Tech

Wi-Fi signals can do much more than deliver streaming movies and music around the home, it turns out: they can also be used to identify shapes through solid walls, as demonstrated in recent experiments. The ability for Wi-Fi to spot movement through walls has been shown off before, but the technology struggles with seeing anything

Imagine living in a cool, green city flush with parks and threaded with footpaths, bike lanes, and buses, which ferry people to shops, schools, and service centers in a matter of minutes. That breezy dream is the epitome of urban planning, encapsulated in the idea of the 15-minute city, where all basic needs and services

For eons, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) has served as a sort of instruction manual for life, providing not just templates for a vast array of chemical structures but a means of managing their production. In recent years engineers have explored a subtly new role for the molecule’s unique capabilities, as the basis for a biological computer.

Ever since 1911, when British mycologist Michael Cressé Potter noticed that brewer’s yeast generated electricity, scientists have been trying to harness the power of microbial fuel cells. But the efficiencies of tiny, budding ‘bioreactors’ have been too low for practical use. What’s more, it turns out microbes can be surprisingly picky in what substrates they

We might soon be able to record the tunes we hear in our dreams, thanks to a system that’s under development. A team from the startup REMspace, run as part of the Phase Research Center in Russia, has come up with a combination of hardware and software able to decode a melody being played via

In an effort to create robots capable of controlling their own life-cycles, researchers have developed squishy little devices that can melt themselves into a puddle of goo. “We have mimicked death in a life cycle where the robot could end itself,” Seoul National University engineer Min-Ha Oh told Peter Grad at Tech Xplore. This ‘death’

Our lives were already infused with artificial intelligence (AI) when ChatGPT reverberated around the online world late last year. Since then, the generative AI system developed by tech company OpenAI has gathered speed and experts have escalated their warnings about the risks. Meanwhile, chatbots started going off-script and talking back, duping other bots, and acting

The Pentagon has opened up a new portal on the internet for professionals to submit reports about UFOs — now officially known as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs — and for the rest of us to find out about the reports that have been released. AARO.mil, the website for the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, is

The abilities of artificial intelligence (AI) systems are advancing at an astounding rate, nearing or bettering what humans can do in simulations and test environments. Setting aside the ethical and environmental concerns around AI and those of autonomous drones for a minute, we can marvel at this latest feat: an AI-controlled drone system that beat

It may seem like the ultimate in bling, but a new technique for tattooing gold onto living tissue is a step towards integrating human cells with electronic devices. By building on a fabrication technique called nanoimprint lithography, scientists printed living mouse embryo fibroblast cells with patterns of gold nanodots and nanowires. This, they say, is

Scientists at Stanford University have designed a new paint that could help reduce our growing reliance on air conditioners and heaters. It comes in an array of colors, and if used properly, it could seriously slash electricity bills and emissions. The paint is capable of reflecting up to 80 percent of mid-infrared light from the

When a magician tells you there’s nothing up their sleeve, you’re invited to look past the arm sweat and stale air for cards or rabbits lurking within. But when a manufacturer of high-quality microchips says there’s nothing in their vacuum chamber, you really need to trust them. Hairs, dust motes, or even molecules of pollutants

We’re seeing major advancements in tech that can decode brain signals, interpreting neural activity to reveal what’s on someone’s mind, what they want to say, or – in the case of a new study – which song they’re listening to. US researchers have been able to reconstruct a “recognizable version” of a Pink Floyd song

The idea of space-based solar power (SBSP) – using satellites to collect energy from the Sun and “beam” it to collection points on Earth – has been around since at least the late 1960s. Despite its huge potential, the concept has not gained sufficient traction due to cost and technological hurdles. Can some of these

The soothing sounds of binaural beats are thought to sharpen focus when cramming information into our chock-a-block heads. But a new study has found that binaural beats might actually hinder learning, not help it. Michał Klichowski, a cognitive neuroscientist at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland, and colleagues wanted to see whether listening to binaural beats

Amidst the excitement surrounding ChatGPT and the impressive power and potential of artificial intelligence (AI), the impact on the environment has been somewhat overlooked. Analysts predict that AI’s carbon footprint could be as bad – if not worse – than bitcoin mining, which currently generates more greenhouse gases than entire countries. Record-shattering heat across land,

