Why are so many languages spoken in some places and so few in others?

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AI could revolutionise DNA evidence – but right now we can’t trust the machines

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DNA evidence often isn’t as watertight as many people think. Sensitive techniques developed over the past 20 years mean that police can now detect minute traces of DNA at a crime scene or on a piece of evidence. But traces from a perpetrator are often mixed with those from many other people that have been transferred to the sample site, for example via a handshake. And this problem has led to people being wrongly convicted . Scientists have developed algorithms to separate this DNA soup and to measure the relative amounts of each person’s DNA in a sample. These “ probabilsitic genotyping ” methods have enabled forensic investigators to indicate how likely it is that an individual’s DNA was included in a mixed sample found at the crime scene. And now, more sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are being developed in an attempt to extract DNA profiles and try to work out whether a DNA sample came directly from someone who was at the crime scene, or whether it had just ...
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Brain organoids help neuroscientists understand brain development, but aren’t perfect matches for real brains

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What was going on with our brain organoids? As neuroscientists , we use these three-dimensional clusters of cells grown in petri dishes to learn more about how the human brain works. Researchers culture various kinds of organoids from stem cells – cells that have the potential to become one of many different cell types found throughout the body. We use chemical signals to direct stem cells to produce brain-like cells that together resemble certain structural aspects of a real brain . While they are not “brains in a dish” – organoids cannot function or think independently – the idea is that organoid models let scientists see developmental processes that may yield insights into how the human brain works. If researchers better understand normal development, we may be able to understand when and how things go wrong in diseases. When we recently compared our lab’s organoid cells to normal brain cells, we were surprised to find that they didn’t look as similar as we’d expected. Our bra...
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Redesigning social media platforms to reduce ‘FoMO’

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Fear of missing out, or FoMO , is commonly described as that anxious feeling you get when you think other people might be having a good time without you. Excessive FoMO is closely related to symptoms of behavioural addiction . It often leads to undesirable behaviour such as the constant checking of social media, even in an inappropriate context, like while driving, and becoming overly preoccupied with reactions to online posts and messages. Our new research has identified the main triggers of this psychological phenomenon, the contexts in which it happens and the types of fears involved in it. We have also suggested new design features which social media platforms could introduce to minimise this most modern form of social anxiety. Humans are fundamentally social creatures. Our identity, beliefs and behaviours come from and are shaped by our interactions with others. From those we know well, to fleeting moments of eye contact with the strangers we walk past on the street. Previous...
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