Science

A user who is frustrated with changes a social media company made to their favorite messaging platform, like the introduction of an annoying AI chatbot, can’t do much to address the situation, short of leaving the platform.Now, MIT researchers...

An estimated three-quarters of NFL players who died in a 16-year period had the devastating neurogenerative disease called CTE.Back in 2017, researchers reported that an estimated 99 percent of former NFL players developed CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, from...

Casey Harrell lost his voice to ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. As a volunteer in a clinical trial, he’s helping scientists test a brain-computer interface. Electrode arrays that are implanted in Casey’s brain send signals to nearby computers, where...

The first roller coaster in the United States to loop upside down tucked riders by twos into bench seats, secured them with a single seat belt and subjected them to an estimated 7.5 times the force of gravity (some...

“The bright sun was extinguish’d … and the icy earth swung blind and blackening in the moonless air.” These words from Lord Byron’s 1816 poem Darkness evoke a hellish apocalypse. But Byron may have been inspired by the fallout of...

Anthropic’s Claude AI chatbot helped a scientist plan potentially risky bird flu experiments.The researcher relied on Claude to plan studies, analyze data and choose experiments involving highly pathogenic avian influenza, the company reported September 10 in a threat intelligence...

Scholarship from across SHASS and beyond Over the symposium’s two days, research presentations, panel discussions, and performances offered attendees opportunities to engage with the role of SHASS in exploring today’s biggest societal questions.“We gather not so much to look back...

Viruses may be minuscule, but one could have influenced major differences between human and chimpanzee brains.Millions of years ago, a virus left DNA behind in an African ape’s genome, and the genetic material stuck around in modern day chimps....

While a spoonful of sugar might help us gulp down a bitter-tasting antibiotic, it also may increase the damage that these drugs cause to the gut microbes.In patients being treated for blood cancers, eating sugary items during antibiotic treatment...

For people with asthma, switching from a gas stove to an electric one might be a breath of fresh air. The combustion that creates the flame of a gas stove or oven releases pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, which can...