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Categories: Offbeat: Computers and Math, Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology
Published Bright prospects for engineering quantum light
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Computers benefit greatly from being connected to the internet, so we might ask: What good is a quantum computer without a quantum internet?
Published Super-black wood can improve telescopes, optical devices and consumer goods
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Thanks to an accidental discovery, researchers have created a new super-black material that absorbs almost all light, opening potential applications in fine jewelry, solar cells and precision optical devices.
Published Breaking MAD: Generative AI could break the internet, researchers find
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have found that training successive generations of generative artificial intelligence models on synthetic data gives rise to self-consuming feedback loops.
Published Dark matter: A camera trap for the invisible
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source AI-powered image recognition could give researchers a new tool in hunt for dark matter.
Published Shape-shifting 'transformer bots' inspired by origami
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, engineers have discovered a way to make a single plastic cubed structure transform into more than 1,000 configurations using only three active motors.
Published Robotics: Self-powered 'bugs' can skim across water to detect environmental data
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have developed a self-powered 'bug' that can skim across the water, and they hope it will revolutionize aquatic robotics.
Published The ancestor of all modern birds probably had iridescent feathers
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Birds tend to be more colorful in the tropics, and scientists wanted to find out how they got there: if colorful feathers evolved in the tropics, or if tropical birds have brightly-colored ancestors that came to the region from somwhere else. Scientists built a database of 9,409 birds to explore the spread of color across the globe. They found that iridescent, colorful feathers originated 415 times across the bird tree of life, and in most cases, arose outside of the tropics -- and that the ancestor of all modern birds likely had iridescent feathers, too.
Published Lampreys possess a 'jaw-dropping' evolutionary origin
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Lampreys are one of only two living jawless vertebrates Jaws are formed by a key stem cell population called the neural crest New research reveals the gene regulatory changes that may explain morphological differences between jawed and jawless vertebrates.
Published Chemical analyses find hidden elements from renaissance astronomer Tycho Brahe's alchemy laboratory
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Danish Tycho Brahe was most famous for his contributions to astronomy. However, he also had a well-equipped alchemical laboratory where he produced secret medicines for Europe's elite.
Published Ancient marine animal had inventive past despite being represented by few species
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Brachiopods were evolving in new directions but this did not turn into evolutionary success in terms of the numbers of species, researchers have found.
Published Rock art and archaeological record reveal humans' complex relationship with Amazonian animals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Rock art explored by archaeologists in the Colombian Amazon has provided an insight into the complex relationship between the earliest settlers on the continent and the animals they encountered.
Published Spin qubits go trampolining
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have developed somersaulting spin qubits for universal quantum logic. This achievement may enable efficient control of large semiconductor qubit arrays. The research group recently published their demonstration of hopping spins and somersaulting spins.
Published Foam fluidics showcase lab's creative approach to circuit design
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Engineers have shown that something as simple as the flow of air through open-cell foam can be used to perform digital computation, analog sensing and combined digital-analog control in soft textile-based wearable systems.
Published Komodo dragons have iron-coated teeth to rip apart their prey
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered that the serrated edges of Komodo dragons' teeth are tipped with iron. The study gives new insight into how Komodo dragons keep their teeth razor-sharp and may provide clues to how dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex killed and ate their prey.
Published Scientists assess how large dinosaurs could really get
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A study looks at the maximum possible sizes of dinosaurs, using the carnivore, Tyrannosaurus rex, as an example. Using computer modelling, experts produced estimates that T. Rex might have been 70% heavier than what the fossil evidence suggests.
Published Taco-shaped arthropod fossils gives new insights into the history of the first mandibulates
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Palaeontologists are helping resolve the evolution and ecology of Odaraia, a taco-shaped marine animal that lived during the Cambrian period. Fossils reveal Odaraia had mandibles. Palaeontologists are finally able to place it as belonging to the mandibulates, ending its long enigmatic classification among the arthropods since it was first discovered in the Burgess Shale over 100 years ago and revealing more about early evolution and diversification.
Published Hunter-gatherers kept an 'orderly home' in the earliest known British dwelling
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Archaeological evidence from the world-famous Mesolithic site of Star Carr in North Yorkshire has shown that hunter-gatherers likely kept an orderly home by creating 'zones' for particular domestic activities.
Published Development of 'living robots' needs regulation and public debate
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers are calling for regulation to guide the responsible and ethical development of bio-hybrid robotics -- a ground-breaking science which fuses artificial components with living tissue and cells.
Published Can consciousness exist in a computer simulation?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new essay explores which conditions must be met for consciousness to exist. At least one of them can't be found in a computer.
Published Ant insights lead to robot navigation breakthrough
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Have you ever wondered how insects are able to go so far beyond their home and still find their way? The answer to this question is not only relevant to biology but also to making the AI for tiny, autonomous robots. Drone-researchers felt inspired by biological findings on how ants visually recognize their environment and combine it with counting their steps in order to get safely back home. They have used these insights to create an insect-inspired autonomous navigation strategy for tiny, lightweight robots. It allows such robots to come back home after long trajectories, while requiring extremely little computation and memory (0.65 kiloByte per 100 m). In the future, tiny autonomous robots could find a wide range of uses, from monitoring stock in warehouses to finding gas leaks in industrial sites.