Today’s Solutions: September 19, 2023

Artificial Intelligence

AI is the technology of the future. From supporting art restoration to overcoming the limitations of traditional agriculture and counting wild elephants, find out how AI is transforming the world for the better.

Floating ants looks like raft in flood time.

Floating ants may inspire the future of robotics and adaptive materials

Ants are extremely adaptable creatures. The little critters are one of the strongest animals in relation to their size, being able to carry 50 times their own body weight. They are also the longest living insect, with some species living for around 30 years. However, the teamwork these tiny animals Read More...

Happy pigs on pig farm in a muddy yard with a fence.

Scientists can now decode pigs' emotions

We can clearly see animals' emotions through their behavior, whether that’s dogs filling up with glee when we grab their leash or elephants mourning a loss in their herd, there is clearly some feeling going on here. While communication between animals and humans remains at a divide, we do Read More...

Man wearing the MagTrack technology, squinting as an example of a facial expression the technology can recognize.

Headgear gives people with paralysis control of their devices

For individuals living with paralysis, everyday activities can be a challenge. Scientists across the globe are constantly innovating to improve the quality of life for those with impaired mobility, like this implant that can turn people’s brain signals into words we’ve previously reported Read More...

Illustration of a world map drawn out with realistic people seen from above on white background to represent all the people of the world.

Scientists create family tree of 27 million ancestors

If you had to guess, how many ancestors would you say that you had? If you consider that homo sapiens, a.k.a humans, came into existence on this Earth around 200,000 years ago that’s a lot of ancestors to add up. How many ancestors do you think you have? Scientists from The University of Oxford Read More...

Close up shot of a person's nose

Scientists develop e-nose that can detect Parkinson's disease

In recent years, smell detection of diseases has attracted growing attention in the field of medical research: from dogs (and even bees) trained to sniff out Covid-19 to human “super sniffers” able to detect neurodegenerative diseases in other people. Now, a group of scientists has developed an Read More...

tourist takes selfie with monkey

Your vacation photos can help scientists track endangered species

In an increasingly digital world, photos may be worth much more than just a thousand words. Sharing snapshots of our food, loved ones, and vacations on social media is a common way to connect—but it can also be a useful way to help scientists track threatened and endangered species. Through an Read More...

Traffic light showing green and advanced right turn

AI traffic lights could make traffic flow way more efficient

We’ve all been there—running late and trapped behind a red light, even though there’s little to no traffic flowing on the other side. This is made even more frustrating if it happens to be one of those traffic lights in your town or city that, for some reason, always remains red for what Read More...

Dancing avatar created through new AI algorithm.

More lifelike avatars are on their way...

Like it or not, humans are spending more and more time interacting with each other using digital technology.  This can lead to misunderstandings, miscommunication and other feelings of isolation as our daily lives are more enmeshed in keyboards, screens and simple audio.  This is one reason Read More...

A quark gluon plasma after the collision of two heavy nuclei.

AI helps scientists model the big bang

The number of factors you have to consider when calculating how the big bang went down is tremendous. The key part of the story you have to model is quark-gluon plasma. This is a state where there were many tiny quantum entangled particles, which eventually reached a point of extremely high energy. Read More...

The legged robot ANYmal on the rocky path to the summit of Mount Etzel, which stands 1,098 metres above sea level.

The hiking robots of the future

Here at The Optimist Daily, we think it’s important to keep our readers up to date with the latest news on robot progress. These incredible machines may be the key to help carry our future society. Recently, we reported on how scientists taught robots the complicated task of how to open doors, Read More...