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Derek Aday: Atlantic menhaden and why we should use science to manage marine life
When Virginians debate the future of Atlantic menhaden, they are debating more than a small, schooling fish.
Two Science papers catch altermagnets by handedness
Two papers in Science detect handed magnons in MnTe and MnF2, giving altermagnets a fingerprint that is harder to mistake.
Stand Up for Science to Announce Its Accountability Agenda at Tonight’s Election Debrief Rally
Virtual event will celebrate democracy and explore next steps for continued civic engagement and SUFS strategies
Lake Erie Maple Expo Rooted in Science and Family History
The Lake Erie Maple Expo brings producers together to explore maple syrup production, value-added products, industry innovations and changing environmental challenges.
Arizona Science Center unveils new fall exhibits focused on caves and creativity
Arizona Science Center is expanding its lineup of interactive experiences this fall with two new attractions designed to engage guests through hands-on exploration, creativity and scientific discovery.
Exosens’ climate targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)
EXOSENS’ CLIMATE TARGETS VALIDATED BY THE SCIENCE BASED TARGETS INITIATIVE (SBTI) A major milestone in the Group's sustainability roadmap, with ambitious science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2050 Exosens' near-term and net-zero science-based targets have been validated by SBTiThe Group commits to reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030 from a 2024 base yearExosens also targets a 90% reduction in absolute greenhouse gas emissions ac
Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois - e-architect
Designed by RAMSA, the project builds on key elements of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry's master plan to create a fully accessible
Volunteers Took Cold Showers For A 12-Week Experiment, And The Results Make Us Want To Give It A Try
I'm going to brace myself and probably scream a little, but perhaps the discomfort will be worth it.
49th annual Model Railroad Show will return to Science Museum of Virginia
All aboard! The 49th annual Model Railroad Show will return to the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond in late November.
Moment of Science: Rattlesnake personalities can determine bite venom injection, new study finds
Call it a "repeat performance" from riled-up rattlers! Here's the latest research on how a rattlesnake's personality can determine how much -- and how often -- they deliver a venomous bite. 🐍
Cox Science Center Celebrates 65 Years
Cox Science Center & Aquarium celebrated its 65th anniversary with a Founders’ Day ceremony in West Palm Beach. Led by President and CEO Kurt Allen, the
How science influenced Abdul El-Sayed's politics
The Michigan senate-elect says evidence-based policymaking, public health and scientific scrutiny of corporate influence shape his positions on healthcare, environmental safety and government
UK Veterinary Science Marks Opening of the Sports Medicine Research Center
This industry-supported facility will help enable research on musculoskeletal conditions to improve the health and welfare of both horses and humans.
Research at School of Medicine and Health Sciences today creates the treatments and prescriptions of tomorrow
Research varies across a spectrum of topics, such as radon increasing the risk ovarian cancer, transport protein variants causing retinal dystrophy and using cell-free DNA to track cancer treatments.
Cristiano Ronaldo's science-backed health longevity secrets
Cristiano Ronaldo has a reputation as a health obsessive who follows a strict regimen, but his lifestyle is more balanced than you might think.
Cristiano Ronaldo's science-backed health longevity secrets
Cristiano Ronaldo has a reputation as a health obsessive who follows a strict regimen, but his lifestyle is more balanced than you might think.
Astrion drew more interest than AstraGin at NuLiv Science's Bangkok booth
At Vitafoods Asia 2026 in Bangkok, NuLiv Science's collagen booster Astrion outdrew AstraGin as regional buyers focused on beauty and anti-aging.
Annual Research Conference Honors Student Discoveries in Life Sciences
Students shared their research with the broader academic community and showcased fascinating findings at the 2026 Life Sciences Research Conference.
Science Is Littered With AI Slop. A New Detector Could Filter It Out.
Rather than relying on text alone, the algorithm looks for clues in a paper’s reasoning.
WashU engineers earn honors from aerosol science group
The American Association for Aerosol Research has honored two engineers from the WashU McKelvey School of Engineering.
To squish or not to squish: The science behind squishies
For college students, sitting through a long lecture can be harder than it sounds. About halfway through, your leg starts bouncing under the desk, or your thumb starts clicking your pen without you…
Three Penn State researchers awarded scientific grants from Kaufman Foundation
The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation has selected three researchers from the Penn State Eberly College of Science to receive scientific research grants: Carlos Blanco, assistant professor of physics, Ribhu Kaul, professor of physics, and Bryce Gadway, professor of physics.
