Watching a video could change your attitude to rattlesnakes - though results varied by age, gender, religion and rattlesnake experience

The clinical knowledge and reasoning skills of GPT-4 are approaching the level of specialist eye doctors, a study led by the University of Cambridge has found. GPT-4 - a ‘large language model’ - was tested against doctors at different stages in their careers, including unspecialised junior doctors, and trainee and expert eye doctors. Each was presented with a series of 87 patient scenarios involving a specific eye problem, and asked to give a diagnosis or advise on treatment by selecting from four options. GPT-4 scored significantly better in the ...

As carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere, the Earth will get hotter. But exactly how much warming will result from a certain increase in CO2 is under study. The relationship between CO2 and warming, known as climate sensitivity, determines what future we should expect as CO2 levels continue to climb. New research led by the University of Washington analyzes the most recent ice age, when a large swath of North America was covered in ice, to better understand the relationship between CO2 and global temperature. It finds that while most future warming ...

Researchers at the American Museum of Natural History have found that over the last 120 years, the porosity—or small-scale holes—in mussel shells along the East Coast of the United States has increased, potentially due to warming waters. The study, which analyzed modern mussel shells in comparison to specimens in the Museum’s historic collection, was published today in the journal PLOS ONE. “Mussels are important on so many levels: they provide habitats on reefs, they filter water, they protect coasts during storms, and they are important commercially as well—I love mussels and I know many other people do, too,” said Leanne Melbourne, ...

The fossilised remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two metres long has been found on a beach in Somerset, UK. Experts have identified the bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur, a type of prehistoric marine reptile. Estimates suggest the oceanic titan would have been more than 25 metres long. Father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Braunton, Devon, found the first pieces of the second jawbone to be found in May 2020, while searching for fossils on the ...

Waltham — March 15, 2024 — For patients undergoing carpometacarpal (CMC) joint surgery for treatment of thumb osteoarthritis, the use of online video instruction for postoperative hand therapy is associated with outcomes similar to in-person therapy visits – while substantially reducing travel time and distance, reports a clinical trial in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer.  Video-administered hand therapy provides an "efficient and effective" alternative to in-person therapy after CMC arthroplasty, ...

Researchers have shown that an Amazonian butterfly is a hybrid species, formed by two other species breeding together almost 200,000 years ago.  The discovery, by an international team led by scientists at the University of York and Harvard University, demonstrates how the formation of new species can be more complex than previously imagined. Species are often thought of as the tips, or leaves in a ‘tree of life’. In this model, new species are produced by the tips splitting over thousands to millions of years.  Scientists now understand, however, that the branches in the tree of life are ...

Researchers have discovered toxic protein particles, shaped like umbrellas, that soil bacteria known as Streptomyces secrete to squelch competitors, especially others of their own species. The discovery of the umbrella toxin particles and related information about their structures, composition and mode of action were published April 17 in Nature. The umbrella toxin proteins are the latest example of these bacteria’s varied, combative strikes on their microscopic rivals. The crowded, diverse bacteria communities ...

Traditionally, estimates of how climate change will affect global economies have focused on the effects of annual temperature changes. However, the additional impacts of variability and extremes in rainfall and temperature have remained largely unexplored, until now. Using projections from 33 global climate models, an international research team, led by Paul Waidelich at ETH Zurich, conducted a pioneering study, published in the journal, Nature Climate Change, to quantify such impacts on gross domestic product (GDP) across the globe. Revealing the additional ...

Lost your keys? Can’t remember where you parked the car? If only you had the memory of a mountain chickadee.  These half-ounce birds, with brains slightly larger than a pea, stash tens of thousands of food items like seeds in tree bark, under dead leaves and inside pinecones across the mountains. When winter arrives, they can recall the exact locations of their caches, a skill that helps them survive the bitter cold and deep snow.    In a new study published April 17 in the journal Current Biology, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and the ...

April 17, 2024-- Policing of intimate partner violence (IPV) may result in adverse consequences for survivors, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. However, the evidence concerning the generalized consequences of IPV policing has not been comprehensively evaluated until now and the results call into question whether IPV policing benefits survivors. This is the first review on the consequences of IPV policing in the U.S. The findings are published in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior. IPV, which includes physical violence, sexual violence, psychological abuse, and other forms of coercion between current or former spouses or ...