Bizarre Things: Matter & Energy

December 1, 2023

Top Headlines

To Help Autonomous Vehicles Make Moral Decisions, Researchers Ditch the 'Trolley Problem'

Dec. 1, 2023 — Researchers have developed a new experiment to better understand what people view as moral and immoral decisions related to driving vehicles, with the goal of collecting data to train autonomous ...

How Do You Make a Robot Smarter? Program It to Know What It Doesn't Know

Nov. 28, 2023 — Engineers have come up with a new way to teach robots to know when they don't know. The technique involves quantifying the fuzziness of human language and using that measurement to tell robots when to ask for further directions. Telling a robot to ...

Hybrid Transistors Set Stage for Integration of Biology and Microelectronics

Nov. 22, 2023 — Researchers create transistors combining silicon with biological silk, using common microprocessor manufacturing methods. The silk protein can be easily modified with other chemical and biological ...

First Experimental Evidence of Hopfions in Crystals Opens Up New Dimension for Future Technology

Nov. 22, 2023 — Hopfions, magnetic spin structures predicted decades ago, have become a hot and challenging research topic in recent years. New findings open up new fields in experimental physics: identifying other ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:12pm EST

Wave Devouring Propulsion: A Revolutionary Green Technology for Maritime Sustainability

Nov. 27, 2023 — A new form of wave devouring propulsion (WDP) could power ships and help to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the maritime ...

'Strange Metal' Is Strangely Quiet in Noise Experiment

Nov. 23, 2023 — Experiments have provided the first direct evidence that electricity seems to flow through 'strange metals' in an unusual liquid-like ...

AI Finds Formula on How to Predict Monster Waves

Nov. 20, 2023 — Using 700 years' worth of wave data from more than a billion waves, scientists have used artificial intelligence to find a formula for how to predict the occurrence of these maritime monsters. Long ...

Ingestible Electronic Device Detects Breathing Depression in Patients

Nov. 17, 2023 — A new ingestible capsule can monitor vital signs from within the patient's GI tract. The sensor could be used for less intrusive monitoring of sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, or for detecting ...

Wearables Capture Body Sounds to Continuously Monitor Health

Nov. 16, 2023 — From heart beats to stomach gurgles, sounds hold important health information. New wireless devices sit on skin to continuously capture these sounds, then stream data to smartphones or tablets in ...

Scientists 3D-Print Hair Follicles in Lab-Grown Skin

Nov. 15, 2023 — Scientists have 3D-printed hair follicles in human skin tissue cultured in the lab. This marks the first time researchers have used the technology to generate hair follicles, which play an important ...

Printed Robots With Bones, Ligaments, and Tendons

Nov. 15, 2023 — For the first time, researchers have succeeded in printing a robotic hand with bones, ligaments and tendons made of different polymers using a new laser scanning technique. The new technology makes ...

When We Feel Things That Are Not There

Nov. 14, 2023 — The discovery of the phantom touch illusion provides insights into human perception and opens up new perspectives for interaction with virtual reality ...

How Human Faces Can Teach Androids to Smile

Nov. 9, 2023 — A research team used 125 physical markers to understand the detailed mechanics of 44 different human facial motions. The aim was to better understand how to convey emotions with artificial faces. ...

'Cooling Glass' Blasts Building Heat Into Space

Nov. 13, 2023 — Researchers aiming to combat rising global temperatures have developed a new 'cooling glass' that can turn down the heat indoors without electricity by drawing on the cold depths of space. The new ...

Earlier Headlines

Summaries
Headlines

Tracking Down Quantum Flickering of the Vacuum

Nov. 13, 2023 — Absolutely empty -- that is how most of us envision the vacuum. Yet, in reality, it is filled with an energetic flickering: the quantum fluctuations. Experts are currently preparing a laser ...

How to Use AI for Discovery -- Without Leading Science Astray

Nov. 9, 2023 — In the same way that chatbots sometimes 'hallucinate,' or make things up, machine learning models designed for scientific applications can sometimes present misleading or downright false ...

New AI Noise-Canceling Headphone Technology Lets Wearers Pick Which Sounds They Hear

Nov. 9, 2023 — Researchers have developed deep-learning algorithms that let users pick which sounds filter through their headphones in real time. Either through voice commands or a smartphone app, headphone wearers ...

