharted 1 Remake was on the cards, with datamined files proving it.
DMC Sinai-Grace holds 2nd annual health fair with free screenings, food, entertainment
DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital is taking patient care beyond the hospital walls and into the heart of the Detroit community.
DMC Sinai-Grace holds 2nd annual health fair with free screenings, food, entertainment
DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital is taking patient care beyond the hospital walls and into the heart of the Detroit community.
The Latest: Trump says Iran wants a meeting. Tehran says nothing's scheduled
President Donald Trump says Iran requested a meeting that would happen Tuesday in Qatar, but Tehran says nothing's scheduled.
UC Berkeley is establishing the Nancy Pelosi Institute to address democracy's challenges
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the University of California, Berkeley, are partnering to form a new nonpartisan academic institute they say will be dedicated to strengthening democracy.
Millions of exploding stars could soon reveal dark energy's secrets
A new AI-powered framework could transform how astronomers measure the expansion of the Universe. By analyzing images of Type Ia supernovae and modeling their environments in unprecedented detail, researchers can estimate cosmic distances with near-spectroscopic accuracy. The technique is designed for the flood of data expected from the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory and may greatly improve our understanding of dark energy.
Central College to offer data science major this fall
Central College will offer a new data science major starting this fall, bringing together STEM, social sciences and humanities teaching.
NEA Nuclear Science Committee advances strategic priorities for the future of nuclear research
The NEA Nuclear Science Committee met on 8-10 June 2026 to advance international collaboration, strengthen scientific expertise, and shape the future of nuclear science through innovation, data and AI.
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Colorado's state primary
Democratic voters in Colorado will decide in a state primary which of two well-known statewide officeholders to nominate to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
Why a creator economy startup founder pivoted to data centers
Leonhard Soenke founded a creator economy startup. Now he splits his time between San Francisco and Texas working in data centers. Here's why.
Kara Swisher took Silicon Valley by force. Now she's eyeing influence in the 2028 campaign
Kara Swisher is expanding her influence from tech journalism to politics.
The Anti-Data-Center Movement Is Reshaping Michigan Politics
Climate activist Will Lawrence cofounded the Sunrise Movement. Now, he has shifted his focus in his attempt to compete for a swing-district seat by calling for a data center moratorium.
Insider Sale: CEO of Business Group of $BABA Sells 13,579 Shares
Fan (FJ) Jiang, the CEO of Business Group of $BABA, sold 13,579 shares of the company on 06-25-2026 for an estimated $164,305. We received data on the trade from a recent SEC filing. This was a sale of approximately 2.4% of their shares of this class of stock. Following this trade, they now own 556,617 shares of this class of $BABA stock.$BABA Insider Trading Activity$BABA insiders have traded $BABA stock on the open market 7 times in the past 6
Editorial: Keep up congressional pushback against Trump’s anti-science agenda
For about a decade, hundreds of deep-sea buoys off America’s coasts have been monitoring the conditions of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The streams of publicly available data they produce inform weather reports, generate valuable information about the planet’s changing climate and help the maritime industry and even the military maneuver the high seas.
The latest 2026 ODA projections reveal aid for health is further at risk
With official development assistance (ODA) by member countries of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) projected to fall again in 2026, the health sector is facing deep cuts.
AI could unleash ‘single greatest productivity revolution’ if Washington avoids overreach: report
The Unleash Prosperity report, titled "Boomsday Not Doomsday," argues AI could help ease housing costs, boost productivity and move workers into higher-value roles.
CD Projekt is rebranding as CD Projekt Red, but confusingly, CD Projekt Red is still CD Projekt Red
CD Projekt has rebranded itself as CD Projekt Red – or CD Projekt Red Spółka Akcyjna, to be precise.
