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Categories: Anthropology: Cultures, Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Published Star Trek's Holodeck recreated using ChatGPT and video game assets



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.
Published Pacific cities much older than previously thought



New evidence of one of the first cities in the Pacific shows they were established much earlier than previously thought, according to new research. The study used aerial laser scanning to map archaeological sites on the island of Tongatapu in Tonga, showing Earth structures were being constructed in Tongatapu around AD 300.
Published The hidden role of the Milky Way in ancient Egyptian mythology



Astrophysicists shed light on the relationship between the Milky Way and the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut. The paper draws on ancient Egyptian texts and simulations to argue that the Milky Way might have shone a spotlight, as it were, on Nut's role as the sky. It proposes that in winter, the Milky Way highlighted Nut's outstretched arms, while in summer, it traced her backbone across the heavens.
Published A faster, better way to prevent an AI chatbot from giving toxic responses



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.
Published Humans can increase biodiversity, archaeological study shows



Through the ages, the presence of humans has increased the heterogeneity and complexity of ecosystems and has often had a positive effect on their biodiversity.
Published Engineers design soft and flexible 'skeletons' for muscle-powered robots



Engineers designed modular, spring-like devices to maximize the work of live muscle fibers so they can be harnessed to power biohybrid robots.
Published New privacy-preserving robotic cameras obscure images beyond human recognition



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.
Published Ancient DNA reveals the appearance of a 6th century Chinese emperor



What did an ancient Chinese emperor from 1,500 years ago look like? A team of researchers reconstructed the face of Chinese Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou using DNA extracted from his remains. The study suggests the emperor's death at the age of 36 might be linked to a stroke. It also sheds light on the origin and migration patterns of a nomadic empire that once ruled parts of northeastern Asia.
Published Revolutionary biomimetic olfactory chips to enable advanced gas sensing and odor detection



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.
Published Robot, can you say 'cheese'?



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?
Published New software enables blind and low-vision users to create interactive, accessible charts



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.
Published Engineering household robots to have a little common sense



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.
Published Persian plateau unveiled as crucial hub for early human migration out of Africa



A new study combining genetic, palaeoecological, and archaeological evidence has unveiled the Persian Plateau as a pivotal geographic location serving as a hub for Homo sapiens during the early stages of their migration out of Africa. It highlights the period between 70,000 to 45,000 years ago when human populations did not uniformly spread across Eurasia, leaving a gap in our understanding of their whereabouts during this time frame.
Published AI can now detect COVID-19 in lung ultrasound images



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.
Published Toba supereruption unveils new insights into early human migration



Working in the Horn of Africa, researchers have uncovered evidence showing how early modern humans survived in the wake of the eruption of Toba, one of the largest supervolcanoes in history, some 74,000 years ago. Modern humans dispersed from Africa multiple times, but the event that led to global expansion occurred less than 100,000 years ago. Some researchers hypothesize that dispersals were restricted to 'green corridors' formed during humid intervals when food was abundant and human populations expanded in lockstep with their environments. But a new study suggests that humans also may have dispersed during arid intervals along 'blue highways' created by seasonal rivers. Researchers also found evidence of cooking and stone tools that represent the oldest evidence of archery.
Published Robotic metamaterial: An endless domino effect



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.
Published New archive of ancient human brains challenges misconceptions of soft tissue preservation



A new study has challenged previously held views that brain preservation in the archaeological record is extremely rare. The team compiled a new archive of preserved human brains, which highlighted that nervous tissues actually persist in much greater abundances than traditionally thought, assisted by conditions that prevent decay.
Published Two artificial intelligences talk to each other



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.
Published Advanced army robots more likely to be blamed for deaths



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.
Published Robot ANYmal can do parkour and walk across rubble



The quadrupedal robot ANYmal went back to school and has learned a lot. Researchers used machine learning to teach it new skills: the robot can now climb over obstacles and successfully negotiate pitfalls.