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Core thinking error underlies belief in creationism, conspiracy theories

It's not uncommon to hear someone say that 'everything happens for a reason' or that something that happened was 'meant to be.' Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on Aug. 20 have found that this kind of teleological thinking is linked to two seemingly unrelated beliefs: creationism, the belief that life on Earth was created by a supernatural agent, and conspiracism, the tendency to explain events in terms of secret conspiracies or conspiracy theories.

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Link between magnetic field strength and temperature

Researchers recently discovered that the strength of the magnetic field required to elicit a particular quantum mechanical process corresponds to the temperature of the material. Based on this finding, scientists can determine a sample's temperature to a resolution of one cubic micron by measuring the field strength at which this effect occurs. Temperature sensing is integral in most industrial, electronic and chemical processes, so greater spatial resolution could benefit commercial and scientific pursuits.

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