According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, aquaculture in the United States represents a $1.5 billion industry annually. Like land-based farming, shellfish aquaculture requires healthy seed production in order to maintain a sustainable industry. Aquaculture hatchery production of shellfish larvae — seeds — requires close monitoring to track mortality rates and [...]

Although the troposphere is often thought of as the closest layer of the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface, the planetary boundary layer (PBL) — the lowest layer of the troposphere — is actually the part that most significantly influences weather near the surface. In the 2018 planetary science decadal survey, the [...]

Human mini-lungs grown by scientists can mimic the response of animals when exposed to certain nanomaterials. Though not expected to replace animal models completely, human organoids could soon lead to significant reductions in research animal numbers. [...]

Researchers are targeting the next generation of soft actuators and robots with an elastomer-based ink for 3D printing objects with locally changing mechanical properties, eliminating the need for cumbersome mechanical joints. [...]

AI developments in chemical biology could unlock new types of disease treatments. [...]

Wind power is a source of energy that is both affordable and renewable. However, decision-makers have been reluctant to invest in wind energy due to a perception that wind farms require a lot of land compared to electric power plants driven by fossil fuels. Research was based on the assessment [...]

Soft skin coverings and touch sensors have emerged as a promising feature for robots that are both safer and more intuitive for human interaction, but they are expensive and difficult to make. A recent study demonstrates that soft skin pads doubling as sensors made from thermoplastic urethane can be efficiently [...]

Researchers developed a method using wearable headcams and AI to analyze teenagers' facial expressions, revealing subtle emotional nuances. This technology has shown potential in identifying emotions such as worry and happiness, even when they are masked. [...]

We’ve all seen videos over the past few years demonstrating how agile humanoid robots have become, running and jumping with ease. We’re no longer surprised by this kind of agility—in fact, we’ve grown to expect it. The problem is, these shiny demos lack real-world applications. When it comes to creating robots [...]

Researchers used AI to discover hundreds of genes linked to tobacco use disorder, alongside potential new treatments. Analyzing extensive health data, the team identified genetic variations that contribute to tobacco addiction, which affects 1.3 billion people globally. [...]

Researchers have used artificial intelligence techniques to massively accelerate the search for Parkinson's disease treatments. The researchers designed and used an AI-based strategy to identify compounds that block the clumping, or aggregation, of alpha-synuclein, the protein that characterises Parkinson's. [...]

While the electronic tongue bears little physical resemblance to its namesake, the strand-like sensory probes of the 'e-tongue' still outperformed human senses when detecting contaminated wine in a recent study. In a recent experiment, the e-tongue identified signs of microorganisms in white wine within a week after contamination -- four [...]

New research reveals that air annealing enhances the optoelectronic properties of CsPbI3 perovskite solar cells, reducing defects and potentially simplifying mass production. [...]

Broadband gold nanogap sensor enables rapid, precise detection of materials and viruses, enhancing pandemic preparedness with real-time, high-sensitivity results. [...]

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of drivers deliver packages and parcels to customers and companies each day, with many click-to-door times averaging only a few days. Coordinating a supply chain feat of this magnitude in a predictable and timely way is a longstanding problem of operations research, where researchers [...]

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. The holy grail of robotics since the field’s beginning has been to build a robot that can do our housework. But for a long time, that has [...]

Researchers developed a new machine learning technique to improve red-teaming, a process used to test AI models for safety by identifying prompts that trigger toxic responses. By employing a curiosity-driven exploration method, their approach encourages a red-team model to generate diverse and novel prompts that reveal potential weaknesses in AI [...]

AI-generated messages can make recipients feel more "heard" compared to responses from untrained humans. The research demonstrates AI's superior ability to detect and respond to human emotions, potentially providing better emotional support. [...]

A team of computer scientists working on two different problems -- how to quickly detect damaged buildings in crisis zones and how to accurately estimate the size of bird flocks -- recently announced an AI framework that can do both. The framework, called DISCount, blends the speed and massive data-crunching [...]

On Vassar Street, in the heart of MIT’s campus, the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing recently opened the doors to its new headquarters in Building 45. The building’s central location and welcoming design will help form a new cluster of connectivity at MIT and enable the space to [...]

Star Trek's Holodeck is no longer just science fiction. Using AI, engineers have created a tool that can generate 3D environments, prompted by everyday language. [...]

Silent. Rigid. Clumsy. Henry and Jane Evans are used to awkward houseguests. For more than a decade, the couple, who live in Los Altos Hills, California, have hosted a slew of robots in their home.  In 2002, at age 40, Henry had a massive stroke, which left him with quadriplegia and [...]

A new technique can more effectively perform a safety check on an AI chatbot. Researchers enabled their model to prompt a chatbot to generate toxic responses, which are used to prevent the chatbot from giving hateful or harmful answers when deployed. [...]

Maria grew up in Barcelona, Spain, in the 1940s. Her first memories of her father are vivid. As a six-year-old, Maria would visit a neighbor’s apartment in her building when she wanted to see him. From there, she could peer through the railings of a balcony into the prison below [...]