Portal:Science
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Science is a rigorous, systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world. Modern science is typically divided into three major branches: the natural sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry, and biology), which study the physical world; the social sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology), which study individuals and societies; and the formal sciences (e.g., logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science), which study formal systems, governed by axioms and rules. There is disagreement whether the formal sciences are science disciplines, as they do not rely on empirical evidence. Applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as in engineering and medicine. (Full article...)
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Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from matter that does not. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli, and reproduction. All life over time eventually reaches a state of death and none is immortal. Many philosophical definitions of living systems have been proposed, such as self-organizing systems. Viruses in particular make definition difficult as they replicate only in host cells. Life exists all over the Earth in air, water, and soil, with many ecosystems forming the biosphere. Some of these are harsh environments occupied only by extremophiles. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that the psychological inner space genre was a rebellion against the traditional focus of science fiction on literal outer space?
- ... that Cambodia's first science-fiction film, Karmalink, combines Buddhist concepts of karma with themes of artificial intelligence?
- ... that after Ursula K. Le Guin published her collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters, a reviewer called her the "ideal science fiction writer for readers who ordinarily dislike science fiction"?
- ... that Ladislav Burlas, a musicologist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences for almost 40 years, wrote more than 150 works during his career?
- ... that fiction about journeys to the Moon has been written since at least the second century?
- ... that characters from several different science fiction media appear as an Easter egg in the episode "Babylon's Ashes"?
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Science News
- 8 May 2024 –
- Researchers at Google DeepMind announce the development of AlphaFold 3, an AI model that can predict the structures of almost all biological molecules and model the interactions between them. (Time) (Nature)
- 17 April 2024 –
- Scientists announce that they have identified fossil remains of the Ichthyotitan, the largest marine reptile currently known, in the Westbury Formation in England. (NOS)
- 16 April 2024 –
- European Space Agency scientists announce the discovery of Gaia BH3, the second-largest known black hole in the Milky Way. (NOS) (ESA)
- 4 April 2024 – 2020–2024 H5N1 outbreak
- Scientists from the Federation University Australia report that thousands of Adélie penguins have been found dead in Antarctica amid an increase in bird flu cases among wild bird populations. (Reuters)
- 4 April 2024 –
- Researchers at the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument in Arizona, United States, release the largest 3D map of the universe featuring more than six million galaxies. Using this map, researchers are able to measure the acceleration of the expansion rate of the universe with unprecedented accuracy, detecting hints that the rate of expansion has been increasing over time. (The Guardian) (Berkeley Lab)
- 12 March 2024 –
- A scientific expedition to the Bounty Trough off the coast of New Zealand reports the discovery of more than one hundred new species. (The New York Times)