AI For Science & The Fear Of Missing History
Bern, 1905. A young patent clerk named Albert Einstein published four papers that transformed physics. More than a century later, scientific breakthroughs still tend to be associated with exceptional people and years of painstaking work. Artificial intelligence (AI) may change the pace of that work. Models are beginning to help prove mathematical results, spot patterns […]
Will NASA's newest X-plane bring science fiction to life?
NASA has unveiled its latest X-plane vision, promising a platform that will advance flight control tech far beyond anything tested in a crewed aircraft before.
Scientists Discover an Unexpected Aging 'Cliff' in Sperm RNA
"A new era in reproductive health."
Scientists Discover an Unexpected Aging 'Cliff' in Sperm RNA
"A new era in reproductive health."
GE HealthCare Technologies' Taha Kass-Hout to Resign as Chief Science and Technology Officer
GE HealthCare Technologies' Chief Science and Technology Officer Taha Kass-Hout will resign effective December 31, 2026.Original SEC Filing: GE HealthCare Technologies Inc. [ GEHC ] - 8-K - Nov. 05, 2026This is an AI-powered summary. It may contain inaccuracies. Consider verifying important informa…
How Camp KEEP Turned a Love of Science into a Calling to Teach
Inspired by a transformative sixth-grade experience at Camp KEEP, Frontier High School student teacher Marissa Moseley went on to conduct important scientific research, develop drought-resistant crops, and pursue a career in education to inspire the...
UK backs startup Potential Sciences' AI-powered drug hunt
UK startup Potential Sciences emerged from stealth today with a sizeable seed funding round and an ambition to transform drug discovery with AI.
‘ResearchED’: Building the Case for Learning Science, One Saturday a Time
It started with a single gathering in London in 2013. Thirteen years later, it finally reaches the American heartland.
‘ResearchED’: Building the Case for Learning Science, One Saturday a Time
MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — At your typical education conference, the keynote speaker takes the stage with a big, flashy multimedia slide show and innovative ideas guaranteed to pump up the crowd. But on a recen...
Alaska Science Forum Time Capsule: Bats in the belfry
Note: Ned Rozell wrote this column on Oct. 25, 1994, his first as the new author of the Alaska Science Forum. I’m pleased to feature this time capsule, as it explores one of my favorite questions in biology: How do mammals survive in intensely cold temperatures? Additionally, Ned ended the story with, in my opinion, a perfectly silly final sentence. Ned published an update on Alaska’s little brown bats in 2019: https://bit.ly/bat-update. — Sara Wilbur
Alton Brown will serve up food, science, humor at Fargo Theatre
Other weekend highlights include Bounce in the Valley, a Scandinavian chamber concert, art openings and a reading.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, IBM And AMD Launch New Co-Design Platform for Quantum Error Correction
IBM, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Quantum Science Center and AMD unveiled a joint platform integrating quantum and HPC.
RUNC: Elizabeth Jenkins El - College of Arts and Sciences
The chemistry major studies why postpartum depression is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed.
‘Revenge of the nerds’: US midterms deliver a win for science – and a rebuke of Maha
The wins for Democrats come after years of cuts and upheaval to US health and science infrastructure
‘Revenge of the nerds’: US midterms deliver a win for science – and a rebuke of Maha
The wins for Democrats come after years of cuts and upheaval to US health and science infrastructure
A YC startup is putting $1M behind five unsolved materials science problems for AI
Discovered Materials, a months-old YC startup that uses AI to find chip materials, is offering $200,000 for each solution to five open materials science problems.
Heichal HaTorah Talmidim Experiment in the Science Lab
This past week, Heichal HaTorah’s ninth-grade biology students learned how to use indicators to test the pH levels of common household solutions. Students observed a wide range of colors as natural plant-based pigments (anthocyanins) in red cabbage juice reacted with acids and bases in everyday substances. Students made predictions and determined whether a substance was […]
MSUM Political Science Professor shares insight on Kupec, Peterson Minn. Senate race separated by four votes
MOORHEAD, Minn. (KVRR) - DFL State Senator Rob Kupec of Moorhead has always been aware that his District 4 sea...
Mars’s Volcanoes May Not Be Dead But Merely Sleeping. Could A Volcano Erupt On Mars Someday?
After at least 2 million years without an eruption, you might be forgiven for thinking Martian volcanism is dead, but that’s a brief nap to a planet.
