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Submission + - Swarms of tiny robots remove microplastics from soil and water (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Scientists from the Czech Republic have created microscopic cleanup robots that successfully removed microplastics from both soil and aquatic environments in the lab. Details of their work are published in the journal npg Asia Materials.

To build the robots, researchers started with microscopic MXene particles made of ultrathin, stacked layers. The material has a large surface area and surface chemistry that help it attract and hold plastic. They then coated the particles with magnetic nickel nanoparticles so rotating magnetic fields could drive the tiny robots.

Then came the testing phase. The team placed swarms of these microbots into water and soil samples contaminated with plastic. The externally generated magnetic fields made the robots spin and tumble through the liquid and squeeze through tiny water-filled gaps in the soil.

Submission + - The Roboguard Revolution is Short-Circuiting (404media.co)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Robotics companies promise that video-camera-toting security robots can deter and detect crime. But many companies are rethinking the approach after a trail of canceled contracts and questions about whether the artificial intelligence-powered bots are meeting the needs of businesses and local governments.

Proof News found evidence of at least 21 security robot deployments since 2015. We contacted contract holders and combed news articles and determined that at least 13 of those programs have ended. Silicon Valley-based Knightscope secured the most security robot contracts, according to Proofâ(TM)s analysis, and also suffered the bulk of cancellations.

For example, New York Cityâ(TM)s then-Mayor Eric Adams installed a Knightscope robot on the overnight shift at the Times Square subway station, but the program was scrapped when the pilot expired in 2024. City leaders did not respond to Proof Newsâ(TM) questions about why the robot wasnâ(TM)t renewed. By the end of its assignment, it was reportedly gathering dust in an empty storefront.

Comment Try hemp (Score 1) 41

It has low levels of cannabinoids, so you would have to smoke a bushel to get high. It grows quickly anywhere, hence its nickname "weed." The only faster-growing plant is Kudzu, if memory serves. But it is politically untouchable. Then again, democracies only last 250 years, so maybe we will get relief soon.

Submission + - Frequent short-video viewers show altered brain function (psypost.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Platforms such as TikTok present a rapid stream of brief, attention-grabbing videos, often selected by personalized recommendation systems. Greater use has previously been associated with anxiety, depression, loneliness, and problematic use, but an association does not necessarily mean that the platforms cause these difficulties.

While participants rested in a scanner, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measured fluctuations in blood flow associated with brain activity. The researchers examined activity in individual regions, communication within and between brain networks, and the overall organization of connections across the brain.

At the whole-brain level, higher-use participants had greater global and local efficiency, greater clustering of neighboring regions, and shorter communication paths across the brain. One interpretation for this is that intensive exposure to fast-paced audiovisual material changes brain systems involved in sensory processing and attention. The authors also acknowledged that greater efficiency is not automatically evidence of damage: similar patterns have sometimes been connected with intelligence and working-memory performance.

Submission + - Terrifying crashes, baffling trips, broken traffic laws yet no tickets for Waymo (nypost.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Waymo robotaxis have escaped a single enforcement notice in Los Angeles during the first month California police were given the power to cite autonomous vehicle companies for traffic violations.

This is despite a string of viral incidents showing the driverless cars blocking roads, trapping motorists and breaking traffic laws.

Submission + - Houston man arrested for threatening Gov. Abbott's office over anime (abc13.com) 1

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: A man from Houston was arrested and charged after making terroristic threats to Gov. Greg Abbott's office in July, court records show.

The court documents show that the threatening voicemail was apparently about anime and the recent Texas law requiring age verification for certain websites, such as pornographic and obscene content. The voicemail to the Governor's Constituent Communications line read in part:

"I don't know which one of you sons of (expletive) passed this (expletive) bill to get this damn (expletive) blocking my (expletive) anime, but you whole (expletive) (expletive) need to unpass this (expletive). Y'all are (expletive) ridiculous with your (expletive) (expletive). My Google account says I'm (expletive) over the age of 18, and your (expletive) is passing these (expletive) laws. I'm a (expletive) stab every (expletive) one of you (expletive). Unlock my (expletive) anime."

Submission + - âTower dumpâ(TM) warrants ruled unconstitutional (thehill.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: A federal judge in Mississippi ruled Wednesday that âoetower dumpâ warrants are unconstitutional, declining to reverse a lower court decision refusing the governmentâ(TM)s request to obtain the search warrants in a series of violent crime investigations.

