Science News

Researchers from the University of Oxford have made a significant advance toward ensuring that information produced by generative artificial intelligence (AI) is robust and reliable.

Climate change is expanding the reach of insect-borne diseases. Las Vegas' exploding mosquito population offers a case study of what's to come.

Hydrogen is a promising chemical and energy vector to decarbonize our society. Unlike conventional fuels, hydrogen utilization as a fuel does not generate carbon dioxide in return. Unfortunately, today, most of the hydrogen that is produced in our society comes from methane, a fossil fuel. It does so in a process (methane reforming) that leads to substantial carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, the production of green hydrogen requires scalable alternatives to this process.

The real world possesses many challenges for AI missions. One of those challenges is the requirement that machines will be able to recognize and quickly learn new objects which they have not seen before. An AI robust to changes will be of great use in quickly adapting to a dynamic reality, be it a robot recognizing new products at a grocery store or a self-driving car interacting with new road signs or objects around it.

Portobello, a new driving simulator developed by researchers at Cornell Tech, blends virtual and mixed realities, enabling both drivers and passengers to see virtual objects overlaid in the real world.

In the face of the dual challenges of climate change and energy security, conducting in-depth research on energy and carbon emission (E&C) systems has become crucial for nations to address environmental issues and promote sustainable development. The system of E&C is highly interconnected and intricate, encompassing various levels and domains, exhibiting significant spatial and temporal variations.

Hydropower plants need not be disastrous for fishermen and nature. For that, we need to place new dams more strategically, but also modify or even remove some existing ones. Valerio Barbarossa and Rafael Schmitt showed that with a computer model of the Asian Mekong basin.

Switching from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles is one way to reduce carbon emissions, but building the lithium-ion batteries that power those EVs can be an energy-intensive and polluting process itself. Now researchers at Dalhousie University have developed a manufacturing process that is cheaper and greener.

Australia exports about 1 billion metric tons of iron ore each year and 300 metric tons of gold. Yet, beyond these well-known commodities lies a suite of lesser-known minerals, which are critical for the world's advancement.

In recent years, neural methods have become widespread in camera-based reconstructions. In most cases, however, hundreds of camera perspectives are needed. Meanwhile, conventional photometric methods exist which can compute highly precise reconstructions even from objects with textureless surfaces. However, these typically work only under controlled lab conditions.

When scientists pushed the world's fastest supercomputer to its limits, they found those limits stretched beyond even their biggest expectations.

Hydrogen fuel cells, devices that can convert the chemical energy stored in hydrogen into electrical energy via an electrochemical reaction, are promising solutions for electrifying large vehicles. Fuel cells based on low-temperature (under 100 °C) proton exchange membranes have been found to be particularly advantageous for transportation, as they produce limited noise, have high power densities and can power vehicles for long distances with a single charge of hydrogen.

A team of computer scientists at Purdue University has found that the popular LLM, ChatGPT, is wildly inaccurate when responding to computer programming questions. In their paper published as part of the Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the group describes how they pulled questions from the StackOverflow website and posed them to ChatGPT and then measured its degree of accuracy when responding.

An Engineering team at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed a novel microfluidic technique capable of greatly enhancing applications in materials science and biomedical engineering.

Ionospheric scintillation, caused by irregularities in the Earth's ionosphere, can severely impact Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal integrity, leading to navigation errors.

Researchers have developed a new technique to solve the problem of how to increase the capacity of sodium-ion batteries.

A pair of engineers at the University of Central Florida has found that autonomous vehicles are generally safer than those driven by humans except under two conditions.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has announced that he will go to the next election promising to build seven nuclear power stations. Dutton has promised the sites can be operational between 2035 and 2037, and will be built on retired or retiring coal stations.

Ethylene (C2H4) is a highly flammable compound widely used in numerous settings, including the manufacturing of packaging and plastic-based items, the chemical industry, agriculture and health care. Developing effective and sustainable methods to produce ethylene on a large scale could help to meet the rising demand for this versatile hydrocarbon.

Late last night, Virgin Australia flight VA 148 set out from Queenstown in New Zealand bound for Melbourne. Not long after takeoff, the right engine of the Boeing 737-800 jet started emitting loud bangs, followed by flames.