UConn Gathering Connects the Science of Reading with Classrooms Worldwide
A student exchange with Hebrew University builds on Haskins’ history of discovery and its work with educators close to home and around the world
Scientists Bred Friendly Foxes for 70 Years. What They Found in Their Brains Could Help Explain How Wolves Became Dogs
Scientists studying unusually friendly foxes have uncovered a possible neurological clue to dog domestication.
Sophia Choukas-Bradley and Longfei Shangguan were named Rising Stars of Science
The ranking by Research.com highlights exceptional early-career researchers.
400,000-year-old teeth reveal a stunning twist in human evolution
A groundbreaking discovery is rewriting the story of human evolution, revealing that an ancient human species once thought to be an evolutionary dead end may have left genetic traces in people alive today. By extracting proteins from 400,000-year-old Homo erectus teeth discovered in China, scientists uncovered evidence suggesting that these early humans interbred with Denisovans, another mysterious ancient human group. That genetic connection may have eventually reached modern populations in the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and other parts of Southeast Asia.
Scientists discover that a clogged filter could revolutionize oil refining
Scientists have developed a remarkable new membrane that separates crude oil at room temperature, using the oil itself to create microscopic filtration channels. The breakthrough could cut refining energy consumption by nearly 32%, carbon emissions by almost 38%, and operating costs by 36%, potentially transforming one of the world's most energy-intensive industries.
Scientists discover mysterious “lonely” brain waves linked to memory loss
Scientists have uncovered a surprising link between Alzheimer’s-related protein buildup, disrupted brain waves during deep sleep, and fading memory. The findings suggest that hidden changes in how the brain processes memories overnight may contribute to age-related memory loss long before Alzheimer’s symptoms appear.
A clever molecular trick unlocks previously impossible properties in glass
Scientists have discovered how to reprogram the internal structure of glass using a special molecule that rearranges chemical bonds while lowering the melting temperature. The breakthrough could unlock entirely new glass materials with precisely controlled magnetic and optical properties, opening possibilities for advanced electronics, sensors, and other technologies.
Award-winning Women in Natural Sciences program spins off from Academy of Natural Sciences and Drexel
The program led to a 100% high school graduation rate and more than 96% college attendance for Philadelphia students.
Interview: SU political science professor Grant Reeher talks Election Day aftermath
SYRACUSE., N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — After speaking with NewsChannel 9 just before the 2026 election, Syracuse University political science professor Grant Reeher talked about the impact of the results. Watch ...
Save the Date! State of the Science Forum: Community Water Fluoridation (CWF)
The State of the Science Forum: Community Water Fluoridation (CWF) will feature a discussion among experts in the field, residents and Board of Health members on the current evidence and scientific li
Save the Date! State of the Science Forum: Community Water Fluoridation (CWF)
The State of the Science Forum: Community Water Fluoridation (CWF) will feature a discussion among experts in the field, residents and Board of Health members on the current evidence and scientific li
Woods Hole research ship heads to Lake Superior to hunt neutrinos
The R/V Neil Armstrong is making its first Great Lakes voyage, carrying Cape Cod science into fresh water for an experiment probing the universe.
How Big Pharma Shapes Medical Science, Influences Doctors, and Undermines Patient Care
This week, Mad in America explores three new articles around pharmaceutical industry corruption. The first examines industry’s hidden influence over Three new studies expose the pharmaceutical industry's hidden influence over medical research, the use of ghostwritten academic papers to advance commercial interests, and the normalization of industry influence among future physicians.
Tiny Chihuahuas Hold a Big Surprise: A Sliver of Coyote DNA
The breed is descended from indigenous canines, which may have been intentionally mixed with wild coyotes long before Europeans arrived in the Americas.
State Prize for VISTA Science Experience Center
The VISTA Science Experience Center was awarded the 2026 Austrian State Prize for Adult Education in the category “Science Education for Adults.” Federal Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner presented the award on November 4 at the Haus der Begegnung in Vienna. The award recognizes the innovative concept
New Science Fiction and Fantasy
“The Subtle Art of Folding Space,” “Sublimation” and “Foundling Fathers” consider identity in worlds beyond our own.
