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Categories: Ecology: Nature, Mathematics: Modeling
Published North Sea oil and gas extraction spikes pollution by 10,000 percent, study finds



North Sea oil and gas extraction can cause pollution to spike by more than 10,000 percent within half a kilometer around off-shore sites, a study has found. The research has uncovered the true impact on Britain's seabed life -- with the number of species plummeting nearly 30 percent near platforms.
Published Breaking MAD: Generative AI could break the internet, researchers find



Researchers have found that training successive generations of generative artificial intelligence models on synthetic data gives rise to self-consuming feedback loops.
Published Scientists untangle interactions between the Earth's early life forms and the environment over 500 million years



The atmosphere, the ocean and life on Earth interacted over the past 500-plus million years in ways that improved conditions for early organisms to thrive. Now, an interdisciplinary team of scientists has produced a perspective article of this co-evolutionary history.
Published When allocating scarce resources with AI, randomization can improve fairness



Researchers argue that, in some situations where machine-learning models are used to allocate scarce resources or opportunities, randomizing decisions in a structured way may lead to fairer outcomes.
Published Climate is most important factor in where mammals choose to live, study finds



Using data from 6,645 camera traps across the United States, researchers mapped populations of 25 mammal species. They determined that climate, not human activity, was the primary factor in mammals deciding where to live.
Published Thousands of birds and fish threatened by mining for clean energy transition, study finds



Our increasing demand for metals and minerals is putting over four thousand vertebrate species at risk, with the raw materials needed for clean energy infrastructure often located in global biodiversity hotspots, a study has found.
Published The ancestor of all modern birds probably had iridescent feathers



Birds tend to be more colorful in the tropics, and scientists wanted to find out how they got there: if colorful feathers evolved in the tropics, or if tropical birds have brightly-colored ancestors that came to the region from somwhere else. Scientists built a database of 9,409 birds to explore the spread of color across the globe. They found that iridescent, colorful feathers originated 415 times across the bird tree of life, and in most cases, arose outside of the tropics -- and that the ancestor of all modern birds likely had iridescent feathers, too.
Published New Zealand's flightless birds are retreating to moa refuges



Researchers have found New Zealand's endangered flightless birds are seeking refuge in the locations where six species of moa last lived before going extinct.
Published Ancient marine animal had inventive past despite being represented by few species



Brachiopods were evolving in new directions but this did not turn into evolutionary success in terms of the numbers of species, researchers have found.
Published Raindrops grow with turbulence in clouds



Tackling a long-time mystery, scientists have found that the turbulent movements of air in clouds play a key role in the growth of water droplets and the initiation of rain. The research can improve computer model simulations of weather and climate and ultimately lead to better forecasts.
Published Can a computer tell patients how their multiple sclerosis will progress?



Machine learning models can reliably inform clinicians about the disability progression of multiple sclerosis, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS Digital Health by Edward De Brouwer of KU Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues.
Published Mixed approach to reforestation better than planting or regeneration alone



Reforestation in low- and middle-income countries can remove up to 10 times more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at lower cost than previously estimated, making it a potentially more effective option to fight climate change. Most current reforestation programs focus on tree planting alone, but the study estimates that nearly half of all suitable reforestation locations would be more effective at sequestering carbon if forests were allowed to grow back naturally.
Published How well does tree planting work in climate change fight? It depends



Using trees as a cost-effective tool against climate change is more complicated than simply planting large numbers of them, an international collaboration has shown.
Published Trees reveal climate surprise -- bark removes methane from the atmosphere



Tree bark surfaces play an important role in removing methane gas from the atmosphere.
Published Large language models don't behave like people, even though we may expect them to



People generalize to form beliefs about a large language model's performance based on what they've seen from past interactions. When an LLM is misaligned with a person's beliefs, even an extremely capable model may fail unexpectedly when deployed in a real-world situation.
Published Butterflies accumulate enough static electricity to attract pollen without contact



Butterflies and moths collect so much static electricity whilst in flight, that pollen grains from flowers can be pulled by static electricity across air gaps of several millimeters or centimeters.
Published A window of opportunity for climate change and biodiversity



World leaders must take advantage of a pivotal window of opportunity for forging a much-needed joined-up approach to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, say scientists. Without this, work on tackling either crisis could inadvertently harm progress on the other.
Published Heat-sensitive trees move uphill seeking climate change respite



Trees in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest are migrating in search of more favourable temperatures with species in mountain forests moving uphill to escape rising heat caused by climate change.
Published Risks and benefits of integrating AI into medical decision-making



Researchers found that an artificial intelligence (AI) model solved medical quiz questions -- designed to test health professionals' ability to diagnose patients based on clinical images and a brief text summary -- with high accuracy. However, physician-graders found the AI model made mistakes when describing images and explaining how its decision-making led to the correct answer.
Published Using forest resources strengthens food security



Forests can reduce hunger in rural households while also capturing carbon and advancing sustainability goals for low- and middle-income countries, according to new research.