Showing 20 articles starting at article 141

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Offbeat: General, Paleontology: General

Return to the site home page

Anthropology: Cultures Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology
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.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Astrophysicists uncover supermassive blackhole/dark matter connection in solving the 'final parsec problem'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have found a link between some of the largest and smallest objects in the cosmos: supermassive black holes and dark matter particles. Their new calculations reveal that pairs of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can merge into a single larger black hole because of previously overlooked behavior of dark matter particles, proposing a solution to the longstanding 'final parsec problem' in astronomy.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
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.

Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Ore-some: New date for Earth's largest iron deposits offers clues for future exploration      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Research reveals that Earth's largest iron ore deposits -- in the Hamersley Province of Western Australia -- are about one billion years younger than previously believed, a discovery which could greatly boost the search for more of the resource.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Smell of human stress affects dogs' emotions leading them to make more pessimistic choices      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Dogs experience emotional contagion from the smell of human stress, leading them to make more 'pessimistic' choices, new research finds. Researchers tested how human stress odors affect dogs' learning and emotional state.

Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Developmental Biology: Genetics Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Controlling mosquito populations through genetic breeding      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have found a new way to identify genetic targets useful for control of mosquito populations, potentially offering an alternative to insecticides. Their study focused on the genetic basis of species incompatibility. They crossed Ae. aegypti, a major global arboviral disease vector, and its sibling species, Ae. mascarensis, from the Indian Ocean. When offspring is crossed back with one parent, about 10 percent of the progeny becomes intersex and is unable to reproduce.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Birds need entertainment during avian flu lockdowns      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Birds need varied activities during avian flu lockdowns, new research shows.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Chimpanzees gesture back and forth quickly like in human conversations      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

When people are having a conversation, they rapidly take turns speaking and sometimes even interrupt. Now, researchers who have collected the largest ever dataset of chimpanzee 'conversations' have found that they communicate back and forth using gestures following the same rapid-fire pattern.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Life signs could survive near surfaces of Enceladus and Europa      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Europa and Enceladus, icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn respectively, have evidence of oceans beneath their crusts. A NASA experiment suggests -- if these oceans support life -- signatures of that life in the form of organic molecules (like amino acids and nucleic acids) could survive just under the surface ice despite the harsh, ionizing radiation on these worlds. If robotic landers were to go to these moons to look for life signs, they would not have to dig very deep to find amino acids that have survived being altered or destroyed by radiation.

Anthropology: General Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

New snake discovery rewrites history, points to North America's role in snake evolution      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new species of fossil snake unearthed in Wyoming is rewriting our understanding of snake evolution. The discovery, based on four remarkably well-preserved specimens found curled together in a burrow, reveals a new species named Hibernophis breithaupti. This snake lived in North America 34 million years ago and sheds light on the origin and diversification of boas and pythons.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
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.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Another intermediate-mass black hole discovered at the center of our galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

So far, only about ten intermediate-mass black holes have been discovered in the entire universe. The newly identified black hole causes surrounding stars in a cluster to move in an unexpectedly orderly way.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Biology: Marine Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals Ecology: Endangered Species Ecology: Sea Life Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

The courtship of leopard seals off the coast of South America      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A pioneering study has unveiled the first paired observations of sexual behavior and vocalizations in wild leopard seals. The study on the mysterious leopard seal represents a major advance in understanding the behavior of one of the most difficult apex predators to study on Earth.

Offbeat: General
Published

Singing the science: Using karaoke to examine blushing      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new collaboration explores the neural substrates of blushing in a MRI scanner.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
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.

Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astrophysics Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Want to spot a deepfake? Look for the stars in their eyes      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In an era when the creation of artificial intelligence (AI) images is at the fingertips of the masses, the ability to detect fake pictures -- particularly deepfakes of people -- is becoming increasingly important. So what if you could tell just by looking into someone's eyes? That's the compelling finding of new research which suggests that AI-generated fakes can be spotted by analyzing human eyes in the same way that astronomers study pictures of galaxies.

Energy: Batteries Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Completely stretchy lithium-ion battery for flexible electronics      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

When you think of a battery, you probably don't think stretchy. But batteries will need this shape-shifting quality to be incorporated into flexible electronics, which are gaining traction for wearable health monitors. Now, researchers report a lithium-ion battery with entirely stretchable components, including an electrolyte layer that can expand by 5000%, and it retains its charge storage capacity after nearly 70 charge/discharge cycles.

Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Microbiology Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

What fat cats on a diet may tell us about obesity in humans      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Pet cats may be excellent animal models for the study of obesity origins and treatment in humans, a new study of feline gut microbes suggests -- and both species would likely get healthier in the research process, scientists say.