Strengthening science diplomacy: Building STI capacity in African missions to the UN

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https://council.science/blog/strengthening-science-diplomacy-building-sti-capacity-in-african-missions-to-the-un/?utm%5C_source=rss&utm%5C_medium=rss&utm%5C_campaign=strengthening-science-diplomacy-building-sti-capacity-in-african-missions-to-the-un

ETH Zurich researchers have developed a groundbreaking "living material" that actively captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through two mechanisms: biomass production and mineral formation[^1][^2].

The material combines cyanobacteria (photosynthetic bacteria) embedded within a printable hydrogel matrix. The cyanobacteria convert CO2 into biomass through photosynthesis while simultaneously triggering the formation of solid carbonate minerals - a process called microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP)[^1].

Key achievements of the material include:

• Sequestered 2.2 mg of CO2 per gram of hydrogel over 30 days
• Captured 26 mg of CO2 per gram over 400 days in mineral form
• Maintained viability for over one year
• Required only sunlight and artificial seawater to function
• Can be 3D printed into various structures[^1]

The research team demonstrated practical applications by creating:

• A 3-meter high tree-trunk structure at the Venice Architecture Biennale that can bind 18kg of CO2 annually
• Building facade coatings that could capture carbon throughout a building's lifecycle
• Lattice structures that passively transport nutrients through capillary action[^2]

"As a building material, it could help to store CO2 directly in buildings in the future," said Mark Tibbitt, Professor of Macromolecular Engineering at ETH Zurich[^2].

The material represents a low-maintenance, environmentally friendly approach to carbon capture that operates at ambient conditions using atmospheric CO2, contrasting with industrial methods requiring concentrated CO2 sources and controlled conditions[^1].

[^1]: Nature Communications - Dual carbon sequestration with photosynthetic living materials

[^2]: ETH Zurich - A building material that lives and stores carbon

A groundbreaking study published in July 2025 demonstrates that African savannah elephants use intentional gestures to communicate their goals, similar to great apes[^1]. The research team presented semi-captive elephants with desired and undesired items, recording their communication attempts when experimenters met, partially met, or failed to meet their goals[^1].

The study identified 38 different gesture types that elephants used almost exclusively when a visually attentive experimenter was present[^1]. The elephants showed three key criteria for intentional communication:

1. Audience directedness - signaling only when someone was watching
2. Persistence - continuing to gesture when goals were partially met
3. Elaboration - using new signals when communication failed

The research was conducted at the Jafuta Reserve in Zimbabwe, where elephants combined specific vocalizations with gestures in greeting behaviors[^6]. They used different types of signals including:

• Silent-visual gestures
• Audible gestures
• Tactile gestures
• Rumble vocalizations

The findings reveal that elephants, like apes, assess the communicative effectiveness of their gesturing and adjust their signals based on the audience's visual attention[^6]. This expands understanding of intentional communication beyond the primate lineage[^9].

[^1]: Royal Society Open Science - Investigating intentionality in elephant gestural communication

[^6]: Nature - Multimodal communication and audience directedness in the greeting behaviour of semi-captive African savannah elephants

[^9]: Pangea Trust - Gestures and greetings used by elephants show intentional multimodal communication

Re-launch of ISC-GeoUnions Distinguished Lecture Series

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https://council.science/news/re-launch-isc-geounions-distinguished-lecture-series/?utm%5C_source=rss&utm%5C_medium=rss&utm%5C_campaign=re-launch-isc-geounions-distinguished-lecture-series

Andi's Writeup

Researchers have developed Centaur, a computational model that can predict and simulate human behavior across a wide range of psychological experiments[^1]. Built by fine-tuning Meta's Llama 3.1 70B language model on a dataset called Psych-101, Centaur was trained on over 10 million choices made by 60,000 participants across 160 psychology experiments[^1].

The model outperforms existing cognitive models in predicting human behavior, even generalizing to entirely new scenarios it wasn't trained on[^1]. "You can basically run experimental sessions in silico instead of running them on actual human participants," said Marcel Binz, cognitive scientist at the Helmholtz Institute for Human-Centered AI[^2].

Centaur demonstrates unprecedented capabilities in capturing human cognition:

• Predicts behavior with 64% accuracy across varied tasks[^3]
• Generalizes to modified experimental scenarios, like switching from "spaceships" to "magic carpets" in decision-making tasks[^4]
• Shows alignment between its internal representations and human neural activity[^1]
• Performs well on out-of-distribution tasks in moral decision-making, economic games, and logical reasoning[^1]

"It's the first model that can do any kind of task exactly like a human can," said Russ Poldrack, cognitive scientist at Stanford University[^4].

[^1]: Nature - A foundation model to predict and capture human cognition

[^2]: Nature - This AI 'thinks' like a human — after training on 160 psychology studies

[^3]: Live Science - New AI is better at predicting how we behave than ever before, scientists say

[^4]: Gigazine - A basic model 'Centaur' that predicts human responses in psychological experiments has appeared

2025-2034: Decade of soil sciences for sustainable development

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https://council.science/blog/2025-2034-decade-of-soil-sciences-for-sustainable-development/?utm%5C_source=rss&utm%5C_medium=rss&utm%5C_campaign=2025-2034-decade-of-soil-sciences-for-sustainable-development

Open Science Round-Up | June 2025

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https://council.science/news/open-science-round-up-june-2025/?utm%5C_source=rss&utm%5C_medium=rss&utm%5C_campaign=open-science-round-up-june-2025

Stockholm declaration on chemistry for the future

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https://council.science/news/stockholm-declaration-on-chemistry-for-the-future/?utm%5C_source=rss&utm%5C_medium=rss&utm%5C_campaign=stockholm-declaration-on-chemistry-for-the-future

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8474021

A good series! I suggest watching the other episodes. Not too long and gets right down to the point.

Call for feedback: ISC Strategic Framework, Implementation Plan and draft General Assembly minutes

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https://council.science/news/call-for-feedback-isc-strategic-framework-implementation-plan-draft-general-assembly-minutes/?utm%5C_source=rss&utm%5C_medium=rss&utm%5C_campaign=call-for-feedback-isc-strategic-framework-implementation-plan-draft-general-assembly-minutes

Melting glaciers may be silently setting the stage for more explosive and frequent volcanic eruptions in the future, according to research on six volcanoes in the Chilean Andes.

Presented today [Tuesday 8 July] at the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague, the study suggests that hundreds of dormant subglacial volcanoes worldwide – particularly in Antarctica – could become more active as climate change accelerates glacier retreat.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8433326

Check it out.

Heard of this tangentially.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32575156