Vast arrays of solar panels floating on calm seas near the Equator could provide effectively unlimited solar energy to densely populated countries in Southeast Asia and West Africa. Our new research shows offshore solar in Indonesia alone could generate about 35,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) of solar energy a year, which is similar to current global electricity

Scientists are constantly searching for better ways to store renewable energy, and MIT researchers have now found a way to turn cement and an ancient material into a giant supercapacitor. Potentially, this electrified cement could turn building foundations and roads into almost limitless batteries. To create the new substance, a team from the Massachusetts Institute

Cicada wings can kill and remove bacteria, and now researchers have used simulations to study the functions of blunt spikes on their surface, with some surprising findings. Understanding this natural process could solve a significant healthcare challenge. Medical devices like catheters enable microbial colonization and biofilm formation by providing a surface for bacteria to cling

Say hello to ionocaloric cooling. It’s a new way to lower temperatures with the potential to replace existing methods of chilling things with a process that is safer and better for the planet. Typical refrigeration systems transport heat away from a space via a gas that cools as it expands some distance away. As effective

What happens to the body when a human gets heatstroke? How can we protect ourselves in a warming planet? To answer these burning questions, Arizona researchers have deployed a robot that can breathe, shiver and sweat. The southwestern state’s capital Phoenix is currently enduring its longest heat wave in history: on Friday, the mercury exceeded

Anyone who has travelled by air in the past ten years will know how stressful airports can be. You didn’t leave home as early as you should have. In the mad rush to get to your gate, the security screening seems to slow everything down. And to add insult to injury, you’re met with the

Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 planets outside of the Solar System to date. The grand question is whether any of these planets are home to life. To find the answer, astronomers will likely need more powerful telescopes than exist today. I am an astronomer who studies astrobiology and planets around distant stars. For the

Google’s artificial intelligence-powered medical chatbot has achieved a passing grade on a tough US medical licensing exam, but it’s answers still fall short of those from human doctors, a peer-reviewed study said on Wednesday. Last year the release of ChatGPT – whose developer OpenAI is backed by Google’s rival Microsoft – kicked off a race

A panel of AI-enabled humanoid robots told a United Nations summit on Friday that they could eventually run the world better than humans. But the social robots said they felt humans should proceed with caution when embracing the rapidly-developing potential of artificial intelligence. And they admitted that they cannot – yet – get a proper

Everyone has a characteristic odor; a distinctive scent. Now scientists have found that with just a whiff of someone’s hand – and a fancy protein analysis machine – they can distinguish between sexes with darn-good accuracy. In the study of 60 people, consisting of 30 men and 30 women, a person’s sex could be correctly

Geoffrey Hinton, one of the so-called “godfathers” of artificial intelligence, urged governments on Wednesday to step in and make sure that machines do not take control of society. Hinton made headlines in May when he announced that he was quitting after a decade of work at Google to speak more freely on the dangers of

Undeterred after three decades of looking, and with some assistance from a supercomputer, mathematicians have finally discovered a new example of a special integer called a Dedekind number. Only the ninth of its kind, or D(9), it is calculated to equal 286 386 577 668 298 411 128 469 151 667 598 498 812 366,

ChatGPT is proving to be a rather alluring assistant in many professions, but it’s not without risks, and some companies have banned the chatbot at work. It may seem obvious that uploading work-related information to an online artificial intelligence platform owned by another company is a potential security and privacy breach. Still, ChatGPT can be

“Splinternet” refers to the way the internet is being splintered – broken up, divided, separated, locked down, boxed up, or otherwise segmented. Whether for nation-states or corporations, there’s money and control to be had by influencing what information people can access and share, as well as the costs that are paid for this access. The

She’s out there somewhere, lurking in a parallel universe of possibilities. All you have to do to summon her into being is type the right prompt into an AI image generator. Like a digital incantation, the words will reveal the eerie face of a middle-aged woman with dead eyes, a vacant stare, and a disturbing

Apple recently unveiled its Vision Pro headset at the Worldwide Developers Conference in California. With it, Apple is venturing into a market of head-mounted devices (HMDs) – which are usually just displays, but in this case is more of a complete computer attached to your head – as well as the worlds of virtual reality

