Elie Dolgin

3 days ago | sciencenews.org | Elie Dolgin

Tornado-generating beaks and whirlpool-stirring feet help flamingos transform shallow waters into shrimp-swirling death zones — corralling agile prey with the flair of a Las Vegas stage act and the efficiency of a Dyson vacuum. That’s the takeaway from a study published May 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that combined high-speed video, fluid dynamics experiments and 3-D-printed flamingo parts to reveal the mechanics behind the birds’ underwater feeding frenzies.

3 days ago | spectrum.ieee.org | Elie Dolgin

The vagus nerve is a key communication line between the brain and organs like the heart and lungs—and stimulating it can ease conditions including epilepsy and arthritis. But this electrical therapy often hits the wrong neural fibers, causing side effects like coughing or voice changes. A new study finds that researchers can steer stimulation toward specific fibers and away from others by overlapping high-frequency currents inside the nerve.

3 days ago | flipboard.com | Elie Dolgin

3 hours agoReview | 5 AI bots took our tough reading test. One was smartest — and it wasn’t ChatGPT. We challenged AI helpers to decode legal contracts, simplify medical research, speed-read a novel and make sense of Trump speeches. Some of the AI analysis was impressive — and some was downright dumb.

1 week ago | spectrum.ieee.org | Elie Dolgin

Feeling stressed? Overworked? A new forehead-mounted electronic tattoo may soon offer real-time insights into your mental state. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a wireless, ultra-thin, wearable device that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo and monitors brain signals and eye movements to gauge mental strain.

2 weeks ago | spectrum.ieee.org | Elie Dolgin

Forget cloud storage. Scientists can now save data in plastic—storing digital information in short-chain polymers, and reading it back with electricity. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin encoded an 11-character password in tiny custom-built plastics called oligourethanes. While these materials have long been explored as chemical barcodes for data storage, decoding their molecular messages has typically required bulky, expensive instruments.