A robotic bartender has to do something challenging for a machine - ignore data and recognize social signals. Researchers at the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) of Bielefeld University investigated how a robotic bartender can better understand human communication and serve drinks like a human would. They invited participants in the lab and asked them to try and be a robotic bartender the researchers call James. The participants saw through the robot's eyes and ears and selected actions from its repertoire. 

Fast Radio Bursts - bursts of energy from space that appear as a short flashes of radio waves to telescopes on Earth - have baffled astronomers since first detected a decade ago.

Though only 16 have been recorded, there could be thousands of of these mysterious events each day.

Matter known as ordinary, which makes up everything we know, corresponds to only 5% of the Universe. Approximately half of this percentage still eluded detection. Numerical simulations made it possible to predict that the rest of this ordinary matter should be located in the large-scale structures that form the 'cosmic web' at temperatures between 100,000 and 10 million degrees. A team led by a researcher from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, observed this phenomenon directly. The research shows that the majority of the missing ordinary matter is found in the form of a very hot gas associated with intergalactic filaments. The article reporting this discovery is published in the journal Nature.

(PHILADELPHIA) -- Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University have discovered why conventional efforts to block a tiny strand of ribonucleic acid, called microRNA, in triple negative breast cancer cells failed. In a study published December 2nd in the journal PLOS ONE, the new insight enables effective design of RNA blockers against previously intractable microRNAs.

Global climate change isn't new -- the phenomenon has been around for millions of years. But now, a core from the ocean floor in the Santa Barbara Basin provides a remarkable ultra-high-resolution record of Earth's paleoclimate history during a brief, dynamic time hundreds of thousands of years ago.

(PHILADELPHIA) - Although a number of treatments exist to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, to date, none reliably slow the progression of the disease. In 2013, a molecule called GM1 ganglioside showed promise in patients for not only relieving symptoms but also slowing disease progression. However, GM1 ganglioside has been difficult to make and to deliver to patients for regular use. Now, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University have demonstrated a way to help the brain of mice produce more of its own GM1 ganglioside in a study published December 2nd in the open access journal PLOS ONE.

"And how does that make you feel? Empathy is the foundation of therapeutic intervention. But how can you know if your therapist is or will be empathetic? Technology developed by researchers from USC, University of Washington, and the University of Utah can tell you.

When you see someone wandering all over the street because they are on the phone, it is irksome. When you have to reply to a text, not so much.

At Science 2.0 we call this phenomenon "mobile drift" but the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons lumps such mobile deadwalkers under the term "distracted walking." They find that more than three quarters (78 percent) of U.S. adults believe that distracted walking is a "serious" issue; however, 74 percent of Americans say "other people" are usually or always walking while distracted, while only 29 percent say the same about themselves. 

Living longer usually means a longer dotage, with more pills and disease risk for more decades rather than aging well. What would be better? Extended young adulthood, when we are at our primes.

Chemical triggers that make plants defend themselves against insects could replace pesticides, according to a new paper in Bioorganic&Medicinal Chemistry Letters which identifies five chemicals that trigger rice plants to fend off a common pest - the white-backed planthopper, Sogatella furcifera