Science News

Artificial intelligence has learned to create spine-tingling Halloween masks after being fed 5000 photos of scary or funny costume masks

Spontaneously generated patterns of activity by local neural networks in the developing visual cortex provide the basis for long range connections that are established throughout brain activity over the course of cortica...

Europe's scientific elite say a hard Brexit will damage science. They should be supporting those who face much worse consequences, says Ehsan Masood

Preserved chemical evidence suggests that sponges were among Earth's earliest animals.

Backbones helped vertebrates conquer the oceans and move onto land. Now a study hints they may have evolved as protection against strong waves in shallow waters

Computer modeling, in combination with traditional research, is allowing researchers to obtain a better understanding about how specific gut bacteria will interact. The findings may allow scientists to manipulate the mic...

A new study reports acute loss of normal activity in serotonin producing neurons blunts the body's ability to recover from interrupted breathing. Researchers say this could provide an explanation to why some infants die ...

Using engineered nanocomposite structures called metamaterials, a City College of New York-led research team reports the ability to measure a significant increase in the energy transfer between molecules. Reported in the...

Gyroscopes are devices that help vehicles, drones, and wearable and handheld electronic devices know their orientation in three-dimensional space. They are commonplace in just about every bit of technology we rely on eve...

A network metric called the K-core could predict structural collapse in mutualistic ecosystems, according to research by physicists at The City College of New York. The K-core appears able to forecast which species is li...

A new study reports microdosing psychedelics may enhance creative problem solving without risk of hallucinations, or trips, associated with taking high doses of the substances.

Last year, a novelist went on a road trip across the USA. The trip was an attempt to emulate Jack Kerouac--to go out On The Road and find something essential to write about in the experience. There is, however, a key dif...

A small metal droplet can propel a wheeled robot forward, paving the way for larger robots that can trundle like tumbleweeds through unfriendly terrain

TO A FOREIGN tourist, a giraffe is an extraordinary and elegant beast. To locals it is, too often, a larder on legs. A giraffe can weigh as much as a tonne and a half. Only two African animals, the elephant and the white...

Freud, too, knew the importance of listening carefully DIAGNOSING MENTAL illness is difficult. Giving broad names such as "schizophrenia" and "bipolar disorder" to particular sets of symptoms helps psychiatrists and pati...

THE TROLLEY problem used to be an obscure question in philosophical ethics. It runs as follows: a trolley, or a train, is speeding down a track towards a junction. Some moustache-twirling evildoer has tied five people to...

A NASA scientist actually spotted two sharp-cornered icebergs during a recent research flight over Antarctica.

President Trump claims the US has the world's cleanest air, but he is ignoring urban pollution data while actively dismantling regulations that protect air quality

Scientists at ANU have invented tiny diamond electronic parts that could outperform and be more durable than today's devices in high-radiation environments such as rocket engines, helping to reach the next frontier in sp...

We already know neutrinos break the mold of the Standard Model. The question is: By how much? Tested and verified with ever increasing precision, the Standard Model of particle physics is a remarkably elegant way of unde...

What could make the Earth seem to "breathe" as it does in this startling video from Quebec, Canada?

People with psoriasis may be at greater risk of developing certain gut disorders, a new study finds.