FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) Artificial Intelligence Beats 'Most Complex Game Devised by Humans' An artificial intelligence system has defeated a professional Go player, cracking one of the longstanding grand challenges in the field. What's more, the new system, called AlphaGo, defeated the human player by learning the game from scratch using an approach known as "deep learning," the researchers involved say. Ever since IBM's Deep Blue defeated Gary Kasparov in their iconic chess match in 1997, AI researchers have been quietly crafting robots that can master more and more human pastimes. Read More » Go figure! Game victory seen as artificial intelligence milestone In what they called a milestone achievement for artificial intelligence, scientists said on Wednesday they have created a computer program that beat a professional human player at the complex board game called Go, which originated in ancient China. The feat recalled IBM supercomputer Deep Blue's 1997 match victory over chess world champion Garry Kasparov. "Go is considered to be the pinnacle of game AI research," said artificial intelligence researcher Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, the British company that developed the AlphaGo program. Read More » Challenger accident shapes new wave of passenger spaceships By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Thirty years after the space shuttle Challenger exploded during liftoff, a new generation of spaceships continues to build on changes made after NASA's fatal accident. Challenger blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the frigid morning of Jan. 28, 1986. The disaster exposed shuttle design shortcomings and operational problems in the U.S. space program. Read More » How to Tell If Conspiracy Theories Are Real: Here's the Math A faked moon landing or a hidden cure for cancer are just a couple of large-scale conspiracies that, if true, would have come to light within five years following their alleged cover-ups, according to a mathematical formula put together by one physicist. David Robert Grimes, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Oxford who studies cancer, is familiar with conspiracy theorists. "The charge that there is a scientific conspiracy afoot is a common one," said Grimes, in an email interview with Live Science, "and almost inevitably those making these charges will descend into accusing one of shilling or being an agent of some malignant entity." In response to his work, conspiracy theorists have threatened him, even tried to get him removed from his academic position. Read More » Ice-Age Mammoth Bones Found Under Oregon Football Field Oregon State University might want to consider changing its mascot after a monumental find yesterday (Jan. 25): The discovery of bones belonging to an ice-age mammoth within throwing distance of the school's football field. A construction crew working on an expansion and renovation of the OSU Beavers' Valley Football Center uncovered the remains of the beast while digging in the north end of Reser Stadium. "There are quite a few bones, and dozens of pieces," Loren Davis, an associate professor of anthropology at OSU, said in a statement. Read More » Addiction Changes Brain Biology in 3 Stages, Experts Say Experts who research addiction have long argued that it is a disease of the brain. Now, in a new paper, they present a model of addiction, broken down into three key stages, to illustrate how the condition changes human neurobiology. Understanding what's going on in the brain of someone with an addiction is essential for medical professionals to better treat people with this disease, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the lead author of the new review. Read More » 'Schizophrenia Gene' Discovery Sheds Light on Possible Cause Researchers have identified a gene that increases the risk of schizophrenia, and they say they have a plausible theory as to how this gene may cause the devastating mental illness. After conducting studies in both humans and mice, the researchers said this new schizophrenia risk gene, called C4, appears to be involved in eliminating the connections between neurons — a process called "synaptic pruning," which, in humans, happens naturally in the teen years. It's possible that excessive or inappropriate "pruning" of neural connections could lead to the development of schizophrenia, the researchers speculated. Read More » Young Women's Cancer Risk Linked to Tanning Beds Young women who use tanning beds or booths have up to a sixfold increase in their likelihood of developing melanoma, a new study found. The study also suggests that indoor tanning has likely played a role in the rise in melanoma rates among young U.S. women in recent years. The findings indicate that the "melanoma epidemic … seems likely to continue unabated, especially among young women, unless exposure to indoor tanning is further restricted and reduced," the researchers, from the University of Minnesota, wrote in the Jan. 27 issue of the journal JAMA Dermatology. Read More »
	(Sponsor this newsletter)
	Delievered to you by Feedamail. Unsubscribe