(Credit: Shutterstock)
The great Mr. Rogers once shared these words of wisdom to allay our fears in times of great strife: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
But bonobos, our highly social and sexually promiscuous closest relatives, probably couldn’t care less about those helpers. Instead, they’d much rather keep their eyes peeled for the ...read more
A composite, layered image of 16 individuals (eight women) photographed twice in a cross-over design. These photos average the facial features of all 16 people into a single face. Can you tell which person is sick? A or B? (Answer at the bottom of this article. (Credit: Axelsson et al)
Humans seem to possess an uncanny ability to read sickness on others’ faces, even in the earliest stages of an infection.
No kidding, you might say. Who couldn’t pick out a poor soul who’s been ...read more
An artist’s concept of a ring of dust orbiting Tabby’s Star. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
We can probably put our hopes of meeting aliens on hold just a little bit longer.
A team of researchers studying “Tabby’s star,” a stellar object whose mysterious dips in brightness have puzzled scientists and enthralled space enthusiasts, has announced that the most likely explanation for the behavior is a cloud of fine dust circling the star—wah, wah.
That con ...read more
The clever and adorable repair droid BB-8 is a popular face of the new Star Wars film trilogy by Disney. Credit: Disney
Robots can provide comic relief and cuteness overload for longtime fans of the Star Wars films that take place in a galaxy far, far away. The latest example in Disney’s Star Wars films is the adorable BB-8 droid that has a dome head riding atop a spherical body and mostly communicates through beeps and electronic warbles. But something dark and omino ...read more
In a new paper in the Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, Chris Drummond takes aim at the ‘reproducibility movement’ which has lately risen to prominence in science.
As one of the early advocates for this movement, I was interested to see what Drummond had to say. While I don’t find his argument wholly convincing, he does raise some good points.
Drummond begins by summarizing the case for reproducible research as it sees it. The claim is that rep ...read more
Roosters have built-in earplugs that shut off their ears when they crow. Because of course they do. Photo Credit: Little Perfect Stock/Shutterstock
If you’ve spent any time around roosters, you know that their “morning” crowing can be… loud. That distinctive cock-a-doodle-doo is piercing: if you happen to be standing near a rooster sounding off, you’re hit with a sound wave that’s about 100 decibels. That’s unpleasantly loud, like the whir of ...read more
An animation of nighttime images captured by the GOES-16 weather satellite on December 28, 2017. Long, parallel bands of cumulus clouds are seen streaming out over the Atlantic. (Images: RAMMB/SLIDER. GIF animation: Tom Yulsman)
Baby, it’s cold outside!
If you live pretty much anywhere in Canada, or in the United States east of the Rockies, that wonderful song from the 1940s pretty much sums up the conditions as 2017 draws to a close. And when revelers watch the b ...read more
The thermal infrared camera imagery taken by a drone operated by the Air Shepherd conservation group during a field demonstration. Credit: Air Shepherd
Poachers illegally hunting elephants and rhinoceroses under the supposed cover of darkness may soon find themselves being tracked by “Predator” vision drones armed with artificial intelligence. The new AI system that enables surveillance drones to automatically detect both humans and animals could help conse ...read more
A cast of the fossil at the Natural History Museum in London. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
We’re teetering on the brink of a new year, and in the spirit of fresh beginnings I’d like to introduce you to Attenborosaurus conybeari.
It’s an Attenborosaurus (yes, you can call it that) but we once called it a plesiosaur because it looked so similar to the ancient marine reptiles. A long neck, sharp teeth, four big flippers and a round body were all that it took t ...read more
