- Covid-19 emerged in 2019, but some questions are still unanswered as to its origins
- Users of the healthcare app Alan whose queries were answered by a medical AI reported high satisfaction levels, but one exchange included "potentially dangerous inaccuracies"
- Researchers have created the smallest walking robot yet. Its mission: to be tiny enough to interact with waves of visible light and still move independently, so that it can maneuver to specific locations -- in a tissue sample, for...
- Cornell researchers in physics and engineering have created the smallest walking robot yet. Its mission: to be tiny enough to interact with waves of visible light and still move independently, so that it can maneuver to specific...
- Plate tectonics seems to be crucial for life on Earth, but we’ve never confirmed that it happens on other worlds - that may be about to change
- EEG recordings used in neurology could be made simpler by replacing the usual electrodes, wires and gels with a tattoo printed onto the scalp
- A QUT research team has taken inspiration from the brains of insects and animals for more energy-efficient robotic navigation.
- The last two years have seen unprecedented falls in the levels of sea ice around Antarctica, which serves as a protective wall for the continent's huge ice sheets. Researchers are now racing to understand the global impact of what could...
- Our organs don't seem to age at the same rate, which could mean healthy habits are particularly important at certain times of our lives
- Comparing historical heat extremes with climate simulations has revealed that in parts of the world the models are underestimating how extreme heatwaves are getting
- Robotic equipment can implant electrodes into cockroaches and connect them to an electronic backpack, making it feasible to mass-produce biorobots for search missions
- One of the most promising approaches to teaching robots how to complete manual tasks such as cleaning dishes or preparing food is known as imitation learning. End-to-end imitation learning typically entails training a deep learning...
- The Acidalia Planitia region of the Red Planet might have all the requirements for methane-burping bacteria to exist beneath the surface
- Tiny robots designed to carry out environmental or industrial tasks could be powered by tricks involving surface tension
- Footprints preserved on the shore of Lake Turkana in Kenya seem to be from two ancient human species, showing they lived there at the same time about 1.5 million years ago
- The content you see on social media is often determined by an algorithm - and it turns out that these algorithms can rapidly change your views
- Determining when someone died based on their decomposing body is a subjective task, but artificial intelligence could bring some objectivity to the process
- Ruzena Bajcsy is one of the founders of the modern field of robotics. With an education in electrical engineering in Slovakia, followed by a Ph.D. at Stanford, Bajcsy was the first woman to join the engineering faculty at the University...
- Feeling scared seems to reduce elevated levels of inflammation, which may help explain why some people enjoy a haunted attraction
- Using 'DNA origami' scientists have built innovative nanostructures that pave the way for advanced robotics that can deliver targeted drugs -- plus they made a tiny map of Australia and mini dinosaurs.
- A tiny, four-fingered 'hand' folded from a single piece of DNA can pick up the virus that causes COVID-19 for highly sensitive rapid detection and can even block viral particles from entering cells to infect them, researchers report....
- Three people in North America without known animal exposures have tested positive for the bird flu virus H5N1, and samples from two of them suggest the virus is adapting to humans
- Rising carbon dioxide levels are driving an increase in the ocean’s acidity – and this change is sinking deeper as emissions increase, putting even more marine organisms at risk
- Near Space Labs’s autonomous balloon fleet is already taking high-resolution images of the ground, and its range will expand to the entire continental US early next year
- The climate crisis is shriveling lush oases in the desert, threatening precious ecosystems and ways of life
- Murder in space, a sexbot, a dystopian vision of the future: our science fiction columnist Emily H. Wilson picks her top five reads of 2024
- John "Bud" Benson Wilbur isn't often remembered today, but his ideas about what the distant-future world of 1977 would look like are inspirational, says Annalee Newitz
- As two "feral and not trained" emus go on the lam in South Carolina, Feedback suggests that authorities read up on the war fought against wild emus by the Australians in 1932. They lost – but there may be some tips
- The long history of robotics should teach us to be more sceptical when it comes to autonomous humanoid robots, says Nicole Kobie
- From a scientific take on screen time to nuclear war, a look at why we age to the future of our oceans, our writers pick their favourite popular science books of the year
- Recent developments in AI and neurological research may prompt concern. However, placing outright bans on such research is unlikely to be the best solution - and may hold us back
- Want to protect your young plants from the ravages of slugs and snails? A classic gardening tip is to use crushed eggshells to discourage them. Shame it doesn't work, says James Wong
- Russia’s new ballistic missile flies on a high arc out of Earth’s atmosphere and releases multiple high-speed projectiles, making it challenging but not impossible to intercept
- An analysis of hundreds of bromalites – fossilised faeces and vomit – shows how changes in diet enabled dinosaurs to take over the world in the early Jurassic
- Physicists have long wondered why particles can only have an electric charge of +1, -2 or any whole number. Now we increasingly suspect that, actually, that's not true after all
- Researchers have used lasers to encode information in diamonds, demonstrating record-breaking data density in an ultra-stable and long-lasting system
- Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, are omnipresent and have grown in popularity due to their wide potential use in many civilian sectors. Equipped with sophisticated sensors and communication devices, drones can...
- A new article examines the convergence of physics, chemistry, and AI, highlighted by recent Nobel Prizes. It traces the historical development of neural networks, emphasizing the role of interdisciplinary research in advancing AI. The...
- Food in the US has a bad rap thanks to outbreaks caused by bacteria, plus processing, additives and food dyes, but the food supply is actually much less risky than people think
- Today's huge AI models are composed of several billion numbers known as weights and changing just one of them can destroy their ability to function, leading to “gibberish” output
- About 40 years ago, researchers noticed a population of orcas had begun swimming around with dead fish on their heads, and now the craze is back
- To assist humans with household chores and other everyday manual tasks, robots should be able to effectively manipulate objects that vary in composition, shape and size. The manipulation skills of robots have improved significantly over...
- Swapping classrooms for the woods doesn't appear to improve most children's mental health, but they may still enjoy it
- Reperfusion technologies that can reanimate human brains are raising the possibility that death could be a reversible condition, even hours after a cardiac arrest
- Space-time may not be continuous but instead made up of many discrete bits – and we may be able to see their effects near the edges of unusually bright black holes
- With lithium in short supply, sodium-ion batteries might offer cheap energy storage with less environmental impact
- Countries are meeting in South Korea this week to hash out the final details of a global treaty aimed at eliminating plastic pollution — here's what experts say it needs to include
- Amazon has introduced a handful of robots in its warehouses that the e-commerce giant says will improve efficiency and reduce employee injuries.
- Most people born before 1968 have antibodies against flu viruses similar to the H5N1 strain circulating today, which might lower their risk of severe illness
- The genome has space for only a small fraction of the information needed to control complex behaviors. So then how, for example, does a newborn sea turtle instinctually know to follow the moonlight? Neuroscientists have devised a...