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Schrödinger called his metaphorical cat “quite ridiculous” but the quantum weirdness it represents has become a useful benchmark for the quantum computing industry, finds our quantum columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Researchers devised a way to maintain an AI model's accuracy while ensuring attackers can't extract sensitive information used to train it. The approach is computationally efficient, reducing a longstanding tradeoff between accuracy and privacy.

Pressure waves propagating through bubble-containing liquids in tubes experience considerable attenuation. Researchers have now derived an equation describing this phenomenon, demonstrating that beyond liquid viscosity and compressibility, variations in tube cross-sectional area contribute to wave attenuation. Their analysis reveals that the rate of change in tube cross-sectional area represents a critical parameter governing pressure wave attenuation in such systems.

The transition to electric vehicles won't reduce carbon emissions unless countries clean up their electricity grids.

Materials scientists are measuring the rolling friction of tiny, micrometer-sized particles. These measurements permit them to better understand everyday products such as concrete.

Risky driving by parents and other motorists who do the school run is putting children in danger, according to a new study.

Why do problems occur with a special variant of 'protein glues', the split inteins, that severely limit their use in producing proteins? A team has now answered this question.

Laser plasma acceleration is a potentially disruptive technology: It could be used to build far more compact accelerators and open up new use cases in fundamental research, industry and health. However, on the path to real-world applications, some properties of the plasma-driven electron beam as delivered by current prototype accelerators still need to be refined. DESY's LUX experiment has now made significant progress in this direction: Using a clever correction system, a research team was able to significantly improve the quality of electron bunches accelerated by a laser plasma accelerator. This brings the technology a step closer to concrete applications, such as a plasma-based injector for a synchrotron storage ring.

Laser plasma acceleration is a potentially disruptive technology: It could be used to build far more compact accelerators and open up new use cases in fundamental research, industry and health. However, on the path to real-world applications, some properties of the plasma-driven electron beam as delivered by current prototype accelerators still need to be refined. DESY's LUX experiment has now made significant progress in this direction: Using a clever correction system, a research team was able to significantly improve the quality of electron bunches accelerated by a laser plasma accelerator. This brings the technology a step closer to concrete applications, such as a plasma-based injector for a synchrotron storage ring.

When materials are created on a nanometer scale -- just a handful of atoms thick -- even the thermal energy present at room temperature can cause structural ripples. How these ripples affect the mechanical properties of these thin materials can limit their use in electronics and other key systems. New research validates theoretical models about how elasticity is scale-dependent -- in other words, the elastic properties of a material are not constant, but vary with the size of the piece of material.

A new study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals the neural mechanisms that contribute to urinary incontinence, a common condition affecting stroke survivors that has a significant impact on their quality of life. The research was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of urologists, neurosurgeons, and imaging experts. The study utilized an innovative method of repeated bladder filling and voiding while participants were inside the MRI, during which their brain function was measured.

A new study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals the neural mechanisms that contribute to urinary incontinence, a common condition affecting stroke survivors that has a significant impact on their quality of life. The research was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of urologists, neurosurgeons, and imaging experts. The study utilized an innovative method of repeated bladder filling and voiding while participants were inside the MRI, during which their brain function was measured.

A study showed that different processing methods significantly affect the biochemical composition of plant-based foods. Current food classification systems do not sufficiently acknowledge the biochemical composition of the product.

Globally, only 14 per cent of the plastic we use is recycled – but some countries achieve higher rates and new technologies could change the picture drastically

A machine controlled by AI that sprays bears with the chilli pepper chemical capsaicin could reduce dangerous confrontations with people

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been detected in athletic clothing. Should we be worried?

The post Is your workout gear killing you? first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Today UC Davis ecologist Susan Harrison returns with some bird photos and, at the end, a couple of reptiles and mammals. Susan’s captions and notes are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them:

Ibises, Meadowlarks, and Others

It’s early April and the skies are still often cloudy, snow is lingering on the distant mountaintops, and the wildflowers are getting underway.   Birds are singing, chasing, nest-seeking, and flashing their breeding colors.  These photos are from two of northern California’s wildlife refuges at this invigorating, promising time of year.

White-Faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, with a westward view to  Snow Mountain, the Coast Ranges’ tallest peak at 7,057’:

White-faced Ibises have gone from uncommon to quite abundant around here in the past 25 years, possibly because flooded rice fields are being managed to support wetland wildlife.   To appreciate these Ibises’ iridescent beauty, it helps to get close to them on a sunny day, as I attempted to do at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area.

White-faced Ibises:

Western Meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta) are abundant in open fields, dominating the soundscape with their complex resonant songs.  One artfully arranged himself in a bed of Goldfields (Lasthenia californica), while another showed off his tonsils.

Western Meadowlarks:

Marsh Wrens (Cistothorus palustris) are also loudly melodious in their namesake habitat:

Belted Kingfishers (Megaceryle alcyon) are quite hard to approach with a camera, but this one was perched next to a bird-viewing platform that obscured his view of me:

Nuttall’s Woodpeckers (Dryobates nuttalli) and other woodpeckers are in the same order as Kingfishers, and there is a bit of a family resemblance:

Black-necked Stilts (Himantopus mexicanus) are common in the refuges’ shallowly flooded fields:

Clark’s Grebes (Aechmophorus clarkii) are on the verge of doing their spectacular springtime mating dances:

Western Pond Turtles (Actinemys marmorata) like to sunbathe together, and on first glance, these ones looked like turtles all the way down:

P.S.  Last night when I’d just gotten this post ready to send, we found two Gray Foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) curled up on the patio furniture, in a picture of canid domestic bliss!

A newly discovered settlement in the north-western Nile delta was built by the Egyptian New Kingdom perhaps 3500 years ago and included a temple dedicated to pharaoh Ramesses II

Solvej Balle's newly translated speculative novel, On the Calculation of Volume (parts I and II), examines the numbing effects of time through the old trope of being stuck in a single day. It is an effective meditation

An AI analysis finds that since the 1970s, speeches by US Congress members have shifted to favour language such as “fake news” and “mislead” over words such as “science” and “statistics”