research

The powerful cameras inside our smartphones come at a price, and not just the literal one, of course. Next to the endangered 3.5 mm headphone jack, the camera is the last piece that keeps phones from becoming uniformly thin, not to mention flat. Even without mechanical parts like OIS, the camera's bulk is mostly due to its non-flat lens. That is why when the California Institute of Technology, better known as Caltech, boasts it has produced an ultra-thin, flat camera, the smartphone industry's interest is definitely piqued.

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A notable archaeological discovery is coming out of Poland, where researchers have recovered a medieval-era sword from a peat bog. The sword is still in good shape, at least for something as old as it is, bearing all of its components minus the hilt padding. Researchers say the preservation is excellent enough that even a small marking -- likely the blacksmith's mark -- is still visible on the sword.

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Ketamine, a drug with its fair share of recreational users, is also a controversial hit when it comes to treating severe depression. The drug is finding increased use in some clinics as a way to deal with treatment-resistant depression, giving patients a possible solution to the damaging condition. Ketamine itself isn't without its own side-effects, though, and that has led some to investigate how its anti-depressant qualities come about, potentially opening the door for new treatments with less side effects.

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NASA hopes to mark Father's Day with a colorful show of luminescent clouds, all the way above the mid-Atlantic coast. The NASA Terrier Improved Malemute mission will see a sounding rocket launch from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, and then release several canisters of colored vapor. Dubbed "vapor tracers", they'll allow the scientists behind the project to observe how particle motions in space behave.

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Solar-powered paint capable of generating clean hydrogen fuel could turn houses and office buildings into green power stations, new research has teased. The handiwork of a team at the RMIT University in Australia, the key is a new compound that unexpectedly acts as a catalyst in a chemical reaction. First, the paint absorbs water; then, it splits that water up into hydrogen and oxygen.

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Is this the start of the AI takeover? Well, not really, not unless the world turned out to be one Ms. Pac-Man game. That's because Microsoft researchers from its recently acquired Maluuba deep learning startup have developed an AI that was not only able to beat that specific game but was also able to achieve the highest score possible. A score that no human was able to achieve without a cheat.

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Researchers have developed a special kind of fabric that could neutralize chemical weapons, potentially saving lives that would otherwise be lost. The fabric was recently detailed in the American Chemical Society's journal 'Chemistry of Materials,' and it would work by protecting people from chemical toxins designed to impact someone through the skin. The fabric utilizes a metal-organic framework to pull off its seemingly magical properties.

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If you keep an eye on certain corners of the web, places like Longecity and nootropics subreddits, you may have heard about trehalose, a type of mild sugar believed to have many beneficial properties from a health standpoint. Outside of those niche interests, though, trehalose has largely gone unnoticed, but that may soon change: a new study has found that, at least in mice, this sugar triggers a type of 'housekeeping' effect in the immune system, prodding it to deal with plaque in arteries (atherosclerosis), fat in the liver, and more.

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Researchers have made an incredible discovery in Malaysia, where they harvested a piece of amber dating back to the Cretaceous era. Within this amber is a small bird that has been preserved in incredible detail, making it possible for scientists to recreate what this particular critter looked like...and helping shed light on the type of birds that existed long ago in the planet's past. The fossil is described as being 'relatively complete.'

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Some recent research indicated that the Tyrannosaurus rex -- that is, the T-rex -- may have had feathers, but a new study has dashed that speculation, finding that the massive, ancient beast in fact had scaly, reptilian-like skin. The idea of a feathery T-rex came from the discovery that some theropods had feathers, leading some to speculate that the massive Tyrannosaurus rex did, as well. Researchers have found, however, that the evolution of gigantism included the loss of these extensive feather coverings.

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Not too long ago, Samsung and Qualcomm boasted their Exynos 8895 and Snapdragon 835 processors, respectively. Both of these chips were manufactured using a 10 nm FinFET process, currently the smallest chip size in the consumer market. IBM’s Research Alliance, however, is proving that it has done one better. By halving the size but increasing performance and energy efficiency, IBM’s 5 nm chips has the potential to push the consumer electronics market forward, especially the IoT and even the smartphone markets, at an accelerated pace.

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If you've ever felt like having only two arms just isn't enough to accomplish all your tasks, a practical solution could soon be on the horizon. Researchers from Japan's University of Tokyo and Keio University have developed a wearable pair of extra robotic arms, easily increasing your number of limbs and hands. Dubbed the "Metalimbs" project, the arms can be on similar to a backpack, and instead of being connected to the wearer's brain for thought control, users tell the appendages what to do with their legs.

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