AI sheds light on an ancient gaming mystery

Above: the possible gameboard with pencil marks highlighting the incised lines. Below: diagram of the lines, indicating how pieces may have been moved along them to play the game
Image Credit: Walter Crist

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary: AI Decoding of an Ancient Roman Board Game

• Main Discovery: Researchers successfully utilized artificial intelligence to decode the rules of an ancient, previously unexplainable board game carved into a limestone object discovered in the Roman Netherlands.
• Methodology: The research team employed the AI-driven play system Ludii to simulate hundreds of rule sets from documented ancient European games, systematically adjusting parameters to identify which simulated movements replicated the specific, asymmetrical wear patterns observed on the original artifact.
• Key Data: The AI simulations consistently reproduced the concentrated friction and uneven wear along the carved lines when applying rules for a "blocking game," characterized by asymmetrical play where a player with more pieces attempts to trap an opponent with fewer pieces.
• Significance: This study represents the first successful integration of AI-driven simulated play with archaeological analysis to identify a board game, providing physical evidence that blocking games existed long before their earliest prior documentation in the Middle Ages.
• Future Application: This computational approach establishes a new analytical framework for archaeologists to interpret mysterious historical artifacts and reconstruct undocumented cultural practices when written texts or artworks have not survived.
• Branch of Science: Archaeology, Computer Science, and Cultural History.
• Additional Detail: The artifact provided a rare preservation opportunity, as most everyday Roman games were historically drawn in dust or carved into perishable materials like wood, leaving minimal physical evidence for modern physical analysis.

How mice see: newly discovered nerve cells perceive more than just edges

3D reconstruction of neurons from electron microscope data as part of the MICrONS project   
Image Credit: Tyler Sloan, Quorumetrix Studio
(CC BY 4.0)

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary: Novel Visual Cortex Neurons in Mice

• Main Discovery: Researchers identified a new class of neurons in the mouse primary visual cortex possessing a two-part receptive field tuned to complex textures and spatial frequencies, challenging the classical model that these early-stage neurons only detect simple transitions in brightness.
• Methodology: Investigators employed deep neural networks to construct digital twins of mouse neurons. These machine learning models systematically predicted which specific images would maximize individual cellular activation, and these AI-generated predictions were subsequently validated through targeted in vivo experiments in actual mouse brains.
• Key Data: The bipartite neurons exhibit a dual response mechanism based on spatial frequency. One distinct part of the receptive field responds to generalized textures, such as background plumage, while the other part activates exclusively in response to precisely arranged spatial patterns, such as facial features.
• Significance: This discovery necessitates a revision of foundational neurobiology textbook models by demonstrating that the primary visual cortex actively processes complex textural and spatial variations. These specific signals are the fundamental biological mechanisms required to separate distinct objects from complex natural backgrounds.
• Future Application: The successful integration of digital twin models with biological mapping can be leveraged to refine artificial neural network architectures, improve machine vision systems, and accelerate diagnostic modeling for neurological sensory research.
• Branch of Science: Computational Neuroscience, Neurobiology, and Artificial Intelligence
• Additional Detail: The research was conducted as a collaborative effort between Stanford University and the University of Göttingen, with the findings published in Nature Neuroscience.

These robots are born to run — and never die

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary: Legged Metamachines

• Main Discovery: Northwestern University researchers developed "legged metamachines," which are the first modular robots with athletic intelligence capable of assembling autonomously, recovering from catastrophic physical damage, and maintaining mobility.
• Methodology: An AI-driven evolutionary algorithm was used to simulate natural selection in a virtual environment, mutating and testing novel body configurations using half-meter-long autonomous modules, each equipped with an independent motor, battery, and circuit board.
• Key Data: The algorithm generated optimal three-, four-, and five-legged robotic configurations that successfully navigated physical terrains including gravel, grass, sand, and mud, while demonstrating the mechanical ability to self-right and operate independently if severed.
• Significance: This development marks a transition from fragile, rigidly designed robots to resilient, adaptable robotic systems that can survive and autonomously reconfigure in unstructured, unpredictable real-world conditions.
• Future Application: These systems offer substantial utility for deployment in hazardous, remote, or dynamic environments where rapid field assembly, self-repair, and continuous operational resilience are required.
• Branch of Science: Biorobotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Mechanical Engineering.
• Additional Detail: Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study demonstrates the successful translation of computationally accelerated evolutionary design into functional, durable physical robots.

