EurekAlert!

2 weeks ago | eurekalert.org | Emily Caldwell

COLUMBUS, Ohio – If you’ve ever regretted ordering a spicy meal, take note: A new study identifying molecules that suppress the heat of chili peppers hints at the possibility of adapting these compounds into an “anti-spice” condiment for food that’s too fiery to eat.

2 weeks ago | eurekalert.org | Jennifer Chu

The ocean is teeming with life. But unless you get up close, much of the marine world can easily remain unseen. That’s because water itself can act as an effective cloak: Light that shines through the ocean can bend, scatter, and quickly fade as it travels through the dense medium of water and reflects off the persistent haze of ocean particles. This makes it extremely challenging to capture the true color of objects in the ocean without imaging them at close range.

2 weeks ago | eurekalert.org | David Chandler

Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere efficiently is often seen as a crucial need for combatting climate change, but systems for removing carbon dioxide suffer from a tradeoff. Chemical compounds that efficiently remove CO₂ from the air do not easily release it once captured, and compounds that release CO₂ efficiently are not very efficient at capturing it. Optimizing one part of the cycle tends to make the other part worse.

2 weeks ago | eurekalert.org

A team of researchers across San Diego County received a $1.5 million grant from the State of California to offer a better alternative to off the shelf chatbots. The team will deploy, assess and improve an innovative AI tutor system that originated at the University of California San Diego.

3 weeks ago | eurekalert.org

A team of researchers at the University of California San Diego developed an AI tutor designed to give students an alternative to off-the-shelf AI tools, so that students not only get help but actually learn course-relevant information at the same time. The hope is that students will find this experience more fulfilling than simply relying on large language models like Google Copilot or ChatGPT.