Efzimfotase alfa demonstrated improvements in bone health in treatment-naïve pediatric patients with hypophosphatasia achieving median difference of 1.67 vs placebo in RGI-C Score at week 25 in MULBERRY Phase III trial
Positive results from the MULBERRY Phase III trial showed that efzimfotase alfa (ALXN1850), an investigational enzyme replacement therapy, demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in bone health in children (2 to
Claims GTA 6 is selling 8 times as many copies on PS5 as Xbox "doesn't represent pre-order data", insists Microsoft
Microsoft has refuted claims that its rival system, the PlayStation 5, is outselling the Xbox edition of Grand Theft Auto 6 by a rate of 8-to-1.
Seattle's data center moratorium: symbolic politics, real costs
With its data center moratorium, Seattle just put the whole city on the wrong side of the new digital divide — and its poorest residents will feel it most.
Democrats wrestle with race, populism and ideology in clashes with lawmakers of color
The Democratic Party is confronting its long-standing dilemmas over identity and ideology as it wrestles with populist challengers in communities of color.
From Photo Backups to My Own Cloud Server: My Trip Into Home Data Storage
I just wanted to store my files safely. I ended up opening a Pandora's box of complications.
Investment in Israeli health tech startups dove 40% in 2025
Data shows that while the global industry saw a resurgence in private funding, investments in Israeli startups hit a five-year low amid geopolitical uncertainty
‘People should wait for real data’: Xbox refutes claims that GTA 6 on PS5 is outselling Xbox 8-to-1
Xbox says it’s “had record orders” for the next Grand Theft Auto…
Humor laurels for comedian Bill Maher as the Kennedy Center navigates Trump-era upheaval
Comedian Bill Maher is set to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center.
Humor laurels for comedian Bill Maher as the Kennedy Center navigates Trump-era upheaval
Comedian Bill Maher is set to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center.
Humor laurels for comedian Bill Maher as the Kennedy Center navigates Trump-era upheaval
Comedian Bill Maher is set to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center.
America split from monarchy 250 years ago. Trump's presidency is testing how far it's come
America is getting ready to celebrate the 250th anniversary since it split from Britain's monarchy and embarked on its experiment in democracy.
America split from monarchy 250 years ago. Trump's presidency is testing how far it's come
America is getting ready to celebrate the 250th anniversary since it split from Britain's monarchy and embarked on its experiment in democracy.
Americans now live longer in Democratic-held House districts. Here’s why
Even as health care issues rise in the 2026 campaign debate, new data show that far more House Republicans than Democrats represent districts where the most residents face major medical challenges — and lack health insurance.
Kevin O'Leary's latest villain arc: data centers
Kevin O'Leary, the acerbic "Shark Tank" investor, is everywhere trying to sell a skeptical American public on the idea of a data center in their town.
Inside country legend Alan Jackson's triumphant finale concert
Country music legend Alan Jackson has ended his touring career.
LGBTQ+ Pride parades set for Sunday in NYC and San Francisco
Pride Month celebrations are peaking with big parades in New York, San Francisco and some other cities on Sunday.
BET Awards: Druski to make history as youngest host as show honors Lauryn Hill and Teyana Taylor
Druski will make history as the youngest host of the BET Awards on Sunday.
BET Awards: Druski to make history as youngest host as show honors Lauryn Hill and Teyana Taylor
Druski will make history as the youngest host of the BET Awards on Sunday.
San Antonio Pride festival celebrates LGBTQ+ community, raises money for local nonprofits
Thousands of people were expected at Crockett Park on Saturday for the Pride Bigger Than Texas Festival, an eight-hour celebration of LGBTQ+ history, resilience and community support.
Brad Paisley: Data center project near Nashville Zoo is 'a monstrosity'
14-time Country Music Award winner Brad Paisley is calling on Nashville to prevent the construction of a data center near the city's zoo.
Millions drop Obamacare health coverage after subsidies expire and costs rise
About 3 million fewer people in the United States had Affordable Care Act health insurance plans in February compared with the same time last year, according to new federal data. In the report releas...
New hollow-core fiber test pushes internet speeds to 1.2Tb/s
Chinese researchers achieved a new milestone in fiber-optic technology, achieving ultra-fast data transmission over long distances without signal repeaters.
