Comparative illustration of generative models utilized for protein sequence modeling. (A) MaxEnt model: This model aims to delineate both the conservation of individual amino acids and their pairwise interactions, while concurrently making minimal assumptions by maximizing sequence information entropy. (B) VAE: A neural network that learns to encode data into a lower-dimensional latent space and … Read more
A high-level schematic of the photonic integrated chip, developed by the Gaeta lab, for all-optical optical frequency division, or OFD—a method of converting a high-frequency signal to a lower frequency. Credit: Yun Zhao/Columbia Engineering In a new Nature study, Columbia Engineering researchers have built a photonic chip that is able to produce high-quality, ultra-low-noise microwave … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Selfies have become the modern day equivalent of postcards, a way to share our travel experiences with family and friends on social media. It’s one thing to strike a goofy pose and snap a photo for Instagram on a beach or town square, but what if you are visiting a Holocaust … Read more
a,b, Total soil C stocks (a) and the proportion of total soil C that is protected (mineral-associated) (b) as a function of the mean annual temperature (MAT) globally. Each gridcell is colored by the percentage of clay and silt minerals, and best-fit trends are depicted for fine- and coarse-textured soils; here, fine-textured soils were classified … Read more
Credit: National University of Singapore Global warming poses a significant threat to ecosystems, societies, and economies worldwide. In recent decades, an international climate policy goal of limiting global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels was established. This was to avoid severe and irreversible impacts on the environment. International agreements like the Paris Agreement and policy … Read more
Credit: Pixabay from Pexels The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was focused on quantum dots—objects so tiny, they’re controlled by the strange and complex rules of quantum physics. Many quantum dots used in electronics are made from toxic substances, but their nontoxic counterparts are now being developed and explored for uses in medicine and in … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain From abstract-looking cloud formations to roars of snow machines on ski slopes, the transformation of liquid water into solid ice touches many facets of life. Water’s freezing point is generally accepted to be 32 degrees Fahrenheit. But that is due to ice nucleation—impurities in everyday water raise its freezing point to … Read more
A farmer sits in a drought-stricken rice field in Vietnam’s southern Ben Tre province, which is plagued by intruding salt water. Every day, farmer Nguyen Hoai Thuong prays in vain for rain to fall on the cracked dry earth of her garden in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta—the country’s “rice bowl” agricultural heartland. A blazing month-long heat … Read more
London had a problem. In 2016, more than 2 million of the city’s residents—roughly a quarter of its population—lived in areas with illegal levels of air pollution; areas that also contained nearly 500 of the city’s schools. That same air pollution was prematurely killing as many as 36,000 people a year. Much of it was … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Successive and overlapping crises can lead to a lack of information, a flood of information that overwhelms essential information, or even distorted information. Society needs to be information-resilient and resistant to crises, including disruptions related to information. According to a new study from the University of Vaasa, Finland, we need a … Read more
