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First there were CAPTCHAs, now there are GOTCHAs
An example of one of the "inkblot" images used by the GOTCHA system. Luis von Ahn and colleagues developed CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) in...
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Artificial muscles made with fishing line
Fishing line of different diameters, formed into the coiled-coils used in these experiments. (credit: Science/AAAS) Take a rubber band and twist it. Keep twisting it until it starts to collapse onto...
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New cache design speeds up processing time by 15 percent
(credit: Texas A&M Supercomputing) Transistors keep getting smaller and smaller, enabling computer chip designers to develop faster computer chips. But no matter how fast the chip gets, moving...
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New algorithm classifies everything from gene data to POTUS speeches
After eight years of Reagan, State of the Union speeches were permanently changed. (credit: archives.gov) The last few decades have seen an explosion of data in fields such as biology, medicine, and...
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DNA-based logic gates operate inside cockroach cells
DNA robots crawl across a surface made of DNA. (credit: Harvard) DNA-based nanotechnology has been around for more than 30 years, but it really took off in 2006, when DNA origami was featured on the...
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Brain damage can make people immune to the gambler’s fallacy
(credit: Flickr user greengardenvienna) There are parts of the brain that help us see, parts that help us sense, parts that help us reason—and now we’ve identified a part that seems to play a role in...
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Flowing salt water over graphene generates electricity
An image of graphene, showing defects in its single-atom thickness. (credit: UC Berkeley) Hydroelectricity is one of the oldest techniques for generating electrical power, with over 150 countries...
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Quantum gate could link multiple qubits into single computer
(credit: UC Santa Barbara) Computers, cell phones, and any other device being used to read this article rely on a three-century-old approach to computation that represents data with a binary system....
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Voodoo dolls show how hunger and lack of self-control go hand in hand
(credit: Mohammed Alnaser) The level of control, or self-control, we exert in our relationships tends to shift based on the relationship itself and a range of external factors. In certain cases, it...
View ArticleNeurons never forget a face
The human brain is composed of approximately 100 billion neurons, each with distinct functions. One of those functions is face perception—the ability to recognize what someone looks like and recall...
View ArticleResearchers figuring out how lithium batteries really work
Rechargeable lithium ion batteries power many of today's electronics, from portable devices to cars. These batteries are termed "lithium ion" because they act to hold charges within the battery. Two...
View ArticleA more intuitive approach to computerized clustering
Clustering algorithms help parse large amounts of data, find correlations within subsets of the data, and assess similarity among elements within these subsets. They have become a hot field in recent...
View Article3D printing used to control stem cell differentiation
The time between conception and becoming a fetus is a busy one if you're a human embryonic stem cell (hESC). As the embryo develops, hESCs are allocated into three distinct types of tissue through an...
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