Smart News Ideas & Innovations

Poker poses a challenge to A.I. because it involves multiple players and a plethora of hidden information.

This Poker-Playing A.I. Knows When to Hold 'Em and When to Fold 'Em

Pluribus won an average of around $5 per hand, or $1,000 per hour, when playing against five human opponents

New Research

Mussels' Sticky Threads Could Inspire Ways to Clean Up Oil Spills, Purify Water and More

A new review shows the sticky threads the bivalves used to cling to rocks could have lot of potential engineering applications

Olafur Eliasson, "The Cubic Structural Evolution Project," 2004

Art Meets Science

Consider the Nature of Perception at Olafur Eliasson's New Show

Tate Modern retrospective features some 40 works pulled from the artist's decades-long career

The team derived acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, from a plant wall polymer called lignin.

Researchers Develop Plant-Based, Eco-Friendly Method to Produce Tylenol

Current manufacturing processes rely on coal tar, which is produced using fossil fuels

Dragonfly will explore dozens of locations across the icy moon

Trending Today

NASA’s Dragonfly Mission Will Fly Through the Clouds of Titan, Saturn’s Biggest Moon

Over the course of its initial 2.7-year mission exploring Titan, the dual-quadcopter will fly a combined total of more than 108 miles

Melanosomes linked with blue feathers are much longer than they are wide

Cool Finds

Scientists Identify Blue Hues in Fossilized Bird Feathers for the First Time

A new study shows how the shapes of tiny pigment-carrying structures called melanosomes are associated with different colors

This summer, Fairbanks' Running Reindeer Ranch is offering visitors the chance to practice yoga alongside adult and baby reindeer

Alaska Now Offers Reindeer Yoga Classes

Attendees find their flow as reindeer wander around, grazing on grass, sniffing humans' belongings and eventually settling down for the session

The hydrogel mimics the epiphragm, a temporary adhesive layer that hardens when dried and softens when rehydrated with water

New Research

Snail-Inspired Super Glue Can Support the Weight of a 200-Pound Human

The adhesive offers both impressive strength and reusability, avoiding the problems posed by strong but irreversible glues and vice versa

Still from Mona Lisa Beyond the Glass

The Louvre’s First VR Experience Lets Visitors Get Close to the ‘Mona Lisa’

The project will be featured in a major da Vinci exhibition dropping in October

Speech2Face has its limitations, including a gender bias that led it to associate higher-pitched voices with women and lower-pitched ones with men

Artificial Intelligence Generates Humans’ Faces Based on Their Voices

In trials, the algorithm successfully pinpointed speakers’ gender, race and age

The Chinese giant salamander is the world's largest amphibian, weighing upwards of 140 pounds and growing to a length of more than 5.9 feet

Giant Salamander Goo Is Great at Gluing Gashes

Although slightly less durable than other surgical adhesives, a compound derived from the amphibian's skin secretions performs better overall

Trending Today

This Company Is Using Vintage Seaplanes in Their Quest to Become the First All-Electric Airline

Vancouver-based Harbour Air will soon outfit its classic seaplanes with battery-powered aviation motors

New Research

'Mona Lisa' Comes to Life in Computer-Generated 'Living Portrait'

A new artificial intelligence system can create realistic animations from a single static image

An artist's rendering of the recomposition facility

Washington Becomes First State to Allow 'Human Composting' as a Burial Method

The accelerated decomposition method transforms remains into soil and uses just an eighth of the energy required for cremation

Stereoscopic portraits of Queen Victoria. Dated 1854.

Two Unseen Photographs of Queen Victoria Released in Honor of Her 200th Birthday

Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were early and eager adopters of new photographic technologies and commissioned many personal family portraits

The synthetic DNA contains 61 codons, as opposed to the 64 typically found in living organisms

Scientists Create E. Coli Bacteria With Completely Synthetic Genome

The synthetic organisms appear to function much like their natural counterparts

In trials, the app detected the presence of ear fluid with 85 percent accuracy

Researchers Develop App That Plays Chirping Sounds to Check for Ear Infections

Although EarHealth isn’t currently available for purchase, the team hopes to receive F.D.A. approval by the end of 2019

Illustration from woodblock-printed text on the life of Gautama Buddha

Library of Congress Digitizes Taiwanese Watercolors, Rare Chinese Texts

The library's rare Chinese book collection includes 5,300 titles, 2,000 of which will ultimately be included in the online portal

Fifth-grader Eric and fourth-grader Isa spent a year working to bring their idea to life

Massachusetts Elementary Students Led Campaign to Install ‘3-D’ Crosswalk in Front of School

The optical illusion uses shaded block of paint to make crossing stripes appear to float in the air

Cool Finds

New Legos Are Designed to Help Visually Impaired Children Learn Braille

The goal of the new toy is to increase literacy among the blind has fallen dramatically in the last 50 years

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