New research takes first step toward advance warnings of space weather

Joint research by Southwest Research Institute and NSF-NCAR developed "PINNBARDS" a physics-informed neural network that connects surface observations of solar active regions to the deep magnetic dynamics of the Sun. The left figure shows solar observations of two warped toroid patterns (derived from SDO/HMI magnetograms) in the southern and northern hemispheres. PINNBARDS-derived results (center) show magnetic vectors (black arrows) overlaid on bulges (red) and depressions (blue) match with observed toroidal bands. The velocity field is marked with black arrows in the right image. These results provide clues about the global sources of active regions that produce space weather, which can impact our technological society.
Image Credit: NASA/SDO HMI/SwRI/NCAR

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: 
Physics-Informed Space Weather Forecasting (PINNBARDS)

The Core Concept: An artificial intelligence-enabled, physics-informed forecasting model designed to predict the emergence of large, flare-producing active regions on the Sun weeks in advance of their occurrence.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: While current forecasting systems rely on small-scale magnetic signatures that provide predictive warnings only hours prior to an eruption, this new methodology utilizes neural networks to connect surface observations directly to the deep magnetic dynamics of the Sun. This allows researchers to reconstruct subsurface states and achieve significantly longer predictive lead times.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• PINNBARDS: The Physics-Informed Neural Network-Based AR (Active Region) Distribution Simulator, which models the connection between surface events and deep solar mechanisms.
• Tachocline Analysis: Focuses on the Sun's tachocline region—the thin transition layer positioned between the uniformly rotating radiative interior and the turbulent outer convection zone.
• Subsurface State Reconstruction: Uses inverted surface patterns derived from the Solar Dynamics Observatory's Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager to establish initial conditions for forward simulations of solar magnetic evolution.
• Toroidal Band Tracking: Analyzes how solar active regions cluster along large-scale, warped magnetic toroidal bands rather than emerging randomly.

Using AI to Retrace the Evolution of Genetic Control Elements in the Brain

By decoding the DNA control elements that shape cerebellum development, artificial intelligence helps advancing our understanding of how the human brain evolved.
Image Credit: © Mari Sepp

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary

The Core Concept: A methodology utilizing advanced artificial intelligence to decode and predict the activity of genetic control elements in the developing mammalian cerebellum based on DNA sequences.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike traditional methods hindered by rapid evolutionary turnover, this approach employs machine learning models trained on comprehensive single-cell sequencing data from six mammalian species (human, bonobo, macaque, marmoset, mouse, and opossum) to predict regulatory activity directly from sequence grammar.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Deep Learning Models: AI algorithms trained to predict genetic control element activity solely from DNA sequences.
• Single-Cell Sequencing: Mapping of element activity in individual cells across developing cerebellums of six diverse mammalian species.
• In Silico Prediction: Application of trained models to predict activity across 240 mammalian species to reconstruct evolutionary histories.
• Sequence Grammar Decoding: Identification of conserved rules defining control element function across species.

Branch of Science: Evolutionary Biology, Computational Biology, Genomics, and Neuroscience.

Future Application: Identification of human-specific genetic innovations involved in brain expansion and cognition, and potential insights into neurodevelopmental disorders by understanding regulatory gene repurposing.

Why It Matters: This research overcomes significant barriers in tracing brain evolution, revealing how specific genetic changes—such as the repurposing of the THRB gene—contributed to the expansion of the human cerebellum, a region critical for cognition and language.

Streaks on Mercury show: Mercury is not a "dead planet"

Image of the streaks or ‘lineae’ on the slopes of a crater wall on Mercury and the bright hollows from which the streaks originate. The image was taken by MESSENGER on April 10, 2014.
Image Credit: © NASA/JHUAPL/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: A systematic analysis has identified approximately 400 bright slope streaks, or "lineae," on Mercury, indicating the planet is currently geologically active through the outgassing of subsurface volatiles.
• Methodology: Researchers employed a deep learning algorithm to automatically screen and analyze over 100,000 high-resolution images captured by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft during its 2011–2015 orbital mission.
• Key Data: The study produced the first comprehensive census of roughly 400 streaks—compared to only a handful previously known—revealing a distinct accumulation on the sun-facing slopes of young impact craters.
• Significance: These findings overturn the prevailing assumption that Mercury is a "dead" and static world, suggesting a continuous, solar-driven release of elements like sulfur into space.
• Future Application: This inventory will serve as a baseline for the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to re-image these regions, allowing scientists to detect new streak formation and quantify the planet's volatile budget.
• Branch of Science: Planetary Geology and Remote Sensing.
• Additional Detail: The formation of these streaks is attributed to solar radiation mobilizing volatiles through crack networks created by impact events, often originating from bright, shallow depressions known as hollows.

