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Warm retreats made using bricks in greenhouses give frogs a place to keep toasty in winter, which helps protect them from deadly chytrid fungal infections

A technique to charge a battery inside a quantum computer relies on sorting qubits in an imitation of Maxwell’s demon, a 19th-century thought experiment once thought to break the laws of physics

Some people find the scale of the universe existentially frightening, but here's why you should take it as a source of comfort

In the new Jesus and Mo strip, called “torn,” Mo can’t figure out whether the “extremists” are the Islamophobes or the Islamists.

The new UK definition of extremism can be seen here; it’s a bit more expansive than what Jesus quotes.

Financial incentives have helped people with obesity lose weight in trials, but whether the approach is sustainable or cost-effective remains to be seen

See the circle of galaxy clusters and voids that surround us in this map of the nearby cosmos, extending 200 million light years in each direction

The US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, recently put out a 40 page report titled: “Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America.” The report is entirely informational, without any policy force, but Murthy is hoping it will have the same long term cultural effect as the Surgeon General’s warning about the health risks of tobacco. I wrote about this exact issue in […]

The post Firearms as a Public Health Crisis first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

. . . Sailors take warning.

The rest of the traditional weather poem, taught to me by my dad, is “Red sky at night/Sailors’ delight.”  But it’s not going to rain in Chicago today; the chance of rain is only 5-10%, and the high temperature predicted to be about 79°F (26°C).  It’s considerably cooler than it was a week ago.

The view looking east at sunrise (Lake Michigan is on the right); click photo to enlarge it.

An artificial intelligence could gauge what characters and locations people were viewing in the film (500) Days of Summer based on the activity of their neurons

Researchers have created a new, cost-effective training technique for artificial intelligence systems that aims to make them less socially biased.

Researchers have created a new, cost-effective training technique for artificial intelligence systems that aims to make them less socially biased.

Scientists predict the existence of flat electronic bands at the Fermi level, a finding that could enable new forms of quantum computing and electronic devices.

Scientists predict the existence of flat electronic bands at the Fermi level, a finding that could enable new forms of quantum computing and electronic devices.

Scientists are helping to develop standards and safety protocols that would allow pharmacies to print drugs onsite at a dosage best for you.

Computers have come so far in terms of their power and potential, rivaling and even eclipsing human brains in their ability to store and crunch data, make predictions and communicate. But there is one domain where human brains continue to dominate: energy efficiency.

More than 100,000 oil and gas wells across the western U.S. are in areas burned by wildfires in recent decades, a new study has found, and some 3 million people live next to wells that in the future could be in the path of fires worsened by climate change.

Solar physicists have revealed the interior structure of the sun's supergranules, a flow structure that transports heat from the sun's hidden interior to its surface. The researchers' analysis of the supergranules presents a challenge to the current understanding of solar convection.

Researchers have succeeded in directing floating objects around an aquatic obstacle course using only soundwaves. Their novel, optics-inspired method holds great promise for biomedical applications such as noninvasive targeted drug delivery.

If aliens modified a planet in their solar system to make it warmer, we'd be able to tell. A new study identifies the artificial greenhouse gases that would be giveaways of a terraformed planet.

Researchers have found a way to bind engineered skin tissue to the complex forms of humanoid robots. This brings with it potential benefits to robotic platforms such as increased mobility, self-healing abilities, embedded sensing capabilities and an increasingly lifelike appearance. Taking inspiration from human skin ligaments, the team included special perforations in a robot face, which helped a layer of skin take hold.