ScienceDaily: Computers & Math News

For a long time, anthropologists believed that a written language was a hallmark of a society being complex or 'advanced.' A new study on precolonial Mesoamerican societies shows that you can have a society with a big population and a complex government without a writing system. However, societies with writing systems tended to be less egalitarian than ones without.

Toward a new kind of superconductivity: In the past four years scientists have discovered metals whose crystal structure mimics that of a traditional Japanese woven bamboo pattern: kagome metals. The international research activity in this new direction of quantum materials has recently reached a new climax: an international team of physicists has discovered that the underlying kagome lattice structure induces the joint appearance of intricate quantum phenomena which can lead to an unprecedented type of superconductivity.

A new machine learning process designed to identify and classify hip fractures has been shown to outperform human clinicians. Two convolutional neural networks (CNNs) were able to identify and classify hip fractures from X-rays with a 19% greater degree of accuracy and confidence than hospital-based clinicians.

Researchers may have cleared a significant hurdle on the path to quantum computing, demonstrating step-change improvements in the spin transport characteristics of nanoscale graphene-based electronic devices.

A new study could be a game changer for users of prosthetic hands who have long awaited advances in dexterity. Researchers examined if people could precisely control the grip forces applied to two different objects grasped simultaneously with a dexterous artificial hand. They designed a multichannel wearable soft robotic armband to convey artificial sensations of touch to the robotic hand users. Subjects were able to successfully grasp and transport two objects simultaneously with the dexterous artificial hand without breaking or dropping them, even when their vision of both objects was obstructed. The study is the first to show the feasibility of this complex simultaneous control task while integrating multiple channels of haptic/touch sensation feedback noninvasively.

Researchers have developed a new blood-clotting test that uses only a single drop of blood and a smartphone vibration motor and camera.

Paying thousands of dollars to advertise on television is a huge proposition -- never more so than for the Super Bowl, for which 30-second TV spots this year will cost advertisers as much as $6.5 million. Contrary to Super Bowl advertisements, which are some of the most high-profile commercials, new research shows nearly a third of TV ads play to empty rooms.

Community structure, including relationships between and within groups, is foundational to our understanding of the world around us.

Asymptomatic COVID-19 cases are the bane of computer modelers' existences -- they throw off the modeling data to an unknown degree. A new approach explores using historic epidemic data from eight different countries to estimate the transmission rate and fraction of under-reported cases.

Mathematicians have developed a new mathematical model which could greatly increase the efficiency of pest control and hence significantly reduce the impact of pests on crops whilst minimizing the damage to environment.

A sustained focus on spatial reasoning training could help children learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Rare genetic diseases can sometimes be recognized through facial features, such as characteristically shaped brows, nose or cheeks. Researchers have now trained software that uses portrait photos to better diagnose such diseases. The improved version "GestaltMatcher" can now also detect diseases that are not yet known to it. It also manages to diagnose known diseases with very small numbers of patients.

Scientists applied their flash Joule heating process to coal fly ash and other toxic waste to safely extract rare earth elements essential to modern electronics and green technologies.

A team of experts in artificial intelligence and animal ecology have put forth a new, cross-disciplinary approach intended to enhance research on wildlife species and make more effective use of the vast amounts of data now being collected thanks to new technology.