Komodo dragon teeth get their strength from an iron coat
Studying the reptile’s ironclad teeth in more detail could help solve a dinosaur dental mystery.
TECH DEIYO
Science and Technolgy blog
AI and ML enter motorsports: How GM is using them to win more races
Enlarge / The Cadillac V-Series.R is one of General Motors’ factory-backed racing programs. (credit: James Moy Photography/Getty Images) It is hard to escape the feeling that a few too many businesses are jumping on the AI hype train because it’s…
Union game performers strike over AI voice and motion-capture training
Enlarge / One day, using pixellated fonts and images to represent that something is a video game will not be a trope. Today is not that day. SAG-AFTRA has called for a strike of all its members working in video…
These bacteria trigger a sex change in wasps — scientists finally know how
Scientists have uncovered how bacteria borrowed a gene from an insect to create female-only parasitic wasp populations, eliminating the need for males.
We apply human biases to illusory faces in inanimate objects
Have you ever seen a face in a cloud or a power outlet? This common phenomenon, known as face pareidolia, is when we perceive faces in inanimate objects. Recent research published in the journal Emotion reveals that our brains process…
ISPs seeking government handouts try to avoid offering low-cost broadband
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Yuichiro Chino) Internet service providers are eager to get money from a $42.45 billion government fund, but are trying to convince the Biden administration to drop demands that Internet service providers offer broadband service for…
97% of CrowdStrike systems are back online; Microsoft suggests Windows changes
Enlarge / A bad update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon security software crashed millions of Windows PCs last week. (credit: CrowdStrike) CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said Thursday that 97 percent of all Windows systems running its Falcon sensor software were back online,…
Astronomers find first emission spectra in brightest GRB of all time
Enlarge / A jet of particles moving at nearly light-speed emerges from a massive star in this artist’s concept of the BOAT. (credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab) Scientists have been all aflutter since several space-based detectors…
X is training Grok AI on your data—here’s how to stop it
Enlarge / An AI-generated image released by xAI during the open-weights launch of Grok-1. (credit: xAI) Elon Musk-led social media platform X is training Grok, its AI chatbot, on users’ data, and that’s opt-out, not opt-in. If you’re an X…
Will Olympic athletes ever stop breaking records?
Physically, athletes might reach a point where they can no longer beat sports records — however, innovative techniques and sportswear breakthroughs could potentially help athletes perform better in the future.
New research suggests estrogen and progesterone could play role in opioid addiction and relapse
As opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. rose dramatically from 2014 to today, both Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey, cemented reputations as hotspots of the crisis. In Philadelphia, over 1,170 people died of opioid overdoses in 2022, the last…
At the Olympics, AI is watching you
Enlarge / Police observe the Eiffel Tower from Trocadero ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 22, 2024. (credit: Hector Vivas/Getty Images) On the eve of the Olympics opening ceremony, Paris is a city swamped in security. Forty…
Barbie movie “may have spurred interest in gynecology,” study finds
Enlarge / A digital advertisement board displaying a Barbie movie poster is seen in New York on July 24, 2023. (credit: Getty | Selcuk Acar) This post contains spoilers—for the movie and women’s health care. There’s nothing like stirrups and…
Astronauts find their tastes dulled, and a VR ISS hints at why
Enlarge / The environment you’re eating in can influence what you taste, and space is no exception. (credit: NASA) Astronauts on the ISS tend to favor spicy foods and top other foods with things like tabasco or shrimp cocktail sauce…
Spectacularly rare fossils of snakes that died huddled together 38 million years ago unearthed in Wyoming
Three fossilized snakes that died huddled together 38 million years ago are now called the “winter serpents.”
‘Brain-eating’ amoebas kill nearly 100% of victims. Could new treatments change that?
Doctors are pulling out new techniques and drugs in an effort to cure devastating brain infections.
This is what it’s like to treat a ‘brain-eating’ amoeba infection
A now-retired doctor in Texas describes his experience treating a child with a brain-eating amoeba infection.
Can you get a brain-eating amoeba from tap water?
In the U.S., tap water is generally safe and not a likely source of brain-eating-amoeba infections, experts told Live Science.
7 scary diseases you can get from the water
Many deadly infections are transmitted via water, including cholera, typhoid and brain-eating amoebas.
‘Brain-eating’ infections could become more common, scientists warn
Researchers think climate change will soon cause an increase in the incidence of Naegleria fowleri infections, a “brain-eating” disease.
‘Wall of flames’ from out-of-control Canadian wildfire devastates town of Jasper and national park
Firefighters are battling a ‘monster’ wildfire in the evacuated town of Jasper and Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada.
College students who exercise and eat healthy tend to have less anxiety
A recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology has found that physical activity, combined with healthy lifestyle habits and proper dietary nutrition, is associated with reduced anxiety levels in college students. Anxiety disorders are a common mental health issue among…
A new algae-based menstrual pad could stop leaks
By turning period blood into a gel, the pad’s alginate powder filler reduces leakage.
Panathenaic prize amphora: A pot brimming with olive oil awarded at the ancient Greek Olympics
Instead of a gold medal, victors at the ancient Greek Panathenaic Games received terra-cotta pots filled with Athenian olive oil from sacred trees.
Dating dynamics: Men more likely to admit poor hygiene, women confess moral lapses
When it comes to dating, everyone wants to put their best foot forward. But what if you had to disclose something less flattering? In a study published in Telematics and Informatics, researchers recently investigated this tricky question, exploring how people…
Moonquakes are much more common than thought, Apollo data suggest
The discovery of 22,000 previously unseen moonquakes, plus a new idea of what causes them, could help us better prepare for trips there.
47,000 years of Aboriginal history destroyed in mining blast in Australia
Humans used the now-destroyed rockshelter throughout the last ice age until just a few decades ago.