The Secret to Longer Lasting Batteries Might Be in How Soap Works

Nov. 8, 2023 — Researchers show that one of the most promising substances for designing longer lasting lithium batteries form micelle-like structures like they do in ...

Machine Learning Gives Users 'Superhuman' Ability to Open and Control Tools in Virtual Reality

Nov. 7, 2023 — Researchers have developed a virtual reality application where a range of 3D modelling tools can be opened and controlled using just the movement of a user's ...

'Hot' New Form of Microscopy Examines Materials Using Evanescent Waves

Nov. 7, 2023 — A team of researchers has built a prototype microscope that does not rely on backscattered radiation, instead uses passive detection of thermally excited evanescent waves. They have examined ...

450-Million-Year-Old Organism Finds New Life in Softbotics

Nov. 6, 2023 — Researchers have used fossil evidence to engineer a soft robotic replica of pleurocystitids, a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago and is believed to be one of the first ...

Want the Secret to Less Painful Belly Flops? These Researchers Have the Answer

Nov. 6, 2023 — Researchers investigated belly flop mechanics and found surprising insights about air-to-water impacts that could be useful for marine engineering applications. They set up a belly flop-like water ...

Two Fins Are Better Than One: Fish Synchronize Tail Fins to Save Energy

Nov. 6, 2023 — They say two heads are better than one. But in the world of fish, it appears two fins are better than one. Researchers have produced a theoretical model that demonstrates the underlying mechanisms ...

Researchers Engineer Colloidal Quasicrystals Using DNA-Modified Building Blocks

Nov. 2, 2023 — A new study unveils a novel methodology to engineer colloidal quasicrystals using DNA-modified building blocks. The implications of this breakthrough are far-reaching, offering a potential blueprint ...

In a Surprising Finding, Light Can Make Water Evaporate Without Heat

Nov. 1, 2023 — At the interface of water and air, light can, in certain conditions, bring about evaporation without the need for heat, according to a new ...

Reverse Engineering Jackson Pollock

Oct. 31, 2023 — Researchers combined physics and machine learning to develop a new 3D-printing technique that can quickly create complex physical patterns -- including replicating a segment of a Pollock painting -- ...

Complex Data Becomes Easier to Interpret When Transformed Into Music

Oct. 30, 2023 — Researchers in the field of human-technology interaction have demonstrated how a custom-built 'data-to-music' algorithms can help to better understand complex data. The transformation of ...

To Advance Space Colonization, New Research Explores 3D Printing in Microgravity

Oct. 30, 2023 — Research into how 3D printing works in a weightless environment aims to support long-term exploration and habitation on spaceships, the moon or ...

Robot Stand-in Mimics Movements in VR

Oct. 27, 2023 — Researchers have developed a souped-up telepresence robot that responds automatically and in real-time to a remote user's movements and gestures made in virtual ...

Shape-Shifting Fiber Can Produce Morphing Fabrics

Oct. 26, 2023 — FibeRobo is a liquid crystal elastomer fiber that can change its shape in response to thermal stimuli. Compatible with existing textile manufacturing machinery, it could be used to make morphing ...

Engineers Develop Breakthrough 'Robot Skin'

Oct. 26, 2023 — Smart, stretchable and highly sensitive, a new soft sensor opens the door to a wide range of applications in robotics and prosthetics. When applied to the surface of a prosthetic arm or a robotic ...

How Quantum Light 'Sees' Quantum Sound

Oct. 24, 2023 — Researchers have proposed a new way of using quantum light to 'see' quantum sound. A new paper reveals the quantum-mechanical interplay between vibrations and particles of light, known as ...

Plant-Based Materials Give 'Life' to Tiny Soft Robots

Oct. 23, 2023 — A team of researchers has created smart, advanced materials that will be the building blocks for a future generation of soft medical microrobots. These tiny robots have the potential to conduct ...

International Team Develops Novel DNA Nano Engine

Oct. 19, 2023 — An international team of scientists has recently developed a novel type of nano engine made of DNA. It is driven by a clever mechanism and can perform pulsing movements. The researchers are now ...

Monday, November 13, 2023