A scientist, in a broad sense, is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word. Scientists perform research toward a more comprehensive understanding of nature, including physical, mathematical and social realms.
All stories in Scientist
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Here’s why you need to start worrying about the world’s frozen peatlands
Peatlands cover just a few percent of the global land area but they store almost one-quarter of all soil carbon and so play ...
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How Jurassic sea creatures spent years crossing oceans on rafts
The English town of Lyme Regis is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. It was here in the 1830s that William Buckland, ...
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How myths about the 'female' brain hold women back from pursing careers in science
In 1879, French polymath Gustave Le Bon wrote that even in “the most intelligent races” there “are a large number of ...
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3 things scientists can't agree on about coronavirus
Although political leaders have closed borders in response to COVID-19, scientists are collaborating like never before. But ...
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Algorithm reveals some of us have DNA from a mystery ancestor
An algorithm that analyzes ancient genomes suggests humans mated with an unknown relative hundreds of thousands of years ...
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Most universities neglect to teach entrepreneurship to science students — it's time to fix that
A strong background in science and technology is crucial for students who want to become academic research scientists. But ...
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Scientists modified a strain of cannabis to kill cancer cells
It's well-documented that chemical compounds found in cannabis, especially cannabidiol (CBD), are effective at treating the ...
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Scientists are homing in on understanding just how sensitive our climate is to CO2
At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the Earth’s atmosphere contained 278 parts of CO₂ per million. Today, after ...
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Scientists put penis rings on bisexual men to prove they exist
A team of researchers recently published a study on bisexual men that, surprisingly, indicates they exist. This comes as ...
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Satellites may be at risk to geomagnetic storms due to Earth's changing magnetic field
The Earth’s magnetic field, generated 3,000km below our feet in the liquid iron core, is crucially important to life on ...
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How to reach the right state of mind before a mission to Mars, according to an astrophysicist
Imagine being confined to a metal cell with a couple of other people and few amenities for months or even years. Maybe after ...
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Where is the center of the solar system?
If somebody asks you where the center of the solar system is, you would probably say “the sun.” The orrery shows ...
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Why are scientists trying to manufacture organs in space?
Gravity can be a real downer when you are trying to grow organs. That’s why experiments in space are so valuable. They ...
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UK gov advisors want petrol and diesel ban brought forward to 2032
In an attempt to get drivers out of petrol and diesel vehicles and into EVs, the UK government has long said that it will ...
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Coronavirus: What does it mean when the UK government says it's 'following the science'?
The UK government has said on many occasions that it is “following the science” in tackling COVID-19. Yet which science ...
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Scientists claim they can teach AI to judge 'right' from 'wrong'
Scientists claim they can "teach" an AI moral reasoning by training it to extract ideas of right and wrong from texts
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5 cognitive biases in data science — and how to avoid them
This article was originally published on Built In by Rahul Agarwal. You can read the original piece here. Follow them on Twitter. Recently, ...
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Scientists used AI to make 44.8 gigapixel copy of historic Rembrandt painting
You can now get intimately familiar with this Rembrandt's historic painting, 'The Night Watch' — without even having to ...
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Here's why we probably won't see a COVID-19 vaccine in 2020
Donald Trump may be “very confident” we will have a vaccine for COVID-19 by the end of the year, but the rest of us should ...
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Scientists found a way to plug adversarial backdoors in deep learning models
Imagine a high-security complex protected by a facial recognition system powered by deep learning. The artificial intelligence ...
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Scientists think we'll finally solve nuclear fusion thanks to cutting-edge AI
Scientists believe the world will see it's first working thermonuclear fusion reactor by the year 2025. That's a tall order ...
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How deep learning can improve how we conduct scientific research
Whether we take it for granted or not, deep learning algorithms have become an inseparable part of our daily lives. Personalized ...
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This special hydrogel could cool and recharge EV batteries at the same time
To ensure the safe operation of lithium ion batteries must be cooled to an optimal temperature. But what if that heat could ...
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The silliest string-theory alternative yet draws inspiration from video games
Noted physicist, computer scientist, and mathematician Stephen Wolfram recently stunned the science community at-large after ...
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This hydrogen storage 'sponge' could be the key to safer EV fuel cells
A group of scientists say they've made a breakthrough that could make hydrogen electric vehicles safer and give a significant ...
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We might've finally found dinosaur DNA, but some scientists don't think it's the real deal
Researchers in China and the US have found material in a dinosaur fossil that they claim looks like DNA. In a new paper in ...
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Alternative electrode materials could unlock the secret to faster-charging EV batteries
A group of US scientists believe they have made a breakthrough that could lead to batteries tha can charge even faster than ...
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The importance of engineers in the battle against the coronavirus
The coronavirus outbreak has shone a bright light on the use of experts and scientific advice. In the UK the prime minister, ...
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All the coronavirus antivirals and vaccine research projects being fast-tracked right now
Just three months after China first notified the World Health Organization about a deadly new coronavirus, studies of numerous ...
