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1 day ago | 
phys.org | Bob Yirka |Lisa Lock |Robert Egan
A team of paleontologists affiliated with several institutions in Argentina, working with a colleague from the U.K., has discovered evidence of scales from lepidopterans in dung samples recovered from a dig site in Talampaya National Park, Argentina. In their paper published in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences, the group describes how they found the scales in the dung samples and what the find means for scientists who study butterflies and moths.
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2 days ago | 
phys.org | Bob Yirka |Lisa Lock |Robert Egan
A team from Fudan University, the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Shaoxin Laboratory, all in China, has developed a retinal prosthesis woven from metal nanowires that partially restored vision in blind mice.
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1 week ago | 
phys.org | Bob Yirka |Gaby Clark |Robert Egan
A small team of planetary scientists, astrophysicists and space flight researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and one in France has made the first direct detection of atmospheric sputtering on Mars.
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1 week ago | 
techxplore.com | Bob Yirka |Sadie Harley |Robert Egan
A small team of roboticists at Robotic Systems Lab, ETH Zurich, in Switzerland, has designed, built and tested a four-legged robot capable of playing badminton with human players. In their study, published in the journal Science Robotics, the group used a reinforcement learning-based controller to give the robot the ability to track, predict and respond to the movement of a shuttlecock in play, demonstrating the feasibility of using multi-legged robots in dynamic sports scenarios.
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1 week ago | 
phys.org | Bob Yirka |Gaby Clark |Robert Egan
A small team of paleontologists with members from Austria, Germany and Switzerland has found evidence suggesting that a herbivorous dinosaur from the Late Triassic may have used its large tail as a means to ward off predators. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the group describes how they studied the well-preserved tail of a Plateosaurus, including a comparison with modern monitor lizards and iguanas, and what they learned by doing so.
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1 week ago | 
phys.org | Bob Yirka |Gaby Clark |Robert Egan
A trio of biologists from Universidade de São Paulo, Red Ecoacústica Colombia and the University of Missouri System has found that researchers conduct only a fraction of studies of female frog calls compared to male frog calls. In their study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Erika Santana, Angela Mendoza-Henao and Johana Goyes Vallejos compiled research from multiple previous studies for their meta-study.
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1 week ago | 
phys.org | Bob Yirka |Lisa Lock |Robert Egan
A team of researchers at AI Google Quantum AI, led by Craig Gidney, has outlined advances in quantum computer algorithms and error correction methods that could allow such computers to crack Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) encryption keys with far fewer resources than previously thought. The development, the team notes, suggests encryption experts need to begin work toward developing next-generation encryption techniques. The paper is published on the arXiv preprint server.
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1 week ago | 
phys.org | Bob Yirka |Lisa Lock |Robert Egan
A team of ecologists and entomologists affiliated with several institutions in Brazil, working with a colleague from Mexico, has observed the first instance of galls providing protection against fire to gall-inducing Boheman weevil larvae. In their paper published in the journal Ecology, the group describes how they discovered weevil larvae alive in some of the galls on Solanum lycocarpum plants after a fire on a farm in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
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1 week ago | 
techxplore.com | Bob Yirka |Lisa Lock |Robert Egan
A group of AI researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel, has found that despite efforts by large language model (LLM) makers, most commonly available chatbots are still easily tricked into generating harmful and sometimes illegal information.
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2 weeks ago | 
techxplore.com | Bob Yirka |Gaby Clark |Robert Egan
Alex de Vries-Gao, a PhD candidate at VU Amsterdam Institute for Environmental Studies, has published an opinion piece about the results of a simple study he conducted involving the possible amount of electricity used by AI companies to generate answers to user queries. In his paper published in the journal Joule, he describes how he calculated past and current global electricity usage by AI data centers and how he made estimates regarding the future.