AI-powered model advances treatment planning for patients with spinal metastasis

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated (Gemini)

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers developed a machine learning-based prognostic scoring system for spinal metastasis that accurately predicts one-year survival using modern clinical data.
• Methodology: The team employed Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) logistic regression to analyze prospective data from 401 patients undergoing surgery at 35 medical institutions.
• Key Data: The model demonstrated high accuracy with an AUROC of 0.762, distinguishing one-year survival rates between low-risk (82.2%), intermediate-risk (67.2%), and high-risk (34.2%) groups.
• Significance: This tool resolves the limitations of traditional scoring systems based on obsolete 1990s data by integrating outcomes from contemporary treatments like molecularly targeted therapies and immunotherapies.
• Future Application: Clinical deployment to guide surgical versus palliative care decisions, with ongoing plans to validate the model's efficacy using international datasets.
• Branch of Science: Orthopedics, Oncology, and Data Science
• Additional Detail: Prognostic stratification relies on five non-invasive variables: vitality index, age, performance status, bone metastasis presence, and preoperative opioid usage.

Artificial intelligence makes quantum field theories computable

Quantum field theory on the computer
If you make the calculation grid increasingly finer, what happens to the result?
Image Credit: © TU Wien  

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers successfully utilized Artificial Intelligence to solve a long-standing problem in particle physics: calculating Quantum Field Theories (QFT) on a lattice with optimal precision.
• Methodology: The team employed a specialized neural network architecture called "Lattice Gauge Equivariant Convolutional Neural Networks" (L-CNNs) to learn a "Fixed Point Action." This mathematical formulation allows the physics of the continuum to be mapped perfectly onto a coarse discrete grid, eliminating typical discretization errors.
• Key Data: The AI-driven approach significantly overcomes the "Critical Slowing Down" phenomenon, a major computational bottleneck where the cost of simulation increases dramatically as the lattice is refined. The new method allows simulations on coarse lattices to yield results as precise as those from extremely fine lattices, making previously impossible calculations feasible.
• Significance: This breakthrough enables the reliable and efficient simulation of complex quantum systems, such as the quark-gluon plasma (the state of the universe shortly after the Big Bang) or the internal structure of atomic nuclei, which were previously too computationally expensive for even the world's most powerful supercomputers.
• Future Application: The technique will be applied to gain deeper insights into the early universe, simulate experiments in particle colliders (like the Large Hadron Collider) with higher fidelity, and potentially explore new physics beyond the Standard Model by allowing for more rigorous error quantification.
• Branch of Science: Theoretical Particle Physics, Lattice Field Theory, and Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning).
• Additional Detail: By using L-CNNs, the researchers ensured that the neural networks respect the fundamental symmetries of the gauge theories (gauge invariance), which is critical for the physical validity of the simulations.

AI generates short DNA sequences that show promise for gene therapies

Scientists are training AI models to recognize and write pieces of human DNA that control gene expression, in hopes that one day these synthetic sequences can improve genetic medicine.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated (Gemini)

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary

• The Core Concept: A generative AI model designed to create synthetic DNA sequences, specifically cis-regulatory elements (CREs), that can precisely control gene activity within targeted cell types.
• Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike traditional methods that modify existing DNA by removing or inserting segments, this model generates entirely new, functional sequences from scratch. It adapts diffusion model technology—similar to that used in image generators like DALL-E—to analyze chromatin accessibility data and write novel genetic "instructions."
• Origin/History: Developed by scientists at the Broad Institute and Mass General Brigham; the study was published in Nature Genetics in December 2025, with further details released in January 2026.
• Major Frameworks/Components:
• Diffusion Models: The generative AI architecture used to create the sequences.
• Cis-Regulatory Elements (CREs): The short DNA segments targeted for generation, responsible for tuning gene expression.
• Chromatin Accessibility Data: The training dataset used to teach the model which regulatory elements are active in specific cells.
• AXIN2: A protective gene used as a proof-of-concept target to demonstrate the model's ability to reactivate suppressed genes in leukemia cells.
• Branch of Science:
• Computational Biology / Bioinformatics
• Artificial Intelligence (Generative AI)
• Genetics and Genomics
• Future Application: The technology aims to enhance gene therapies by creating synthetic regulatory elements that ensure treatments are active only in the correct tissues. Future uses could involve pairing these sequences with delivery vectors like adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) or genome editors.
• Why It Matters: This advancement moves beyond merely editing the genome to "writing" it, enabling the design of highly specific, potent genetic switches. This could lead to more effective treatments for complex diseases like cancer by ensuring therapeutic genes are turned on more effectively than their natural counterparts would allow.

An AI to predict the risk of cancer metastases

Group of human colon cancer cells with invasive behavior. Cell nuclei are in yellow and cell bodies in red. The finger-like protrusions of invasive cells are on the upper right region.
Image Credit: © Ariel Ruiz i Altaba, UNIGE 

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of predicting the risk of cancer metastasis and recurrence with high reliability.
• Methodology: The team identified specific gene expression signatures in colon cancer cells that drive invasive behavior and trained a predictive model, named MangroveGS, to analyze these genomic patterns across various tumor types to assess metastatic probability.
• Key Data: After training, the AI model achieved a predictive accuracy of nearly 80% in forecasting the occurrence of metastases, transforming complex genomic data into actionable prognostic information.
• Significance: This study fundamentally challenges the concept of cancer as "anarchic" cell growth, instead framing it as a distorted form of orderly biological development where suppressed genetic programs are reactivated.
• Future Application: The algorithm will enable clinicians to stratify patients based on metastatic risk, facilitating personalized treatment strategies and identifying new therapeutic targets to block the spread of tumors.
• Branch of Science: Oncology, Genetics, and Artificial Intelligence.
• Additional Detail: The research highlights that metastatic potential is defined by the reactivation of ancient developmental programs, providing a predictable "logic" to tumor progression that can be decoded by AI.

Physicists employ AI labmates to supercharge LED light control

Sandia National Laboratories scientists Saaketh Desai, left, and Prasad Iyer, modernized an optics lab with a team of artificial intelligences that learn data, design and run experiments, and interpret results.
 Photo: Credit: Craig Fritz

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: A team of artificial intelligence agents successfully optimized the steering of LED light fourfold in approximately five hours, a task researchers previously estimated would require years of manual experimentation.
• Methodology: Researchers established a "self-driving lab" utilizing three distinct AI agents: a generative AI to simplify complex data, an active learning agent to autonomously design and execute experiments on optical equipment, and a third "equation learner" AI to derive mathematical formulas validating the results and ensuring interpretability.
• Key Data: The AI system executed 300 experiments to achieve an average 2.2-times improvement in light steering efficiency across a 74-degree angle, with specific angles showing a fourfold increase in performance compared to previous human-led efforts.
• Significance: This study demonstrates that AI can transcend mere automation to become a collaborative engine for scientific discovery, solving the "black box" problem by generating verifiable equations that explain the underlying physics of the optimized results.
• Future Application: Refined control of spontaneous light emission could allow cheaper, smaller, and more efficient LEDs to replace lasers in technologies such as holographic projectors, self-driving cars, and UPC scanners.
• Branch of Science: Nanophotonics, Optics, and Artificial Intelligence.
• Additional Detail: The AI agents identified a solution based on a fundamentally new conceptual approach to nanoscale light-material interactions that the human research team had not previously considered.

Fermilab researchers supercharge neural networks, boosting potential of AI to revolutionize particle physics

Nhan Tran, head of Fermilab’s AI Coordination Office, holds a circuit board used for particle tracker data analysis.
Photo Credit: JJ Starr, Fermilab

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Fermilab researchers led the development of hls4ml, an open-source framework capable of embedding neural networks directly into customized digital hardware.
• Methodology: The software automatically translates machine learning code from libraries such as PyTorch and TensorFlow into logic gates compatible with field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
• Key Data: Specialized hardware utilizing this framework can execute more than 10 million decisions per second, a necessity for managing the six-fold data increase projected for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider.
• Significance: By processing algorithms in real time with reduced latency and power usage, the system ensures that critical scientific data is identified and stored rather than discarded during high-volume experiments.
• Future Application: Primary deployment targets the CMS experiment trigger system, with broader utility in fusion energy research, neuroscience, and materials science.
• Branch of Science: Particle Physics, Artificial Intelligence, and Microelectronics.

A Robot Learns to Lip Sync

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Columbia Engineering researchers developed a robot that autonomously learns to lip-sync to speech and song through observational learning, bypassing traditional rule-based programming.
• Methodology: The system utilizes a "vision-to-action" language model (VLA) where the robot first maps its own facial mechanics by watching its reflection, then correlates these movements with human lip dynamics observed in YouTube videos.
• Specific Detail/Mechanism: The robot features a flexible silicone skin driven by 26 independent motors, allowing it to translate audio signals directly into motor actions without explicit instruction on phoneme shapes.
• Key Statistic or Data: The robot successfully articulated words in multiple languages and performed songs from an AI-generated album, utilizing training data from thousands of random facial expressions and hours of human video footage.
• Context or Comparison: Unlike standard humanoids that use rigid, pre-defined facial choreographies, this data-driven approach aims to resolve the "Uncanny Valley" effect by generating fluid, human-like motion.
• Significance/Future Application: This technology addresses the "missing link" of facial affect in robotics, a critical component for effectively deploying humanoid robots in social roles such as elder care, education, and service industries.

Intraoperative Tumor Histology May Enable More-Effective Cancer Surgeries

From left to right: Images of kidney tissue as detected with UV-PAM, as imaged by AI to mimic traditional H&E staining, and as they appear when directly treated with H&E staining.
Image Credit: Courtesy of California Institute of Technology

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers developed ultraviolet photoacoustic microscopy (UV-PAM) integrated with deep learning to perform rapid, label-free, subcellular-resolution histology on excised tumor tissue directly in the operating room.
• Mechanism: A low-energy laser excites the absorption peaks of DNA and RNA nucleic acids to generate ultrasonic vibrations; AI algorithms then process these signals to create virtual images that mimic traditional hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining without chemical processing.
• Key Data: The system achieves a spatial resolution of 200 to 300 nanometers and delivers diagnostic results in under 10 minutes (potentially under 5 minutes), effectively identifying the dense, enlarged nuclei characteristic of cancer cells.
• Context: Unlike standard pathology, which requires time-consuming freezing, fixation, and slicing that can damage fatty tissues like breast tissue, this method preserves sample integrity and eliminates preparation artifacts.
• Significance: This technology aims to drastically reduce re-operation rates—currently up to one-third for breast cancer lumpectomies—by allowing surgeons to confirm clean tumor margins intraoperatively across various tissue types (breast, bone, skin, organ).

What Is: Organoid

Organoids: The Science and Ethics of Mini-Organs
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated

The "At a Glance" Summary

• Defining the Architecture: Unlike traditional cell cultures, organoids are 3D structures grown from pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) or adult stem cells. They rely on the cells' intrinsic ability to self-organize, creating complex structures that mimic the lineage and spatial arrangement of an in vivo organ.
• The "Avatar" in the Lab: Organoids allow for Personalized Medicine. By growing an organoid from a specific patient's cells, researchers can test drug responses on a "digital twin" of that patient’s tumor or tissue, eliminating the guesswork of trial-and-error prescriptions.
• Bridge to Clinical Trials: Organoids serve as a critical bridge between the Petri dish and human clinical trials, potentially reducing the failure rate of new drugs and decreasing the reliance on animal testing models which often fail to predict human reactions.
• The Ethical Frontier: As cerebral organoids (mini-brains) become more complex, exhibiting brain waves similar to preterm infants, science faces a profound question: At what point does biological complexity become sentience?

How light reflects on leaves may help researchers identify dying forests

Trees at UNDERC
Photo Credit: Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame

Early detection of declining forest health is critical for the timely intervention and treatment of droughted and diseased flora, especially in areas prone to wildfires. Obtaining a reliable measure of whole-ecosystem health before it is too late, however, is an ongoing challenge for forest ecologists.

Traditional sampling is too labor-intensive for whole-forest surveys, while modern genomics—though capable of pinpointing active genes—is still too expensive for large-scale application. Remote sensing offers a high-resolution solution from the skies, but currently limited paradigms for data analysis mean the images obtained do not say enough, early enough.

