Science & Technology

Sometimes it seems like an AI is helping, but the benefit is actually a placebo effect — people performing better simply because they expect to be doing so — according to new research. The study also shows how difficult it is to shake people’s trust …

Would you trust a robot to look after your cat? New research suggests it takes more than a carefully designed robot to care for your cat, the environment in which they operate is also vital, as well as human interaction.

The Giant Hummingbird of western South America is not one species but two, according to an international group of researchers. The northern population stays in the high Andes year-round while the southern population migrates from sea level up to 14,000…

A research team has demonstrated that a simple stack of thermoelectric and magnetic material layers can exhibit a substantially larger transverse thermoelectric effect — energy conversion between electric and heat currents that flow orthogonally to ea…

Today’s rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is 10 times faster than at any other point in the past 50,000 years, researchers have found through a detailed chemical analysis of ancient Antarctic ice.

Researchers have developed a protein-based gel that breaks down alcohol in the gastrointestinal tract without harming the body. In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol.

Physicists and computer scientists have recently expanded the modern theory of the thermodynamics of computation. By combining approaches from statistical physics and computer science, the researchers introduce mathematical equations that reveal the mi…

Suddenly they appear and — like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus — can trigger major epidemics: Viruses that nobody had on their radar. They are not really new, but they have changed genetically. In particular, the exchange of genetic material between diff…

The researchers found that birds were more evolutionarily similar on smaller, more isolated islands than on larger, less remote places. The team had expected to find that forested areas had more numerous and more varied species of birds compared to far…

People with the heart condition obstructive cardiomyopathy were able to use significantly more oxygen while exercising after taking the investigational drug aficamten, according to a new study.

Scientists have established a system to generate clonal sex cells in tomato plants and used them to design the genomes of offspring. The fertilization of a clonal egg from one parent by a clonal sperm from another parent led to plants containing the co…

Nature gave ticks, mosquitoes and leaches a quick-acting way to keep blood from clotting while they extract their meal from a host. Now the key to that method has been harnessed by a team of researchers as a potential anti-clotting agent that could be …

Researchers have made a surprising new discovery in the structure of the centromere, a structure that is involved in ensuring that chromosomes are segregated properly when a cell divides. Mistakes in chromosome segregation can lead to cell death and ca…

A new article highlights how artificial intelligence stands on the threshold of making monumental contributions to the field of sleep medicine. Through a strategic analysis, researchers examined advancements in AI within sleep medicine and spotlighted …

Researchers say they have uncovered insights as to why lupus symptoms and severity present differently in individuals with the autoimmune condition, which affects up to 1.5 million Americans. The team says this is a crucial step forward in understandin…

Analysis of 1,392 patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) found that some patients for whom life support was withdrawn may have survived and recovered some level of independence a few months after injury. Families are often asked to make decision…

Actually, sometimes consumers don’t want to talk to a real person when they’re shopping online, a new study suggests. In fact, what they really want is a chatbot that makes it clear that it is not human at all. In a new study, researchers found that pe…

A computer scientist has shown the power of language to predict harm — this time to the nation’s health.

Collaborative efforts decode the mechanism behind stabilizing cathode doping in electric vehicle batteries.

The human brain filters through a flood of experiences to create specific memories. Why do some of the experiences in this deluge of sensory information become ‘memorable,’ while most are discarded by the brain? A computational model and behavioral stu…