Science & Technology
Kids who feel their parents are less reliable take fewer risks vital to learning and growth
The researchers studied decisions that more than 150 children ages 10 to 13 made while playing games that offered opportunities to risk a little and explore for potential gains.
Discrimination during pregnancy can affect infant’s brain circuitry
Experiences of discrimination and acculturation are known to have a detrimental effect on a person’s health. For pregnant women, these painful experiences can also affect the brain circuitry of their children, a new study finds. These effects, the rese…
Stronger thigh muscles may prevent knee replacement surgery
Stronger quadriceps muscles, relative to the hamstrings, may lower the risk of total knee replacement, according to new research. Researchers said the findings could inform strength-training programs for people with advanced arthritis in the knee.
Defending your voice against deepfakes
Computer scientists have developed AntiFake, a tool to protect voice recordings from unauthorized speech synthesis.
New framework for using AI in health care considers medical knowledge, practices, procedures, values
Health care organizations are looking to artificial intelligence (AI) tools to improve patient care, but their translation into clinical settings has been inconsistent, in part because evaluating AI in health care remains challenging. In a new articl…
Spike in premature births caused by COVID, halted by vaccines, study finds
COVID-19 caused an alarming surge in premature births, but vaccines were key to returning the early birth rate to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new analysis of California birth records.
Why does puberty trigger us to stop growing?
Research on fruit flies has implications for this poorly understood process in humans.
Researchers find neurons work as a team to process social interactions
Researchers have discovered that a part of the brain associated with working memory and multisensory integration may also play an important role in how the brain processes social cues. Previous research has shown that neurons in the ventrolateral prefr…
Child care centers aren’t a likely source of COVID-19 spread, study says
Parents who send their children to child care can breathe a little easier. New research shows that children in daycare were not significant spreaders of COVID-19.
Giant sea salt aerosols play major role in Hawai’i’s coastal clouds, rain
A new study from atmospheric scientists revealed that the coastline can produce up to five times the concentration of giant sea salt aerosols compared to the open ocean and that coastal clouds may contain more of these particles than clouds over the op…
Recycled phosphorus fertilizer reduces nutrient leaching, maintains yield
A promising new form of ammonium phosphate fertilizer has been field-tested. The fertilizer, struvite, offers a triple win for sustainability and crop production, as it recycles nutrients from wastewater streams, reduces leaching of phosphorus and nitr…
Measuring long-term heart stress dynamics with smartwatch data
Biomedical engineers have developed a method using data from wearable devices such as smartwatches to digitally mimic an entire week’s worth of an individual’s heartbeats. The new ‘digital twins’ computational framework captures personalized arterial f…