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AI for scientific discovery: How researchers use Claude
We analyzed 207,000 research sessions to learn how Claude is used in science, why some tasks get more use than others, and how AI could speed up discovery.
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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 197 posts.
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Verification Is Not Knowledge: Science needs more than answers
Science needs more than answers
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Distinct cellular and genetic differences in colorectal cancer in young patients
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers, along with Mass General Brigham researchers from the Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, and the Broad Institute, have uncovered biological clues to why colorectal cancer can behave more aggressively in younger people. Published today in Nature Medicine, the…
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Giant canyon on Mars is still tectonically active
Scientists at Columbia University and Imperial College London have found that the largest canyon system in the solar system is still active and shaping Mars today, billions of years after it first formed.
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SLAC researchers find proof of altermagnetism, a new magnetic phase
The team is the first to directly observe a unique property in an altermagnetic candidate material, key evidence of a new phase of magnetism.
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Mystery of 60-Second Fluctuations in Power Grids Solved
Why do our grids show a brief spike in electricity demand every minute? A team led by Dirk Witthaut from Forschungszentrum Jülich has now demonstrated that this is due to regular power checks carried out by large-scale battery storage systems. These findings could help to make our electricity supply more robust, as…
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Early progress on accelerating drug development with Claude
Over the past several months, we’ve partnered with six organizations to accelerate curing disease. We’ve also started drug discovery efforts of our own, including programs for rare childhood forms of muscular dystrophy. In this post, we provide an update on our progress.
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Three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics
OpenAI shares model results on the Kakeya conjecture, Exponential Time Hypothesis, and quantum chromodynamics—and how researchers can verify and build on them.
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How to grow a cacao tree at home (2024)
Growing chocolate at home might sound like a wild idea, right? Chocolate originates from cacao trees, which demand a tropical climate, specific growing conditions, and several years to reach maturity in order to flower and fruit to produce cacao pods. However, our CocoTerra founder, Nate Saal, took on the challenge…
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A 10-year-old CNN outperforms frontier LLMs for skin cancer diagnosis
I am a dermatologist. I tested the ability of GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable 5.1 to diagnosis skin cancer and found that they were less accurate than I expected. I compared to a 10-year old CNN and to my surprise found that this was superior.
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Neural chip decodes interactions between brain regions
EPFL researchers have developed an implantable neural chip that tracks communication across brain regions, identifying cognitive and emotional states in real time.
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New plastic pollution discovered: 'Plasticorals' coral rubble fused with plastic
‘Plasticorals’, coral rubble fused with plastic, are long-lasting reminders of human activity and highlight a potential threat to critical marine environments.
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Using thousands of AI agents to uncover new leads in biological data
See how OpenAI, PerturbAI, and Scripps Research used distributed AI agents to uncover promising research leads in data from millions of brain cells.
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The 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement is no longer viable
UNEP's Emissions Gap Report 2026 warns that exceeding 1.5°C is inevitable and calls for urgent emissions cuts to limit warming and reverse the trend.
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Claude designed protein binders against scorpion neurotoxins
We asked an internal research Claude model to design minibinders (small proteins that attach tightly to a target) against scorpion neurotoxins.
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CERN and Mistral sign a statement of intent to establish a strategic partnership
CERN and Mistral sign a statement of intent to advance AI for science and strengthen Europe’s scientific and technological capabilities
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GLP-1 may slow biological aging
A new study provides the first clinical evidence that popular semaglutide drugs, like Ozempic or Wegovy, could slow down processes associated with biological aging.
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Designing more efficient quantum circuits with Claude
Working largely on its own, Claude designed quantum circuits that improve on the best published versions, in some cases by an order of magnitude or more.
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Wireless magnetic millirobots that deliver medicine inside the beating heart
Hopkins engineers have created robots the size of a pencil tip intended to travel through the body to deliver medicine to infections inside a beating heart
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The United Kingdom generates less electricity per person than in the 1970s
Globally, electricity generation per person has grown by more than 50% this century.
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MIT class project turns into an FDA-cleared treatment for tremors
Encora Therapeutics, which developed a wrist-based device that reduces essential tremor, started as a project in MIT’s famous product-design class, 2.009 (Product Engineering Processes).
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Recursive self-improvement through collective intelligence
Self-supervision through better coordination among agents that share one language model.
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PVX-001: open-source Covid-19 vaccine starts Phase 1 trial
First participants safely dosed in Melbourne, Australia, on August 31, 2026, in the first-in-human trial of our broadly-protective COVID-19 vaccine candidate PVX-001.
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Food processing influences metabolism and brain activity
In healthy adults, meals matched for calories and nutrients, but otherwise prepared differently, led to unexpectedly different metabolic responses and activity in the brain’s reward system.
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Clinical trial of a prion disease drug candidate begins enrolling participants
It’s the first time the potential treatment, a small interfering RNA targeting the prion protein, is being tested in humans.
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AI-ready biological data: $1.8B global commitment
Biohub, DOE, NIH, and partners will generate open, standardized data to train AI models that predict how cells respond to interventions.
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Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 was awarded jointly to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai "for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis"
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Nobel Prize in Physics 2026: Francis Halzen
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 was awarded to Francis Halzen "for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin"