- A bird flu virus that has been circulating in dairy cattle for months has now been found in a pig in the US for the first time, raising the risk of the virus evolving to become more dangerous to people
- Inside a hunk of a material called a semimetal, scientists have uncovered signatures of bizarre particles that sometimes move like they have no mass, but at other times move just like a very massive particle
- Soil is full of an uncountable number of viruses, and scientists are only beginning to understand just how substantial their role in the carbon cycle may be
- Scientists are testing a drone fitted with its own "nervous system" which they claim can keep it operating in the sky for longer. It was created by experts at the University of Southampton who say the system, made of optical fibers,...
- Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for...
- Alan Turing's theories about computation seem to have a startling consequence, placing hard limits on how fast or slow any physical process in the universe can grow
- DNA analysis suggests Pando, a quaking aspen in Utah with thousands of stems connected by their roots, is between 16,000 and 81,000 years old
- Just under 5 per cent of the Wikipedia pages in English that have been published since ChatGPT's release seem to include AI-written content
- Light can be directed and steered around bends using a method similar to the way clouds scatter photons, which could lead to advances in medical imaging, cooling systems and even nuclear reactors
- From Harlan Ellison to Haruki Murakami, via an intergalactic cooking competition, this month has plenty of science fictional treats on offer
- In support of their AI ambitions, tech companies are rapidly expanding US data centres, and this growth is on track to significantly increase US gas demand by 2030
- Today, a research team has proposed a new reinforcement learning framework with autonomous drones to find sperm whales and predict where they will surface.
- People conceived during the UK's 1940s and 50s sugar rationing have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure than those conceived after rationing ended
- Fewer lakes are freezing over each winter compared with past years, posing environmental and economic consequences around the world
- Left alone, the toy robots will skitter mindlessly across a tabletop and amuse small children and cats. But when engineers at Princeton paired the small toys with a flexible tether, the bots developed remarkable abilities. They explored...
- A video game in which participants herded virtual cattle has furthered our understanding of how humans make decisions on movement and navigation, and it could help us not only interact more effectively with artificial intelligence, but...
- Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis have revealed that a complete skeleton found in a 2nd-century cemetery is made up of bones from many people spanning thousands of years – but we don’t know who assembled it or why
- An off-the-shelf millimetre wave sensor can pick out the tiny vibrations made by a smartphone's speaker, enabling an AI model to transcribe the conversation, even at a distance in a noisy room
- The infinite monkey theorem states that illiterate primates could write great literature with enough time, but the amount of time needed is much longer than the lifespan of the universe
- The US Census Bureau processes data before publishing it in order to keep personal information private – but a new approach could maintain the same privacy while improving accuracy
- The Renaissance artist Michelangelo had carried out human dissections, which may have led him to include women with breast cancer in some of his pieces
- The advanced drug testing system screens multiple potential therapies simultaneously in beating heart cells.
- Our metabolism's response to food is highly idiosyncratic and there are hints that tailoring our diet to these personal differences can deliver health benefits
- Scientists used AI to transform tourist photos into a 3D digital map of Antarctic penguin colonies – even as researchers debate whether to harness or discourage tourism in this remote region
- Endurance sank beneath the ice during Ernest Shackleton’s legendary Antarctic expedition. More than a hundred years later, researchers document their own saga of how they found the vessel
- Forget Armageddon-sized rocks, just one of 25,000 smaller asteroids could destroy a city on Earth. How to Kill an Asteroid by Robin George Andrew shows how science plans to save the planet
- I have a confession to make. After taking a handful of autonomous taxi rides, I have gone from a hater to a friend of robot cars in just a few weeks, says Annalee Newitz
- Feedback digs into a baffling ad for a mobile game and identifies a new and devilish way to advertise a product online: make it as confusing as possible to encourage people to click (it worked on Feedback)
- Thanks to artificial intelligence, understanding animals may be closer than we think. But we may not like what they are going to tell us, says RSPCA chief executive Chris Sherwood
- Orca – Black & White Gold digs deep into the dirty waters surrounding the killer whale trade and captures a daring rescue mission
- From the benefits of fermented foods to diets that promise a better hormone balance, there is a confusing array of dietary advice out there
- Most ingredients touted as the key to better health fail to live up to the hype but fibre bucks this trend, with benefits for the whole body, not just the gut
- Since the industrial revolution, manufacturing processes have continuously evolved in alignment with technological advances. Recent innovations, particularly in the field of robotics, 3D printing and machine learning, could soon...
- A fossil of a tadpole from Argentina is 161 million years old - and isn't that different from some modern species
- A massive undertaking to map cancer tumours is providing new insights into how the disease forms, evolves and develops resistance to treatments
- The health benefits of fermented food and drink have long been touted, but firm evidence in favour of kombucha, sauerkraut and kefir is surprisingly elusive
- Diets that claim to control excess oestrogen or stress hormones are all the rage on Instagram and TikTok. They could be good for us, just not for the reasons claimed
- Simulations suggest that when a quantum battery shares a quantum state with the device it is powering, the device can gain more charge than was stored in the battery to begin with
- In some recent years, the Amazon biome released more carbon than it absorbed, and further degradation could make it a permanent shift
- By applying an electric field, the movement of microswimmers can be manipulated. Scientists describe the underlying physical principles by comparing experiments and theoretical modeling predictions. They are able to tune the direction...
- Asteroids that regularly fly between Earth, Venus and Mars could provide radiation shielding for human missions to explore neighbouring planets
- We get about a quarter of our calories from snacks and new research shows that this isn't necessarily bad for us. Done right, snacking can boost our health
- Antibiotics can reduce diversity in the gut microbiome, raising the risk of infections that cause diarrhoea - and the effects may last years
- Recent research shows that anti-inflammatory diets are not as faddish as they might sound, with the power to reduce the risk of heart attacks and some cancers
- Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a new robot inspired by one of the most intelligent aquatic animals on Earth: the octopus. This robot, presented in a paper published on the arXiv pre-print server, could...
- A specialised algorithm could help autonomous vehicles track hidden objects, such as a pedestrian, a bicycle or another vehicle concealed behind a parked car
- Robots can navigate efficiently through crowds of people by cleverly alternating between independent and cooperative behavior, and in such a way that they disturb the people around them as little as possible. This is the result of a...
- Peaks in appetite and metabolism driven by our body's inbuilt clocks mean that eating at the wrong time can have consequences for our health and waistline
- A pitiful sound from tinny speakers, sad virtual eyes, trembling robot arms: It doesn't take much to feel sorry for a robot. This is the conclusion of a study by Marieke Wieringa, who will be defending her Ph.D. thesis at Radboud...
- China's carbon emissions may have peaked in 2023, as figures suggest its output has plateaued so far in 2024