Many Americans have lost faith in science, but we can win them back
In July 2014, a man sick with Ebola flew from Liberia into Lagos, Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest and busiest cities. One imported case in a place like that could
When papers become currency: a Chinese debate about trust in science
Last Saturday, 31 October, I went to the University of Hong Kong’s Beijing Centre for its Talent Forum. It was the fourth stop in the series this year, following events in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang, Shenzhen’s Qianhai, and on HKU’s main campus. The programme covered a remarkable distance in one afternoon. HKU’s Xiao-Jing Wang discussed computational neuroscience, intelligence, and the prefrontal cortex—before even delivering his inaugural public lecture to students back in Hong Kong. His colleague Bing Zhang took us from the Big Bang to artificial intelligence. Tsinghua’s Xue Lan asked how AI might reshape the institutional infrastructure underpinning higher education. There were lively panels featuring industry leaders from JD.com, Xiaomi, Haier—and Kaiser Y Kuo on the closing panel discussing innovation and international connections. I cannot pretend to have followed every detail of the brain models or the astrophysics. The talk that stayed with me was closer to something we have covered before: Zhou Zhonghe 周忠和 on papers, evaluation, and scientific trust. Zhou is a palaeontologist, an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an international member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He is also editor-in-chief of The Intellectual (知识分子), China’s leading science commentary platform. His subject was uncomfortable enough for a room full of successful academics: what happens when the system for recognising good science starts rewarding something else? Part of my interest came from our sister newsletter, The East is Read, which covered the controversy around “Geng Tongxue” in May. A PhD dropout from Beihang University, Geng has publicly challenged papers by prominent researchers through detailed online allegations of manipulated images and fabricated data. At Tongji University, an investigation into a challenged Nature paper found academic misconduct, and the dean of its life sciences school was removed. The affair brought doubts about academic integrity well beyond laboratories and university committees. How could someone outside the established hierarchy spot problems in papers that had passed through prestigious journals and institutions? And what, exactly, had all that prestige guaranteed? Zhou approached these questions through two essays published in July by The Intellectual: one by Wang Xiaodong, director of the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, and a response by Wang Liming, of Shanghai’s Shangsi Institute of Natural Sciences. Both began with the controversy over Geng. Their arguments deserve a wider audience, so I want to put parts of them alongside what Zhou said on Saturday. Wang Xiaodong’s starting point is evolution. A research system selects for the behaviour it rewards. Grants, jobs, journals, talent programmes, and prizes collectively determine which scientists prosper and which practices get passed down from advisors to students. “Whatever the system rewards is what it will evolve to produce,” he writes, citing the ancient Chinese saying: The King of Chu loved slender waists, and many in the palace starved to death. That is a more demanding diagnosis than saying there are dishonest people in science. Punishing a fraudster does not change the selective environment that made a particular kind of research profitable. His account also gives scientific success an awkward role in the story. As Zhou put it on Saturday, science became a victim of its own success. Once research became central to industry, national power, and economic growth, universities and laboratories expanded, and public money followed. That created an administrative need for rapid decisions: who should get the next grant, the next laboratory, the next appointment? The difficulty is that the true value of a discovery may take years or decades of testing and building to become clear. Resource allocation cannot wait that long. Publication counts, journal prestige, impact factors, and citations therefore become convenient ways to make an instant judgement. “The real problem is not that these indicators have no value,” Wang Xiaodong writes, “but that they are trying to answer a question that only time can answer.” Telling administrators simply to stop counting papers will never be enough. They still have budgets to distribute and appointments to make. Something has to replace the shortcut. Zhou described the consequences inside publishing. Papers acquire ever more requirements: a complete story, polished presentation, extensive datasets, and accessibility to readers beyond the immediate field. Individually, those demands sound reasonable. Together, he warned, they produce formulaic “eight-legged” papers 八股文 and rigid reviewing, while genuinely original or non-consensus work struggles to get past journal editors—some of whom wield immense gatekeeping power despite having limited laboratory experience themselves. Meanwhile, the demands for sprawling, “complete” narratives have fuelled a wider replication crisis. Wang Xiaodong uses a mahjong metaphor to describe the result: put the complex papers published by the exact same lab over several years side by side, and they often look like “Thirteen Orphans” (十三不靠)—every tile completely unrelated to the next, and none of them reproducible by outsiders. Zhou also spoke frankly as an editor who has trouble finding reviewers. Everyone wants someone else to review their work; qualified senior researchers have little time to return the favour. The labour is anonymous, unpaid, and brings almost no institutional recognition, so it increasingly gets passed down to postdocs and graduate students. And while anonymity protects