Predictive policing is tainted by 'dirty data,' study finds

A new study from New York University School of Law and NYU's AI Now Institute concludes that predictive policing systems run the risk of exacerbating discrimination in the criminal justice system if they rely on "dirty data." | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Astronomers deliver first photo of black hole

Astronomers on Wednesday unveiled the first photo of a black hole, one of the star-devouring monsters scattered throughout the Universe and obscured by impenetrable shields of gravity. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

We've found a quicker way to multiply really big numbers

Multiplication of two numbers is easy, right? | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

From ruined bridges to dirty air, EPA scientists price out the cost of climate change

By the end of the century, the manifold consequences of unchecked climate change will cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars per year, according to a new study by scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Reducing greenhouse gases while balancing demand for meat

Humans' love for meat could be hurting the planet. Many of the steps involved in the meat supply chain result in greenhouse gas emissions. But a new international study in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology evaluates several strategies that could reduce these environmental e … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

How severe drought influences ozone pollution

From 2011 to 2015, California experienced its worst drought on record, with a parching combination of high temperatures and low precipitation. Drought conditions can have complicated effects on ozone air quality, so to better understand the process, researchers have analyzed data … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Ultrasound aligns living cells in bioprinted tissues

North Carolina State University researchers have developed a technique to improve the characteristics of engineered tissues by using ultrasound to align living cells during the biofabrication process. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New electron microscopy technique limits membrane destruction

Membrane proteins play an important role in many biological processes. Studies suggest they're targeted by more than 50% of all modern medicinal drugs. Unfortunately for researchers, determining their structures has been a longstanding challenge because it's difficult to track th … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

At the 2-D scale, isotopic composition has unforeseen effects on light emission

Compared to bulk materials, atomically thin materials like transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer size and tunability advantages over traditional materials in developing miniature electronic and optical devices. The 2-dimensional TMDs are of particular interest because the … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Catching fast changes in excited molecules

It's hard to see certain molecules react. The reaction is just that fast. Until now. A team of scientists devised a way to reveal time- and energy-resolved information on "dark" states of molecules—ones that are normally inaccessible. Their approach? They control the evolution of … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New algorithm optimizes quantum computing problem-solving

Tohoku University researchers have developed an algorithm that enhances the ability of a Canadian-designed quantum computer to more efficiently find the best solution for complicated problems, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Pedestrians at crosswalks found to follow the Levy walk process

A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo has found that large numbers of pedestrians meeting in crosswalks tend to follow the Lévy walk process. In their paper published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the group outlines their work observing crowd movement and … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Study shows green roofs could reduce indoor air pollution

Green roofs – roofs that are planted with vegetation—may improve the indoor air quality of commercial buildings by cutting the amount of ozone coming into the buildings from the outside, according to new research from Portland State University. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Researchers explain signals of CpG 'traffic lights' in DNA

A research team featuring bioinformaticians from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) has identified reliable markers of gene activity. The discovery has potential for future applications in clinical practice. The findings are reported in BMC Genomics. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Sorting out sick from healthy blood cells—physicists discover new effect

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Water that never freezes

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

How Twitter helped Trump win the U.S. Elections

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Testing literacy today requires more than a pencil and paper

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

U.S. hit with two billion-dollar disasters so far in 2019

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Keeping nuclear power safe

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Research reveals evidence of climate change in the Yukon permafrost

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Robots to the rescue of the Great Barrier Reef

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

The aging face of homelessness in North American cities

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Women's labour force transformation dates back to the Great Depression

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Dolphins who help fishermen found to also hang out together between meals

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Siren sounds on nuclear fallout embedded in melting glaciers

Radioactive fallout from nuclear meltdowns and weapons testing is nestled in glaciers across the world, scientists said Wednesday, warning of a potentially hazardous time bomb as rising temperatures melt the icy residue. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Cyclone Idai's death toll now above 1,000 in southern Africa

The death toll from the cyclone that ripped into southern Africa last month is now above 1,000, while the number of cholera cases among survivors has risen above 4,000. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Creating sustainable bioplastics from electricity-eating microbes

Electricity harvested from the sun or wind can be used interchangeably with power from coal or petroleum sources. Or sustainably produced electricity can be turned into something physical and useful. Researchers in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis have figure … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Scientists invent time-saving technique to show how cells differentiate

Researchers with the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago have developed a new "lab-on-a-chip" that can examine thousands of individual live cells over a weeklong period, performing experiments that would take more than 1 million steps in a laboratory. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Study finds noncompete clauses affect how employees behave, to benefit of employers

The business world has been the center of a hot debate in recent years about noncompete clauses in employment contracts and the effects they have on profits, economic development and other factors. Yet the debaters often overlook how such clauses affect those who work under them: … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Transforming the art industry with Blockchain

Sometimes an art forgery is so sophisticated, it fools even the experts. For example, in 2011, Sotheby's brokered a deal for a darkly coloured gentleman's portrait said to be by 17th century painter Frans Hals the Elder. The buyer paid roughly AU$15 million (US$10.9 million). In … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Image: Astronaut Matthias Maurer training for EVA

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer practices Space Station repairs in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New hybrid energy method could fuel the future of rockets, spacecraft for exploration

Graphene, a new material with applications in biomedical technology, electronics, composites, energy and sensors, may soon help send rockets to space. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Spinout seeks to transform food safety testing

"This is a $10 billion market and everyone knows it." Those are the words of Chris Hartshorn, CEO of a new MIT spinout—Xibus Systems—that is aiming to make a splash in the food industry with their new food safety sensor. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Scientists synthesize new nanowires to improve high-speed communication

Chinese scientists have synthesized new nanowires with high carrier mobility and fast infrared light (IR) response, which could help in high-speed communication. Their findings were published in Nature Communications on April 10th. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

3-D printing electrically assisted, nacre-inspired structures with self-sensing capabilities

Nacre, also known as mother of pearl is a composite, organic-inorganic material produced in nature in the inner shell layer of molluscs and the outer coating of pearls. The material is resilient and iridescent with high strength and toughness, resulting from its brick-and-mortar- … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Are brown dwarfs failed stars or super-planets?

Brown dwarfs fill the "gap" between stars and the much smaller planets—two very different types of astronomical objects. But how they originate has yet to be fully explained. Astronomers from Heidelberg University may now be able to answer that question. They discovered that the … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

TV shows for teens continue to feature stereotyped characters that perpetuate gender differences

A recent study has sought to identify and analyse adolescents' favourite kinds of characters in Spanish TV series for teens. The series in the study are fictional and feature characters that specifically target teenagers and a younger audience. The work by the researchers María J … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Scientists identify a key gene in the transmission of deadly African sleeping sickness

Life scientists from UCLA and the University of Bern have identified a key gene in the transmission of African sleeping sickness—a severe disease transmitted by the bite of infected tsetse flies, which are common in sub-Saharan Africa. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

NASA's OCO-3 measures how plants grow—and glow

When plants take in too much energy, they don't get fat—they lighten up. They absorb more sunlight than they need to power photosynthesis, and they get rid of the excess solar energy by emitting it as a very faint glow. The light is far too dim for us to notice under normal circu … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

NASA demos CubeSat laser communications capability

Two NASA CubeSats teamed up on an impromptu optical, or laser, communications pointing experiment. The laser beam is seen as a brief flash of light close to the center of the focal plane, to the left of Earth's horizon. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Airbus enters new era with change of CEO

European aerospace giant Airbus on Wednesday welcomes new CEO Guillaume Faury, whose inbox includes Brexit, US President Donald Trump's trade threats and corruption investigations. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Showy male primates have smaller testicles

Male primates equipped with all the bells and whistles to attract a female mate tend to have smaller gonads, according to a study by researchers at The University of Western Australia and University of Zurich. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Benin eyes video gaming in play for jobs and development

West Africa lags behind the northern hemisphere when it comes to software development but moves are afoot to tap into a growing interest in the region and across the continent. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Singapore seizes more pangolin scales in week's 2nd bust

Singapore has seized 14 tons of pangolin scales belonging to around 21,000 endangered mammals in the second such bust in less than a week. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Scant amounts of DNA reveal conservation clues

The key to solving a mystery is finding the right clues. Wildlife detectives aiming to protect endangered species have long been hobbled by the near impossibility of collecting DNA samples from rare and elusive animals. Now, researchers at Stanford and the National Centre for Bio … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Cuba's worker bees boost thriving honey business

In the floral valleys of Cuba's Matanzas province, old fashioned farming means bees can swarm without the threat of pesticides that have decimated populations across the world. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Aviation faces challenge to reduce pollution

Aviation has boomed in the past decades, with low-cost airlines helping make travel affordable to more people, but the industry faces a major challenge to play its part in cutting emissions responsible for global warming. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago