Expert voices

Expert voices

Expert voices

In-depth analysis by experts on current scientific issues. In general, they are not as quick as the reactions.

Open or Closed Artificial Intelligence: How Science Suffers When Technology is in the Hands of Big Companies

Two of the Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry 2024 are employees of Google DeepMind, who caused significant unrest among their colleagues in May. Hassabis and Jumper announced in *Nature* the results of their AlphaFold 3 model, with applications in drug design; however, they published it in a closed manner, with reviewers not even having access to the system, which contradicts the basic principles of scientific publication. We risk having the transformative potential of AI controlled by big tech companies.

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How gender roles influence Alzheimer’s disease and why it must be investigated

Men and women could develop Alzheimer’s disease through different mechanisms. Understanding these differences is essential to design specific interventions and to treat the disease effectively. In an article published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, a group of researchers, including myself, have highlighted the urgency of adding a sex and gender approach to the studies on this pathology.

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Heat culture in Spain: 20 years of prevention plans to face the extreme temperatures

August 2003 was the month of the heatwave that killed 70,000 people in Europe. In France, with 14,800 deaths, the Minister of Health resigned, and in Spain, with 6,500, the first prevention plan for the extreme heat was put in motion, which came into force in 2004. Two decades later, campaigns and preventive measures in social services, nursing homes, and hospitals have generated the so-called "heat culture," and although temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, this adaptation is limiting its impact.

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Fans every four years: Why do we love the Olympics even if we don't watch sports the rest of the time?

Many people don't follow sports events, yet they enjoy the Olympics. Unlike the dominant men's soccer industry, the Olympics offer a wide variety of events for all tastes, with greater visibility of women's sports and a context that makes it easier to connect with the competition narrative, based on an internationalist and humanist spirit. They are proof that sports appeal to everyone because play is part of human essence.

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Plastics in the lumen of the carotid arteries

Research published a few days ago in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) found a considerable and hitherto unknown degree of micro- and nanoplastic contamination in human arteries. It was a bit of a surprise that NEJM accepted the paper, as it usually publishes little on the environmental causes of human disease. The good thing is that the publication makes visible, legitimises, stirs up and will encourage other similar work.
 

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Spain and extreme weather events: the Health and Climate Change Observatory needs to be set up as a matter of urgency

On the eve of an episode of unusually high temperatures for this time of year, it is time to take stock of the summer we have experienced, characterised by a succession of extreme weather phenomena in the form of heat waves, drought and torrential rains. The seriousness and complexity of these problems and their repercussions in many areas, especially on health, make it urgent to set up the Health and Climate Change Observatory approved last July, with a stable and independent structure.

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Victims of artificial intelligence

There are no criminal offences to punish synthetic pornography, plus we lack sufficient means to carry out forensic examinations of victims' and perpetrators' phones and staff to process these cases quickly. The law could limit these AI tools to professional and virtuous environments, only by known developers, and for products whose purposes don't violate public order or privacy, and aren't criminal; such measures would be more than enough.

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"We need to refine weather forecasts": science against mistrust

Meteorological models have improved significantly in recent decades, but they will never be one hundred percent accurate. Knowing how to communicate uncertainty and not fueling citizens' mistrust in the reliability of predictions is important to avoid sowing doubts about alert systems for upcoming emergencies, such as the DANA that affected Spain in recent days.

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