Category: Life

  • Grain… Seed… Born!

    Researchers examined stable isotopes from bone collagen and dental enamel to reconstruct the diets of ancient Mongolians. Findings challenge the popular notion of a completely nomadic prehistoric population, linking grain cultivation with the success of the Xiongnu Empire (c. 200 BCE-150 CE) and showing continual grain consumption during the Mongol Empire of the Khans (c. […]

  • Touching with light…

    In a lab at Columbia University, engineers have developed a strange yet clever way for robots to feel: Let’s call it the finger of light. It’s got a 3D-printed skeleton embedded with 32 photodiodes and 30 adjacent LEDs, over which is laid a squishy skin of reflective silicone, which keeps the device’s own light in […]

  • Trust not the face…

    Trust not the face…

    Facial expressions might not be reliable indicators of emotion, research indicates. In fact, it might be more accurate to say we should never trust a person’s face, new research suggests. (1) Trust your feelings. Not your senses. Trust you. Not others. Trust the cosmos. Not the stars. There is nothing to see in the waves. […]

  • AI not explaining it self… Scary AI… Scary humans…

    AI not explaining it self… Scary AI… Scary humans…

    Upol Ehsan once took a test ride in an Uber self-driving car. Instead of fretting about the empty driver’s seat, anxious passengers were encouraged to watch a “pacifier” screen that showed a car’s-eye view of the road: hazards picked out in orange and red, safe zones in cool blue. For Ehsan, who studies the way […]

  • Cutting skin… Moving cells…

    Cutting skin… Moving cells…

    When we cut our skin, groups of cells rush en masse to the site to heal the wound. But the complicated mechanics of this collective cell movement — which are facilitated by rearrangements between each cell and its neighbors — have made it challenging for researchers to decipher what’s actually driving it. Notbohm and doctoral […]