Nearly everyone in the world carries a unique ID right at their fingertips. These are their fingerprints — the swooping, swirling patterns in the fine ridges of skin on the pads of their fingers. No two people have the same fingerprints. Not even identical twins. That’s why some phones can be unlocked with a user’s fingertip. And why fingerprints left at a crime scene can help identify whodunnit. Fingerprints form before birth. The patterns originate from three spots on each fingertip: under the nail, at the center of the finger pad and at the crease of the first finger joint. The design of a ..read more

Digital footprint (noun, “DIH-jih-tuhl FOOT-print”) Your digital footprint is all of the information about you that is available online. Posting on social media, visiting websites and signing up for apps adds to your footprint. But this digital “trail” doesn’t just include the information you post online. It also includes the data that websites collect when you visit those pages. Comments, messages and tags from other people are also part of your online presence. Digital footprints aren’t good or bad. Everyone who uses the internet has one. Still, it’s important to be aware of what’s in your ..read more

In a humid coastal rainforest, a litter of pink, hairless babies snuggle with their mom. They stir and squeak for milk and drink from their mother until they are full. But these are no puppies or cubs. They are snake-shaped amphibians, far closer to frogs than to foxes. Mammals are named for their ability to produce milk. But scientists have found that a few species that are not mammals feed their young this way, too. These include certain spiders, fishes, cockroaches and birds — and now, snake-shaped amphibians. Ringed caecilians (Siphonops annulatus) are the first amphibians known to feed ha ..read more

This is another in a year-long series of stories identifying how the burgeoning use of artificial intelligence is impacting our lives — and ways we can work to make those impacts as beneficial as possible. It’s an ordinary day in Minecraft … until a bot walks into a village and starts destroying a house. The bot was trained to collect resources and craft items. So why is it attacking? To the bot, the beam in a house looks just like a tree, explains Karolis Ramanauskas. He’s a PhD student in computer science at the University of Bath in England. He was experimenting with the bot ..read more

This is another in a year-long series of stories identifying how the burgeoning use of artificial intelligence is impacting our lives — and ways we can work to make those impacts as beneficial as possible. “How can I help you today?” asks ChatGPT in a pleasing, agreeable manner. This bot can assist with just about anything — from writing a thank-you note to explaining confusing computer code. But it won’t help people build bombs, hack bank accounts or tell racist jokes. At least, it’s not supposed to. Yet some people have discovered ways to make chatbots misbehave. These techniq ..read more

With a little help from the sun, blue jeans are going “green.” By accident, researchers stumbled on a new way to give jeans their iconic blue hue. The light-driven process could help dye denim with fewer harsh chemicals.  Denim is usually dyed with indigo. But this compound doesn’t easily dissolve in water. So harsh chemicals are used to break it down into a liquid that can turn the fabric blue. Each year, tens of thousands of tons of these harsh chemicals go into making denim across the world. Many are then dumped as waste into streams. “It’s very toxic to both the environment [and ..read more

Scientists have long thought that when it comes to mammals, males tend to be larger than females. That may not be true after all, it now appears. A new study looked at hundreds of mammal species. In just over half, females are as big as or bigger than males. Researchers shared their new findings March 12 in Nature Communications. The idea that male mammals are bigger than females has “just been this assumption,” says Kaia Tombak. Most people just went along with it, “without good evidence,” she says. An evolutionary biologist, Tombak works at Purdue University. That’s in West La ..read more

Imagine scrolling through TikTok and seeing famous YouTuber MrBeast pop up. He says he’s giving away brand-new iPhones. “Click the link below to claim yours now!” Do you click? Maybe. It sure looks and sounds like MrBeast. But it’s actually a deepfake — a phony clip created by artificial intelligence, or AI. Last October, this TikTok clip tricked some fans into sharing personal details. They also paid shipping fees for a phone that would never arrive. But a new tool — AntiFake — could help prevent such scams. Most deepfake defenses simply scan existing video or audio files to try to see if the ..read more

Allergy sufferers may one day be able to erase the source of their sniffles, itchy skin and swelling. A newfound subtype of immune cells seems to underlie long-lasting allergies. The finding could lead to new ways to diagnose, treat or even cure allergies. Memory B cells are important for long-lasting protection against infectious diseases. The new cells are called type 2 memory B cells or MBC2s. This subset holds the memory of proteins that cause allergies. And these cells are primed to make the type of antibodies that trigger classic allergy symptoms. Two separate groups of researchers descr ..read more

Gumdrop with an earring. That’s what pops to mind when I look at photos of a creature Sebastian Hess found in a mossy pond in Germany. It’s kind of plump and has only one cell. It’s also violent. This shape-shifting, amoeba-like cell prowls for algal cells to attack. It curls a long strand called a flagellum into an earring-like loop. Holding the loop steady, the cell somehow glides. “They look basically like tiny flying saucers,” Hess says. Hess has been seeking and tending such single-celled wonders since a young age. As a teenager, he kept a zoo of microbes on his windowsill. Now, he’s a bi ..read more