News
- Neuroscience
Living brain tissue experiments raise new kinds of ethical questions
An ethicist describes the quandaries raised by working with tissue involved in human awareness.
- Science & Society
Turning human bodies into compost works, a small trial suggests
Experiments test the effectiveness and safety of human composting, which may soon be an alternative to burial or cremation in Washington state.
- Artificial Intelligence
Linking sense of touch to facial movement inches robots toward ‘feeling’ pain
Artificial systems that allow a robot to “feel” pain might ultimately lead to empathy.
- Health & Medicine
Very few infants seem to be getting sick with the new coronavirus
Scientists tracking how the outbreak of a novel coronavirus is affecting young children and newborns haven’t seen many cases.
- Computing
AI can predict which criminals may break laws again better than humans
Computer algorithms are better than people at forecasting recidivism, at least in some situations, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Coronavirus’s genetic fingerprints are used to rapidly map its spread
Fast and widespread scientific data sharing and genetic testing have created a picture of how the new coronavirus spreads.
- Animals
Snakes suffered after a frog-killing fungus wiped out their food
A frog-killing fungus that swept through Panama had a hidden effect. A new study finds that snake diversity declined post-fungus at one field station.
- Physics
The fastest way to heat certain materials may be to cool them first
A theoretical study reveals that, in certain situations, some materials might heat up more quickly after first being cooled.
- Animals
Jellyfish snot can sting swimmers who never touch the animal
Researchers have found mobile cellular blobs coated with stinging cells in mucus from a jellyfish that sits upside-down on the seafloor.
- Humans
Some West Africans may have genes from an ancient ‘ghost’ hominid
A humanlike population undiscovered in fossils may have passed helpful DNA on to human ancestors in West Africa starting as early as 124,000 years ago.
- Oceans
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill spread much farther than once thought
Computer simulations reveal the full extent of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Quantum Physics
Scientists entangled quantum memories linked over long distances
The entanglement of quantum ‘hard drives’ is a crucial step toward creating a quantum internet.