Five Million Americans Lost ACA Health Insurance—Here’s What That Could Mean For Public Health
New data shows 5 million Americans have lost health insurance through the ACA. A doctor breaks down the downstream consequences for public health in America.
The fittest founder in the room got cancer. Here's how he used AI to fight back.
When confronted with cancer, Connor Christou fed everything tied tied to his regime — blood results, scan data, wearable output, journal entries — into Claude.
"This doesn’t represent pre-order data," Xbox disputes reports of PS5 crushing GTA 6 preorder demand
As rumors of a massive sales gap circulate, Xbox sets the record straight on why affiliate clicks are not the same as console sales.
States seek to lower drug prices by targeting the companies that manage them for health plans
Legislators across the U.S. are trying to lower prescription costs by reining in big companies that handle drug coverage for health insurers.
Siekerka Talks Data Centers, NJ Business Climate on News 12’s ‘Power & Politics’ This Weekend
NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka will appear on News 12’s Power & Politics with Eric Landskroner this weekend to discuss data center
Siekerka Talks Data Centers, NJ Business Climate on News 12’s ‘Power & Politics’ This Weekend
NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka will appear on News 12’s Power & Politics with Eric Landskroner this weekend to discuss data center
Baylor teen health clinics provide free medical care, mental health services
According to the latest U.S. Census data, Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured residents.
Testing gives science-based data for Fairmont lakes
FAIRMONT— A partnership between the city of Fairmont and Minnesota State University-Mankato will result in comprehensive scientific data on the Fairmont Chain of Lakes. The $25,000 contract started on April 1 and will go through Dec. 31 of this year. Fairmont’s Water Resources Coordinator, Hannah Neusch, acknowledged that while the water treatment plant in Fairmont […]
EAST TEXAS POLITICS: Embrace or ban? Railroad commissioner, ag commissioner candidate clash on data centers
Wayne Christian and Clayton Tucker join Blake Holland with opposing views on Texas data centers.
Is the No Surprises Act working? Government watchdog is uncertain
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it needs more data to determine what savings the 2020 law is bringing to the U.S. healthcare system—but early data indicate it falls short of expectations.
EAST TEXAS POLITICS: Railroad commissioner, ag commissioner candidate clash on data centers
Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian, a Republican, and Democratic nominee for Texas Agriculture Commissioner Clayton Tucker, who hold opposing views on data centers, talked with Blake Holland for this week’s edition of East Texas Politics on East Texas Now. .
iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max May See $200 Price Increase
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro models could be up to $200 more expensive, according to a prediction from analytics firm IDC. IDC expected Apple to raise iPhone 18 prices, but prior to yesterday's Mac and iPad price hike, the prediction was a $100 increase for the 18 Pro and Pro Max, and a $50 increase for the base models. IDC Senior Director of Data & Analytics Nabila Popal says the magnitude of the Mac and iPad price increase points to even higher iPhone 18 prices.
Sports Intelligence Project explores high-end decision making in multifaceted industry
A new co-curricular offering tasks students with combining data, AI and the human element of athletics.
Microsoft Responds to Reports of GTA 6 PS5 Pre-Orders Trouncing Xbox
"People should wait for real data"
Trump Administration Shut Down Climate Website, Former NOAA Employees Have Just Brought It Back
In June 2025, Climate.gov was shut down by an executive order that implied it did not meet the current administration's standards. Climate scientists have just brought the data back.
AI Is Already Reshaping US Politics at Every Level
From data center backlash to boundless cash from tech billionaires and concerns about deepfaked campaign ads, AI is everywhere in the 2026 US elections.
Meet A Retriever—Manikanta Sirumalla, International Data Science Graduate Student And Entrepreneur - UMBC: University Of Maryland, Baltimore County
If you want help meeting a big new fitness goal, Manikanta Sirumalla may have the app for you. Manikanta came to UMBC from India as a graduate student
Survey: Most Life Science Labs Piloting AI, Few in Production
A survey finds only 5% of labs use AI in production, with most still piloting the tech and citing integration, data quality as barriers.