Submission + - The SCREEN Act is a Christian Nationalist Nightmare (404media.co) 1

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Utah Senator Mike Lee introduced the Shielding Children's Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act in February 2025, alongside exclusively Republican cosponsors and supporters Senators John Curtis, Jim Banks, and Representative Mary Miller.

The SCREEN Act would require every website that includes even one piece of what the legislation describes as âoeharmful to minorsâ to verify visitorsâ(TM) ages. It defines âoeharmful to minorsâ as content that âoedepicts, describes, or represents, in a patently offensive way with respect to what is suitable for minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual acts, or lewd exhibition of the genitals;â is âoeobsceneâ or âoechild pornography;â or âoeappeals to the prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion.â

Submission + - An Ancient Poop Explosion Could Have Helped Complex Life Evolve (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: If the earliest animals hadn't been such prolific poopers, life might not have diversified into all the weird and wonderful forms we see today.

That's the conclusion reached by a new review study published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

The team of scientists in Australia and Germany found that the Cambrian explosion â" a period around 540 million years ago when the ancestors of most animal groups arose â" could have been partly set in motion by an explosion of feces, left by those that came before.

Submission + - Brain activity reveals the melodies that people imagine (medicalxpress.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Study participants were 10 epilepsy patients with electrodes on the surfaces of their brains for clinical monitoring. Participants quietly listened to the first bars of children's tunes, then imagined the melodies of subsequent bars before humming their imagined melodies.

Brain activity from the patients carried information about relative pitches within the imagined melodies. Combining note-level pitch predictions over time allowed the research team to recreate melodic changes that reflected the structure of the imagined songs.

Kwon elaborates, "The model we created decodes relative pitch classesâ"such as do, re, mi, fa, sol, and laâ"rather than exact, absolute pitches. This is useful because people often recognize melodies by the relationships between notes, even when the same melody is played in a different key."

Submission + - A Hidden 'Dark Dimension' Could Rewrite Our Understanding of the Universe (404media.co)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: According to string theory, the universe has many dimensions that are âoecompactifiedâ into subatomic scales that are not detectable by current instruments, which is why we have not discovered them. The hypothetical dark dimension, however, may be enlarged to a micron scale range.

This would allow gravitons, which are the hypothetical particles that mediate the force of gravity, to spill over into the dark dimension, where they would become dark matter particles. In this view, dark matter is not made of some new form of exotic particle. Instead, itâ(TM)s made up of gravitons that also exist in our familiar universe and have traversed into the dark dimension.

Submission + - Publishers are losing Google traffic as AI answers replace links (axios.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Google has basically stopped sending people to websites (including our site) for answers and information. Instead, it's using AI to answer them on its platform, in its words.

Chartbeat data shared with Axios shows Google Search traffic to publishers fell 34% over the past year.

That pain is regressive. Over the past two years, small publishers lost 60% of referrals from search overall, medium publishers 47%, large publishers 22%.

Submission + - FBI gets voter's IP address in new fraud probe tactic (axios.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: The Trump administration has a new tactic for trying to isolate cases of alleged voter fraud â" digging into the IP addresses of those who went online to register to vote.

The FBI recently obtained the IP address of someone who registered online in South Carolina, according to documents first shared with Axios.

Submission + - Your Brain Can Rewire Itself to Allow True Multitasking (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Our daily lives are built on multitasking, but are our brains actually doing two things at once, or just switching very quickly between them?

Well, it depends. The science shows it's the latter, for cognitively demanding work.

But in a new study published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center in the US have revealed that we can put certain tasks on autopilot in a way that enables something closer to true multitasking.

Driving is the perfect example: When you take your test, your entire mental and physical energy is concentrated on executing the right combinations of movements and thoughts.

After a decade behind the wheel, the brain is no longer consciously thinking everything through in great detail.

Submission + - Kids who own cellphones have poorer reading comprehension scores (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: School cellphone bans might seem like a good way to improve learning for elementary school children, but new research published in Behavioral Sciences shows that simply owning a cellphone correlates with worse reading comprehension. Whether a child brings the phone to school made no difference in reading comprehension, the team of UCLA psychologists and researchers found.

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