Asteroid Ceres is a Former Ocean World that Slowly Formed into a Giant, Murky Icy Orb

Since the first sighting of the first-discovered and largest asteroid in our solar system was made in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, astronomers and planetary scientists have pondered the make-up of this asteroid/dwarf planet. Its heavily battered and dimpled surface is covered in impact craters. Scientists have long argued that visible craters on the surface meant that Ceres could not be very icy.

Researchers at Purdue University and the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) now believe Ceres is a very icy object that possibly was once a muddy ocean world. This discovery that Ceres has a dirty ice crust is led by Ian Pamerleau, Ph.D...

Read More

Researchers Discover New Bacterium that Causes Gut Immunodeficiency

Thaddeus Stappenbeck, M.D., Ph.D., (left) and Qiuhe Lu, Ph.D., in the lab.
Thaddeus Stappenbeck, M.D., Ph.D., (left) and Qiuhe Lu, Ph.D., in the lab.

Cleveland Clinic researchers have discovered a new bacterium that weakens the immune system in the gut, potentially contributing to certain inflammatory and infectious gut diseases.

The team identified the bacterium, Tomasiella immunophila (T. immunophila), which plays a key role in breaking down a crucial immune component of the gut’s multi-faceted protective immune barrier.

Identifying this bacterium is the first step to developing new treatments for a variety of inflammatory and infectious gut diseases...

Read More

As LLMs Grow Bigger, they’re more likely to give Wrong Answers than Admit Ignorance

As LLMs grow bigger, they're more likely to give wrong answers than admit ignorance
Performance of a selection of GPT and LLaMA models with increasing difficulty. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07930-y

A team of AI researchers at Universitat Politècnica de València, in Spain, has found that as popular LLMs (Large Language Models) grow larger and more sophisticated, they become less likely to admit to a user that they do not know an answer.

In their study published in the journal Nature, the group tested the latest version of three of the most popular AI chatbots regarding their responses, accuracy, and how good users are at spotting wrong answers.

As LLMs have become mainstream, users have become accustomed to using them for writing papers, poems or songs and solving math problems and other tasks, and the issue of accuracy has become a bigger...

Read More

Circadian Disruption, Gut Microbiome Changes linked to Colorectal Cancer Progression

Circadian disruption, gut microbiome changes linked to colorectal cancer progression
Clock disruption and cancer alter microbial structure. Credit: Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado1458

Research from the University of California, Irvine has revealed how disruption of the circadian clock, the body’s internal, 24-hour biological pacemaker, may accelerate the progression of colorectal cancer by affecting the gut microbiome and intestinal barrier function. This discovery offers new avenues for prevention and treatment strategies.

The study, published online today in the journal Science Advances, offers a more comprehensive understanding of how important changes occur in the function and composition of the gut microbiome when the circadian clock is disturbed in the presence of colorectal cancer.

“There is an alarming rise in early-onset colorectal can...

Read More