In a world-first discovery, researchers have documented thousands of Israeli isopods abandoning their solitary lives to join massive, synchronized "death spirals" triggered by artificial streetlights. By experimenting with different light geometries, the team revealed how vertical beams of white light accidentally hijack the natural instincts of these crustaceans, trapping them in a mesmerizing but potentially dangerous circular march. This striking phenomenon highlights the hidden, unintended consequences of human light pollution on the secret lives of ground-dwelling wildlife.

Keratoconus is a progressive eye disease that weakens the cornea, but its earliest (subclinical) stage is difficult to detect with standard imaging that looks only at corneal shape. In this study, researchers analyzed imaging data from 359 eyes to test whether polarization‑sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS‑OCT), combined with artificial intelligence, could improve early diagnosis by revealing changes in corneal collagen organization and sublayer thickness. AI models built from PS‑OCT data were compared with models based on two widely used tomography systems. While all approaches performed similarly for healthy eyes and clear keratoconus, PS‑OCT differed in classifying subclinical cases, identifying subtle structural patterns not captured by conventional imaging. The results suggest that PS‑OCT provides complementary information about corneal microstructure and may help refine early keratoconus detection, supporting safer clinical decision‑making in eye care.

A new University of Texas at Dallas class gives premed students the opportunity to take care of fictional patients in a virtual hospital – all in the blocky world of Minecraft.

Instead of a textbook, students in the course, Experiential Medical Reasoning, use a playbook embedded in the popular video game. Students are challenged with making decisions such as which tests to order for patients and what possible diagnoses apply to patients based on their symptoms and medical charts.

Artificial intelligence (AI) experts from The University of Texas at Dallas have partnered with a Japanese company through its Irving, Texas-based subsidiary to help local governments prioritize road repairs.

The system builds on NEXCO-Central’s existing technology, which combines artificial intelligence and video footage gathered from mobile cameras to assess road conditions and provide a network-wide view of pavement conditions.

JMIR Publications today released a thought-provoking new feature in its News and Perspectives section that examines the unprecedented speed of artificial intelligence (AI) evolution compared to the biological and intellectual limits of humanity.

Penn Engineers have developed a new way to use AI to solve inverse partial differential equations (PDEs), a particularly challenging class of mathematical problems with broad implications for understanding the natural world. The advance, which the researchers call “Mollifier Layers,” could benefit fields as varied as genetics and weather forecasting, because inverse PDEs help scientists work backward from observable patterns to infer the hidden dynamics that produced them.