Ions inside a compact fusion reactor barely a meter (less than 3 feet) across have been heated to the magic figure of 100 million degrees Celsius (some 180 million degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time in a monumental step towards making nuclear fusion energy a practical reality. Researchers from Tokamak Energy Ltd in the UK,

Since its founding in 2016, Elon Musk‘s neurotechnology company Neuralink has had the ambitious mission to build a next-generation brain implant with at least 100 times more brain connections than devices currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company has now reached a significant milestone, having received FDA approval to begin

There’s a harsh, brutal reality to the poultry industry, which in 2021 alone supplied about 286 eggs per person in a growing US population: Billions of male chicks are routinely culled by being crushed alive or gassed at hen hatcheries worldwide. Chick culling arises from the fact that chicks from egg-laying hens are not typically

Can a computer learn from the past and anticipate what will happen next, like a human? You might not be surprised to hear that some cutting-edge AI models could achieve this feat, but what about a computer that looks a little different – more like a tank of water? We have built a small proof-of-concept

Engineers have demonstrated something marvelous. Almost any material can be used to create a device that continuously harvests energy from humid air. It’s not a development that’s ready for practical application, but it does, its creators say, transcend some of the limitations of other harvesters. All the material needs is to be pocked with nanopores

Wood is good for a lot of things. Building boxes, boats, and bookcases, for instance. Making tools, or campfires. Feeding termites. And beavers. You’ll note powering functional electrical appliances isn’t among them. Researchers at Linköping University and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden clearly never paid much attention to lists of things wood

In 1998, I unintentionally created a racially biased artificial intelligence algorithm. There are lessons in that story that resonate even more strongly today. The dangers of bias and errors in AI algorithms are now well known. Why, then, has there been a flurry of blunders by tech companies in recent months, especially in the world

A team from Newcastle University and Northumbria University in the UK has found that the thin, root-like threads produced by many fungi can potentially be used as a biodegradable, wearable material that’s also able to repair itself. In their tests, the researchers focused on the Ganoderma lucidum fungus, producing a skin from branching filaments known

​A computer scientist often dubbed “the godfather of artificial intelligence” has quit his job at Google to speak out about the dangers of the technology, US media reported Monday. ​Geoffrey Hinton, who created a foundation technology for AI systems, told The New York Times that advancements made in the field posed “profound risks to society

Scientists said Monday they have found a way to use brain scans and artificial intelligence modeling to transcribe “the gist” of what people are thinking, in what was described as a step towards mind reading. While the main goal of the language decoder is to help people who have lost the ability to communicate, the

Sourcing human tissue samples for biological investigations isn’t always easy. While they are ethically obtained through organ donation or from tissue that’s removed during surgical procedures, scientists are finding them increasingly difficult to get hold of. And it’s not just because there’s a limited supply of human tissue samples. There’s also restricted availability of the

SpaceX just launched the most powerful rocket the world has ever seen – so powerful that it’s a problem. The 40-story Starship mega-rocket flew toward space for the first time on April 20. At liftoff, the rocket’s Super Heavy booster fired more than two dozen truck-sized Raptor engines at once, blasting the launchpad with up

Over the past year or so, generative AI models such as ChatGPT and DALL-E have made it possible to produce vast quantities of apparently human-like, high-quality creative content from a simple series of prompts. Though highly capable – far outperforming humans in big-data pattern recognition tasks in particular – current AI systems are not intelligent

Making solar cells more efficient is an obvious win for green energy. It means more electricity from the same number of panels and the same amount of sunlight – and scientists are working hard to take on the challenge. Now a team from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia

Artificial intelligence has changed form in recent years. What started in the public eye as a burgeoning field with promising (yet largely benign) applications, has snowballed into a more than US $100 billion industry where the heavy hitters – Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI, to name a few – seem intent on out-competing one another. The

Scientists are continuing to make advances in electronics that can safely monitor and treat our health from inside the body. Unfortunately, powering these miniature medical gadgets isn’t always straightforward. There’s now a new type of rechargeable battery that could help in that department. Made from fully edible substances, it can dissolve safely in the stomach