Newsom urges a national 'billionaires' tax' while fighting one in California
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling for a national “billionaires' tax” and suggests the U.S. government should own a stake in AI companies.
Weather drives cowherd size, not broken markets
Data shows weather, not broken markets, drives cowherd decisions. Producers cite grazing concerns and drought as top barriers to expansion.
Framework lowers Laptop 13 Pro prices in response to Apple’s Mac price hikes
Framework has lowered some Laptop 13 Pro prices after switching to ADATA Gen 5 SSDs. Existing pre-orders with older Gen 5 SSD options will also be updated.
Study analyzes youth sports and committing violence
The study used survey data on 3,849 adults who participated in the National Sports and Society Survey.
Study analyzes youth sports and committing violence
The study used survey data on 3,849 adults who participated in the National Sports and Society Survey.
Study analyzes youth sports and committing violence
The study used survey data on 3,849 adults who participated in the National Sports and Society Survey.
Federal AI security center measure advanced by House Science
A measure that would put into law a key federal office focused on artificial intelligence advanced Thursday out of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, as part of a slate of AI-focused and data center bills. The committee advanced the bills on a bipartisan basis, but put off potential changes regarding funding levels for […]
NTT DATA | Transforming Data Into Exceptional Fan Experience
We worked with Penske Automotive Group to create a mobile application to amplify the fan experience and make the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway a smart venue through NTT Smart Solutions.
Remembering Victory Stadium: How Roanoke’s lost landmark changed sports and civil rights
It’s been 20 years since Victory Stadium was demolished, but the memories and legacy remain alive in Roanoke.
Ohio Black-owned businesses, payroll has increased, bringing bigger share of economy to group
According to analysis of national census data, black-owned businesses in Ohio continue to increase payroll, and drive jobs and income in the state.
Why Vrancken marks fresh start at data-driven Hearts
As Belgian head coach Wouter Vranckin takes charge at Hearts, it marks a strengthening of the club's data-driven vision, writes Thomas Duncan.
Hollywood gets into the microdrama race as mobile-first storytelling draws stars and major studios
Mobile-first serialized storytelling is rapidly becoming one of entertainment's fastest-growing businesses.
AI designs the ideal burger for taste, health, and planet
Stanford researchers developed an AI tool that creates novel burger recipes optimized for individual preferences. The implications for science go well beyond food.
Sony files WARN notice for layoffs at Bungie in Bellevue
Sony Interactive Entertainment is reducing the workforce at Bungie, with layoffs affecting a significant number of employees.
Monkey Business: Wild rhesus macaque spotted at Mount Dora hotel
A wild rhesus macaque was spotted at the historic Lakeside Inn in Mount Dora, Florida, spending about 45 minutes roaming the property and attracting attention from guests and staff. The hotel and local businesses responded with humorous, monkey-themed social media content, engaging the community. Wildlife officials cautioned the public not to approach or feed wild monkeys due to potential health risks and encouraged reporting sightings to authorities. The monkey has not returned to the hotel but has been seen elsewhere in downtown Mount Dora.
Neuroimaging utilization in emergency departments has increased year-over-year for a decade
Researchers believe their new data could be used to better inform staffing coverage in modern radiology departments.
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
The Politics Hour: The big winners in MD's primary elections
Leading Democratic nominee for Montgomery County Executive Will Jawando talks about his message to voters, dark money, and data centers. Plus, Tara Jackson wins the Democratic nomination for Prince George's County State's Attorney and WAMU's Alex Koma on D.C. lawmakers greenlighting the budget.
Ormond Beach businesses push drivers to slow down on Granada Boulevard
Downtown Ormond Beach businesses are taking matters into their own hands after drivers continue to ignore a reduced speed limit on Granada Boulevard — nearly a year after the change took effect.