Lake Kivu: The ticking time bomb that could one day explode and unleash a massive, deadly gas cloud
Lake Kivu, one of the African Great Lakes, sits along a tectonic plate boundary called the East African Rift, which is dotted with hot springs that feed carbon dioxide and methane into the water.
Online trolls enjoy trolling, but not being trolled
A recent study has explored the intriguing relationship between dark humor, online trolling, and certain dark personality traits. The findings reveal that individuals who enjoy dark humor often possess traits such as sadism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Furthermore, these traits are…
Rocket Report: ABL loses its second booster; Falcon 9 cleared for return to flight
Enlarge / NASA’s SLS rocket core stage for Artemis II is moved to the VAB. (credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky) Welcome to Edition 7.04 of the Rocket Report! Probably the most striking news this week came from ABL, which said in a…
Sending ‘touch’ over the internet could soon be as easy as sending a video with new haptic file format
A new standard for codecs used for haptics could revolutionize tele-health and online gaming.
Which Olympic sport burns the most calories?
Olympic-level sporting takes a lot of energy. But which event is the most energetically costly?
An intriguing connection between finger ratios and narcissism has been discovered
New research suggests that prenatal exposure to different levels of testosterone and estrogen, as estimated through 2D:4D finger length ratios, is linked to narcissistic traits in adulthood. The study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, highlights a potential…
‘Upwelling’ deep in the mantle triggered magnitude 6.8 Morocco earthquake
Researchers found the 2023 Morocco earthquake was triggered by movement miles below Earth’s surface.
NASA’s Perseverance rover finds its first possible hint of ancient life on Mars
The NASA Mars rover examined a rock containing organic compounds and “leopard spots” that, on Earth, are associated with microbial life.
Rocket delivered to launch site for first human flight to the Moon since 1972
Enlarge (credit: NASA/Isaac Watson) The central piece of NASA’s second Space Launch System rocket arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week. Agency officials intend to start stacking the towering launcher in the next couple of months for a…
Google claims math breakthrough with proof-solving AI models
Enlarge / An illustration provided by Google. (credit: Google) On Thursday, Google DeepMind announced that AI systems called AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 reportedly solved four out of six problems from this year’s International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), achieving a score equivalent…
Anxiety and depression raise the risk of dangerous blood clots, study finds
Recent research has drawn a link between anxiety, depression and an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis.
Sharing false political information is associated with heightened schizotypy
A recent study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE explores how personality traits influence the sharing of false political information on social media. The research reveals that positive schizotypy — a set of traits including paranoia, suspicion, and disrupted…
OpenAI hits Google where it hurts with new SearchGPT prototype
Enlarge (credit: Benj Edwards / OpenAI) Arguably, few companies have unintentionally contributed more to the increase of AI-generated noise online than OpenAI. Despite its best intentions—and against its terms of service—its AI language models are often used to compose spam,…
Scientists unlock more secrets of Rembrandt’s pigments in The Night Watch
Enlarge / Rembrandt’s The Night Watch underwent many chemical and mechanical alterations over the last 400 years. (credit: Public domain) Since 2019, researchers have been analyzing the chemical composition of the materials used to create Rembrandt’s masterpiece, The Night Watch, as…
US solar production soars by 25 percent in just one year
Enlarge (credit: Vithun Khamsong) With the plunging price of photovoltaics, the construction of solar plants has boomed in the US. Last year, for example, the US’s Energy Information Agency expected that over half of the new generating capacity would be…
Sonos CEO apologizes for botched app redesign, promises month-by-month updates
Enlarge / I don’t know how Sonos’ app might have developed during the groovy era their marketing images aim to summon, but it feels like it might not have wanted to rush head-long into disappointing users quite so quickly. (credit:…
Lego’s newest retro art piece is a 1,215-piece Super Mario World homage
The Lego Mario & Yoshi set is an homage to 1990’s Super Mario World. [credit: The Lego Group ] Nintendo and Lego are at it again—they’re announcing another collaboration today as a follow-up to the interactive Mario sets, the replica…
Google overhauls Chrome’s Safe Browsing protection to scan password-protected files
(credit: Chrome) Google is redesigning Chrome malware detections to include password-protected executable files that users can upload for deep scanning, a change the browser maker says will allow it to detect more malicious threats. Google has long allowed users to…
How culture shapes hand gestures: Comparing Italian and Swedish storytelling
When talking, we commonly use our hands to stress, re-enact, or signal breaks or new information. But is it true that some cultures gesture more than others? A team of researchers has set out to learn if the stereotype that…
No, NASA hasn’t found life on Mars yet, but the latest discovery is intriguing
Enlarge / NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered “leopard spots” on a reddish rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” in Mars’ Jezero Crater in July 2024. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) NASA’s Perseverance rover has found a very intriguing rock on the surface of Mars. An arrowhead-shaped…
There’s a 2nd El Niño — and scientists just figured out how it works
A new simulation shows that an El Niño-like climate pattern begins near New Zealand and Australia, and can trigger temperature changes across the Southern Hemisphere.
Ars Live recap: Pondering the complexities of time travel in the movies
Produced by Michael Toriello and Billy Keenly. During our second Ars Live event earlier this month, screenwriter/producer Ed Solomon (Bill & Ted franchise) joined physicists Sean Carroll (Johns Hopkins University) and Jim Kakalios (University of Minnesota) and Ars Senior Reporter…
The 2024 Volkswagen ID.4 Pro gets a new rear motor, way more efficiency
Enlarge / The VW ID.4 has a new drive motor and infotainment system for model-year 2024. It’s not the sportiest EV you can buy, but it remains one of our favorites to drive. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin) Volkswagen didn’t wait the…
