Bizarre Things: Matter & Energy

November 20, 2024

Top Headlines

Synchronized Movement Between Robots and Humans Builds Trust, Study Finds

Nov. 20, 2024 — Trust between humans and robots is improved when the movement between both is harmonized, researchers have ...

Researchers Develop Clinically Validated, Wearable Ultrasound Patch for Continuous Blood Pressure Monitoring

Nov. 20, 2024 — A re-engineered wearable ultrasound patch for continuous and noninvasive blood pressure monitoring has undergone comprehensive clinical validation on over 100 patients, marking a major milestone in ...

New Theory Reveals the Shape of a Single Photon

Nov. 19, 2024 — A new theory, that explains how light and matter interact at the quantum level has enabled researchers to define for the first time the precise shape of a single ...

Sliding Seeds Can Provide Insight Into Devastating Landslides and Rock Avalanches

Nov. 19, 2024 — Researchers study how Champatis roll and bounce down inclines. The authors released a heap of the seeds down an inclined plane while a camera recorded their descent to analyze their speed and the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:32pm EST

Effortless Robot Movements

Nov. 18, 2024 — Humans and animals move with remarkable economy without consciously thinking about it by utilizing the natural oscillation patterns of their bodies. A new tool can now utilize this knowledge for the ...

Invisible Touch: AI Can Feel and Measure Surfaces

Nov. 16, 2024 — Quantum-science advances using AI can measure very small surfaces and distances -- opening a world of medical, manufacturing and other ...

Sensitive Ceramics for Soft Robotics

Nov. 14, 2024 — Robots that can sense touch and perceive temperature differences? An unexpected material might just make this a reality. Researchers are developing soft and intelligent sensor materials based on ...

When Is a Hole Not a Hole? Researchers Investigate the Mystery of 'Latent Pores'

Nov. 14, 2024 — Researchers have explored how a particular chemical can selectively trap certain molecules in the cavities of its structure -- even though in normal ...

AI Headphones Create a 'Sound Bubble,' Quieting All Sounds More Than a Few Feet Away

Nov. 14, 2024 — Researchers have created a headphone prototype that allows listeners to hear people speaking within a bubble with a programmable radius of 3 to 6 ...

'Cool' White Car Headlights More Likely to Dazzle Moths

Nov. 14, 2024 — 'Cool' white lights -- such as those in modern car headlights -- endanger moths by causing them to fly erratically, new research ...

Robotic Shorts Support People When Walking

Nov. 14, 2024 — Researchers have developed robotic trousers that enable people to walk more easily while expending measurably less energy. The aim is to keep frail individuals and in particular the elderly mobile ...

NeuroMechFly V2: Simulating How Fruit Flies See, Smell, and Navigate

Nov. 12, 2024 — Scientists have advanced their NeuroMechFly model, simulating fruit fly movement in the real world. With integrated vision and smell, NeuroMechFly v2 helps us understand brain-body coordination, ...

Scientists Discover Laser Light Can Cast a Shadow

Nov. 14, 2024 — Researchers have found that under certain conditions, a laser beam can act like an opaque object and cast a shadow, opening new possibilities for technologies that could use a laser beam to control ...

Robot Identifies Plants by 'Touching' Their Leaves

Nov. 13, 2024 — Researchers have developed a robot that identifies different plant species at various stages of growth by 'touching' their leaves with an electrode. The robot can measure properties such as surface ...

On the Origin of Life: How the First Cell Membranes Came to Exist

Nov. 13, 2024 — Few questions have captivated humankind more than the origin of life on Earth. How did the first living cells come to exist? How did these early protocells develop the structural membranes necessary ...

Anti-Fatberg Invention Could Help Unclog City Sewers

Nov. 13, 2024 — Engineers have invented a protective coating for concrete pipes that could help drastically reduce the formation of fatbergs in ...

Synthetic Cells Emulate Natural Cellular Communication

Nov. 12, 2024 — A research team has succeeded in synthesizing simple, environmentally sensitive cells complete with artificial organelles. For the first time, the researchers have also been able to emulate natural ...

