#Nature #NewsFeature 7 basic science discoveries that changed the world. Ozempic, MRI machines and flat screen televisions all emerged out of fundamental research decades earlier. www.nature.com/articles/d41... cc @lluismontoliu.bsky.social

#Nature #NewsFeature 7 basic science discoveries that changed the world. Ozempic, MRI machines and flat screen televisions all emerged out of fundamental research decades earlier. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03474-x cc @lluismontoliu.bsky.social

#Nature #NewsFeature The peer-review crisis: how to fix an overloaded system www.nature.com/articles/d41... Journals and funders are trying to boost the speed and effectiveness of review processes that are under strain.

#Nature #NewsFeature The peer-review crisis: how to fix an overloaded system https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02457-2
Journals and funders are trying to boost the speed and effectiveness of review processes that are under strain.

With the number of scholarly papers rising each year, publishers and editors complain that it’s getting harder to get everything reviewed. And some funding bodies, such as ESO, are struggling to find reviewers.

Peer review has become too unreliable.

Many experiments by funders and journals are aimed at incentivizing researchers to do more reviews… The ultimate incentive might be financial. A debate about paying reviewers has swung to and fro for years.

The journal Biology Open paid reviewers £220 (US$295) per review, and — unlike Critical Care Medicine — told them it expected a first response within four days, to allow editors to decide on manuscript acceptance or rejection within a week of submission.

If it is scalable, then we need to figure out how to finance it. We would obviously like to avoid putting the burden on authors by increasing the APCs [article processing charges] to adjust some of the costs, but these are the discussions we’re having.

#Nature #NewsFeature This billion-dollar firm plans to build giant quantum computers from light. Can it succeed?#PsiQuantum has ambitious goals to build a useful quantum machine by late 2027 — and has raised more than US$1 billion to do it. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03827-y "PsiQuantum is aiming to jump to a machine that will require something in the order of one million qubits. (PsiQuantum’s researchers haven’t published a specific number.) “My impression is there’s a lot of scepticism about,” says Kolkowitz. He bets on them “extremely high risk”. A quantum computer will need around 10,000 physical qubits working together to make each useful ‘logical’ qubit, O’Brien says. Making a quantum computer with light is “on paper, quite easy”. But photons also come with hurdles. The company says it is building internal prototypes of increasing scale and complexity, but doesn’t market them as quantum computers. The firm has constructed prototype cabinet-sized devices, about 2 metres tall. A PsiQuantum’s computer would involve in the order of 100 devices."

#Nature #NewsFeature ChatGPT has entered the classroom: how LLMs could transform education. "Researchers, educators and companies are experimenting with ways to turn flawed but famous LLMs into trustworthy, accurate ‘thought partners’ for learning. Using LLMs to read and summarize large stretches of text could save students and teachers time and help them to instead focus on discussion and learning. Some educators see them as potential ‘thought partners’ that might cost less than a human tutor and are always available." https://nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03507-3