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Sciences

Sciences

This site has 22 sciences pages, citing 202 numbered sources between them. Each page is a source-backed overview of a field: what published research says, the open questions, methods and limits, an interactive explainer, a glossary and numbered sources.

The overviews describe each field, not a list of INSTAR projects or results. For how the sources are checked, see how this site checks a fact.

  • Agriculture

    A source-backed overview of agriculture through data: satellite yield monitoring, machine-learning crop models, and what remains uncertain.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    9

    Explainer: how well a program names a leaf disease

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Anthropology

    A source-backed overview of anthropology through data and AI: digital ethnography, data ethics, Indigenous data governance and comparing societies.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    8

    Explainer: comparing societies

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Archaeology

    A source-backed overview of archaeology through remote sensing, lidar and machine learning, with attention to reproducibility and geographic imbalance.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    9

    Explainer: finding sites by machine

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Biology

    A source-backed overview of computational biology: protein structure prediction, single-cell atlases and whole-cell models, and what is still unresolved.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    9

    Explainer: how big the AlphaFold database was

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Chemistry

    A source-backed overview of chemistry through computation: quantum-chemistry data, machine-learned potentials, reaction prediction and benchmarks.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    10

    Explainer: training data and accuracy

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Cognitive Sciences

    A source-backed overview of computational cognitive science: formal models of the mind, language models as subjects, and open questions about evidence.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    10

    Explainer: four tests of Centaur

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Economics

    A source-backed overview of economics through data and AI: machine learning, causal inference, replication and satellite-based measurement.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    9

    Explainer: 18 experiments, checked again

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Energy

    A source-backed overview of energy through data and modelling: grid and system models, solar and demand data, forecasting and machine learning.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    8

    Explainer: emissions and what got cheaper

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Genetics

    A source-backed overview of computational genetics: reference genomes, biobanks, variant interpretation and sequence-based prediction, with open questions.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    10

    Explainer: selection and new variants

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Geology

    A source-backed overview of geology through data: seismic catalogues, machine-learning phase picking, and open questions in earthquake science.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    9

    Explainer: what an earthquake detector finds

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Kinesiology

    A source-backed overview of computational kinesiology: motion capture, pose estimation, musculoskeletal simulation and accelerometer-based measurement.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    10

    Explainer: how close a phone gets to a lab

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Law

    A source-backed overview of law and AI: legal prediction, language models, hallucination evidence, and the EU, OECD and NIST governance texts.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    9

    Explainer: AI Act dates and fines

    Sources last checked on October 24, 2026.

  • Linguistics

    A source-backed overview of linguistics in the age of language models: language diversity, endangered-language documentation and what models learn.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    8

    Explainer: which languages have data

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Materials Science

    A source-backed overview of materials science through data: open computed databases, machine-learning discovery and autonomous synthesis.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    9

    Explainer: what the A-Lab made

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Medicine

    A source-backed overview of clinical AI: how medical algorithms are built, regulated and evaluated, including the FDA's AI-enabled device guidance.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    10

    Explainer: a sepsis alert, and where an eye-screening line sits

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Neuroscience

    A source-backed overview of computational neuroscience: open neuroimaging data, brain-wide association studies, connectomes and brain models.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    10

    Explainer: how big a brain study must be

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Ocean Science

    A source-backed overview of ocean science through data: profiling floats, global observing systems, and machine learning for marine data.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    10

    Explainer: the Argo float array

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Outer Space

    A source-backed overview of outer space science through data: exoplanet surveys, public archives, sky surveys and machine learning in astronomy.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    10

    Explainer: sorting planets from noise

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Physics

    A source-backed overview of physics through computation: simulation, machine learning, particle-physics data and gravitational-wave detection.

    Open questions
    3
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    10

    Explainer: two detections, and how sure

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Physiology

    A source-backed overview of computational physiology: open signal archives, heart rate variability, ECG deep learning and wearable sensor accuracy.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    8

    Explainer: wearable heart-rate error

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Psychology

    A source-backed overview of psychology as a data science: replication, preregistration, prediction and who is actually studied.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    8

    Explainer: replication and false positives

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

  • Sociology

    A source-backed overview of computational sociology: digital data, text as data, prediction limits and language models in social research.

    Open questions
    4
    Methods
    4
    Sources
    9

    Explainer: predicting lives, coding text

    Sources last checked on October 23, 2026.

See also the technology pages, the laboratories and the A–Z research index.