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Category: science – Page 39

Research argues that Occam’s razor is an ‘essential factor that distinguishes science from superstition’

Occam’s razor—the principle that when faced with competing explanations, we should choose the simplest that fits the facts—is not just a tool of science. Occam’s razor is science, insists a renowned molecular geneticist from the University of Surrey.

In a paper published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Professor Johnjoe McFadden argues Occam’s razor—attributed to the Surrey-born Franciscan friar William of Occam (1285–1347)—is the only feature that differentiates science from superstition, pseudoscience or .

Professor McFadden said, “What is science? The rise of issues such as , climate skepticism, , and mysticism reveals significant levels of distrust or misunderstanding of science among the general public. The ongoing COVID inquiry also highlights how scientific ignorance extends into the heart of government. Part of the problem is that most people, even most scientists, have no clear idea of what science is actually about.”

Magnetization by Laser Pulse: A Futuristic Twist in Material Science

A research team has revealed that ultrashort laser pulses can magnetize iron alloys, a discovery with significant potential for applications in magnetic sensor technology, data storage, and spintronics.

To magnetize an iron nail, one simply has to stroke its surface several times with a bar magnet. Yet, there is a much more unusual method: A team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) discovered some time ago that a certain iron alloy can be magnetized with ultrashort laser pulses. The researchers have now teamed up with the Laserinstitut Hochschule Mittweida (LHM) to investigate this process further. They discovered that the phenomenon also occurs with a different class of materials – which significantly broadens potential application prospects. The working group presents its findings in the scientific journal Advanced Functional Materials.

Breakthrough Discovery in Magnetization.

A means for searching for new solutions in mathematics and computer science using an LLM and an evaluator

A team of computer scientists at Google’s DeepMind project in the U.K., working with a colleague from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and another from Université de Lyon, has developed a computer program that combines a pretrained large language model (LLM) with an automated “evaluator” to produce solutions to problems in the form of computer code.

In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their ideas, how they were implemented and the types of output produced by the new system.

Researchers throughout the scientific community have taken note of the things people are doing with LLMs, such as ChatGPT, and it has occurred to many of them that LLMs might be used to help speed up the process of scientific discovery. But they have also noted that for that to happen, a method is required to prevent confabulations, answers that seem reasonable but are wrong—they need output that is verifiable. To address this problem, the team working in the U.K. used what they call an automated evaluator to assess the answers given by an LLM.

A promising pairing: Scientists demonstrate new combination of materials for quantum science

Quantum information scientists are always on the hunt for winning combinations of materials, materials that can be manipulated at the molecular level to reliably store and transmit information. Following a recent proof-of-principle demonstration, researchers are adding a new combination of compounds to the quantum materials roster.

In a study reported in ACS Photonics, researchers combined two nanosized structures—one made of diamond and one of lithium niobate—onto a single chip. They then sent light from the diamond to the lithium niobate and measured the fraction of light that successfully made it across.

The greater that fraction, the more efficient the coupling of the materials, and the more promising the pairing as a component in .

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