Doubt cast on claim of ‘hints’ of life on faraway planet

Several recent studies looking into the same data have found that there is not enough evidence to support such lofty claims

The debate revolves around the planet K2-18b, which is 124 light years away in the Leo constellation

Experts seek to legitimize AI mental health care

Their application, Therabot, addresses the critical shortage of mental health professionals.

The Dartmouth team recently published a clinical study demonstrating Therabot's effectiveness in helping people with anxiety, depression and eating disorders.

AI companions present risks for young users, US watchdog warns

The watchdog, Common Sense, tested several of these platforms, namely Nomi, Character AI, and Replika, to assess their responses.

While some specific cases "show promise," they are not safe for kids, concluded the organization, which makes recommendations on children's use of technological content.

‘Something new for the honey market’: Austria trials DNA testing to uncover fraud

With fake honey flooding markets, and only a few European laboratories running such analysis, the small Austrian company Sinsoma began offering the tests two years ago.

Between 2021 and 2022, 46 percent of the honey tested under an EU investigation as it entered the bloc was flagged as potentially adulterated, up from 14% in the 2015-17 period.

Humanoid robots stride into the future with world’s first half-marathon

The 21-kilometre (13-mile) event held in the Chinese capital's E-Town is billed as a groundbreaking effort to test the limits of bipedal robots in real-world conditions

Research on multiple sclerosis wins ‘Oscars of science’

Scientists knew the disease, which damages the central nervous system and leads to paralyzing cognitive and motor problems, was caused by the immune system turning on the body.

But they thought the white blood cells known as T cells were the lone culprit. Hauser questioned that.

‘I don’t have a voice in my head’: Life with no inner monologue

The idea of not being able to have inner monologue is so new that a clinical name, anendophasia, was only proposed for it in a paper last year

The inner monologue has proven extremely difficult to study because it relies on people being able to describe how they think

World’s tiniest pacemaker is smaller than grain of rice

While still years away from being tested in humans, the wireless pacemaker was hailed as a "transformative breakthrough" that could spur advances in other areas of medicine.

Millions of people across the world have permanent pacemakers, which stimulate hearts with electrical pulses to ensure they beat normally.

First orbital rocket launched from Europe crashes seconds after blast-off

Isar Aerospace, which had said it did not expect to reach orbit with the launch, said the two-stage rocket fell into the sea, adding that "the launch pad seems to be intact".

The 28-metre (92-foot) tall, two-meter diameter rocket has a one-ton carrying capacity, but was unloaded for the test flight.

‘Dark universe detective’ telescope releases first data

The telescope launched in 2023, aiming to chart one third of the sky, encompassing 1.5 billion galaxies

The huge amount of data - which was accompanied by 27 scientific papers - still only covers less then 0.5 percent of the sky