In this month’s edition, we explore a critical issue that has emerged in the ever-evolving landscape of academic scholarship: the dramatic increase in the volume of academic articles. This trend, signaling robust scholarly activity, also brings forth challenges to the integrity of, and trust in, scientific research.
Chinstrap penguins, nestled in Antarctica’s breeding colonies, have unveiled a unique sleep pattern marked by taking microsleeps, each lasting only about four seconds. Co-led by researchers P. A. Libourel and W. Y. Lee, a study in the December 1 of Science issue revealed that these penguins’ use this sleep strategy as a way to guard against possible threats. Since penguins have multiple predators, including brown skuas, leopard seals, orcas, and sharks, inattention due to lack of sleep can mean the difference between life and death.
One AI development follows another with no end in sight. This week we once again delve into the news about a groundbreaking initiative by Springer Nature, where they announced in early October the introduction of Curie, an in-house developed AI English-checking AI assistant tool. Although details are vague, it is likely a model built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 using their API, fine-tuned using proprietary manuscript data.
Mars, also known as the “Red Planet” is 4th planet from the Sun. Even though its climate cannot support human life, Mars has been of special interest to scientists as a possible planet for human colonization and industrialization, the research and know-how required to make this reality is still lacking.