A new study from researchers at the University of Notre Dame, published in Nature: Communications Earth & Environment, uncovers a more comprehensive picture of forest health. Funded by NASA, the research shows that spectral reflectance—a measurement obtained from satellite images—corresponds with the expression of specific genes.

Reflectance is how much light reflects off of leaf material, and at which specific wavelengths, in the visible and near-infrared range. Calculated as the ratio of reflected light to incoming light and measured using special sensors, reflectance data reveals a unique signature specific to the leaf’s composition and condition.

Nature-inspired computers are shockingly good at math

Researchers Brad Theilman, center, and Felix Wang, behind, unpack a neuromorphic computing core at Sandia National Laboratories. While the hardware might look similar to a regular computer, the circuitry is radically different. It applies elements of neuroscience to operate more like a brain, which is extremely energy-efficient.
Photo Credit: Craig Fritz

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Neuromorphic (brain-inspired) computing systems have been proven capable of solving partial differential equations (PDEs) with high efficiency, a task previously believed to be the exclusive domain of traditional, energy-intensive supercomputers.
• Methodology: Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories developed a novel algorithm that utilizes a circuit model based on cortical networks to execute complex mathematical calculations, effectively mapping brain-like architecture to rigorous physical simulations.
• Theoretical Breakthrough: The study establishes a mathematical link between a computational neuroscience model introduced 12 years ago and the solution of PDEs, demonstrating that neuromorphic hardware can handle deterministic math, not just pattern recognition.
• Comparison: Unlike conventional supercomputers that require immense power for simulations (such as fluid dynamics or electromagnetic fields), this neuromorphic approach mimics the brain's ability to perform exascale-level computations with minimal energy consumption.
• Primary Implication: This advancement could enable the development of neuromorphic supercomputers for national security and nuclear stockpile simulations, significantly reducing the energy footprint of critical scientific modeling.
• Secondary Significance: The findings suggest that "diseases of the brain could be diseases of computation," providing a new framework for understanding neurological conditions by studying how these biological-style networks process information.

AI model predicts disease risk while you sleep

SleepFM utilizes diverse physiological data streams, highlighting the potential to improve disease forecasting and better understand health risks.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated (Gemini)

The first artificial intelligence model of its kind can predict more than 100 health conditions from one night’s sleep.

A poor night’s sleep portends a bleary-eyed next day, but it could also hint at diseases that will strike years down the road. A new artificial intelligence model developed by Stanford Medicine researchers and their colleagues can use physiological recordings from one night’s sleep to predict a person’s risk of developing more than 100 health conditions.

Known as SleepFM, the model was trained on nearly 600,000 hours of sleep data collected from 65,000 participants. The sleep data comes from polysomnography, a comprehensive sleep assessment that uses various sensors to record brain activity, heart activity, respiratory signals, leg movements, eye movements, and more.

Machine learning drives drug repurposing for neuroblastoma

Daniel Bexell leads the research group in molecular pediatric oncology, and Katarzyna Radke, first author of the study.
Photo Credit: Lund University

Using machine learning and a large volume of data on genes and existing drugs, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have identified a combination of statins and phenothiazines that is particularly promising in the treatment of the aggressive form of neuroblastoma. The results from experimental trials showed slowing of tumor growth and higher survival rates. 

The childhood cancer, neuroblastoma, affects around 15-20 children in Sweden every year. Most of them fell ill before the age of five. Neuroblastoma is characterized by, among other things, tumors that are often resistant to drug treatment, including chemotherapy. The disease exists in both mild and severe forms, and the Lund University researchers are mainly studying the aggressive form, high-risk neuroblastoma. This variant is the form of childhood cancer with the lowest survival rate. 

The Invisible Scale: Measuring AI’s Return on Energy

The Coin of Energy: Efficiency Paying for Itself
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline

In the public imagination, Artificial Intelligence is often visualized as a chatbot writing a poem or a generator creating a surreal image. This trivializes the technology and magnifies the scrutiny on its energy consumption. When AI is viewed as a toy, its electricity bill seems indefensible.

But when viewed as a scientific instrument—akin to a particle accelerator or an electron microscope—the equation shifts. The question is not "How much power does AI use?" but rather "What is the return on that energy investment?"

When measured across a single human lifetime, the dividends of AI in time, cost, and survival are staggering.