Researchers and surgeons have devised a new type of amputation surgery that can help amputees better control their residual muscles and receive sensory feedback. This restored sense of proprioception should translate to better control of prosthetic limbs, as well as reduction of limb pain, the researchers say. In most amputations, muscle pairs that control the…

New AI uses reinforcement learning to efficiently navigate oceans «When we want robots to explore the deep ocean, especially in swarms, it’s almost impossible to control them with a joystick from 20,000 feet away at the surface. We also can’t feed them data about the local ocean currents they need to navigate because we can’t…

Researchers have created artificial colors by 3D printing certain nanostructures inspired by those of a butterfly. This principle can be used in the future to produce color screens. There are numerous examples of such structural colouration in nature, including irregular surface structures — for example, found in other butterfly species. «The regular nanostructures on the…

By examining MRI data from a large Open Science repository, researchers reconstructed a brain connectivity pattern, and applied it to an artificial neural network (ANN). They trained the ANN to perform a cognitive memory task and observed how it worked to complete the assignment. These ‘neuromorphic’ neural networks were able to use the same underlying…

Depending on whether uranium is released by the civil nuclear industry or as fallout from nuclear weapon tests, the ratio of the two anthropogenic, i.e. human-made, uranium isotopes 233U and 236U varies. These results provide a promising new »fingerprint» for the identification of radioactive emission sources. As a consequence, it is also an excellent environmental…

Researchers have combined quantum liquids and silicon-chip technology to study turbulence for the first time, opening the door to new navigation technologies and improved understanding of the turbulent dynamics of cyclones and other extreme weather. Professor Warwick Bowen, from UQ’s Precision Sensing Initiative and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems…

Researchers have recently discovered a breakthrough in magnetic reconnection that could ultimately help predict space weather. Peiyun Shi’s research is the first-of-its-kind in the laboratory setting and is part of the PHASMAproject, a complex experiment composed of advanced diagnostics, electromagnets and lab-created plasma to reveal new details about how the universe functions. For his experiment,…

A team of astronomers has released new observations of nearby galaxies that resemble colourful cosmic fireworks. The images, obtained with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), show different components of the galaxies in distinct colours, allowing astronomers to pinpoint the locations of young stars and the gas they warm up around them.…

The electronic properties of graphene can be specifically modified by stretching the material evenly, say researchers. These results open the door to the development of new types of electronic components. Graphene consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. The material is very flexible and has excellent electronic properties, making…

The midnight births of the dramatic bright surges in Jupiter’s aurora known as dawn storms are captured in a new study of data from the Juno space probe. The new study is the first to track the storms from their birth on the nightside of the giant planet through their full evolution. It was published…