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How to spot bogus science stories and read the news like a scientist
When fake news, misreporting and alternative facts are everywhere, reading the news can be a challenge. Not only is there ...
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Blood groups — and their antibodies — are being explored to understand immunity to SARS-CoV2
COVID-19, which first emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019, is relentlessly sweeping across the world. The scale of the ...
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Coronavirus petitions have generated over 3,590,563 signatures
There are over 1,600 coronavirus (COVID-19) petitions on Change.org — and they've attracted a total of over 3.5 million ...
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The science behind why your pet can't spread COVID-19
A Pomeranian dog in Hong Kong grabbed the international media’s attention this week after scientists found traces of coronavirus ...
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We should treat AI like our own children — so it won't kill us
Are you ready for Skynet? How about the Holodeck-meets-Skynet universe of Westworld (returning March 15 to HBO)? What about ...
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Scientists successfully created a cybernetic neural network
An international team of researchers spread out over three labs in Switzerland, Italy, and the UK have successfully joined ...
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The story of Katherine Johnson, the scientist who helped NASA send humans to space
Katherine Johnson, who has died at the age of 101, was an amazing woman. But up until a few years ago, hardly anyone had ...
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Scientists discovered a new way to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Since their discovery in 1928, antibiotics have become a common way of treating infections caused by bacteria, fungi, and ...
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This AI could reunite families after an earthquake
The AI tool could transform how earthquake aftermaths are managed, by predicting the safest routes that families can take ...
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Scientist trains AI to write messages of love on candy hearts
Janelle Shane marked Valentine's Day by teaching an AI to write messages for candy hearts after training the neural network ...
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Scientists built an AI to figure out what the universe is made of
A multi-university team of researchers from Japan recently used the world's fastest astrophysics-simulation supercomputers ...
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Quantum cognition theory explains why humans make stupid decisions
Scientists from the University of Science and Technology in China have a quantum physics-based answer to the ultimate question: ...
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Scientists have cracked the formula for a perfect cup of coffee
Have you ever wondered why the coffee you make at home tastes different from the drinks you buy in cafes? Or why coffee from ...
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Scientists figured out why stress turns your hair gray
It might not come as a shock to learn that stress can turn your hair gray, but a team of Harvard scientists recently discovered ...
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Scientists working with Google just published the most detailed brain scans ever created
Google and its partners at the Janelia Research Campus today released the largest, most detailed set of brain scans ever ...
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Scientists invent a faster and cheaper way to repurpose EV batteries
Warwick University used Nissan Leaf batteries to discover new ways to tackle the issue of electric vehicle battery waste. ...
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The forgotten woman who discovered the greenhouse effect
When did we first realize that we had the potential to warm our planet’s climate? You could go all the way back to 1827, ...
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Scientists used stem cells to create a new life-form: Organic robots
Straight out of the 1990s and the plot of Jurassic Park, a team of scientists have successfully created an entirely new life-form ...
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New archaeology findings are redefining human history faster than ever
In 1924, a 3-year-old child’s skull found in South Africa forever changed how people think about human origins. The ...
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Australian scientists need your help keeping track of exotic bees (please)
Bees get a lot of good press. They pollinate our crops and in some cases, make delicious honey. But bees around the world ...
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Remembering Stephen Hawking on his 78th birthday: A legacy of humanity
Stephen Hawking passed away on 14 March 2018. His work changed literally everything we know about the cosmos and our place ...
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Scientists explain why we (probs) won't rebel against totalitarian rulers
Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, described the horror of the authoritarian regime of Gilead. In this theocracy, ...
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Why tinnitus is still such a mystery to ear scientists
Despite the many groundbreaking medical advances of the last century, there are still some conditions that continue to perplex ...
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Israeli scientists discover how to trigger pancreatic cancer cells to self-destruct
Israeli scientists say a new study has shown that a small molecule called PJ34 has triggered the self-destruction of human ...
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[Best of 2019] NASA engineer says Viking missions discovered life on Mars in the 1970s
Gilbert Levin, a NASA engineer who worked on the Viking missions, says he's “convinced we found evidence of life of Mars ...
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[Best of 2019] Meet the scientist who thinks we all exist in multiple universes
The increasingly popular theory of Many Worlds suggests every fundamental event has multiple possible outcomes and splits ...
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Scientists were wrong, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is not dying
In the last 10 years, but in the last five months in particular, the press has reported dire warnings that the Great Red ...
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The rate of the universe's expansion is in dispute — but a new measurement offers hope
Advances in astronomical observation over the past century have allowed scientists to construct a remarkably successful model ...
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Decoding how some animals pause pregnancies could unlock new cancer treatments
Putting your pregnancy on pause until the time is right to give birth sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, but for ...
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India may have another crack at soft landing on the moon in 2020
In Septemeber, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) tried to be a part of history by attempting a soft landing on ...
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Scientists discovered a galactic ghost — but there’s nothing paranormal about it
It’s a classic Halloween tale. A group of ghost hunters visit a grand old house that is rumoured to be haunted. But after ...
