Phys.org

Research initiated as part of a bachelor

Online crowdfunding platforms have enabled teachers in great need of classroom supplies to reach potential donors far beyond their school communities. Yet access to more donors does not automatically eliminate the disparities that shape which projects receive funding.

Scientists have discovered several 518-million-year-old fossils that reshape understanding of the origins of the animal group containing starfish. The fossils show that these animals ate using tentacles rather than passively using their gills, as previously thought.

Ecologists are collecting more data than ever before, but many still lack confidence in the quantitative skills needed to make sense of it, according to a new paper.

Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland have uncovered two complementary mechanisms that govern coherence in miniaturized lasers composed of metallic nanoparticle arrays incorporated into an optical gain material, also known as plasmonic lattice lasers.

Across its basins and thousands of meters down, the Mediterranean Sea is getting warmer and saltier. Now, a new study finds it is also doing so at an increasingly rapid pace. The speedup is largest in the central and eastern Mediterranean and strongest of all in the Adriatic, where it reaches all the way to the sea floor.

Nearly nine in 10 (86%) UK-licensed online gambling websites are operating in breach of the General Data Protection Regulation, according to new research from the Gambling Research, Education and Treatment (GREAT) Center at Swansea University published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior Reports.

The mammalian gut microbiome teems with a delicate balance of bacteria and the viruses that keep them in check, called bacteriophages, or phages. Each bacterial species usually has its own set of phage partners.

As artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots become more popular and more humanlike in the way they communicate, users are increasingly turning to them as trusted sources of information on topics ranging from personal finance to health. That may be problematic, according to Penn State researchers, who found in a recent study that the more conversational an AI chatbot is, the more likely users are to trust it

Global consumption of fertilizer has doubled since 1980, but some regions that have historically overused fertilizer, including China and parts of Europe, have taken steps to reduce use. Those are some of the findings of a new global dataset from the University of Minnesota

AI-generated texts are increasingly perceived as human, but people can still recognize human writing as such. However, this distinction becomes much more difficult once AI is explicitly instructed to come across as human. This is shown by research involving, among others, Tilburg University, published in the journal Nature Communications. Several experiments involving more than 3,000 participants examined how human and empathetic people perceive relationship advice generated by AI and humans.

Vaping isn

About 66 million years ago, a dinosaur

Humans are difficult to simulate. We are quick, complex thinkers, and our exact actions aren

Apple

When a phone is lost or stolen, reporting it to a cellular carrier is supposed to prevent unauthorized use. Michigan State University researchers have found that weaknesses in the reporting system itself could potentially be exploited to block legitimate devices from cellular networks.

Apple on Wednesday unveiled its latest generation of iPhones, including a widely anticipated foldable version called Duo.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming part of everyday life in the U.S., but Americans are far less comfortable when it shifts from something they use to something that makes decisions about them, according to a new survey led by Rutgers researchers.

Apple is expected to unveil a slew of new and updated devices, including a long-rumored foldable iPhone, when it holds its annual late-summer hardware event Wednesday in Cupertino, California.

A working prototype that can see, remember and interact with the world like the human brain could one day underpin smart bionic eyes while using far less energy than today

Researchers in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and the Centre for Advanced Semiconductors and Integrated Circuits (CASIC) at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have made a breakthrough in brain-inspired computing. In collaboration with Hewlett Packard Labs, the team has developed a memristor chip that overcomes a long-standing limit on the capacity of

A joint research team led by Professors Sangyoon Han and Jaesok Yu of the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering at DGIST has developed the world

From smart vacuum cleaners and doorbell cameras to complex medical equipment in hospitals, many devices around us are connected to the internet. But are we adequately protected against the risks this poses? Legal scholar Mattis van

A research group comprising Associate Professor Yoshihiro Nakata and Taisei Mogi from the Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering at The University of Electro-Communications (UEC), Japan, and Mari Saito of Sony Corporation has developed MOFU (MOrphing Fluffy Unit), a mobile robot capable of whole-body expansion and contraction. The group investigated how whole-body expansion-contraction affects perceived animacy, or the extent to which the robot is perceived as lifelike. In addition to ex

Research published in the International Journal of Sensor Networks has demonstrated a visible-light communication system that uses the inherent randomness of quantum noise to make transmitted data harder for hackers to intercept.

Every time you make a phone call, stream a video or connect to Wi-Fi, your device is sending and receiving invisible signals through the air. So are your baby monitor, garage door opener, GPS, weather-monitoring satellites and the radars keeping planes safely apart. All of these rely on the same invisible resource: the radio spectrum.

Wildfires ravaging the Indonesian part of Borneo are choking communities as far away as Malaysia with putrid haze, testing the resources and resolve of those who must endure it.

Researchers at the University of Southampton have come up with a way to help people spot AI-generated faces. They

Smartwatches can provide useful health information, but many of those numbers are algorithmic estimates rather than direct measurements of the body, and some outputs are more accurate than others, a new University of Michigan study found.

The hidden world of quantum mechanics exists at scales many orders of magnitude smaller than living organisms, yet scientists have long theorized that quantum effects play an important role in biology. Birds

Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime created when pairs of black holes spiral into each other and eventually merge. But if this ripple has been warped by another massive object on its way to Earth, a new analysis suggests that these black holes might appear far larger than they really are.

A rare trio of hurricanes were churning through the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, which scientists attributed to waters warmed by a historically strong El Ni

Nvidia chief Jensen Huang urged G20 ministers on Wednesday to build more data centers to support the artificial intelligence revolution and warned that leaders who talk up the technology

Claims of

While artificial intelligence (AI) is receiving increased attention for its potential to improve productivity and performance, results can vary widely across different tasks, industries and individuals. Developers can now shape AI personalities to customize AI agents for individual users, but most previous research into the benefits of AI has used experiments providing all participants with identical AI tools. A key question remained: Could variations in performance be related to tailoring AI ag

Plastic waste is one of the world

Consumer sentiment in Florida continued its downward trend in August, declining for the sixth consecutive month to 67.4, down 1.9 points from a revised July reading of 69.3. National consumer sentiment also decreased.

For three years before the Black Summer megafires of 2019