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Categories: Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Ecology: Extinction
Published Why can't robots outrun animals?



Robotics engineers have worked for decades and invested many millions of research dollars in attempts to create a robot that can walk or run as well as an animal. And yet, it remains the case that many animals are capable of feats that would be impossible for robots that exist today.
Published Computer game in school made students better at detecting fake news



A computer game helped upper secondary school students become better at distinguishing between reliable and misleading news.
Published Frog species evolved rapidly in response to road salts



When we think of evolution, we think of a process that happens over hundreds or thousands of years. In research recently published, a species of frog that has evolved over the course of merely 25 years. The adaptation was spurred on by something many assume is innocuous: salt.
Published Lemur's lament: When one vulnerable species stalks another



What can be done when one threatened animal kills another? Scientists studying critically endangered lemurs in Madagascar confronted this difficult reality when they witnessed attacks on lemurs by another vulnerable species, a carnivore called a fosa.
Published Fourteen years after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, endemic fishes face an uncertain future



The 2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest accidental spill in history, released almost 100 million gallons of oil, causing significant pollution. A decade later, its long-term effects remain unclear. A study investigating the impact on endemic fish species found 29 of 78 species unreported in museum collections since the spill, suggesting potential loss of biodiversity.
Published How 3D printers can give robots a soft touch



Soft skin coverings and touch sensors have emerged as a promising feature for robots that are both safer and more intuitive for human interaction, but they are expensive and difficult to make. A recent study demonstrates that soft skin pads doubling as sensors made from thermoplastic urethane can be efficiently manufactured using 3D printers.
Published Paleontologists unearth what may be the largest known marine reptile



The fossilized remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two meters long has been found on a beach in Somerset, UK.
Published Marine plankton behavior could predict future marine extinctions



Marine communities migrated to Antarctica during the Earth's warmest period in 66 million years long before a mass-extinction event.
Published Dog attacks on mountain tapirs highlight a growing threat to endangered wildlife



Researchers who captured footage of dog attacks on endangered mountain tapirs in Colombia are calling for action to protect threatened wildlife.
Published Coral reef microbes point to new way to assess ecosystem health



A new study shows that ocean acidification is changing the mix of microbes in coral reef systems, which can be used to assess ecosystem health.
Published Seed ferns: Plants experimented with complex leaf vein networks 201 million years ago



According to a research team led by palaeontologists, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several times. Using new methods, the fossilized plant Furcula granulifer was identified as such an early forerunner. The leaves of this seed fern species already exhibited the net-like veining in the late Triassic (around 201 million years ago).
Published Digging up new species of Australia and New Guinea's giant fossil kangaroos



Palaeontologists have described three unusual new species of giant fossil kangaroo from Australia and New Guinea, finding them more diverse in shape, range and hopping method than previously thought. The three new species are of the extinct genus Protemnodon, which lived from around 5 million to 40,000 years ago -- with one about double the size of the largest red kangaroo living today.
Published New computer vision tool wins prize for social impact



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.
Published Tropical coral-infecting parasites discovered in cold marine ecosystems



Parasites thought only to infect tropical coral reefs have been discovered in a large variety of creatures in cold marine ecosystems along the Northeast Pacific, according to new research.
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 Oxidant pollutant ozone removes mating barriers between fly species



Researchers show that ozone levels, such as those found in many places on hot summer days today, destroy the sex pheromones of fruit fly species. As a result, some natural mating boundaries maintained by species-specific pheromones no longer exist. The research team has shown in experiments that flies of different species mate when exposed to ozone and produce hybrid offspring. Since most of these offspring are unable to reproduce, the results could provide another explanation for the global decline of insects.
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 Do some mysterious bones belong to gigantic ichthyosaurs?



Several similar large, fossilized bone fragments have been discovered in various regions across Western and Central Europe since the 19th century. The animal group to which they belonged is still the subject of much debate to this day. A study could now settle this dispute once and for all: The microstructure of the fossils indicates that they come from the lower jaw of a gigantic ichthyosaur. These animals could reach 25 to 30 meters in length, a similar size to the modern blue whale.
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.