The science of acupuncture

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese technique that has been used for millennia to treat chronic pain and other health problems associated with inflammation, yet the scientific basis of the technique remains poorly understood. Now, a team of researchers led by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School has elucidated the underlying neuroanatomy of acupuncture that activa In […]

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Researchers test electric personal flying machine

Imagine hopping into a zero carbon emission, personal aircraft and zipping skyward over the traffic and congestion to land conveniently right at the office. It’s long been the stuff of science fiction but a team of WSU researchers is testing components that one day might make that dream of a personal, electric flying machine a reality. “I would say if you’ve ever tried to drive from downtown Seattle to the airport, I think that’s probably enough justification for the project right […]

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Women are more reluctant than men to ask for deadline extensions

Women are less likely than men to ask for more time to complete projects with adjustable deadlines at work or school, new research finds. Compared to men, women were more concerned that they would be burdening others by asking for an extension, and that they would be seen as incompetent, the study showed. Prior research […]

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Spiders’ Web Secrets Unraveled

Johns Hopkins University researchers discovered precisely how spiders build webs by using night vision and artificial intelligence to track and record every movement of all eight legs as spiders worked in the dark. Their creation of a web-building playbook or algorithm brings new understanding of how creatures with brains a fraction of the size of […]

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Key to resilient energy-efficient AI/machine learning may reside in human brain

A clearer understanding of how a type of brain cell known as astrocytes function and can be emulated in the physics of hardware devices, may result in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that autonomously self-repairs and consumes much less energy than the technologies currently do, according to a team of Penn State researchers. Astrocytes are named for their star shape and are a type […]

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Astronomers suggest radiation, not supernovae, drives superwinds in some galaxies

When astronomers observe superwinds traveling at extremely high speeds from super star clusters, or “starbursts,” they previously assumed the winds were driven by supernovae, the explosions of stars. This was the case for a starburst called Mrk 71 in a nearby galaxy. Astronomers had observed incredibly fast superwinds—traveling at about 1% of the speed of […]

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