Trash talking has a long and colorful history of flustering game opponents, and now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated that discouraging words can be perturbing even when uttered by a robot. The trash talk in the study was decidedly mild, with utterances such as “I have to say you are a terrible player,”...
Over the years, scientists have recorded same-sex sexual behavior in more than 1,500 animal species, from snow geese to common toads. And for just as long evolutionary biologists studying these behaviors have grappled with what has come to be known as a “Darwinian paradox”: How can these behaviors be so persistent when they offer no...
Recent technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have made it possible for machines, or bots, to pass as humans. A team of researchers led by Talal Rahwan, associate professor of Computer Science at NYU Abu Dhabi, conducted an experiment to study how people interact with bots whom they believe to be human, and how such interactions...
Scientists from the University of Helsinki have figured out how to mine people’s online reactions to endangered animals and plants, so that they can reduce the chance of pushing species toward extinction. When the last male northern white rhinoceros died in March 2018, online news printed obituaries, and millions of people grieved on social media....
In research that validates what many parents and educators suspect, students whose grades are below average could boost their results if they devoted less time to Facebook and other social networking sites. The study, led by Dr. James Wakefield from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), looked at the amount of time first-year university students...
Free internet access must be considered as a human right, as people unable to get online – particularly in developing countries – lack meaningful ways to influence the global players shaping their everyday lives, according to a new study. As political engagement increasingly takes place online, basic freedoms that many take for granted including free...
With the presidential election season moving into high gear, campaign messaging will soon begin increasing dramatically. But for those of us who get our news from social media, a new study from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin offers a strong warning: You can’t trust yourself to discern what’s...
Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first job in television. Steven Spielberg was rejected from film school multiple times, and Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school’s varsity basketball team. Stories like these fuel motivational mantras about learning from failure and coming out stronger on the other side. But little research has been done to...
Language proficiency has an important influence on learners’ ability to answer scientific questions a new joint study by Lancaster and Sheffield Universities has found. And this is particularly challenging for children from homes where English is not their first language -now a significant and increasing proportion of classrooms worldwide. The changing nature of assessment, such...
Researchers from Oregon State University have completed an examination of, and have released, a new cross-bred hazelnut cultivar known as ‘PollyO’, and they have discovered it to be a rising star of hazelnuts grown within the United States. Shawn Mehlenbacher, David Smith, and Rebecca McCluskey released the Corylus avellane L. hazelnut ‘PollyO’ and compared it...
