GoKawiil
Tech News
Research referenced by UC-affiliated Nobel laureates points to GLP-1 medications, widely known for diabetes and weight-loss treatment, showing effects on biological aging indicators. The findings come from work highlighted by University of California researchers discussing discoveries made within the UC system.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine analyzed a decade of usage data from McGraw Hill's Aleks math platform, comparing student performance before and after ChatGPT's 2022 launch. They found students completed word problems faster and with higher accuracy after ChatGPT arrived, but scored 25% worse on those same problem types during proctored exams without AI access, while graphing-task performance stayed the same. A separate July study from Middlebury College suggested students can still use AI productively as a tutor without losing critical thinking skills.
A new study in The Astrophysical Journal argues Venus once had a natural moon that gradually spiraled inward and collided with the planet, explaining why Venus is moonless today. Lead author Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist at UC Riverside, says the moon's demise didn't require a violent impact event, but resulted from the interplay between Venus's gravity and its slow rotation rate.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside modeled how Venus' extremely slow rotation—243 Earth days per spin—combined with its gravity could have gradually dragged a hypothetical moon inward until it broke apart and was absorbed by the planet. Lead author Steven Kane says this process wouldn't have required a catastrophic collision, contradicting an earlier theory that Venus' moon was destroyed by an impact with another body. The team built a computer simulation of gravitational interactions to test this mechanism.
Researchers publishing in Nature on September 2 found that older female mice given a GLP-1 obesity drug lived longer than untreated mice and showed slower onset of several biological markers linked to aging. The finding builds on earlier mouse studies suggesting GLP-1 medications, typically used for obesity and type 2 diabetes, may have broader anti-aging effects beyond weight loss.