- Could tiny magnetic objects, that rapidly clump together and instantly fall apart again, one day perform delicate procedures inside the human body? A new study from researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in...
- If users chose the most efficient model each time they performed a task with AI, researchers calculate it would slash energy consumption by more than a quarter
- The rush to grow more biofuels continues, despite the fact they increase CO2 emissions rather than lower them, raise food prices and devastate nature. It has to stop, says Michael Le Page
- Researchers have invented a new super agile robot that can cleverly change shape thanks to amorphous characteristics akin to the popular Marvel anti-hero Venom.
- The evidence to support phone bans in schools has been inconclusive, and now it seems that the move could harm some students' mental health in a particular way
- Microrobots, small robotic systems that are less than 1 centimeter (cm) in size, could tackle some real-world tasks that cannot be completed by bigger robots. For instance, they could be used to monitor confined spaces and remote natural...
- Mathematicians thought that they understood how rotation works, but now a new proof has revealed a surprising twist that makes it possible to reset even a complex sequence of motion
- mRNA vaccines are quick and easy to make, while virus-like nanoparticles produce a stronger immune response - now the two approaches are being combined to give us the best of both worlds
- Lead poisoning isn't just a modern phenomenon: fossil teeth show signs that it affected ancient hominids, and Homo sapiens may have coped better than our close relatives
- Researchers have created a class of robots made from thin sheets of material that can snap into hundreds of stable shapes, allowing them to execute a wide variety of actions despite the fact that they have no motor and are made of a...
- Researchers have developed a soft robotic skin that enables vine robots that are just a few millimeters wide to navigate convoluted paths and fragile environments. To accomplish this, the researchers integrated a very thin layer of...
- Our experiments have revealed that we're getting it wrong when it comes to crime and punishment. This is undermining society, say Raihan Alam and Tage Rai
- The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week
- With enthralling visuals and intense performances, this version of Mary Shelley's sci-fi tale reminds us to ask not only if we can create life, but if we can live with our creations, says Davide Abbatescianni
- The British government isn't the only one looking to introduce digital ID cards. There is so much to worry about here, not least the threat of hacks, says Annalee Newitz
- Feedback isn't entirely convinced by a new piece of research that claims by 2339 "there will be no humans", even though the authors used three methods to make their calculation
- A 230-million-year-old fossil found in Argentina shows that the evolution of sauropod dinosaurs’ long necks began earlier than previously thought
- In 1992, three physicists began an argument about how many numbers we need to fully describe the universe. Their surprisingly long-running quarrel takes us to the heart of what’s truly real
- The global average concentration of CO2 surged by 3.5 parts per million to reach 423.9 ppm last year, fuelling worries that the planet’s ability to soak up excess carbon is weakening
- Economists, bankers and even the boss of OpenAI are warning of a rapidly inflating AI bubble. If and when it bursts, what will happen to the technological breakthroughs of the past few years?
- From sorting objects in a warehouse to navigating furniture while vacuuming, robots today use sensors, software control systems, and moving parts to perform tasks. The harder the task or more complex the environment, the more cumbersome...
- Adapted from Dancing With Roomba , written by Joe Jones, who was iRobot’s first full-time employee and the original designer of the Roomba robot vacuum. After developing a prototype robot that was effective at cleaning both hard floors...
- Introducing X1: The world's first multirobot system that integrates a humanoid robot with a transforming drone that can launch off the humanoid's back, and later, drive away.
- As ancient humans left Africa, they encountered many harsh environments including the Sahara and the high Arctic, but one of the last places they inhabited was Britain, likely due to the relentless cold and damp climate
- Keith Thomas, a man in his 40s with no sensation or movement in his hands, is able to feel and move objects by controlling another person's hand via a brain implant. The technique might one day even allow us to experience another...
- The equatorial regions of Mars are home to unexpectedly enormous layers of ice, and they may have been put there by dramatic volcanic eruptions billions of years ago
- A whole library’s worth of papyri owned by Julius Caesar’s father-in-law were turned to charcoal by the eruption of Vesuvius. Nearly 2000 years later, we can at last read these lost treasures
- Progesterone, oestrogen and testosterone can be detected in skeletons over 1000 years old, offering a way to identify individuals who died while pregnant or soon after giving birth
- UMass Amherst engineers have built an artificial neuron powered by bacterial protein nanowires that functions like a real one, but at extremely low voltage. This allows for seamless communication with biological cells and drastically...
- Babies born too soon seem to have stronger connections in one of the major brain areas that supports language processing if they regularly heard their mother read them a story while in intensive care
- What you eat has a surprising impact on the pH of your body with wide ranging impacts on your health. But getting the balance right isn’t as simple as eating fewer acidic foods
- Are you terse and informal when speaking to an AI chatbot? If so, you might be getting worse answers than if you used more formal language
- Vast amounts of valuable research data remain unused, trapped in labs or lost to time. Frontiers aims to change that with FAIR² Data Management, a groundbreaking AI-driven system that makes datasets reusable, verifiable, and citable. By...
- Stars often fall into black holes, and now it seems the opposite can also occur, producing an extra long-lasting explosion as the star is consumed from within
- Claims that one quantum computer is better than another rest on terms like quantum advantage or quantum supremacy, fault-tolerance or qubits with better coherence – what does it all mean? Karmela Padavic-Callaghan sifts through the noise
- Record-breaking ocean temperatures have caused widespread bleaching and death among warm-water corals, which could have far-reaching consequences
- A team at the University at Buffalo has made it possible to simulate complex quantum systems without needing a supercomputer. By expanding the truncated Wigner approximation, they’ve created an accessible, efficient way to model...
- The strong nuclear force may abruptly loosen its grip on the fundamental particles that make up matter at a special “critical point” – researchers are now getting a clearer picture of when that point is reached
- 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...
- Applying a daily serum that contains extracts of a tropical plant improved hair density and strand thickness in just 56 days
- A team of engineers at North Carolina State University has designed a polymer “Chinese lantern” that can rapidly snap into multiple stable 3D shapes—including a lantern, a spinning top, and more—by compression or twisting. By adding a...
- By tracing when variations in the human genome first appeared, researchers have found that advances in cognitive abilities may have led to our vulnerability to mental illness
- A beautifully preserved skeleton found on the UK’s Jurassic Coast has been identified as a new species of the marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs
- Redwing, a robotic submarine about the size of a surfboard, is embarking on a five-year journey that will follow the famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage around the world
- People with irritable bowel syndrome are often only given treatments like cognitive behavioural therapy after others have failed, but research suggests this approach is more effective than we thought
- The longevity of naked mole rats may partly be due to them having a variant of a key protein that boosts DNA repair – a discovery that could help extend our own lives
- Short pulses of light that impart rotation on a material's atoms can be used to switch a property called ferroaxiality, which could let us build very stable and efficient memory devices
- A woman's fertility declines with age, which is often attributed to a fall in egg number and quality, but the environment of the ovaries themselves may also be responsible
- Despite public promises by many fossil fuel firms that they are investing in the green transition, it turns out that they have made little contribution to the growth of renewable energy
- The skeleton of King Richard III, which was found beneath a car park more than a decade ago, has well-preserved teeth, allowing scientists to sequence his oral microbiome