Science & Technology News

Even ChatGPT Says ChatGPT Is Racially Biased

Scientifc America - Wed, 2024-02-07 08:00

When asked, ChatGPT declared that its training material—the language we humans use every day—was to blame for potential bias in stories it generated

New AI Circuitry That Mimics Human Brains Makes Models Smarter

Scientifc America - Wed, 2024-02-07 07:30

A new kind of transistor allows AI hardware to remember and process information more like the human brain does

Females Dominate Males in Many Primate Species

Scientifc America - Wed, 2024-02-07 06:45

Most primate societies have long been assumed to be male-dominated, but a new study shows many have females in charge or feature power sharing

A long, long time ago in a galaxy not so far away

Science Daily Astronomy - Tue, 2024-02-06 15:15
Employing massive data sets collected through NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are unearthing clues to conditions existing in the early universe. The team has catalogued the ages of stars in the Wolf--Lundmark--Melotte (WLM) galaxy, constructing the most detailed picture of it yet, according to the researchers. WLM, a neighbor of the Milky Way, is an active center of star formation that includes ancient stars formed 13 billion years ago.

Newly discovered carbon monoxide-runaway gap can help identify habitable exoplanets

Science Daily Astronomy - Tue, 2024-02-06 14:49
A carbon monoxide (CO)-runaway gap identified in the atmospheres of Earth-like planets can help expand the search for habitable planets. This gap, identified through atmospheric modeling, is an indicator of a CO-rich atmosphere on Earth-like planets orbiting Sun-like stars. CO is an important compound for the formation of prebiotic organic compounds, which are building blocks for more complex molecules for the formation of life.

Which came first: Black holes or galaxies?

Science Daily Astronomy - Tue, 2024-02-06 14:49
Black holes not only existed at the dawn of time, they birthed new stars and supercharged galaxy formation, a new analysis of James Webb Space Telescope data suggests.

Is Bisexuality Genetic? It's More Complex Than Some Studies Imply

Scientifc America - Tue, 2024-02-06 08:00

The controversy over a recent paper on human bisexual behavior emphasizes how important it is not to overinterpret genetic studies of sexuality—and how easy it is to do so

Rampant COVID Poses New Challenges in the Fifth Year of the Pandemic

Scientifc America - Tue, 2024-02-06 07:00

“We’re still in a pandemic,” says a lead COVID official with the World Health Organization

Why Do Dogs Wag Their Tail?

Scientifc America - Tue, 2024-02-06 06:45

Is your dog’s tail-wagging a side effect of domestication, or did humans select for it?

Jupiter's Supervolcanic Moon Io Dazzles in Photos from NASA's Close Flybys

Scientifc America - Mon, 2024-02-05 11:15

During close flybys of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured stunning “bonus science” about the nightmarish world

How String Theory Solved Math's Monstrous Moonshine Problem

Scientifc America - Mon, 2024-02-05 08:00

A concept from theoretical physics helped confirm the strange connection between two completely different areas of mathematics

Why Does a Solar Eclipse Move West to East?

Scientifc America - Sat, 2024-02-03 08:00

Here’s why the path of a solar eclipse travels in the opposite direction of that of the sun

A Dog Breed's Size and Face Shape Might Predict How Long It Lives

Scientifc America - Fri, 2024-02-02 15:30

Traits such as face shape, size and sex help predict a dog breed’s life span

Neptune-like exoplanets can be cloudy or clear

Science Daily Astronomy - Fri, 2024-02-02 11:51
Astronomers have shown new atmospheric detail in a set of 15 exoplanets similar to Neptune. While none could support humanity, a better understanding of their behavior might help us to understand why we don't have a small Neptune, while most solar systems seem to feature a planet of this class.

Where Does Outer Space Begin?

Scientifc America - Fri, 2024-02-02 07:30

The popular limit of a 100-kilometer altitude for the edge of space should probably be adjusted down to 80 km

Here Are the Best Places to View the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Scientifc America - Fri, 2024-02-02 07:00

Weather predictions and population statistics show the best spots to see the total solar eclipse over North America this April

How to Make Urban Agriculture More Climate-Friendly

Scientifc America - Fri, 2024-02-02 06:45

The process of growing fruits and vegetables in cities can emit more carbon than conventional farming

A Camera-Wearing Baby Taught an AI to Learn Words

Scientifc America - Thu, 2024-02-01 14:00

Most machine-learning models rely on mountains of data to replicate human text, but new research suggests the recipe for learning language might be simpler

Gas on the run -- ALMA spots the shadow of a molecular outflow from a quasar when the Universe was less than one billion years old

Science Daily Astronomy - Thu, 2024-02-01 12:18
Theoretical predictions have been confirmed with the discovery of an outflow of molecular gas from a quasar when the Universe was less than a billion years old.

Forgotten Electrical Engineer's Work Paved the Way for Radar Technology

Scientifc America - Thu, 2024-02-01 12:00

Sallie Pero Mead made major discoveries about how electromagnetic waves propagate that allowed objects to be detected at a distance

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