This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition - Tim Cost reflects on 14 years leading Jacksonville University
As Jacksonville University prepares to welcome new leadership, outgoing President Tim Cost says his focus remains on the institution’s future rather than his own legacy.
Microsoft Discovery Aims To Advance The Era Of Agentic Science
The cloud-based agentic AI platform aims to help human researchers overcome resource constraints and complex data challenges to accelerate science at scale.
Databricks’ former AI chief thinks he can cut AI’s power bill by 1,000x
Un0 is an image-generation system tool that shows for the first time how the company's technology can replicate conventional AI systems.
Google Finance gets a dedicated app for Android
Users will be able to access their watchlists, real-time market data, live financial news, and Google's AI-powered "Key Moments" feature, which explains why stocks moved.
The science of fatherhood from brain changes to ‘dad bod’
Darby Saxbe’s book combines academic data with ‘stories about the men in her own life’
Government Scientists Fired by Trump Launch New Website for Sharing Climate Data
"Trusted climate information should not disappear when politics change."
How Elifin is reshaping the commercial real estate playbook
Elifin is leveraging a decade's worth of proprietary commercial real estate data as well as artificial intelligence to reshape how properties are marketed, analyzed and sold. The Baton Rouge-based … Already an INSIDER? Sign in. Already an INSIDER? Sign in
Windcrest welcomes new restaurants, businesses as city works to close revenue gap left by Rackspace
Windcrest leaders say the city is gaining momentum in its effort to attract new businesses and rebuild sales revenue after Rackspace left behind a more than a $1 million gap in the city’s annual budget.
How should European scientists respond to the US AI kill switch?
Earlier in June, Europe’s worst fears of technological dependence were confirmed when the White House ordered the AI firm Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using its leading models. This kill-switch moment crystalised anxieties in Brussels that the continent, lagging the US on the creation of leading-edge AI models, is now a technological of vassal of Washington. The shock has specific implications for European scientists and universities. Some governments are now worried that with AI being integrated into labs, Donald Trump now has his finger hovering over an off switch for European science. “Having restrictions on this tool, it can have an impact on our own research,” said France’s research minister, Philippe Baptiste, at the VivaTech conference in Paris on June 18.Baptiste, himself a former academic, said that colleagues in mathematics had recently warned him they were now cut off from leading-edge US models, risking their work. “This model is not available anymore now because of the US restriction, and for the first time this had an impact on mathematics,” a field where large language models (LLMs) are making a significant contribution, said Baptiste. So, should European scientists avoid relying on US models in the future? Or would this be a self-harming overreaction? And how is AI being used in science, anyway? What happened?On June 12, it emerged that Washington, citing cybersecurity concerns, had ordered Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using two models: Claude Mythos 5, and Claude Fable 5, a version of Mythos but with guardrails to prevent abuse. Anthropic said Washington’s concerns were overblown. But forced to follow the order, yet with no way to check who was using the models, the company suddenly shut down access for everyone, US citizens included. There’s still no agreement on how to restore broad access. But last week, Bloomberg reported that select US companies, and the US government, still had access to Mythos despite the ban, but the EU’s cybersecurity agency Enisa had been shut out. Class division of researchersIn the longer term, access outside the US should be restored, said Marcel Salathé, co-director of the AI centre at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), because a permanent restriction would be financially ruinous to US AI firms. “Even Trump will eventually budge to economic pressure,” he said.However, US AI firms might end up operating rather like banks, doing due diligence on users of their leading-edge AI models, he went on.European scientists are unlikely to fall foul of such checks, he said. But having a Chinese postgraduate in their lab, or doing a type of research the US disapproved of, could potentially result in access being denied. “It will create a sort of class division of researchers,” he said. More than frontier modelsHowever, successfully deploying AI in science is about far more than just having access to leading LLMs such as Mythos.Instead, many science-specific tools, most famously Alphafold, which predicts protein folding structures, require “far less” computing power to train than frontier models, well within the capabilities of European supercomputers, according to a recent analysis by