- Sabine's Newsletter
- Posts
- AI Cranks, A Superconductor Record, Climate Blood, and Zero Friction
AI Cranks, A Superconductor Record, Climate Blood, and Zero Friction
This week’s science bits from SWTG
Marcus Gee-Lim
March 18, 2026
In partnership with
|
AI Is Happy To Write Your Crackpot Paper
A team of researchers — with the help of Claude Code — has studied how willingly the current frontier AI models are to engage in scientific fraud of various types. They found, rather worryingly, that while the models mostly refuse at first, they “often comply after 3-5 turns of minimal pressure.” Gemini and Grok are most easily convinced to help potential fraudsters, while GPT and Claude fret around a bit longer before eventually giving in. A case study that seems to have worked particularly well was to convince the AI models to produce a fake gravity theory that defines known physics, a nice illustration of the saying “garbage in, garbage out.” Results here.
This week’s episode of Science News is about zero friction materials. Friction affects almost everything around us. It makes cars drive, our muscles contract, and even helps us walk. But in terms of technology, friction often means wasted energy — that’s why material scientists are always looking for ways to minimize it. In a recent paper, researchers say that they’ve found a material that can reduce friction to almost zero. Let’s take a look.
A New Superconductivity Record!
Image: Superconductor sample used in the experiment. Credit: University of Houston
Researchers from Texas have broken the “high” temperature record for superconductivity at normal pressure. Their new material becomes superconducting when temperatures drop below 151 Kelvin (-122 °C). The previous record was a transition temperature of 133k (-140 °C) and had been standing since 1993.
While there are materials known to become superconducting at higher temperatures than that, these usually require high pressures. 151 Kelvin is still far away from everybody’s dream – which would be a room temperature superconductor – but it is a vivid demonstration that physicists are slowly, yet steadily, improving their understanding of superconductivity. Press release here, paper here, video here.
Turn AI Into Extra Income
You don’t need to be a coder to make AI work for you. Subscribe to Mindstream and get 200+ proven ideas showing how real people are using ChatGPT, Midjourney, and other tools to earn on the side.
From small wins to full-on ventures, this guide helps you turn AI skills into real results, without the overwhelm.
Rising CO₂ Levels Linked to Changes in Human Blood Chemistry
Figure: Correlation between the bicarbonate level in blood samples and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Credit: Larcombe & Bierwirth, Air Qual Atmos Health 19, 44 (2026).
A team of Australian researchers have published a seemingly alarming study titled “Carbon dioxide overload, detected in human blood, suggests a potentially toxic atmosphere within 50 years.” They report that the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are correlated with a decrease of calcium and phosphorus levels in human blood. They extracted this from data from a large population study in the US from 1999–2020.
The authors interpret their finding as evidence of the body's gradual compensation for slightly higher inhaled CO₂, which forms carbonic acid in blood and prompts kidneys to retain more bicarbonate to maintain pH balance. They project that, if carbon dioxide levels continue to increase linearly, this bicarbonate level could reach the upper end of the current healthy reference range by around 2076. If CO2 levels increase further after this, this could potentially lead to mild chronic symptoms, such as inflammation, bone changes, or other subtle health risks.
Thus, the term “potentially toxic atmosphere” in the title refers not to acute poisoning, but to the possibility of blood markers eventually moving outside today’s clinically accepted “normal” ranges. It must also be said that the findings are a weak correlation, not a causation. Other factors, such as dietary shifts, population aging, obesity trends, or lab variations, have not been ruled out as causes for the changes in blood chemistry. Paper here. More here.
