A new social robot that can be customized with handcrafted material, such as wood and wool, brings simplicity and fun to home robotics — and will soon be used to help teach math to fourth graders. Guy Hoffman, assistant professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, envisioned robots built...
Almost everyone agrees that store-bought tomatoes don’t have much flavor. Now, scientists from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) may have spotlighted the solution in a paper just published in Nature Genetics. Molecular biologist James Giovannoni with the ARS Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research Laboratory and BTI bioinformatics scientist Zhangjun Fei,...
Everywhere you look, people are looking at screens. In the decade since smartphones have become ubiquitous, we now have a feeling almost as common as the smartphones themselves: being sucked into that black hole of staring at those specific apps — you know which ones they are — and then a half an hour has...
At age 90, Ali Atar, one of the main military chiefs of King Boabdil of Granada, fought to his death in the Battle of Lucena in 1483. It was there that his magnificent Nasrid sword was taken away from him, and researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and a company from Toledo have now...
A new baby is often welcomed with speculation about whether they got their eyes and nose from mom or dad, but researchers say it may be possible for children to inherit their parents’ moral characteristics, as well. The researchers found that while parents can help encourage their children to develop into responsible, conscientious adults, there...
Given the limited capacity of our attention, we only process a small amount of the sights, sounds, and sensations that reach our senses at any given moment — what happens to the stimuli that reach our senses but don’t enter awareness? Research suggests that certain stimuli – specifically, your own face – can influence how...
The introduction of communication technologies appears to bias historical records in the direction of the content best suited for each technology, according to a study published in PLOS ONE by C. Jara-Figueroa and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Studying the societal impact of new communication technologies is challenging, due to limited data on historical...
A frosty mug of beer or ruby-red glass of wine just wouldn’t be the same if the liquid was murky or gritty. That’s why producers of alcoholic beverages usually filter them. But in a study appearing in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers report that a material often used as a filter could be...
Smartphones have become a constant companion for many of us. In a recent study by the Pew Research Center, nearly 50 percent of adults reported they “couldn’t live without” their phones. Whether at the supermarket, in the doctor’s office, or in bed at night, it can be tempting to pick up the device and start...
Few years from now, students in schools all over the world will receive part of their education in virtual learning environments. Wearing VR-goggles the students will be able to enter dimensional, simulated places and situations that they would normally not have access to because it would be too expensive, too dangerous or physically impossible. Teaching...
