Science
From mathematics and AI to medicine and psychology, The Optimist Daily features the latest news on discoveries, technological advances, and breakthroughs in the world of science. Our Science section is here to engage and enlighten you.
New telecom filtering technology could make scam calls a thing of the past
It goes without saying that scam calls are an incredible nuisance. But apart from being annoying, scammers also often get what they want — getting people on the other end of the line to lose significant amounts of money. Last year, for example, Australians lost about AU$48 million to Read More...
Brilliant invention provides light and drinking water at almost no cost
Amongst the cream of the crop of the Lexus Design Award 2021 is Henry Glogau’s ingenious contraption: a skylight that uses free sources of energy to light homes at night and distill seawater into safe drinking water. This no-cost, clean energy solution can provide basic services for Read More...
Scientists are designing self-charging wearables that heal themselves
What if your wearable gadgets could harvest body heat to power themselves so that they never ran out of battery? Soon, damaged chargers and lack of power outlets may be problems of the past as scientists come closer to creating wearable thermoelectric generators that are flexible, durable, Read More...
Experiment: Blue-green algae could help make life sustainable on Mars
As astronauts are preparing for the upcoming space missions to Mars, scientists are now hard at work to find ways to make the red planet as hospitable as possible for human settlement. A recent experiment has found that the good old blue-green algae may play a key role in achieving that Read More...
These colorful windows capture energy from indoor and outdoor light
What if we could build solar panels that aren’t an addition on top of buildings, but an actual part of the structural construction of homes and offices? This is the idea behind luminescent solar concentrators developed by researchers from Rice University. The technology transforms Read More...
Seeking to avoid human error? This new AI system predicts it
It took about 50 years to develop an AI system capable of playing chess to the level of a grandmaster. Now, programmers have developed a new AI player, not one with the goal of winning chess games, but rather learning how to lose them. Researchers from Cornell University developed the AI chess Read More...
Luxury car brand Jaguar to go all-electric by 2025
As an increasing number of car manufacturers are starting to pivot away from internal combustion engines, UK automaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has recently jumped on the bandwagon by announcing its Jaguar luxury brand will be all-electric by 2025. Meanwhile, the brand’s Land Rover stablemate will Read More...
AI-powered tool can predict tsunami flooding in real time
Japan’s unfavorable geographic position along the Pacific Ring of Fire means that the country is subject to experience a lot of earthquakes, making tsunamis a real and ever-present threat to its people. A new, AI-powered tool developed by the world’s fastest supercomputer may soon offer Read More...
What!? Scientists discover life 3,000 ft below Antarctic ice shelf
Scientists have been forced to rethink the limits of life on Earth after accidentally stumbling upon marine organisms living on a boulder 900 meters (3,000 ft) below an Antarctic ice shelf. The scientists were attempting to sink a borehole through nearly a kilometer of the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf Read More...
What we can learn from pigs playing video games
Pigs are highly intelligent animals with an arsenal of skills that include sniffing out truffles, swimming, and demonstrating empathy. Now scientists have discovered another surprising talent that pigs can develop: gaming! This past Thursday, Frontiers in Psychology published an extensive study Read More...