A research team from Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) has secured over HK$3.4 million from the Smart Traffic Fund to develop the first Cantonese post-drinking speech database and build an artificial intelligence (AI)-based language detection system. Leveraging a multimodal language model, the system will analyse multiple indicators, including speech rate, intonation stability, speech pauses and grammatical structure deviations, by comparing users' language performance before and after alcohol consumption.

Living cells cool much slower than our current understanding of heat conduction can explain, according to new research from the University of Tokyo. Researchers used two techniques — high-speed temperature mapping and artificial heating — to observe how heat dissipated from living cells and similar-sized artificial, fluid-filled sacs (liposomes). While heat dispersed quickly from the artificial liposomes as expected, cells cooled significantly more slowly due to other biomolecules within the cell. Understanding the process behind slower heat dissipation within cells could affect how we treat conditions linked to changes in body temperature, such as epilepsy, inflammation and cancer.

On the small Greek island of Kastellorizo, researchers have discovered Dolichopoda balrogi, a new species of cave cricket living inside an artificial underground tunnel. Named after Tolkien's subterranean demon, the find proves that human-made structures can harbour entirely unique and isolated ecosystems.

Researchers at the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Jyväskylä have used artificial intelligence to speed up the analysis of colorectal cancer samples and predict the functioning of the cells’ DNA repair mechanism. The AI model's analysis can help shorten diagnosis times, reduce costs, and improve the analysis's accuracy. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Central Finland Welfare Region and is co-funded by the European Union.