ingenious

Researchers have devised a method to accurately measure an atom’s three-dimensional position with a single image, revolutionizing quantum mechanics experiments and material development by facilitating precise atom manipulation and tracking.The method developed at the Universities of Bonn and Bristol uses an ingenious physical principle.For over ten years, physicists have been able to pinpoint the exact positions of individual atoms with a precision finer than one-thousandth of a millimeter using a specialized microscope.…

Neanderthals were gluing handles onto their tools over 100,000 years ago, possibly making the species even smarter than previously thought. So says a new study that discovered the use of adhesives on ancient stone tools that were previously overlooked.The finding came after a team of researchers examined stone tools that had been wrapped up and largely forgotten since the 1960s at Berlin’s Museum of Prehistory and Early History. The fact that the tools had been well-stored enabled the researchers to find traces of bitumen…

The Zellner brothers, David and Nathan, take their absurdism and futurism to the next level with a brilliant and radical comedy about the secret life of the legendary Sasquatch, AKA Bigfoot, creatures rumoured to be living in the North American wilderness. Sasquatch Sunset is a film to compare with Planet of the Apes, or Watership Down, or even the days of silent cinema. Nonverbal cinema anyway. It’s a plaintive, echoing wail of fear in that big empty forest where no one is around to hear a falling tree; fear of climate…

Max Buondonno/ZDNETOne of the easiest ways to customize your smartphone is by outfitting it with a high quality skin. If you're unfamiliar, smartphone skins are basically premium stickers that give your phone a distinctive look, allowing you to give your device a different color, pattern, or material like leather. In fact, leather skins are one of the most popular options on the market given their unique look and feel in the hand. But if you want one, you have to commit to putting a sticker on your phone and not feel…

Of all the AI-related features that PC-makers showed off at CES 2024, the one I want most doesn’t have much to do with AI at all.It’s from Lenovo, and it lets you stealthily step out of video meetings by recording a three-second video of yourself, which loops in forward and reverse until you’re ready to return.The only AI angle is how you invoke the feature: Lenovo has developed a sidebar menu in Windows called AI Now, which can launch features and adjust system settings in response to natural language. To duck out of a…

A study by UC Davis uncovered that exodermal suberin in tomato plants is vital for drought resistance. By identifying key genes for suberin production, researchers demonstrated that plants lacking these genes struggle under drought conditions. This finding is a significant step towards creating drought-tolerant crops. Credit: SciTechDaily.comResearch by UC Davis shows that exodermal suberin is crucial for tomato plants’ drought tolerance, paving the way for developing more resilient crops.Plants have to be flexible to…

After the Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME) antenna on ESA’s Juice mission encountered deployment issues post-launch, combined efforts from engineers at ESA, Airbus, and SpaceTech successfully rectified the problem. Suspecting ice formation as the issue, they heated the spacecraft by sun exposure, but when this didn’t work, they continued with the planned antenna deployment, which eventually dislodged the stuck pin and successfully deployed the antenna. (Juice flyby of Ganymede, artist’s impression.) Credit: ESAWhen…

Photo via Sony Pictures The conversations between the MCU and the Spider-Verse started as soon as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse spread its multiverse wings and showed the comic book industry what it thought of multiple universes existing at the same time and in different times, through portals and other worlds creating havoc on the storytelling that future generations will have to weave through. There are a variety of theories being discussed across the inter-verse but this particular one boils down to a…

Right now, there’s plenty of hand-wringing over the damage artificial intelligence (AI) can do. To offset that, Firefox maker Mozilla set out to encourage more accountable use of AI with its Responsible AI Challenge, and the recently announced winners of the contest show that the AI-infused future doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. The first prize of $50,000 went to Sanative AI, which “provides anti-AI watermarks to protect images and artwork from being used as training data” for the kind of large-language models…

Researchers have developed an innovative, minimally invasive cortical electrode array inspired by soft robotics actuation. The array, which measures 4 cm in diameter when deployed, can be inserted through a 2 cm hole in the skull and placed between the skull and the brain without causing damage. The array features six spiraled arms that maximize surface area and electrode contact with the cortex. It is folded inside a cylindrical loader and deployed using an eversion mechanism that gently unfolds each spiraled arm over…