Science

A team analyzed a range of YouTube videos that focused on learning music by ear and identified four simple ways music learning technology can better aid prospective musicians -- helping people improve recall while listening, limiting playback to small chunks, identifying musical subsequences to memorize, and replaying notes indefinitely.

A research team has discovered ferroelectric phenomena occurring at a subatomic scale in the natural mineral Brownmillerite.

A new study has found that a smartphone app that tracks household water use and alerts users to leaks or excessive consumption offers a promising tool for helping California water agencies meet state-mandated conservation goals. The study found that use of the app -- called Dropcountr -- reduced average household water use by 6%, with even greater savings among the highest water users.

A new study has found that a smartphone app that tracks household water use and alerts users to leaks or excessive consumption offers a promising tool for helping California water agencies meet state-mandated conservation goals. The study found that use of the app -- called Dropcountr -- reduced average household water use by 6%, with even greater savings among the highest water users.

Laser-based metal processing enables the automated and precise production of complex components, whether for the automotive industry or for medicine. However, conventional methods require time- and resource-consuming preparations. Researchers are now using machine learning to make laser processes more precise, more cost-effective and more efficient.

New technology that uses light's color and spin to display multiple images.

New technology that uses light's color and spin to display multiple images.

Miniature organs on a chip could allow us to do scientific studies with great precision, without having to resort to animal testing. The main problem, however, is that artificial tissue needs blood vessels, and they are very hard to create. Now, new technology has been developed to create reproducible blood vessels using high-precision laser pulses. Tissue has been created that acts like natural tissue.

Scientists have produced the finest images of the Sun's corona to date. To make these high-resolution images and movies, the team developed a new 'coronal adaptive optics' system that removes blur from images caused by the Earth's atmosphere. Their ground-breaking results pave the way for deeper insight into coronal heating, solar eruptions, and space weather, and open an opportunity for new discoveries in the Sun's atmosphere.

Persons with Parkinson's disease increasingly lose their mobility over time and are eventually unable to walk. Hope for these patients rests on deep brain stimulation, also known as a brain pacemaker. In a current study, researchers investigated whether and how stimulation of a certain region of the brain can have a positive impact on ambulatory ability and provide patients with higher quality of life. To do this, the researchers used a technique in which the nerve cells are activated and deactivated via light.

When it comes to public attitudes toward using self-driving cars, understanding how the vehicles work is important -- but so are less obvious characteristics like feelings of excitement or pleasure and a belief in technology's social benefits.

Engineers developed a fuel cell that offers more than three times as much energy per pound compared to lithium-ion batteries. Powered by a reaction between sodium metal and air, the device could be lightweight enough to enable the electrification of airplanes, trucks, or ships.

More than 60 ancient tools found in France and Spain have been identified as whale bone, and the evidence shows that people made tools from this material a thousand years earlier than previously thought

Your imagination isn't just one thing. The latest neuroscience is untangling just how diverse this faculty really is, says cognitive neurologist Adam Zeman

Modern ground-based telescopes rely on adaptive optics (AO) to deliver clear images. By correcting for atmospheric distortion, they give us exceptional pictures of planets, stars, and other celestial objects. Now, a team at the National Solar Observatory is using AO to examine the Sun's corona in unprecedented detail.

The chance of a planet forming in the outer reaches of the solar system - a hypothetical Planet Nine - could be as high as 40 per cent, but it would have been a rough start

It’s natural to associate wild flights of fantasy with children and a more mundane internal world with adult life. The latest research, though, shows that isn't the whole picture

There have never been so many satellites orbiting Earth as there are today, thanks in part to the launch of mega constellations like SpaceX's Starlink internet service - and now we are learning just how the sun's activity can affect them

Today’s photos are by reader Ephraim Heller, and come from Tanzania (see his earlier photos from that location here). Ephriam’s links and captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Brief introduction: These photos were taken on safari in Tanzania in April 2025. Most are from the Serengeti National Park with a few from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Today’s photos focus on antelope (hartebeest and wildebeest) and zebra.

Zebras scratching and socializing:

Zebra suckling her youngster:

Zebra baby, fur still wet from birth and wobbling on its legs:

Hartebeest mom watching over sleeping baby. According to the African Wildlife Foundation: “The hartebeest is a large, fawn-colored antelope. Their most distinctive characteristics are a steeply sloping back, long legs, and elongated snout. Despite their ungainly appearance, they are as elegant, if not more than, other antelopes. They are one of the most recent and highly evolved ungulates and are far from clumsy. In fact, they are one of the fastest antelopes and most enduring runners — capable of reaching speeds of up to 70 km/h. These qualities gave rise to their name, which means ‘tough ox.’ Their sedentary lifestyle seems to inhibit the mixing of populations and gene flow, and as a result, there are several subspecies of hartebeest.”

Wildebeest beginning their annual migration. This line of animals was miles long and they didn’t stop running during the hour that I observed them:

Dawn wildebeests:

The pace of ageing accelerates as you get older, and it is linked to an individual's sex, ethnicity and level of education, according to studies of US and UK populations