Watch 2 robots work together to make a hot dog

Watch a pair of robots, named Jaco and Baxter, to make a hot dog. It's a tasty proof of concept for more complex machine learning tasks.

Boston University | Feb. 19, 2020 | futurity

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~2 mins   

Tags: featured science-and-technology artificial-intelligence food machine-learning robots

In soda tax fight, experts hear echoes of tobacco battles

Taxes on sugary drinks are potentially effective tools to fight the obesity epidemic and advocates are drawing lessons from the long battle against tobacco as they plot what they know will be a tough road ahead.

Alvin Powell | Feb. 18, 2020 | harvard

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~5 mins   

Tags: health-medicine alvin-powell and-bioethics-emily-broad-leib basic-research biotechnology carmel-shachar diabetes harvard-law-school harvard-medical-school-center-for-bioethics obesity petrie-flom-center-for-health-law-policy soda soda-tax steven-gortmaker sugar-sweetened-beverages

Young male chimps still need their moms

Young male chimpanzees who have their mothers around are more likely to survive later in life, research finds. The same isn't true for chimp daughters.

Robin Smith-Duke | Feb. 18, 2020 | futurity

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~4 mins   

Tags: science-and-technology apes chimpanzees families mothers parents primates teenagers

Lab-made molecules store image of Picasso drawing

Researchers have stored and retrieved image data from mixtures containing molecules they made in the lab. It's a step forward for molecular data storage.

Kevin Stacey-Brown | Feb. 18, 2020 | futurity

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~5 mins   

Tags: science-and-technology data-science molecules

New class of enzymes could lead to bespoke diets, therapeutics

Professor Emily Balskus and her team have identified an entirely new class of enzymes that degrade chemicals essential for neurological health, but also help digest foods like nuts, berries, and tea, releasing nutrients that may impact human health.

Caitlin McDermott-Murphy | Feb. 18, 2020 | harvard

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~6 mins   

Tags: science-technology bacteria basic-research berries bespoke-diets caitlin-mcdermott-murphy cancer chemistry chemistry-and-chemical-biology chocolate coffee diet dopamine emily-balskus enzymes gut l-dopa microbes microbiology microbiome nutrition nuts parkinsons-disease science vayu-maini-rekdal

Eggshells indicate dinosaurs were warm-blooded

Were dinosaurs warm- or cold-blooded? New research may end the debate with an answer from dinosaur eggshells.

Jim Shelton-Yale | Feb. 18, 2020 | futurity

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~4 mins   

Tags: featured science-and-technology dinosaurs eggs fossils temperature

Correcting the “jitters” in quantum devices

A new study suggests a path to more efficient error correction, which may help make quantum computers and sensors more practical.

David L. Chandler | MIT News Office | Feb. 18, 2020 | mit

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~6 mins   

Tags: students research graduate postdoctoral school-of-engineering nuclear-science-and-engineering quantum-computing research-laboratory-of-electronics nanoscience-and-nanotechnology national-science-foundation-nsf

The world’s ‘chemical diversity’ tripled in just 20 years

We know alarmingly little about a third of the chemicals produced and sold around the world, a new estimate of "chemical diversity" highlights.

ETH Zurich | Feb. 17, 2020 | futurity

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~4 mins   

Tags: health-and-medicine science-and-technology business global-trade trends

Team finds giant bacteria-chomping viruses in odd places

Researchers found huge bacteriophages by digging through DNA data from different places, including the guts of pregnant women and a Tibetan hot spring.

U. Melbourne | Feb. 17, 2020 | futurity

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~3 mins   

Tags: science-and-technology bacteria microbiome viruses

Arrokoth’s origins may solve planetary ‘building blocks’ mystery

Arrokoth, the furthest object a spacecraft has ever visited, could shed light on how planetary "building blocks" called planetisimals form.

Talia Ogliore-WUSTL | Feb. 17, 2020 | futurity

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~3 mins   

Tags: science-and-technology planets space