Scientists find a long-sought electric field in Earth’s atmosphere
Once established, the field can act as a booster for lighter ions like hydrogen, giving them enough energy to break free of Earth’s gravity and zoom away as the polar wind.
Why everyone needs to stop joking that they’re “a little bit OCD”
Thanks to decades of research into the underlying mechanisms behind the condition, we now know that entire brain networks are affected, with significant imbalances in the neurotransmitters that drive the transmission of signals around them.
The moon might still have active volcanoes, China’s Chang’e 5 sample-return probe reveals
A team led by Bi-Wen Wang and Qian Zhang of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing carefully searched the 0.6 ounces (1.7 grams) of lunar dirt recovered by Chang'e 5 for these needles in a haystack.
Talking to a chatbot may weaken someone’s belief in conspiracy theories
So when the team asked the chatbot to “very effectively persuade” conspiracy theorists out of their belief, it delivered a rapid and targeted rebuttal, says Thomas Costello, a cognitive psychologist at American University in Washington, D.C. That’s more efficient than, say, a person trying to talk their hoax-loving uncle off the ledge at Thanksgiving.
AI generates harsher punishments for people who use Black dialect
As part of the study, for instance, the team told three generative AI tools — ChatGPT (including GPT-2, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 language models), T5 and RoBERTa — to review the hypothetical case of a person convicted of first-degree murder and dole out either a life sentence or the death penalty.
Even simple bacteria can anticipate the changing seasons
“The fact that an organism as old and as simple as a cyanobacterium can have photoperiodic responses suggests that this is a phenomenon that evolved much earlier than we might have imagined,” says Jabbur, who is now at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK.
‘Percy’, NASA’s rover, finds its first hint of ancient life on Mars
A big part of Percy’s mission is to collect samples from interesting rocks for a future spacecraft to later bring home to Earth.
Readers discuss black holes’ trippy effects on time, banned swimsuits
“The seeming paradox arises because of the extreme time dilation near the event horizon,” says theoretical physicist Eduardo Martín-Martínez of the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Python fangs inspired a fix for shoulder injuries common in sports
3-D printing: A means of producing physical items — including toys, foods and even body parts — using a machine that takes instructions from a computer program.
Earthquakes may explain how huge gold nuggets form in quartz rock
To test this idea, the team conducted experiments with quartz crystals placed in a solution containing gold and subjected to moderate pressures from an actuator.
How understanding the brain’s microglia could end neurodegeneration
Yet, despite their vigilance, microglia can sometimes engage in friendly fire, with a growing body of evidence suggesting they may be the engineers behind some of the brain’s most intractable conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease and depression.
Sweat monitor could reveal when you are exercising too hard
The device could be used to improve worker safety in physically demanding jobs, such as the construction industry, as well as to help sportspeople optimise their training, says John Rogers at Northwestern University in Illinois.