Researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna are reporting that Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) engage in food flavoring behavior by dunking food into soy yogurt. Experimentally controlled tests have confirmed that the birds selectively dipped food in flavored yogurt rather than neutral alternatives, ruling out alternative explanations such as soaking or cleaning. Researchers at the…

A game of chess requires its players to think several moves ahead, a skill that computer programs have mastered over the years. Back in 1996, an IBM supercomputer famously beat the then world chess champion Garry Kasparov. Later, in 2017, an artificial intelligence (AI) program developed by Google DeepMind, called AlphaZero, triumphed over the best…

Combining concepts from statistical physics with machine learning, researchers at the University of Bayreuth have shown that highly accurate and efficient predictions can now be made as to whether a substance will be liquid or gaseous under given conditions. They have published their findings in Physical Review X. Combining concepts from statistical physics with machine learning,…

For the first time, researchers have been able to measure the quantum state of electrons ejected from atoms that have absorbed high-energy light pulses. This is thanks to a new measurement technique developed by researchers at Lund University in Sweden. The results can provide a better understanding of the interaction between light and matter. For the…

Planting fast-growing crops, burning them, capturing the released CO2 and storing it: this is being discussed as a way to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and limit global heating to 1.5 degrees in the long term. But if this is done on land beyond existing agriculture, it endangers the stability of the biosphere. Planting fast-growing…

In human cells, only a small proportion of the information written in genes is used to produce proteins. How does the cell select this information? A large molecular machine called the spliceosome continuously separates the coding and non-coding regions of our genes—and it’s doing this even as you read these lines. In human cells, only a…

For the latest report from the Education Recovery Scorecard, co-authored by Harvard’s Thomas Kane and released Tuesday, researchers compared academic recovery in math and reading for individual school districts enrolling 35 million students in 43 states. Among the findings: Students are moving in the “wrong direction” in reading; tutoring seems to reward investment; and chronic…

The doctoral dissertation by Analía Capponi-Savolainen explores the singing experiences of 6–7-year-old first-grade children in a culturally diverse school in Finland’s capital region. The dissertation highlights how singing serves as a tool for children to navigate everyday life, create personal spaces of trust and freedom, and exercise their political voice. The doctoral dissertation by Analía Capponi-Savolainen…

A bouquet of thousands of stars in bloom has arrived. This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star-forming region called 30 Doradus. A bouquet of thousands of stars in bloom has arrived. This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star-forming region called 30 Doradus. Astronomy…