Robot learns how to clean a washbasin
Robots are supposed to do boring or unpleasant jobs for us. However, tedious tasks such as cleaning the bathroom are challenging to automate. How is it possible to calculate the…
Hurricane Helene’s gravity waves revealed by NASA’s AWE
On Sept. 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene slammed into the Gulf Coast of Florida, inducing storm surges and widespread impacts on communities in its path. At the same time, NASA’s Atmospheric…
Five minutes of extra exercise a day could lower blood pressure
New research suggests that adding a small amount of physical activity — such as uphill walking or stair-climbing — into your day may help to lower blood pressure. The study,…
Climate change parching the American West even without rainfall deficits
Higher temperatures caused by anthropogenic climate change made an ordinary drought into an exceptional drought that parched the American West from 2020-2022. A study by UCLA and National Oceanic and…
Toward better surgical outcomes in patients undergoing knee replacement surgery
When performing knee replacement surgery, also called total knee arthroplasty, doctors traditionally try to align the hip, knee, and ankle in a straight line, forming a neutral alignment, rather than…
Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world
Large language models can do impressive things, like write poetry or generate viable computer programs, even though these models are trained to predict words that come next in a piece…
An extra year of education does not protect against brain aging, study finds
Thanks to a ‘natural experiment’ involving 30,000 people, researchers at Radboud university medical center were able to determine very precisely what an extra year of education does to the brain…
Persistent problems with AI-assisted genomic studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are warning that artificial intelligence tools gaining popularity in the fields of genetics and medicine can lead to flawed conclusions about the connection between genes and…
Bacteria breakthrough could accelerate mosquito control schemes
Mosquito larvae grow faster if they’re exposed to particular bacteria, according to a new study that could help global health programmes. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes spread illnesses including dengue, yellow fever…
Increased rates of severe human infections caused by Streptococcus subspecies
A concerning increase in global rates of severe invasive infections becoming resistant to key antibiotics has a team of infectious disease researchers at the Houston Methodist Research Institute studying a…