A disturbing picture is about to be taken down for a controversial physicist

Comment on How a superconductor operated at about 15 oC under extreme pressure” by D. A. Dias and Y. S. Hamlin

When Dias and his collaborators published a paper in Nature in October 20202 reporting that they had created a superconductor that worked at about 15 ºC under extreme pressure, greater than one million atmospheres, they immediately made headlines. Most superconductors operate only at frigid temperatures below 200 kelvin (−73.15 ºC). Other researchers could not reproduce the results, and last year, Nature retracted the article. The retraction did not mention misconduct. Karl Ziemelis, chief physical sciences editor at the journal, explains that “data-processing irregularities” were discovered as a result of an investigation. We lost trust in the whole paper and therefore withdrew it. He says the broader investigation of that work stopped at that point.

The issues with the data came to light last year after a physicist at the University of Florida noticed that one of his PhD thesis’s text was included in another’s thesis. Hamlin was compelled to look at Dias’s work.

The paper that was to be published this year was not influenced by the cancellation of the study in 2022, according to Ziemelis. Editors make decisions about whether the research meets the criteria for publication, he says. We will always investigate any concerns raised with us.

The Odd Similarity between the GeSe4 and MnS2 Electrical Resistance Plots: A Reflection from Dias

Hamlin was scrolling through figures from Dias’s thesis when he noticed that a plot of the electrical resistance for the material germanium tetraselenide was closely related to a plot of figures in recent papers. Both plots had an extremely similar curve, especially at low temperatures, he says (see ‘Odd similarity’). It was hard to imagine this could be a coincidence.

Two referees that analysed the data said that the only explanation for the similarity in the GeSe4 and MnS2 plots is that data were taken from Dias’s 2013 thesis. The referees found a mathematical function that could be used to modify the GeSe4 data to match the MnS2 data, and this is what they presented in their report.

The race is on for new ways to assess ChatGPT and other large language models. Controversial claims about ancient humans test the reworked peer-review model.

The Cuckoo: I’m Sorry, I can’t do it! The Archaeological Case of Homo Naledi

The eggs of the African cuckoo are remarkably similar to those of the Fork-tailed Drongo birds with 98% accuracy. Each female has a different colour and pattern of eggs that she lays. Despite cuckoos’ amazing mimicry of the full range of this rich variety, individual females can produce only one type of egg appearance. They don’t usually drop perfectly-matched eggs into the nest, so they aren’t fooled. Even though they picked a very good interloper, doctors still kicked it out two-thirds of the time. Would you? In the image above, the cuckoo eggs are the ones on the lower right.

Archaeologists wowed viewers of a documentary — released last week — with stunning scenes of a cave crammed with bone fossils that, they argue, are the remains of the earliest-known burial by humans or their extinct relative Homo naledi. Four scientists that peer-reviewed the paper called the evidence “insufficient” in eLife. The study is testing the new publishing model of the journal, which no longer accepts papers but instead publishes them alongside peer reviewers’ reports.

Scientists disagree on whether artificial intelligence can reason and are struggling with how to assess its capabilities. GPT-4 and other large language models are great at academic exams and would probably pass through a Turing test. At the same time, they have glaring blind spots, such as failing an exam question when it is slightly changed, and they seem to lack abstract reasoning abilities. Cognitive scientist Tomer Ullman says there is no Geiger counter you can point at something and say, yes, intelligent.

Andrew Robinson’s pick of the top five science books to read this week includes a discussion of fungi and their risk of triggering a pandemic, and a provocative meditation on drug use by scientists.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02439-2

Can a deep-sea coral nursery save the planet from sea-floor mining? A study by lead exposure elimination project (LEEP)

One in three children has high levels of lead in their system. The Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP) believes that banning the manufacture and sale of lead paints would eliminate one of the major sources of exposure. Gathering evidence of lead levels in a country’s paint can cost just a few thousand dollars and prompt life-saving changes. For example, a LEEP study in Pakistan led to ten paint manufacturers, including five of the most popular brands, switching to non-lead paint.

The world knows too little about deep-sea ecosystems to protect them from the long-lasting damage of sea-floor mining, says oceanographer Beth Orcutt, who discovered a deep-sea octopus nursery last month. Scientists don’t know how deep-sea corals reproduce, despite being keystone species. And we have no idea whether it’s possible to restore damaged deep sea floor. There needs to be at least ten years of research per habitat in order to make evidence-based decisions.