reviewers from rank and personal favours, hyper-specialisation means an author’s most qualified reviewer is often a direct competitor, shielded from accountability. The protection and the problem coexist. Wang Liming takes the argument a step further. The decisive change, in his essay, is the instant conversion of academic honour into material resources. Once a paper can be cashed in for funding, a job, students, commercial investment, or even a company valuation, scientists are alienated from their work: they must keep minting this “research currency” to keep their teams alive. He is careful not to romanticise the past. The old world of gentleman scientists—financially independent figures like Boyle and Darwin who needed nothing from external funders—was also a closed club that excluded people without inherited wealth, women, and much of humanity outside the West. Professional science allowed ordinary people, himself included, to become researchers. Nobody should want to undo that. The problem, in his account, is an exchange system that becomes too uniform and too difficult to correct. His most pointed Chinese example is the “hat” (帽子): the prestigious talent designation that brings continuing access to money, laboratory space, students, and institutional influence. “If papers are the circulating currency of the research system, then a ‘hat’ is a bond that pays interest over the long term,” he writes. A paper at least requires another round of peer review. A title in the Chinese context can lock in a judgement made years ago and turn it into permanent status rent, regardless of whether its holder is still doing good science. Here, official institutions hire, organise, and evaluate scientists. Unlike honours awarded by autonomous academic communities in the West, a Chinese “hat” blends non-scientist administrative power with state authority. Once granted, it turns a past judgement into permanent status rent that is nearly impossible to revoke—because taking a hat off would imply that official authority erred in putting it on. Both Wangs see China as experiencing, at compressed speed, pressures present across global science. Research expansion, rising investment, publication growth, and elaborate evaluation metrics arrived in China within two or three decades rather than two or three centuries. Zhou agreed with that international framing—noting that recent US White House science policy documents and the new president of the US National Academy of Sciences, a fellow palaeontologist who recently visited Zhou’s institute in Beijing, have raised strikingly similar warnings about consensus-bound peer review, short-term project grants, and the replication crisis. Still, Zhou emphasised that China’s traditional hierarchy, personal networks (guanxi), and the ethos that “a good scholar becomes an official” (学而优则仕) amplify those pressures at home. So what would change things? Here Zhou’s tone differed from the call for a revolution in scientific trust in Wang Xiaodong’s essay. As an evolutionary biologist, Zhou favoured patchwork repair (修修补补). Living systems survive through accumulated adjustments; dramatic mutations are usually fatal. Science cannot return to a small, slow-moving pastoral era, especially after the successive accelerations of professionalisation after the Second World War, the internet, and now artificial intelligence. But it can alter the local environment in which researchers work. He pointed to domestic experiments designed to support unconventional research and diversify funding, including Tencent’s New Cornerstone Investigator Program, the Xplorer Prize, and the Future Science Prize. He also mentioned participating in reviews for “major non-consensus projects” under the National Natural Science Foundation of China. One guiding principle he recalled was wonderfully direct: “Failure is allowed; corruption is not” (允许失败，不允许腐败). That distinction would mean quite a lot if taken seriously. An honest attempt that fails should not have to disguise itself as a success to survive an assessment. Wang Liming’s essay adds a sharp caveat to the optimism about new domestic funders. Multiple organisations do not automatically produce multiple ways of judging science. If the same pool of senior domestic scientists makes the decisions through the same two-round review procedures, it is still “fake diversity.” He argues for three distinct kinds of money: broad baseline funding governed by fair procedures; patient funding for questions that take ten years; and non-consensus funding based on individual taste, deliberately empowering a few genuine experts to make biased, contrarian bets on eccentric ideas that would inevitably be averaged out by a committee. Replacing one monopoly with another achieves little; a healthy ecosystem needs variance. Zhou’s proposals for publishing were similarly concrete: strip papers of their resource-allocation burden and return them to recording discoveries and establishing priority; separate dissemination from evaluation, as eLife and Peer Community In do; adopt more modular “micro-publications” and real-name endorsements; recognize the labour of editors and reviewers; and give replication work proper credit rather than treating it as an unpublishable dead end. AI makes every part of this debate more urgent—and Zhou wove it throughout his talk. In his own preparation, he used AI to survey the declining influence of academic monographs, noting how tools are already changing how scholars gather information. More fundamentally, he placed AI as the latest great acceleration in scientific history: just as the internet sped up the pace of research and tightened external resource pressures, AI is compressing the cycle again. In the essays Zhou cited, AI cuts both ways. Wang Xiaodong expects large language models to erase much of the English-writing disadvantage long faced by Chinese scientists, further swelling the flood of papers coming out of Chinese labs. Wang Liming sees AI accelerating both ends