December 2023 Newsletter
Monthly roundup: GPT as a participant in a psychology experiment, zombie-making parasites, and mammoths.
Hello,
Happy December! This month, we have four new adapted scientific articles:
In How well can a computer think?, scientists learned about how GPT-3, a large language model, works by treating it like a participant in a psychology experiment. Check out this accompanying blackboard video to learn more about 3 psychology experiments that people (and GPT-3!) get wrong:
#Technology #AI #Psychology
In How can super-recognizers help police investigations?, researchers used real police data to test the ability of humans with super-recognizing skills to find criminals.
#SocialScience #Neuroscience
How do some fungi turn insects into zombies? is about how different “zombie-making” species of fungi can control host insects and why they change similar behaviors.
#Parasites #Zoology #Biology
What made woolly mammoths Ice Age icons? covers what researchers learned when they analyzed the genomes of woolly mammoths and compared them to their modern-day elephant relatives to learn about what makes them unique.
#Paleoscience #Genetics
That’s not all!
Have you listened to our Ask-a-Scientist podcast episode with biomedical engineers Dr. Jen Collinger and Dr. Rob Gaunt? If not, check it out here, as well as photos and videos of the robotic arm controlled just by a person’s thoughts!
Happy science exploration and happy holidays! See you again next year.
Tanya Dimitrova
Founder and Editor