Giving Robots Superhuman Vision Using Radio Signals

Nov. 12, 2024 — Researchers have developed PanoRadar, a new tool to give robots superhuman vision by transforming simple radio waves into detailed, 3D views of the ...

Breakthrough in Photonic Time Crystals Could Change How We Use and Control Light

Nov. 12, 2024 — An international research team has for the first time designed realistic photonic time crystals ---- exotic materials that exponentially amplify light. The breakthrough opens up exciting ...

Storm in a Laser Beam: Physicists Create 'Light Hurricanes' That Could Transport Huge Amounts of Data

Nov. 11, 2024 — The discovery, centred around controlling tiny hurricanes of light and electromagnetic fields, could revolutionise how much information we can deliver over ...

Robot That Watched Surgery Videos Performs With Skill of Human Doctor, Researchers Report

Nov. 11, 2024 — A robot, trained for the first time by watching videos of seasoned surgeons, executed the same surgical procedures as skillfully as the human doctors, say ...

Robot Learns How to Clean a Washbasin

Nov. 7, 2024 — Scientists have created a robot that can learn tasks like cleaning a washbasin just by watching humans. A special sponge with sensors is used to show the robot how to clean. Using an advanced machine ...

Astrophysicists Use Echoes of Light to Illuminate Black Holes

Nov. 7, 2024 — Researchers have developed an innovative technique to search for black hole light echoes. Their novel method, which will make it easier for the mass and the spin of black holes to be measured, ...

Off-the-Shelf Thermoelectric Generators Can Upgrade CO2 Into Chemicals: The Combination Could Help Us Colonize Mars

Nov. 7, 2024 — Readily available thermoelectric generators operating under modest temperature differences can power CO2 conversion, according to a proof-of-concept study by chemists. The findings open up the ...

Quantum Vortices Confirm Superfluidity in Supersolid

Nov. 6, 2024 — Supersolids are a new form of quantum matter that has only recently been demonstrated. The state of matter can be produced artificially in ultracold, dipolar quantum gases. A team has now ...

AI-Driven Mobile Robots Team Up to Tackle Chemical Synthesis

Nov. 6, 2024 — Researchers have developed AI-driven mobile robots that can carry out chemical synthesis research with extraordinary efficiency. Researchers show how mobile robots that use AI logic to make decisions ...

New Haptic Patch Transmits Complexity of Touch to the Skin

Nov. 6, 2024 — Thin, flexible device could help people with visual impairments 'feel' surroundings. Device comprises a hexagonal array of 19 actuators encapsulated in soft silicone. Device only uses ...

Explaining Science Through Dance

Nov. 5, 2024 — Explaining a theoretical science concept to high school students requires a new way of thinking altogether, which is precisely what researchers did when they orchestrated a dance with high school ...

The Secrets of Baseball's Magic Mud

Nov. 4, 2024 — The unique properties of baseball's famed 'magic' mud, which MLB equipment managers applied to every ball in the World Series, have never been scientifically quantified -- until now. ...

Revolutionary High-Speed 3D Bioprinter Hailed a Game Changer for Drug Discovery

Nov. 1, 2024 — Biomedical engineers have invented a 3D printing system, or bioprinter, capable of fabricating structures that closely mimic the diverse tissues in the human body, from soft brain tissue to harder ...

New Methods for Whale Tracking and Rendezvous Using Autonomous Robots

Oct. 31, 2024 — Today, a research team has proposed a new reinforcement learning framework with autonomous drones to find sperm whales and predict where they will ...

A Rudimentary Quantum Network Link Between Dutch Cities

Oct. 31, 2024 — Researchers have demonstrated a network connection between quantum processors over metropolitan distances. Their result marks a key advance from early research networks in the lab towards a future ...

How Virtual Cows Could Help Us Improve Human-Robot Interactions

Oct. 31, 2024 — A video game in which participants herded virtual cattle has furthered our understanding of how humans make decisions on movement and navigation, and it could help us not only interact more ...

A Faster, Better Way to Train General-Purpose Robots

Oct. 28, 2024 — Inspired by large language models, researchers developed a training technique that pools diverse data to teach robots new ...