of the trust crisis: it lowers the cost of paper mills and fabricated images just as quickly as it lowers the cost of automated image forensics, data auditing, and code reproduction. “Whoever builds the verification layer wins,” Wang Liming writes. His proposed alternative to the static, packaged “story paper” is a continuously versioned “unit of discovery” containing a falsifiable claim, raw data, analysis code, experimental parameters, and an ongoing log of independent checks—where negative results and failed replications are recorded rather than buried. Zhou ended his keynote by bringing AI back to the question of scientific honour and credit. Citing a recent Intellectual discussion on “What AI Means for Mathematics” featuring Fields Medalist Deng Yu 邓煜—at a moment when AI is already batch-solving mathematical conjectures, as HKU Vice-President Lin Chen noted in his opening remarks—Zhou agreed that human researchers must remain the principal agents: AI is a tool that frees scientists from tedious calculation to think about deeper, messier real-world problems. Yet that partnership creates a thorny new evaluation problem. When a breakthrough is made with AI, what is the human contribution and what is the machine’s? And since AI models distil centuries of accumulated human scholarship, is it right that the credit and value flow so heavily to the private AI companies building the tools? The old struggle over how to assign scientific honour is acquiring a whole new layer. What I took away was a serious discussion of how science can remain trustworthy as its scale, incentives, and tools change. These were scientists with real standing inside China’s system questioning how that standing is produced, and proposing changes that would affect their own institutions and peers. That made the afternoon at HKU’s Beijing Centre worthwhile. At the close, Wang Feng, Director of Communications and Public Affairs at HKU, said the value of the forum series—which heads to Hangzhou in December and cities like Chengdu early next year—would lie in the real cooperation it helped bring about. The university has plenty to celebrate: this week it topped the QS Asia rankings for a second consecutive year, alongside its 11th-place position in the QS World University Rankings 2027. For me, bringing this debate to an audience beyond the people who review papers and allocate grants was a useful contribution. Share [ The East is Read PhD dropout’s exposé forces an academic fraud reckoning in China A former doctoral student turned blogger has shaken China’s academic establishment by publicly accusing prominent university scholars of fabricating data and manipulating papers, triggering investigations at several leading institutions and drawing rare attention from state media… Read more 5 months ago · 43 likes · 8 comments · Yuxuan JIA ](https://www.eastisread.com/p/phd-dropouts-expose-forces-an-academic?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web&embedding_publication_id=47580)
Imaging Science Thesis Defense: A Step Towards Developing Digital Twins of Forest Environments with Terrestrial Laser Scanning | Events
Imaging Science MS Thesis Defense A Step Towards Developing Digital Twins of Forest Environments with Terrestrial Laser Scanning Zoom Link here Aisha Co Imaging Science MS Candidate Rochester Institute of Technology Abstract: Digital twins have become an increasingly relevant topic as we pursue accurate representations of the real world for planning, research, and even design purposes. This study focuses on the steps for creating digital twins of forest environments using sparse points from terrestrial light detection and ranging (LiDAR). Specifically, we developed geometric models of structural digital twins (SDTs) from leaf-off terrestrial laser scanning of real-world forests. Three algorithms were used to develop an approach to handle individual tree reconstructions for sparse point clouds, and they were tested and validated with a two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic against an existing inventory of the RIT Nature Trail to evaluate the reconstruction’s fidelity. The key evaluation metrics included diameter at breast height (DBH) and height. The limited nature of available ground truth necessitated the use of an additional validation method using a PANGAEA open dataset, based on comparing DBH, height, and crown diameter against the dataset’s calculated measurements. Reconstructions were compared against per-tree reference values at two-point spacings for sixteen trees from the open BR07 dataset (PANGAEA); these specifications matched the collected RIT Nature Trail data and the scanner’s nominal spacing. On BR07, the proposed method had the lowest median DBH error among the methods that modeled every tree (1.28cm, 4.1%), and this error was nearly unchanged at the coarser spacing, while TreeQSM’s rose from 4.2% to 6.5% and AdTree overestimated DBH by 30% to 40%. Results show the proposed method understates the tree heights by 0.2m to 1.4m but contains the least error when estimating DBH. The proposed method was able to produce all 69 trees, while SimpleTree produced 49 and none at the 4.35 cm BR07 spacing. We concluded that the developed geometric model (digital) twins have significant potential to serve as both simulation and prediction tools. We recommend that future efforts focus on collecting per-tree ground truth measurements within the scanned plot and incorporating leaf-on scans. Leaf-on scans include representative foliage, which would add realism to the model and ecological function of the trees. Intended Audience: Beginners, undergraduates, graduates. Those with interest in the topic. To request an interpreter, please visit myaccess.rit.edu
Samsung honors 10 Korean science and AI research pioneers
Samsung awarded 10 researchers across basic science, materials and ICT from 644 projects backed by its future technology program, the first time the company has done so since launching the initiative in 2014.
Cyprus: Island of Snakes, Cats, and Ophiolites
The third-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea exposes an ancient piece of the ocean floor and hosts a clowder of cats.
Nov. 5: Book review: 'Influenced: The Science of Why We Buy'
“Influenced: The Science of Why We Buy” by Aarron Atkinson-Toal
Missouri Democrats broke the GOP supermajority in the statehouse. Now what?
A Mizzou political science professor breaks down what Democratic gains nationally and in Missouri mean going forward.
Historic midterm leaves UMD political professor shocked at results
Across the nation on Election Day, democrats flipped several traditionally republican states. UMD Political Science Associate Professor Cindy Rugeley said voters made big waves this midterm.
Breakthrough: FDA Approves First Drug Offering a 'Functional Cure' For Chronic Hepatitis B
'The start of a new era.'
Pulse of Politics: Breaking down 2026 midterms
Oakland University Political Science Chair Dr. Peter Trumbore joins FOX 2 Detroit Live Host Aaron Jordan to break down the big midterm results and react to the Democratic domination in the election.
U of M and MSU researchers want your tailgate urine on game day — and it’s all for science
Donation stations featuring waterless urinals will open at 1 p.m. at the Ann Arbor Golf Club, across from Gates 2 and 4 of Michigan Stadium, and remain open through the final whistle of the 7:30 p.m. game.
Shine Bright for Voyager’s Light‑Day
Use our Automated “V-G-R” Flasher to send your signal to Voyager, or if you want to try Morse code yourself, see our “Shine Bright” Step-by-Step instructions
Ranked: Major Countries by Share of Graduates in Science and Math
Which countries produce the highest shares of science and math graduates? Explore how major economies compare using UNESCO data.
Houston Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land could see $4M in renovations
Museum Executive Director Kavita Self asked the city of Sugar Land to fund part of a proposed $4 million renovation project to upgrade exhibits and accessibility.
Simonelli Group unveils Science Driven Coffee Cup programme
The Simonelli Group and the University of Camerino have unveiled the programme for the inaugural Science Driven Coffee Cup, bringing together leading researchers and coffee professionals to explore advances in coffee chemistry, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, sustainability, and quality control at the conference in Italy on 19-20 November.
Africa and Europe seek their own path in AI science
Africa and Europe are seeking to chart their own course in the rapidly accelerating global artificial intelligence race, with a partnership built arou...
Scientists solve 30-year-old mystery and discover a hidden defense against inflammation
Scientists have solved a decades-old mystery and uncovered a hidden immune system defense that protects healthy cells from the very inflammation meant to fight infections. The surprising discovery could lead to new approaches for treating cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and other conditions involving excessive inflammation.
Memo from Washington: don’t give up on US science
Read the latest news and analysis from Science|Business.
Spotlight on competitiveness, scale-ups and big science
Read the latest news and analysis from Science|Business.
‘A long time coming’: TCC Northeast begins construction on $85M science building
The construction is part of a $225 million project that includes renovations of three existing buildings at Tarrant County College Northeast Campus.
Beyond the Forecast: The science behind rainbows
Meteorologist Paul Williams shows us how rainbows form after rainy days.
'Doors to the world of global health': Science Hill senior presents research at national conference
Science Hill High School senior Hanna E. presented research examining resilience and retrafficking risks among Ugandan human trafficking survivors at a national social work conference in Atlanta alongside an East Tennessee State University research team.
Water Does Something Unexpected Under The Crushing Pressures of Alien Worlds
"When we eventually get to these worlds, what are we going to see?"
Swift has fallen: NASA's 22-year-old space telescope burns up over Sumatra
The reentry of NASA's dead Swift space telescope is the end of an era for rapid-response space science.
Political science expert breaks down Tuesday's election results
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Election Day, Tuesday, brought both a large and small scale blue wave, along with some very close local races here in south-central Kentucky. On a national scale, the republican lead house has lost at least 29 seats with 64 seats still yet to be officially confirmed. The United States Senate Democratic Party has gained seven seats, while...