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New evidence shows an extraterrestrial collision may have kicked off the Earth’s rapid cooling 12,800 years ago
What kicked off the Earth’s rapid cooling 12,800 years ago? In the space of just a couple of years, average temperatures ...
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Something is killing galaxies, and scientists don’t understand why
In the most extreme regions of the universe, galaxies are being killed. Their star formation is being shut down and astronomers ...
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Scientist Alexander von Humboldt was v influential and v forgettable (sad)
Alexander von Humboldt sought to see and understand everything. By the time he drew his self-portrait at age 45, Humboldt ...
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Scientists are trying to build a conscious machine — here’s why it will never work
Many advanced artificial intelligence projects say they are working toward building a conscious machine, based on the idea ...
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How scientists detected water on a potentially habitable exoplanet for the first time
With more than 4,000 exoplanets – planets orbiting stars other than our sun – discovered so far, it may seem like we ...
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Science needs myths and stories to keep it ethical
I can still remember the horror of discovering that everything I had worked on was wrong. I was a PhD candidate just starting ...
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Here's what the actual research says about the dangers of cannabis use
A research team parsed 68 current cannabis studies last year on behalf of the Canadian government. The goal was to determine ...
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Trump-appointed NASA head just declared Pluto a planet again
NASA Chief Jim Bridenstine – a politician who's probably seen one or two episodes of “Cosmos” – has officially declared ...
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Study: Either the Hubble Constant is wrong or the universe is ripping itself apart
The science community has a crisis on its hands. Some anarchist physicists recently started kicking the tires on the Standard ...
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Scientists at an aquarium just figured out how to save Florida's 'Great Barrier Reef'
Scientists in Florida may have just saved the the third largest coral reef on the planet. Florida Aquarium Senior Coral ...
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The internet's idiots are already trying to discredit Katie Bouman’s historic accomplishments
People online have pointed out how Bouman wasn’t the only one on the team or the only author of the research papers so ...
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Scientists think light and noise from Earth could attract aliens
Since the first use of electric lamps in the 19th century, society hasn’t looked back. Homes and streets are lit at all ...
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Forget qubits: Quantum physicists successfully teleported 'qutrits' in breakthrough experiments
Two independent research teams recently published studies indicating they've successfully teleported a qutrit -- possibly ...
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Scientist have made a contact lens that lets you zoom in by blinking
Scientists from the University of California, San Diego, have created a new robotic soft contact lens that lets you zoom ...
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How scientists could one day predict your memories
Do you remember your first kiss? What about your grandma dying? Chances are you do, and that’s because emotional memories ...
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Malaria won't be solved by feeding mosquitos sugar, researchers conclude
The teasing temptation of a sugary treat can often get the better of us. But don’t worry, we’re not the only ones. The ...
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The European Space Agency is building a ‘comet interceptor’ to uncover space secrets
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced yesterday that it's planning to make a 'comet interceptor' probe within the next ...
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Studying naked mole-rats could be the key to breakthroughs in treating pain and cancer
The naked mole-rat is perhaps one of the most bizarre beasts on the planet. At first glance, it looks like little more than ...
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How to read a scientific research paper
Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, ...
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The Earth’s magnetic north pole is shifting rapidly, but the northern lights will stay where they are (for now)
Like most planets in our solar system, the Earth has its own magnetic field. Thanks to its largely molten iron core, our ...
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If you lose a body part, other bits get a sensory boost – thank you, brain
When you wake up in the middle of the night in total darkness, it can feel as if you have auditory superpowers. Suddenly, ...
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Scientists bio-hacked E. coli to create synthetic life
Escherichia coli, nobody's favorite dinner guest, just had the distinction of becoming the first living organism to have ...
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Game developers help NASA imagine what life in space will look like
NASA spent much of the 20th century commissioning painters and illustrators to imagine the future of space exploration. When ...
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Scientists: Earth might be ripped apart by gravity when the Sun dies
If it weren’t for the sun constantly showering us with energy, there would be no life on Earth. But eventually stars like ...
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Methane 'smelt' on Mars... but who dealt it?
The discovery of life on Mars would get pretty much everyone excited. But the scientists hunting for it would probably be ...
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Research: Humans can sense the Earth’s magnetic fields (just like bees)
Do human beings have a magnetic sense? Biologists know other animals do. They think it helps creatures including bees, turtles ...
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Science, like art, often begins with creativity and imagination
I don’t know why it took so long to dawn on me – after 20 years of a scientific career – that what we call the “scientific ...
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Humans have completely destabilized land animal diversity
Species living on land make up 85 percent to 95 percent of all biodiversity on Earth today. This is especially impressive ...
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China’s scientific achievements are surrounded by secrecy – but this could change
China’s recent scientific achievements – including its embryo gene-editing research and historic moon landing – appear ...
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The hidden secrets of insect poop
Insect defecation may not seem like one of the pressing scientific inquiries of our time, but in fact the faeces of these ...
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Study: Bizarre 'dark fluid' with negative mass could dominate the universe
Negative masses are a hypothetical form of matter that would have a type of negative gravity – repelling all other material ...
