Biology: Zoology Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General
Published

New computer vision tool wins prize for social impact      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A team of computer scientists working on two different problems -- how to quickly detect damaged buildings in crisis zones and how to accurately estimate the size of bird flocks -- recently announced an AI framework that can do both. The framework, called DISCount, blends the speed and massive data-crunching power of artificial intelligence with the reliability of human analysis to quickly deliver reliable estimates that can quickly pinpoint and count specific features from very large collections of images.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Star Trek's Holodeck recreated using ChatGPT and video game assets      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Star Trek's Holodeck is no longer just science fiction. Using AI, engineers have created a tool that can generate 3D environments, prompted by everyday language.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General Mathematics: Modeling
Published

A faster, better way to prevent an AI chatbot from giving toxic responses      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new technique can more effectively perform a safety check on an AI chatbot. Researchers enabled their model to prompt a chatbot to generate toxic responses, which are used to prevent the chatbot from giving hateful or harmful answers when deployed.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Engineers design soft and flexible 'skeletons' for muscle-powered robots      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Engineers designed modular, spring-like devices to maximize the work of live muscle fibers so they can be harnessed to power biohybrid robots.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General
Published

New privacy-preserving robotic cameras obscure images beyond human recognition      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In a bid to restore privacy, researchers have created a new approach to designing cameras that process and scramble visual information before it is digitized so that it becomes obscured to the point of anonymity.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Energy: Technology Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geology
Published

'Tug of war' tactic enhances chemical separations for critical materials      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Lanthanide elements are important for clean energy and other applications. To use them, industry must separate mixed lanthanide sources into individual elements using costly, time-consuming, and waste-generating procedures. An efficient new method can be tailored to select specific lanthanides. The technique combines two substances that do not mix and that prefer different types of lanthanides. The process would allow for smaller equipment, less use of chemicals, and less waste production.

Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: General
Published

New step in tectonic squeeze that turns seafloor into mountains      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers describe zircons from the Andes mountains of Patagonia. Although the zircons formed when tectonic plates were colliding, they have a chemical signature associated with when the plates were moving apart. The researchers think that the unexpected signature could be explained by the mechanics of underlying tectonic plates that hasn't yet been described in other models.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General Engineering: Robotics Research
Published

Revolutionary biomimetic olfactory chips to enable advanced gas sensing and odor detection      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A research team has addressed the long-standing challenge of creating artificial olfactory sensors with arrays of diverse high-performance gas sensors. Their newly developed biomimetic olfactory chips (BOC) are able to integrate nanotube sensor arrays on nanoporous substrates with up to 10,000 individually addressable gas sensors per chip, a configuration that is similar to how olfaction works for humans and other animals.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Robot, can you say 'cheese'?      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

What would you do if you walked up to a robot with a human-like head and it smiled at you first? You'd likely smile back and perhaps feel the two of you were genuinely interacting. But how does a robot know how to do this? Or a better question, how does it know to get you to smile back?

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General
Published

New software enables blind and low-vision users to create interactive, accessible charts      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Umwelt is a new a system that enables blind and low-vision users to author accessible, interactive charts representing data in three modalities: visualization, textual description, and sonification.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research
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Engineering household robots to have a little common sense      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Engineers aim to give robots a bit of common sense when faced with situations that push them off their trained path, so they can self-correct after missteps and carry on with their chores. The team's method connects robot motion data with the common sense knowledge of large language models, or LLMs.

Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Fossils
Published

New geological study: Scandinavia was born in Greenland      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The oldest Scandinavian bedrock was 'born' in Greenland, according to a new geological study. The study helps us understand the origin of continents and why Earth is the only planet in our solar system with life.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General
Published

AI can now detect COVID-19 in lung ultrasound images      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Artificial intelligence can spot COVID-19 in lung ultrasound images much like facial recognition software can spot a face in a crowd, new research shows. The findings boost AI-driven medical diagnostics and bring health care professionals closer to being able to quickly diagnose patients with COVID-19 and other pulmonary diseases with algorithms that comb through ultrasound images to identify signs of disease.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Nanotechnology Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Robotic metamaterial: An endless domino effect      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

If it walks like a particle, and talks like a particle... it may still not be a particle. A topological soliton is a special type of wave or dislocation which behaves like a particle: it can move around but cannot spread out and disappear like you would expect from, say, a ripple on the surface of a pond. Researchers now demonstrate the atypical behavior of topological solitons in a robotic metamaterial, something which in the future may be used to control how robots move, sense their surroundings and communicate.

Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

From the Mediterranean into the Atlantic: The Gibraltar arc is migrating to the west      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Oceans are subject to continuous change, mostly over extremely vast periods of time running into millions of years. Researchers have now used computer simulations to demonstrate that a subduction zone originating in the Western Mediterranean will propagate into the Atlantic under the Strait of Gibraltar. According to their model, this will create a new Atlantic subduction zone 50 million years into the future, which will then move down into the Earth's mantle. The new geodynamic model explains the evolution of the Gibraltar subduction zone and its likely development, which will contribute to the renewal of the Atlantic Ocean floor.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Organic Chemistry Energy: Alternative Fuels Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Harnessing hydrogen at life's origin      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new report uncovers how hydrogen gas, the energy of the future, provided energy in the past, at the origin of life 4 billion years ago. Hydrogen gas is clean fuel. It burns with oxygen in the air to provide energy with no CO2. Hydrogen is a key to sustainable energy for the future. Though humans are just now coming to realize the benefits of hydrogen gas (H2 in chemical shorthand), microbes have known that H2 is good fuel for as long as there has been life on Earth. Hydrogen is ancient energy.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Two artificial intelligences talk to each other      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Performing a new task based solely on verbal or written instructions, and then describing it to others so that they can reproduce it, is a cornerstone of human communication that still resists artificial intelligence (AI). A team has succeeded in modelling an artificial neural network capable of this cognitive prowess. After learning and performing a series of basic tasks, this AI was able to provide a linguistic description of them to a 'sister' AI, which in turn performed them.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Marine Biology: Microbiology Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Even inactive smokers are densely colonized by microbial communities      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Everything is everywhere -- under certain conditions microbial communities can grow and thrive, even in places that are seemingly uninhabitable. This is the case at inactive hydrothermal vents on the sea floor. An international team is presently working to accurately quantify how much inorganic carbon can be bound in these environments.

Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Landslides Space: Exploration Space: General Space: The Solar System
Published

Surprising insights about debris flows on Mars      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The period that liquid water was present on the surface of Mars may have been shorter than previously thought. Channel landforms called gullies, previously thought to be formed exclusively by liquid water, can also be formed by the action of evaporating CO2 ice, according to a new study.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Advanced army robots more likely to be blamed for deaths      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Advanced killer robots are more likely to blamed for civilian deaths than military machines, new research has revealed. The study shows that high-tech bots will be held more responsible for fatalities in identical incidents.