In Chatsworth, N.J., Rutgers Scientists Farm for the Berry Best Varieties
During a mostly sunny Friday morning in early October, 11 students squatted in a basin, picking cranberries from low-creeping vines and placing them into clear plastic bags. “Do not eat them,” said Peter Oudemans, a professor of plant biology and pathology with the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. He was sort of kidding – and sort of not.
Political Analyst: Midterms in Virginia were a rebuke of Trump
Randolph-Macon Political Science Professor Rich Meagher says Tuesday’s midterm elections in Virginia were a rebuke of President Donald Trump and his record on the economy.
VerBurg makes science fun with "demos"
GEORGE—George-Little Rock High School science teacher Russ VerBurg aims to make science fun with a “demo-a-day” at the start of his chemistry and physics classes in George.
‘It Changed Science Fiction’: Hunter Schafer on Her Fave Sci-Fi Film
OK, we’ll give you three guesses as to what “Blade Runner 2099” star Hunter Schafer’s favorite sci-fi film is. Schafer plays Cora, a human pretending to be a replicant in order to survive, in the upcoming miniseries. Speaking at WIRED World Fair in Miami, Schafer said the action scenes were “really physically demanding.”
"Cars That Moved America" automotive exhibition coming to Griffin Museum of Science and Industry
The technological evolution of the automobile has been the subject of some kind of exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry going back more or less forever, but next year, a new approach to the subject with a new collection is coming.
Political science professor offers take on midterm results
Fairmont State College Professor Robert Bolton says local elections becoming more national.
Artemis II geologist talks historic lunar science mission
Megan Borel, a geologist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Artemis II lunar science team, delivered a talk titled “The Moon Joy of Artemis” hosted by the departments of geology and physics Oct. 29 in Fowler Hall. Geology professor Nikki Seymour said she knew Borel previously and organized the talk. Seymour said her […]
Among Strawberries and Food Scraps, Students Find Science - Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute (RCEI)
At two Rutgers research centers, the familiar inspires questions about growing food and making better use of what remains It was October, but inside a greenhouse at Rutgers’ research farm in Cream Ridge, N.J., strawberry plants were still flowering and bearing fruit. Edward Durner invited the visiting Honors College students from Rutgers University-New Brunswick to try the berries, then offered ... Read More
U Maine Political Science chair calls Jackson campaign “impressive” even with “blue wave” help
ABI spoke to University of Maine Political Science Chair Mark Brewer on Wednesday to get his take on how the national environment played a role in deciding Maine’s senate race.
Startup targets new pain point: nighttime | Investors Lab
It's our job to report on investment-worthy innovations coming to market. That doesn't mean we always believe they're in the best interests of the planet. Case in point: a new space-tech project that aims to solve the "problem" of nighttime. With their planned constellation of orbiting satellites equipped with giant mirrors that would beam sunlight to the night side of Earth on demand, the company behind the invention is attracting investors. SN's Lisa Grossman enlightens us.
Mapping the hidden hazards beneath our feet | Investors Lab
From unstable slopes to former industrial sites to hurricane alleys, some places are not safe to live in. Yet circumstances often force low-income populations into these areas, where natural disasters can have devastating effects. Rebecca Dzombak fills in the details for SN. And we have intel on advanced imagery and subsurface mapping that aim to provide early warnings before disasters strike.
Lubrizol awards Kirtland Schools lab grant, visits science classes
Kirtland Schools students are getting new science equipment and hands-on learning experiences through a partnership with Lubrizol. The district was named the inaugural recipient of a $34,784.58 Lubrizol Learning Lab Grant, according to…
UK Veterinary Science Marks Opening of the Sports Medicine Research Center
The new industry-supported facility will advance research on musculoskeletal conditions to improve equine and human health and welfare.
STEM School Highlands Ranch vs. Aurora Science & Tech: Colorado High School Girls Basketball, Dec. 10, 2026
STEM School Highlands Ranch at Aurora Science & Tech, Colorado high school girls basketball, Dec. 10, 2026, 7:15 PM. Records, rosters and head-to-head.
Golden View Classical Academy vs. Aurora Science & Tech: Colorado High School Girls Basketball, Jan. 7, 2027
Golden View Classical Academy at Aurora Science & Tech, Colorado high school girls basketball, Jan. 7, 2027, 5:30 PM. Records, rosters and head-to-head.