GoKawiilPasswords, to-do lists and even derogatory comments litter arXiv preprints. Plus, two huge planets that are lighter than candy floss and which ‘AI scientist’ might suit your lab.
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A star named TOI-791 (left) is orbited by two extremely lightweight planets (middle and right).Credit: NASA/Daniel Rutter
Data from NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission has revealed two super-rare, ‘super-puff’ planets. Though as big as Jupiter, TOI-791 b and TOI-791 c “have densities comparable to a nice blob of shaving foam, fresh from the can,” says astrophysicist George Dransfield.
Associated Press | 4 min read
Reference: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society paper
Nearly all papers posted on the arXiv preprint server contain details the authors never meant to share, according to a study of almost three million articles available on the repository. Some 88% of submissions that contained LaTeX source files included some form of hidden information, including passwords, to-do lists and derogatory comments such as “WTF does this mean?” The findings are “really just the tip of the iceberg,” says security and privacy researcher Jan Pennekamp, who co-authored the study.
Nature | 9 min read
Reference: arXiv preprint (not peer reviewed)
'AI scientists' such as Claude Science, a tool unveiled by artificial-intelligence firm Anthropic, can help with tasks such as literature reviews and data analysis. But not all tools are the same, and some might suit certain labs better than others. To work out which might work best for you, the first step is to get stuck in, says Ashu Singhal, president of cloud platform Benchling. But start with small tasks, the output of which is easily verifiable, says Gabriele Corso, chief executive of the AI firm Boltz. “Worst case, you have to do them over,” he says.
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