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Categories: Offbeat: Computers and Math, Space: Cosmology
Published Venus has almost no water: A new study may reveal why



Billions of years ago, Venus may have harbored as much water as Earth. Today, almost all of it has disappeared. A new study may help to explain why.
Published Astronomers observe elusive stellar light surrounding ancient quasars



Astronomers observed the elusive starlight surrounding some of the earliest quasars in the universe. The findings may shed light on how the earliest supermassive black holes became so massive despite having a relatively short amount of cosmic time in which to grow.
Published Hubble views a galaxy with a voracious black hole



Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in a new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4951. Located in the Virgo constellation, NGC 4951 is located roughly 50 million light-years away from Earth. It's classified as a Seyfert galaxy, which means that it's an extremely energetic type of galaxy with an active galactic nucleus (AGN).
Published Stretchable e-skin could give robots human-level touch sensitivity



A stretchy electronic skin could equip robots and other devices with the same softness and touch sensitivity as human skin, opening up new possibilities to perform tasks that require a great deal of precision and control of force.
Published Random robots are more reliable



New algorithm encourages robots to move more randomly to collect more diverse data for learning. In tests, robots started with no knowledge and then learned and correctly performed tasks within a single attempt. New model could improve safety and practicality of self-driving cars, delivery drones and more.
Published Significant new discovery in teleportation research -- Noise can improve the quality of quantum teleportation



Researchers succeeded in conducting an almost perfect quantum teleportation despite the presence of noise that usually disrupts the transfer of quantum state.
Published This highly reflective black paint makes objects more visible to autonomous cars



Driving at night might be a scary challenge for a new driver, but with hours of practice it soon becomes second nature. For self-driving cars, however, practice may not be enough because the lidar sensors that often act as these vehicles' 'eyes' have difficulty detecting dark-colored objects. New research describes a highly reflective black paint that could help these cars see dark objects and make autonomous driving safer.
Published A 'cosmic glitch' in gravity



Researchers have discovered a potential 'cosmic glitch' in the universe's gravity, explaining its strange behavior on a cosmic scale.
Published Webb captures top of iconic horsehead nebula in unprecedented detail



NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of a zoomed-in portion of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show the top of the 'horse's mane' or edge of this iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing the region's complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution.
Published Trotting robots reveal emergence of animal gait transitions



A four-legged robot trained with machine learning has learned to avoid falls by spontaneously switching between walking, trotting, and pronking -- a milestone for roboticists as well as biologists interested in animal locomotion.
Published Astronomers' simulations support dark matter theory



Computer simulations by astronomers support the idea that dark matter -- matter that no one has yet directly detected but which many physicists think must be there to explain several aspects of the observable universe -- exists, according to the researchers.
Published Gemini south reveals origin of unexpected differences in giant binary stars



Astronomers have confirmed that differences in binary stars' composition can originate from chemical variations in the cloud of stellar material from which they formed. The results help explain why stars born from the same molecular cloud can possess different chemical composition and host different planetary systems, as well as pose challenges to current stellar and planet formation models.
Published The end of the quantum tunnel



Quantum mechanical effects such as radioactive decay, or more generally: 'tunneling', display intriguing mathematical patterns. Researchers now show that a 40-year-old mathematical discovery can be used to fully encode and understand this structure.
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 Holographic displays offer a glimpse into an immersive future



Researchers have invented a new optical element that brings us one step closer to mixing the real and virtual worlds in an ordinary pair of eyeglasses using high-definition 3D holographic images.
Published Researchers show it's possible to teach old magnetic cilia new tricks



Magnetic cilia -- artificial hairs whose movement is powered by embedded magnetic particles -- have been around for a while, and are of interest for applications in soft robotics, transporting objects and mixing liquids. However, existing magnetic cilia move in a fixed way. Researchers have now demonstrated a technique for creating magnetic cilia that can be 'reprogrammed,' changing their magnetic properties at room temperature to change the motion of the cilia as needed.
Published Toward unification of turbulence framework -- weak-to-strong transition discovered in turbulence



Astrophysicists have made a significant step toward solving the last puzzle in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence theory by observing the weak to strong transition in the space plasma turbulence surrounding Earth with newly developed multi-spacecraft analysis methods.
Published Hey Dave, I've got an idea for you: What's the potential of AI-led workshopping?



Sure, ChatGPT can write a poem about your pet in the style of T.S Eliot, but generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have a potentially more useful role to play in idea generation according to a new study.
Published Giant galactic explosion exposes galaxy pollution in action



Astronomers have produced the first high-resolution map of a massive explosion in a nearby galaxy, providing important clues on how the space between galaxies is polluted with chemical elements.
Published Octopus inspires new suction mechanism for robots



A new robotic suction cup which can grasp rough, curved and heavy stone, has been developed by scientists.