Science News

One person was killed and several dozen more injured Tuesday when a flight from London to Singapore encountered "sudden extreme turbulence" and plummeted roughly 6,000 feet in a matter of minutes, according to The Washington Post.

New research indicates the sun's magnetic field originates much closer to the surface than previously thought, a finding that could help predict extreme solar storms.

The integration of all-solid-state batteries with sulfide electrolytes is emerging as a promising electrochemical system with potential advances in energy density. The demand for thin sulfides, especially those with high flexibility, superior ionic conductivity, and strong interfacial stability, is critical.

Nowadays, large language models (LLMs) are extensively applied in various situations, from writing to solving complex problems. However, how to effectively interact with artificial intelligence and explore its potential requires further attention.

Cambridge researchers have shown that members of the public have little trouble in learning very quickly how to use a third thumb—a controllable, prosthetic extra thumb—to pick up and manipulate objects.

Researchers at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) have introduced a pair of high-tech tools that could improve the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles by enhancing the reasoning ability of their robotic systems.

As technologists search for approaches to reduce our global carbon footprint and stave off the worst ravages of climate change, they are turning to an old friend—hydrogen. The potential of hydrogen fuel cells for generating power is enormous although not without issues.

Image privacy could be protected with the use of generative artificial intelligence. Researchers from Japan, China and Finland created a system which replaces parts of images that might threaten confidentiality with visually similar but AI-generated alternatives.

Systemic issues can put women's security at risk when artificial intelligence (AI) is adopted, and gender biases across widely used AI-systems pose a significant obstacle to the positive use of AI in the context of peace and security in South-East Asia.

All spent nuclear fuel that will be deposited in the bedrock will be measured with a method and device that have been developed in a doctoral research thesis being defended on 4 June 2024 at the University of Helsinki. The final disposal operations are being prepared to start next year in Finland.

"Please enter the code within the next two minutes." The concept of one-time passwords (OTPs) has become a mainstay in our procedures for secure user verification in sensitive applications, such as government and financial services. Typically found in multi-factor authentication schemes, a standard OTP resists hacking attempts by imposing a time limit for users to input the given password.

A research team led by Prof. Cao Xun from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with collaborators from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, has developed a new type of electrochromic (EC) structure for energy-saving windows. The study is published in Nature Sustainability.

Fine motor skills play a crucial role in human cognition, influencing everything from daily activities to the development of advanced tool-based civilizations. Yet, quantifying and evaluating these skills objectively has been a challenge.

In the budget last week, the government was keen to talk about its efforts to turn Australia into a renewable superpower under the umbrella of the Future Made in Australia policies.

In a recent study published in the journal Advanced Powder Materials, the traditional powder metallurgy compaction and sintering method was employed to produce sepiolite-reinforced copper-based brake pads, while carbon-ceramic composite brake disks were prepared using chemical vapor infiltration and melt infiltration techniques. The manufactured brake pads not only met the mechanical strength requirements for high-speed train brake pads but also exhibited minimal wear and stable frictional braking performance at high temperatures.

Officials throughout the state of California have developed plans to start deploying green hydrogen at scale in the coming decade in order to reach California's 2045 climate neutrality targets. A new analysis, published by scientists at PSE Healthy Energy, finds that while certain applications of green hydrogen may present opportunities to lower greenhouse gas emissions, many challenges remain and misalignments between current proposals could undermine progress toward state climate goals.

AI-generated images, texts and audio files are so convincing that people are no longer able to distinguish them from human-generated content. This is the result of an online survey of about 3,000 participants from Germany, China, and the U.S. This is the first time that a large transnational study has examined this particular form of media literacy.

An international team of psychologists and neurobiologists has found via experimentation that two types of LLMs are able to equal or outperform humans on theory of mind tests. In their study reported in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group administered theory of mind tests to volunteers and compared the average results with those from two types of LLMs.

Which factors determine how quickly a battery can be charged? This and other questions are studied by researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) with the help of computer-based simulations.

Inside a lab in Boston University's College of Engineering, a robot arm drops small, plastic objects into a box placed perfectly on the floor to catch them as they fall. One by one, these tiny structures—feather-light, cylindrical pieces, no bigger than an inch tall—fill the box. Some are red, others blue, purple, green, or black.