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Categories: Mathematics: General, Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds
Published Balancing training data and human knowledge makes AI act more like a scientist
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source When you teach a child how to solve puzzles, you can either let them figure it out through trial and error, or you can guide them with some basic rules and tips. Similarly, incorporating rules and tips into AI training -- such as the laws of physics --could make them more efficient and more reflective of the real world. However, helping the AI assess the value of different rules can be a tricky task.
Published Method rapidly verifies that a robot will avoid collisions
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new safety-check technique can prove with 100 percent accuracy that a planned robot motion will not result in a collision. The method can generate a proof in seconds and does so in a way that can be easily verified by a human.
Published Drawings of mathematical problems predict their resolution
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Solving arithmetic problems, even simple subtractions, involves mental representations whose influence remains to be clarified. Visualizing these representations would enable us to better understand our reasoning and adapt our teaching methods. A team has now analyzed drawings made by children and adults when solving simple problems. The scientists found that, whatever the age of the participant, the most effective calculation strategies were associated with certain drawing typologies. These results open up new perspectives for the teaching of mathematics.
Published Running performance helped by mathematical research
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new mathematical model has shown, with great precision, the impact that physiological and psychological parameters have on running performance and provides tips for optimized training.
Published Fossil named 'Attenborough's strange bird' was the first in its kind without teeth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new fossil, named 'Attenborough's strange bird' after naturalist and documentarian Sir David Attenborough, is the first of its kind to evolve a toothless beak. It's from a branch of the bird family tree that went extinct in the mass extinction 66 million years ago, and this strange bird is another puzzle piece that helps explain why some birds -- and their fellow dinosaurs -- went extinct, and others survived to today.
Published Slimming down a colossal fossil whale
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same weight range as modern whales and smaller than the largest blue whales ever recorded.
Published Pythagoras was wrong: there are no universal musical harmonies, new study finds
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The tone and tuning of musical instruments has the power to manipulate our appreciation of harmony, new research shows. The findings challenge centuries of Western music theory and encourage greater experimentation with instruments from different cultures.
Published Maths: Smart learning software helps children during lockdowns -- and beyond
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Intelligent tutoring systems for math problems helped pupils remain or even increase their performance during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed data from five million exercises done by around 2,700 pupils in Germany over a period of five years. The study found that particularly lower-performing children benefit if they use the software regularly.
Published What math tells us about social dilemmas
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Human coexistence depends on cooperation. Individuals have different motivations and reasons to collaborate, resulting in social dilemmas, such as the well-known prisoner's dilemma. Scientists now present a new mathematical principle that helps to understand the cooperation of individuals with different characteristics.
Published Killer instinct drove evolution of mammals' predatory ancestors
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The evolutionary success of the first large predators on land was driven by their need to improve as killers, researchers suggest.
Published Panama Canal expansion rewrites history of world's most ecologically diverse bats
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In a new study, paleontologists describe the oldest-known leaf-nosed bat fossils, which were found along the banks of the Panama Canal. They're also the oldest bat fossils from Central America, preserved 20-million years ago when Panama and the rest of North America were separated from southern landmass by a seaway at least 120 miles wide.
Published New chip opens door to AI computing at light speed
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Engineers have developed a new chip that uses light waves, rather than electricity, to perform the complex math essential to training AI. The chip has the potential to radically accelerate the processing speed of computers while also reducing their energy consumption.
Published Archaeologists discover oldest known bead in the Americas
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The bead found at the La Prele Mammoth site in Wyoming's Converse County is about 12,940 years old and made of bone from a hare.
Published The hidden rule for flight feathers -- and how it could reveal which dinosaurs could fly
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists examined hundreds of birds in museum collections and discovered a suite of feather characteristics that all flying birds have in common. These 'rules' provide clues as to how the dinosaur ancestors of modern birds first evolved the ability to fly, and which dinosaurs were capable of flight.
Published Swarming cicadas, stock traders, and the wisdom of the crowd
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The springtime emergence of vast swarms of cicadas can be explained by a mathematical model of collective decision-making with similarities to models describing stock market crashes.
Published Scientists pinpoint growth of brain's cerebellum as key to evolution of bird flight
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Evolutionary biologists report they have combined PET scans of modern pigeons along with studies of dinosaur fossils to help answer an enduring question in biology: How did the brains of birds evolve to enable them to fly?
Published How did humans learn to walk? New evolutionary study offers an earful
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study, which centers on evidence from skulls of a 6-million-year-old fossil ape, Lufengpithecus, offers important clues about the origins of bipedal locomotion courtesy of a novel method: analyzing its bony inner ear region using three-dimensional CT-scanning. The inner ear appears to provide a unique record of the evolutionary history of ape locomotion.
Published How does a 'reverse sprinkler' work? Researchers solve decades-old physics puzzle
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source For decades scientists have been trying to solve Feynman's Sprinkler Problem: How does a sprinkler running in reverse work? Through a series of experiments, a team of mathematicians has figured out how flowing fluids exert forces and move structures, thereby revealing the answer to this long-standing mystery.
Published New method flips the script on topological physics
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The branch of mathematics known as topology has become a cornerstone of modern physics thanks to the remarkable -- and above all reliable -- properties it can impart to a material or system. Unfortunately, identifying topological systems, or even designing new ones, is generally a tedious process that requires exactly matching the physical system to a mathematical model. Researchers have demonstrated a model-free method for identifying topology, enabling the discovery of new topological materials using a purely experimental approach.
Published What coffee with cream can teach us about quantum physics
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new advancement in theoretical physics could, one day, help engineers develop new kinds of computer chips that might store information for longer in very small objects.