ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

Researchers have taken a major step towards mapping the entirety of genetic relationships among humans: a single genealogy that traces the ancestry of all of us.

Striving to improve touch sensing in robotics, scientists developed a thumb-shaped sensor with a camera hidden inside and trained a deep neural network to infer its haptic contact information. When something touches the finger, the system constructs a three-dimensional force map from the visible deformations of its flexible outer shell. This research invention significantly improves a robot finger's haptic perception, coming ever closer to the sense of touch of human skin.

A new way of dating collisions between asteroids and planetary bodies throughout our solar system's history could help scientists reconstruct how and when planets were born.

Scientists have developed a new technique that uses microscopic magnetic particles to remotely activate brain cells; researchers say the discovery in rats could potentially lead to the development of a new class of non-invasive therapies for neurological disorders.