the Arq Foundation, a Brussel-based AI think tank. Instead, tools such as Alphafold are possible because certain fields, like protein folding, weather prediction or astronomy, have large, clean, standardised datasets that can be used to train predictive models. Rather than compute, “data is the central constraint for AI for science,” the report says. For example, a less powerful physics model trained on CERN’s data “will be more valuable than the best model without certain data,” said Bengüsu Özcan, author of the report. European advantage?Europe could therefore steal a march by using its scientific data and infrastructure to create models US digital giants cannot. “They might actually match or go even beyond what these big [US] companies are doing,” said Özcan.Indeed, some European start-ups hope to create automated testing labs to create the kind of standardised data that could speed up the discovery of new materials. Materials scientists say there’s currently too little data to train models. AI scientistsHowever, even if the bottleneck for AI in science is often data, rather than compute, being at the mercy of the US for LLM access could still become a problem for European scientists. A new class of “AI scientists” based on leading LLMs is also emerging, Özcan’s report says.Unlike domain-specific tools like Alphafold, these try to automate day-to-day scientific work, by providing an overarching tool that coordinates specific models to synthesise existing literature, generate hypotheses or run analysis of data. The problem for Europe, however, is that these tools are sometimes based on US leading models. Google Deepmind’s AI Co-Scientist, for example, is built on Google’s Gemini LLM. Systematic failureThese scientific automation tools are still in their early stages, and still exhibit “systematic failures on scientific tasks,” Özcan’s report says. One of the problems is that the messy, day-to-day process of scientific discovery is largely not documented, meaning LLMs don’t have a good source of data to learn how scientists actually work. Meanwhile, some tasks, such as literature synthesis, don’t typically require access to leading edge models.However, the performance of AI scientific assistants could improve as companies such as Google pour resources into developing them. Rely on US“Unfortunately, for scientific assistants, there is not much we can do right now except rely on US frontier AI,” said Antoine Bosselut, a natural language processing expert based at EPFL. Chinese-built open models, which can run on local computers, lessening the risk of a shutdown, are touted as one alternative to US dependence. There’s also Mistral, once seen as Europe’s main AI hope, but the Paris-based company has seen its recent models fall behind in performance. But the Chinese alternatives are generally not as capable as US frontier AI models, said Bosselut, unless paired with fiddly, custom tools that allows them to act as independent agents. “Most scientists do not have the time,” he said. Don’t jump ship yetAlthough the kill switch moment is seen a warning shot for European scientists, it doesn’t mean labs should abandon US AI tools immediately. “I do not think the right response is simply to abandon US-based models and systems under the banner of sovereignty or independence,” said Mattias Björnmalm, secretary general of the Cesaer university association. “That would be an overreaction.”Related articlesEuropean sovereignty in AI requires ‘ugly trade-offs,’ say experts Robotic lab start-up makes case for €500M EU-funded materials testing facilityAI in science: is it useful? Instead, European researchers need to ask themselves whether they’re becoming dependent on technology that could be turned off in Washington, said Özcan. “They might not see this today, but they should really start asking this question,” she said. European researchers need a plan B, said Salathé. “I would recommend to every researcher, very proactively explore alternatives.”Own toolsIn addition, Björnmalm and others want European research institutions to develop their own scientific AI tools.Instead of signing AI deals with US digital giants, European universities should be using this money to create their own models, which may end up being superior for research, said Sabine Leonelli, an expert on the use of AI in science at the Technical University of Munich. “Universities in Europe seem to be happy to sign commercial contracts with US companies on the assumption [their AI tools] are better,” she said. But US frontier LLMs are typically opaque, and have been developed without independent scientific input, she said. “This is not good enough for science.”Last year, Swiss researchers released Apertus, an LLM designed to be completely transparent, from its development methods to its training data. The idea is that this makes scientific tools built on top of the model far more reproducible than with closed, commercial alternatives.“Europe needs more of this: serious capacity-building that gives researchers, universities and companies credible options,” said Björnmalm.
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