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This July 26, 2023 image shows a ‘Coral Fort’ researchers are using to prevent laboratory-grown coral from being eaten by parrot fish. | Photo Credit: AP South Florida researchers trying to prevent predatory fish from devouring laboratory-grown coral are grasping at biodegradable straws in an effort to restore what some call the rainforest of the…
The popular understanding seems to be that the day is not far off when an artificial intelligence (AI) will be able to think like humans and interact, at least through languages, in a way that is indistinguishable from real humans. Such a day has been called “the singularity”, a pivotal moment for the human race….
Read More “If there’s a theory of AI, computer science is unlikely to provide it” »
Peter Higgs poses in front of an image of a detector of the Large Hadron Collider, November 12, 2013, in London. | Photo Credit: Toby Melville/Reuters The day the physicist Peter Higgs passed away, April 8, Google search results were rife with headlines that the man who proposed the “God particle” was no more. Dr…
Read More “Peter Higgs, whose success as a physicist depends on whom you ask” »
A study by researchers at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Hyderabad, has found that around 70-80% of people who visit an eye hospital can benefit from teleconsultations because their problems aren’t serious enough to require attention at a hospital. The study was published in the journal Eye. Telemedicine has emerged as a viable alternative…
Read More “Health sector can’t ignore telemedicine’s green gains, study shows” »
Peter Higgs | Photo Credit: Scott Heppell/AP Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of the so-called ”God particle” that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang, has died at age 94, the University of Edinburgh said Tuesday. The university, where Higgs was emeritus professor, said he died Monday “peacefully at home…
Since last June, the globe has broken heat records each month, with marine heat waves across large areas of the globe’s oceans contributing. File | Photo Credit: AP For the tenth consecutive month, Earth in March set a new monthly record for global heat — with both air temperatures and the world’s oceans hitting an…
Read More “March is tenth straight month to be hottest on record, scientists say” »
This handout picture released by the Russian Roscosmos space agency on April 8, 2024 shows a heavy-class Angara-A5 rocket at the launch pad of the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur region on the eve of its launch. | Photo Credit: AFP The first launch of the Angara A5 space rocket from Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome will…
Read More “Russia to launch Angara rocket for first time from Vostochny Cosmodrome” »
One of the most striking anatomical features in apes, and which sets them apart from monkeys, is the absence of a tail. All mammals have a tail at some point during their development, but apes – including humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons – lose them in utero, leaving behind three to five vestigial…
Read More “A freak DNA change 25 million years ago is why humans lack tails” »
As the winter months fall behind us and summer heat starts to rise, we have some visitors in our midst: the all-pervading mosquitos. Everywhere and anywhere, we find these wonderful creatures hovering all around us, in the walkways, in classrooms, at the chai stalls here in IIT Kanpur, where I teach. Often in the mornings,…
A chilly, midday darkness fell across North America on April 8 as a total solar eclipse raced across the continent, thrilling those lucky enough to behold the spectacle through clear skies. Eclipse mania gripped all of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, as the moon swept in front of the sun, blotting out daylight. Almost everyone…