AI not yet good enough to mark university essays, rewarding ‘style over substance’
Top AI systems show bias towards rewarding overly complex prose styles and only match human examiners for grade bands around half the time, research finds.
‘Origami’ method could speed up diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease
Researchers have developed a technique that can identify errors caused by mutations linked to a range of genetic disorders, including forms of muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s...
Why meat-eating dinosaurs like T. rex evolved tiny arms
The evolution of tiny arms in several groups of meat-eating dinosaurs was likely driven by the development of strong, powerful heads, which were used to...
Naturally occurring soil fungi could boost rice yields while reducing reliance on synthetic fertilisers
Field trials in India show that bio-fertilisers containing naturally occurring soil fungi enhance growth in rice plants. This may offer a pathway to reducing farmers’...
New technique could uncover the secrets of ‘ringing’ black holes
Researchers have developed a technique to analyse how black holes ‘ring’ when they collide and merge: one of the universe’s most dramatic events.
Support local people to protect world’s nature, new report urges, as deadline for global conservation target looms
Achieving an international conservation target to protect almost a third of the world’s land and sea in the next four years could directly affect the...
Children in poorer countries face almost sixfold higher risk of dying after emergency surgery
Children who need life‑saving emergency surgery after a serious injury are almost six times more likely to die if in poorer countries than in wealthier...
Doctors favour explaining anxiety to patients as a human evolution ‘success story’
First major RCT on evolutionary psychiatry finds mental health clinicians are far more likely to say describing anxiety as an evolved survival response will help...
Deaf opera singer welcomes new Cambridge-led cochlear implant trial
Janine Roebuck, a formerly deaf opera singer who regained her hearing thanks to cochlear implants, has described as ‘life changing’ an upcoming Cambridge-led trial in...
Can we feed the world without breaking the planet?
The global food system is more productive than ever, but it's pushing natural systems out of balance in the extreme. Can science help farmers produce...