With more companies requiring workers to return to an office five days a week, anxiety is rising for some of the millions of people who identify as neurodivergent. They raise the possibility that “strict office mandates have the potential to deter neurodivergent people who may approach problems differently,” the article Read more…
For the first time, astronomers have confirmed the existence of a lone black hole, one with no star orbiting it. It’s “the only one so far,” says Kailash Sahu, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. In 2022, Sahu and his colleagues discovered the dark object coursing Read more…
There was excitement when biotech company Collosal announced genetically modified grey wolves (first hailed as a “de-extinction” of the Dire wolf species after several millennia). “But bioethicists and conservationists are expressing unease with the kind of scientific research,” writes the Chicago Tribune. “Unfortunately, as clever as this science is … Read more…
An October 2024 study by Software AG suggests that half of all employees are Shadow AI users, and most of them wouldn’t stop even if it was banned. The problem is the ease of access to AI tools, and a work environment that increasingly advocates the use of AI to Read more…
American composer Alvin Lucier was well-known for his experimental works that tested the boundaries of music and art. A longtime professor at Wesleyan University (before retiring in 2011), Alvin passed away in 2021 at the age of 90. However, that wasn’t the end of his lifelong musical odyssey. Earlier this Read more…
Researchers at UC Berkeley claim to have induced a previously unseen color by using lasers to stimulate only the M cones in the retina, creating a visual experience beyond the natural limits of human perception. Called olo, the color is described as a highly saturated blue-green but is only visible Read more…
Twenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing on Saturday, the first time these machines have raced alongside humans over a 21-km (13-mile) course. The robots from Chinese manufacturers such as DroidVP and Noetix Robotics came in all shapes and sizes, some shorter than 120 Read more…