Researchers are transforming access to some of the world's oldest written records using digital technology and multilingual tools. As part of the project, called Access to Cuneiform Texts (CDLI‑ACT), researchers have developed an Arabic digital interface to allow access to cuneiform texts—written on clay tablets across ancient Mesopotamia over more than three millennia.
The question sounds simple. The answer, once you examine the actual measurement science behind it, is more interesting than either "yes" or "no."
A new computational method could dramatically accelerate efforts to map the body's cells in space, according to a study published in Nature Genetics. Spatial multi-omics technologies—often described as ultra-high-resolution maps of tissues—allow scientists to see not only which genes or proteins are active in a cell, but exactly where that activity occurs. That spatial context is critical for understanding complex organs such as the brain, immune tissues and developing embryos.
Satellite images, weather maps and other data are collected in enormous quantities—but much of this remains unused. The reason is simple: the data is fragmented, difficult to interpret, and stored in different formats. Dr. Arka Ghosh has developed a system capable of transforming this data into comprehensible knowledge. "It is an advanced AI solution that could be highly significant for urban planners as well as crisis and emergency response coordinators."
Garlic is not a substance that most people consider an aphrodisiac. It turns out that mosquitoes agree. In fact, a new Yale study finds that garlic also functions as a de facto birth control for mosquitoes and other winged insects, an insight that could lead to eco-friendly pest control strategies.
For decades, the common explanation for why children struggle to read has stayed remarkably consistent. Smart kids read well. Kids who don't simply aren't smart enough. And when children strain over a page, the assumption has often been that something about how they see the text is getting in the way. By this logic, reading comes down to intelligence and visual processing.
Forming social connections online and via social media reduces how much people engage with and learn from the content posted but significantly boosts their networking performance, according to new research. The study, published in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, led by the University of Bristol in the UK in partnership with the University at Buffalo, State University of New York in the US, found this shift of focus from learning about the actual content to concentrating on the related social connections is more marked among people with a better memory.
University of Birmingham researchers have demonstrated a new method to break down toxic pollutants in wastewater, using sunlight and molecular-thin catalysts created using an innovative "mechanical" approach. Non-degradable dyes originating from industries such as textiles, cosmetics, food, pharmaceuticals, and printing, are among the most prominent sources of industrial pollution. Left untreated, they disperse in both land and water, leading to contamination that poses serious risks to human health and the environment.
Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) have developed a solid polymer coated with harmless viruses to detect the bacteria Salmonella enterica (S. enterica), an advance that could lead to new ways of finding contamination in the food supply. The work is published in the journal ACS Applied Bio Materials.
When most people think about biodiversity in lakes and rivers, they imagine fish, plants, or perhaps birds and amphibians. But beneath the surface exists another world that often goes unnoticed: microscopic parasites that quietly shape aquatic ecosystems in ways scientists are only beginning to understand.
