news 2024

Whether it's folk music, a theater festival or game design: culture thrives on encounters between people, their works and their activities. Technology has always played an important role in this. But what are the current interdependencies between digital possibilities and cultural creation? A three-part TA-SWISS project is taking a close look at the opportunities and risks of digitalization in the cultural sector.

Toniebox, Tiptoi, and Tamagotchi are smart toys, offering interactive play through software and internet access. However, many of these toys raise privacy concerns, and some even collect extensive behavioral data about children, report researchers at the University of Basel. The Toniebox and the figurines it comes with are especially popular with small children.

In an analysis of smartphones of ten manufacturers, researchers at TU Graz have found that the Android kernels used are vulnerable to known attacks - so-called one-day exploits - despite existing protection mechanisms. Smartphones are a constant companion and important work tool for many people. In addition to contacts, appointments and emails, the devices are increasingly being used for sensitive tasks such as online banking or official matters.

Imagine a coat that captures solar energy to keep you cozy on a chilly winter walk, or a shirt that can monitor your heart rate and temperature. Picture clothing athletes can wear to track their performance without the need for bulky battery packs. University of Waterloo researchers have developed a smart fabric with these remarkable capabilities.

In the USA, the world's most extensive neutrino experiment, DUNE, is being built at Fermilab. The University of Bern is playing a key role in this by developing the "ND-LAr" detector, which features new technology and an innovative design to observe neutrinos. The prototype of the "ND-LAr" has now been successfully tested and has detected its first neutrinos.

For symptoms like a runny nose and a cough, some might think it's a common cold. It doesn't warrant a doctor's visit, so they turn to Google and WebMD for additional reassurance. Now, with advancements in AI, some might be tempted to switch from "Dr. Google" to "Dr. ChatGPT," but can OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot provide accurate medical advice? Researchers from Western University set out to answer that question and explore whether ChatGPT is capable of becoming a reliable resource in health care and medical education.

The new device, which can be implanted under the skin, rapidly releases naloxone when an overdose is detected. In 2023, more than 100,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses. The most effective way to save someone who has overdosed is to administer a drug called naloxone, but a first responder or bystander can't always reach the person who has overdosed in time.

Imperial has received a donation from high performance and adaptive computing company AMD to support research into machine learning. made the donation in recognition of the excellent research of Professor George Constantinides and Dr Aaron Zhao in Imperial's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Large language models like ChatGPT cannot learn independently or acquire new skills, meaning they pose no existential threat to humanity. ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) cannot learn independently or acquire new skills, meaning they pose no existential threat to humanity, according to new research from the University of Bath and the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.

Farm saved seed is seed that comes from farmers' own harvests, which they then sow in their fields the following crop year. This practice, which is common for certain field crops, sometimes involves royalty payments to finance seed research. A team from INRAE studied existing systems in Europe and Australia and showed that royalties on farm saved seed generally increases profits for all the economic players involved, from farmers to breeders of protected varieties.

Extreme heatwaves are on the rise. When do they become critical for forest trees? In the hot summer of 2023, a research team led by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) investigated this in Switzerland, southern France and Spain.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have used one of the most advanced energy system models in Europe to calculate the impact of digitalisation on energy consumption. Many people now work partly or permanently from home. This saves petrol because they no longer have to drive to the office - which is good for the energy transition.

New research on 3D-printed materials could unlock benefits for industry A new analysis of the deformation mechanisms which cause 3D-printed materials to fail under strain could help create future generations of stronger, lighter plastics, unlocking transformative benefits for industry.

People trust medical advice less if they suspect that an artificial intelligence is involved in its creation. This is the key finding of a study by psychologists from the University of Würzburg. People used to ask Dr. Google if they wanted to know whether their symptoms indicate a mild stomach upset or terminal cancer; today, they are increasingly turning to ChatGPT.

Many decisions are being made by neural networks. But are they rational and fair? Methods to ensure this are being developed at TU Wien. Many decisions that were previously made by humans will be left to machines in the future. But can we really rely on the decisions made by artificial intelligence? In sensitive areas, people would like a guarantee that the decision is actually sensible, or at least that certain serious errors have been ruled out.

Stories written with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) have been deemed to be more creative, better written and more enjoyable, according to new research from UCL and the University of Exeter. The study, published in Science Advances , found that AI enhanced creativity by boosting the novelty of story ideas as well as the 'usefulness' of stories, which describes their ability to engage the target audience and their publication potential.

Research team studies how technology conspiracy beliefs emerge and foster a conspiracy mindset As technology proliferates, misinformation and conspiracy theories seem to flourish. Conspiracy beliefs specifically about technology include popular commercial technologies, such as Amazon Echo and Google Search, as well as non-profit technologies designed to support health, such as contact tracing apps.

TU Wien (Vienna) has patented a completely new method of dampening vibrations. This is an important step for precision devices such as high-performance astronomical telescopes. When everything shakes, precision is usually impossible - everybody who has ever tried to take a photo with shaky hands or make handwritten notes on a bumpy bus journey knows that.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and Empa have developed a hydrogel implant that can help prevent endometriosis, a condition that affects a great many women. This innovation also acts as a contraceptive. Hydrogels have a variety of use cases, including contact lenses, delivering doses of medication within the body, moisturisers, water storage in soil, cleaning polluted water and as gelling and thickening agents.

Activists on the front lines of wildlife conservation routinely monitor news articles for information about infrastructure projects that could threaten at-risk animals. But that monitoring required more staff time than organizations on the ground could spare. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University helped ease this burden by working with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for Nature to develop a tool that monitors and identifies media articles related to environmental conservation.