Tokyo and Glasgow researchers read electron spins inside a metal-organic framework using light
Researchers in Tokyo and Glasgow used light to read electron spins inside a metal-organic framework, the first such measurement in this porous material. No chemical has been detected with it yet, and the team says the signal needs to get stronger and work at more practical temperatures before sensors can follow.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives45
- Confidence45
Fourteen US and UK educators describe pulling books before any parent or group complains
Researchers at UConn and the University of Glasgow interviewed 14 teachers and librarians who said they self-censor book choices to head off challenges. A book pulled before anyone objects never shows up in a challenge count, but 14 interviews cannot say how often that happens.
Reality
- Evidence35
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives40
- Confidence45
Sperm and killer whale teeth add one growth layer a year until midlife, bomb radiocarbon shows
Scottish researchers used bomb radiocarbon in five stranded whales' teeth to show sperm and killer whale tooth layers form yearly through midlife. That gives museum teeth a dated record of each whale's life, though layers formed in old age were a less reliable age marker.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence50
Glasgow and Kyushu researchers plan to fly two teaspoons of whisky on a CubeSat for five years
University of Glasgow and Kyushu Institute of Technology researchers plan a 2028 CubeSat carrying 0.3 fluid ounces of whisky to orbit for five years. The team pitches the flight as groundwork for making drugs in orbit, a goal that for now rests on a sensor whose published test was telling whiskies apart in the lab.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+45
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence35
Azora's portable optical receiver latched onto Orion's signal from 240,000 miles
Azora says its portable optical ground receiver latched onto Artemis II's Orion capsule at 240,000 miles, working from a California parking lot. The result shows a drivable terminal can pick up a signal at lunar range, though buyers will want its data rate and price before signing up for a pilot.
Reality
- Evidence35
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives70
- Confidence40
Glasgow physicists read a laser's frequency from the rotation of a light pattern in rubidium vapour
University of Glasgow physicists turned a laser's frequency into the rotation of a camera image, where a 1 MHz shift moves the pattern almost 6 degrees. Its sub-megahertz resolution still trails the kilohertz-level precision of the best existing frequency measurements.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence55
An international collaboration added more than 8,000 predicted viral protein pairs to the AlphaFold Database, spanning about 2,800 human-infecting viruses. The models stop at pairs and leave out the sugar coats, so trimeric targets like the coronavirus spike are largely absent.
Reality
- Evidence70
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives55
- Confidence70
A single Stirling branch supplies the evidence base for a new library social value toolkit
The Evidencing the Social Value of Public Libraries project logged more than 27,000 visits and almost 33,000 loans at St Ninians in Stirling, then used observation and interviews to describe the support work going on around those two counts.
Reality
- Evidence46
- Adoption14
- Hype gap+28
- Incentives70
- Confidence55
Live birth in a lizard was assembled from many small edits, not one big mutation
A Glasgow-led genome reconstruction in the Eurasian common lizard traces the switch from eggs to live young to selection spread across many regulatory regions, not a single leap.
Reality
- Evidence52
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+22
- Incentives66
- Confidence45