Articles by Paul Arnold
Phys.org / Shackled men in 2,600-year-old Greek mass graves were likely locals, archaeologists find
In 2016, archaeologists working at the Phaleron Burial Ground, part of the ancient Attica region, uncovered an astonishing sight: three mass graves dating to the 7th and 6th centuries BCE containing the skeletons of 79 adult ...
Tech Xplore / AI agents struggle to perform original scientific research
Among the many predictions about the future of artificial intelligence is that models will one day be able to conduct scientific research on their own, leaving humans out of the equation. Already, they can write code, run ...
Phys.org / Human blood may have helped preserve ancient Chinese rock art for 2,000 years
The Huashan rock art landscape in southern China, close to the border with Vietnam, is a remarkable UNESCO World Heritage site. Thousands of images are painted on river cliffs across more than 80 locations stretching 260 ...
Phys.org / A new category of heat waves is melting western US snowpack faster
Heat waves are not all created equal. While some bring dry heat that rapidly dries out crops, others carry a lot of moisture that can prevent sweat from evaporating off the skin. In new research published in the journal Science ...
Tech Xplore / Why AI may boost carbon emissions instead of cutting them
AI data centers get a bad rap, not least because of concerns that they drive climate change by consuming massive amounts of electricity. But one potentially larger impact of AI on global carbon emissions may be that it's ...
Phys.org / River shipping emits nearly one-quarter of global shipping CO₂, analysis finds
River and canal ships generate roughly a quarter of the world's shipping carbon dioxide emissions, according to new research published in Nature Climate Change. And that's despite the fact that these bodies of water make ...
Phys.org / Recyclable glue bonds underwater in seconds and holds for years
Most glues need a dry surface to stick properly. Bonding materials underwater is challenging because water forms a thin film on any surface, so instead of an adhesive touching a material directly, it touches a layer of water, ...
Medical Xpress / An origami-inspired implant could monitor health from beneath the skin
The skin is the body's largest organ. It is a protective shield that keeps harmful pathogens out and vital fluids inside. These very properties make it a tough engineering challenge to design wearable health sensors because ...
Phys.org / Historical DNA reveals largetooth sawfish have lost much of their genetic diversity
The genetic diversity of the largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis), a critically endangered ray, has plummeted over the past century and a half, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological ...
Phys.org / AI cyclone forecasts could add 30 hours of warning time
Tropical cyclones are among the most destructive natural forces on the planet, but predicting where they will go and how strong they will become is beset by challenges. Current methods are often good at tracking storm paths ...
Phys.org / Sixteen AI-designed viruses offer a new route against drug-resistant bacteria
In a world first, scientists led by a team from Stanford University have created 16 viable viruses that do not exist in nature and were designed by AI. Their experiment, which is published in Science, could help in the fight ...
Phys.org / Swarms of tiny robots remove microplastics from soil and water
Microplastics, which are plastic particles under 5 millimeters, are a major and growing threat in both soil and water. They damage soil fertility, disrupt nutrient cycling, harm aquatic and terrestrial life, and can move ...
Phys.org / Tiny floating magnet detects ultrafaint magnetic fields at room temperature
Measuring faint magnetic fields is useful in a number of areas, including mapping brain activity, monitoring hearts and probing fundamental physics. Typically, picking up such weak signals requires expensive or bulky equipment, ...
Phys.org / Boron layers could set a superconductivity record, theoretical study predicts
Scientists in China predict that stacking two microscopic layers of boron could set a new record for superconductivity. Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with zero resistance. Traditional types need temperatures ...
Phys.org / Two-qubit entangling gate flags its own errors as detectable photon losses
Quantum errors are a normal part of quantum computing because fragile physical qubits (the tiny components storing data) can easily break down because of environmental noise, like heat, stray signals or microscopic vibrations. ...