We asked ChatGPT to write a company HR policy – and the results were promising: VideoFlow/Shutterstock With the release of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT in November last year, the world of machine learning and AI has opened up to anyone who wants to use the bot to answer questions. And when OpenAI – the …
Why we’re ‘interviewing’ captive birds to find the best to release into the wild: A Bali myna at the Waddesdon Aviary in England. National Trust Not all animals are the same. Even within a species, some are bolder and better at solving problems than others. We have found this to be true in the case …
While humans were in strict lockdown, wild mammals roamed further – new research: At one point in 2020, 4.4 billion people – more than half of the world’s population – were under lockdown restrictions to stem the spread of COVID-19. This was such a sudden and substantial event that it has become known as the …
Sportsmen in ancient Greece and Rome were celebrities who won grand prizes, toured and even unionised: Pollice Verso (With a Turned Thumb) by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1872). Phoenix Art Museum Paid to play, travelling internationally and enjoying celebrity status: the lifestyle of a modern elite professional sportsperson, but also that of some elite sportsmen in ancient …
Why we’re searching for the evolutionary origins of masturbation – and the results so far: This female rhesus macaque seems surprised at the idea not everyone thinks masturbation is natural. Matilda Brindle, Author provided “Spanking the monkey”, “petting the poodle” and “pulling the python”: all fitting euphemisms for masturbation, and closer to the truth than …
Invisible Windrush: how the stories of Indian indentured labourers from the Caribbean were forgotten: Labourers and children of Indian heritage walking down a street in Guyana in the early 1920s. The Field Museum Library, CC BY-SA My father never spoke to us about Guyana, the country of his birth, when we were growing up because …
Voices of Preston’s Windrush generation – when I first arrived, I said: ‘Really? I thought there were no slums in this place!’: From the earliest arrivals of what would become Preston’s “Windrush generation”, the status of the Caribbean diaspora was hotly contested in this post-industrial Lancashire town, as elsewhere. Discrimination and prejudice dogged the daily …
Tina Turner: the singer’s resilience and defiance were typical of a survivor of intimate partner abuse: There was something elemental about the ferocity of Tina Turner’s stage strut and the grit in her voice. Her death last week, aged 83, was met with an outpouring of tributes celebrating her musical prowess. But as we mourn …
If we’re going to label AI an ‘extinction risk’, we need to clarify how it could happen: This is not the first time that AI has been described as an existential threat. Nouskrabs/Shutterstock This week a group of well-known and reputable AI researchers signed a statement consisting of 22 words: Mitigating the risk of extinction …
MRI scans and AI technology really could read what we’re thinking. The implications are terrifying: MRI scans use strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the brain. Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock For the first time, researchers have managed to use GPT1, precursor to the AI chatbot ChatGPT, to translate MRI imagery into …
Humans were using fire in Europe 50,000 years earlier than we thought – new research: The control of fire by humans probably developed gradually over thousands of years. matsiukpavel / Shutterstock Human history is intimately entwined with the use and control of fire. However, working out when our relationship with fire began and how it subsequently …
Saturn: we may finally know when the magnificent rings were formed: A colour-exaggerated view of Saturn backlit by the sun. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Saturn’s rings are one of the jewels of the solar system, but it seems that their time is short and their existence fleeting. A new study suggests the rings are between 400 …
We’re using VR to help find the next generation of basketball stars: blank Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry is one of the world’s leading basketball players and unquestionably the greatest shooter of all time. The video below may look like it’s on a loop, but it’s actually Curry sinking 105 three point shots …
The Nakba: how the Palestinians were expelled from Israel: Evicted: about 750,000 Palestinians were killed or expelled from their land during the Nakba which began on May 15 1948. Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock Until 1948, Lajjun was a small village about ten miles south of Nazareth in one of the most fertile valleys in Palestine. Since 1949, the …
UK students are abandoning language learning, so we’re looking for a more creative approach: Maxx-Studio/Shutterstock There is a storm brewing for modern language education in the UK. The uptake in higher education has more than halved in the past 15 years. And in the same period, ten modern language university departments have closed, while a further …
Beauty ideals were as tough in the middle ages as they are now: After turning up at this year’s Grammys, Madonna was subjected to a vitriolic online attack over her appearance, particularly what was deemed her excessive use of plastic surgery. The irrepressible 64-year-old instantly hit back, saying: Once again I am caught in the …
Researchers discover 18th century clay tobacco pipes were used as weapons and surgical tools: The ready availability of clay pipes meant that they were sometimes used for other activities other than smoking. Ashmolean Museum, CC BY-NC Tobacco pipes were one of the first mass-produced, disposable objects in Britain. Through contact with indigenous peoples of the …
Unravelling DNA’s structure: a landmark achievement whose authors were not fairly credited: Claudio Caridi, CC BY-SA Seventy years ago, two male scientists, Francis Crick and James Watson, proclaimed they had discovered the secret of life: the structure of DNA. Since then, history has acknowledged how Rosalind Franklin was sidelined. But new archive evidence has cast …