Astronomers have identified an extremely magnetized and rapidly rotating ultra-massive white dwarf. Several telescopes characterized the dead star. The discovery was made by the Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, which operates at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory; two Hawai’i telescopes — W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawai’i Island and University of Hawai’i Institute for Astronomy’s Pan-STARRS…

Researchers have developed a way to capture moving objects with the unconventional imaging method known as ghost imaging. The new method could make the imaging technique practical for new applications such as biomedical imaging, security checks and video compression and storage. Ghost imaging comes with a host of advantages, one of which is that it…

With fossils few and far between, paleontologists have shied away from estimating the size of extinct populations. But scientists decided to try, focusing on the North American predator T. rex. Using data from the latest fossil analyses, they concluded that some 20,000 adults likely roamed the continent at any one time, from Mexico to Canada.…

Ancient Punt was a major trading partner of Egyptians for at least 1,100 years. It was an important source of luxury goods, including incense, gold, and living baboons. Located somewhere in the southern Red Sea region in either Africa or Arabia, scholars have debated its geographic location for more than 150 years. A new study…

Sleep paralysis — a condition thought to explain a number of mysterious experiences including alleged cases of alien abduction and demonic night-time visits — could be treated using a technique of meditation-relaxation, suggests a pilot study published today. Sleep paralysis is a state involving paralysis of the skeletal muscles that occurs at the onset of…

New research has revealed that people with the ability to visualize vividly have a stronger connection between their visual network and the regions of the brain linked to decision-making. The study also sheds light on memory and personality differences between those with strong visual imagery and those who cannot hold a picture in their mind’s…

A global team of computer scientists have developed »Write-A-Video», a new tool that generates videos from themed text. Using words and text editing, the tool automatically determines which scenes or shots are chosen from a repository to illustrate the desired storyline. A global team of computer scientists, from Tsinghua and Beihang Universities in China, Harvard…

As progress in traditional computing slows, new forms of computing are coming to the forefront. A team of engineers is attempting to pioneer a type of computing that mimics the efficiency of the brain’s neural networks while exploiting the brain’s analog nature. Modern computing is digital, made up of two states, on-off or one and…

A team of researchers is developing tools to predict the features of life as we don’t know it. In a new study, they identify universal patterns in the chemistry of life that do not appear to depend on specific molecules. «We want to have new tools for identifying and even predicting features of life as…

Researchers say those who have a history of an eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive traits, dieting, poor body image, and a drive for thinness are more likely to develop a pathological obsession with healthy eating or consuming only healthy food, known as orthorexia nervosa (ON). Although eating healthy is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, for…