https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. News that several New Zealand universities have given up using detection software to expose student use of artificial intelligence (AI) underlines the challenge higher education is facing. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-ai-classroom-hard-oral.html Education Tue, 30 Sep 2025 10:21:04 EDT news678446462 MAI stands for metacognitive AI agent and is far from the well-known ChatGPT, since it supports students' independent problem-solving without providing direct answers, distinguishing it from traditional AI applications. Students aged 12 and 13 at Ritaharju Upper Secondary School found the AI agent MAI to be beneficial to their education when they were coached by MAI for a month in their physics lessons alongside their teacher. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-teenage-physics-students-finland-positive.html Education Thu, 27 Feb 2025 15:51:41 EST news659893890 Ateneo de Manila University researchers have found that using internet memes to teach science can significantly improve learning outcomes for senior high school students. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-memes-attitude-science.html Education Mon, 20 Jan 2025 13:57:04 EST news656603821 Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming education, with schools and universities increasingly experimenting with AI chatbots to assist students in self-directed learning. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-friendly-straightforward-students-ai-chatbots.html Education Mon, 25 Nov 2024 13:40:01 EST news651763152 New experimental data support the idea that people tend to assume the information they have is adequate to comprehend a given situation, without considering that they might be lacking key information. Hunter Gehlbach of Johns Hopkins University and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on October 9, 2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-bias-tendency-assume-adequate-decision.html Social Sciences Wed, 09 Oct 2024 14:00:02 EDT news647683086 Consumers may enjoy reading funny or sarcastic online product reviews, but does it influence what they buy? https://phys.org/news/2024-09-funny-engage-consumers-fueling-impulse.html Economics & Business Wed, 11 Sep 2024 12:30:02 EDT news645276601 As the use of generative artificial intelligence continues to extend into all reaches of education, much of the concern related to its impact on cheating has focused on essays, essay exam questions and other narrative assignments. Use of AI tools such as ChatGPT to cheat on multiple-choice exams has largely gone ignored. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-statistical-analysis-chatgpt-multiple-choice.html Education Wed, 14 Aug 2024 13:34:07 EDT news642861242 In a test of the examinations system of the University of Reading in the UK, artificial intelligence (AI)-generated submissions went almost entirely undetected, and these fake answers tended to receive higher grades than those achieved by real students. Peter Scarfe of the University of Reading and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on June 26. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-ai-generated-exam-submissions-evade.html Education Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:00:01 EDT news638603234 Our bodies are made up of trillions of different cells, each fulfilling their own unique function to keep us alive. How do cells move around inside these extremely complicated systems? How do they know where to go? And how did they get so complicated to begin with? Simple yet profound questions like these are at the heart of curiosity-driven basic research, which focuses on the fundamental principles of natural phenomena. An important example is the process by which cells or organisms move in response to chemical signals in their environment, also known as chemotaxis. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-synthetic-droplets-primordial-soup-chemotaxis.html Biochemistry Thu, 25 Apr 2024 10:14:04 EDT news633258841 Want to learn a new language? Try watching videos in that language with the captions turned on—and slow down the speed. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-starring-role-video-captions-language.html Social Sciences Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:13:03 EDT news629644381 Does previous experience bias a person in future estimations? Yes, say Osaka Metropolitan University researchers in Japan, but only if the person engages higher processing powers by responding, as opposed to simply observing. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-game-response-bias-future-scenarios.html Social Sciences Tue, 12 Mar 2024 10:10:46 EDT news629457043 Environmental DNA—or eDNA for short—is DNA left behind in the environment like fingerprints at a crime scene. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-edna-nature-hidden-biodiversity.html Ecology Fri, 08 Dec 2023 12:47:03 EST news621262021 If you've read much about psychology or evolution, it's easy to get the idea that humans are hard wired to act as if the world revolves around themselves. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-humans-egocentric-thinknew.html Social Sciences Mon, 30 Oct 2023 12:00:01 EDT news617885419 On September 24 this year, a NASA capsule parachuted down to Earth carrying a precious cache of material grabbed from an asteroid. The space agency has now revealed images and a preliminary analysis of the space rocks it found after lifting the lid off that capsule. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-osiris-rex-nasa-reveals-evidence-carbon.html Space Exploration Sat, 14 Oct 2023 12:20:01 EDT news616414440 Los Alamos was the perfect spot for the U.S. government's top-secret Manhattan Project. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-birthplace-atomic-braces-biggest-mission.html Other Sun, 24 Sep 2023 05:33:15 EDT news614752389 Using English as the language of instruction in higher education has a marked negative impact on learning outcomes when it is not the students' first language, according to a new study from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-worse-results-drop-outs-english-swedish.html Education Thu, 14 Sep 2023 16:16:03 EDT news613926961 The AI models that power chatbots and other applications still have difficulty distinguishing between nonsense and natural language, according to a study released on Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-ai-struggle-nonsense.html Education Thu, 14 Sep 2023 13:09:25 EDT news613915756 Prof. Dr. Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer, Chair of English and Digital Linguistics at Chemnitz University of Technology, and Elisabeth Mayer from the Leibniz Computing Center of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities have developed the novel VR adventure quiz app "Bridge of Knowledge VR" with their students. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-vr-app-adventure.html Education Mon, 26 Jun 2023 15:51:27 EDT news607013485 A woman taking a Memorial Day weekend stroll on a California beach found something unusual sticking out of the sand: a tooth from an ancient mastodon. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-woman-california-beach-ancient-mastodon.html Paleontology & Fossils Fri, 02 Jun 2023 04:26:41 EDT news604898798 Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT a few months ago, the question on everyone's mind has been, "How will this change our world?" ChatGPT is one of the world's most advanced machine learning and language processing models. It can read, understand in context, and respond in a human-like way. As educators, we wonder what this means for teaching and learning in the classroom. https://phys.org/news/2023-02-ways-teachers-chatgpt-classrooms-today.html Education Mon, 20 Feb 2023 09:04:02 EST news596106241 Shark skin and dragonfly wings are two of nanotechnology researchers' favorite things in new studies looking for solutions to maritime and medical mysteries. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-nanotech-shark-skin-dragonfly-wings.html Nanophysics Mon, 23 Jan 2023 10:45:24 EST news593693121 When we ask others to do us a favor, we often judge their helpfulness by the length of the pauses before their answers. Researchers led by Theresa Matzinger from the University of Vienna have now been able to show that these pauses are rated differently for native and non-native speakers—but not for all topics. The results of the study now appear in a special issue on the topic of speech pauses in the journal Languages. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-length-speech-speakers-willingness-favor.html Social Sciences Mon, 16 Jan 2023 13:13:02 EST news593097181 Vivian Anette Lagesen, a professor at NTNU's Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, has been asked many times what works to achieve gender balance in academia. Her answer is always, "It depends." https://phys.org/news/2023-01-brand-toolbox-gender-academia.html Social Sciences Fri, 06 Jan 2023 11:10:01 EST news592222956 If you have a horse in the barn or have ever made bacon from your own hog, chances are you're better at hearing when an animal is having a good or bad time than other people are. And, if you are between 20-29 years old and empathetic towards fellow humans, then your chances are even greater. This is demonstrated by new research from the Department of Biology, conducted in a collaboration with Swiss institutions, ETH Zurich and Agroscope. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-human-empathy-animal.html Plants & Animals Tue, 20 Dec 2022 11:38:42 EST news590758718 People who consume a lot of news on social media are more likely to be skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines and also more hesitant about getting vaccinated, according to our newly published research. But we found that social media users with higher levels of news literacy have more confidence in COVID-19 shots. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-news-short-circuit-social-media-vaccine.html Social Sciences Thu, 03 Nov 2022 13:24:29 EDT news586700664 When wildfire smoke pollutes the air in schoolyards and classrooms, as it does with increasing frequency and severity across the country, it hurts not only children's health but also their ability to learn and possibly their future earning power, according to new research from Stanford University. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-wildfire-exposure-outcomes.html Education Thu, 29 Sep 2022 12:56:35 EDT news583674990 Kids are naturally curious. But various forces in the environment can dampen their curiosity over time. Can anything be done to keep kids' curiosity alive? For answers to this question, The Conversation U.S. turned to Perry Zurn, a philosophy professor at American University and author of three books on curiosity, including "Curious Minds: The Power of Connection," which was released in September 2022. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-kids-curious.html Education Thu, 15 Sep 2022 12:33:10 EDT news582463987 A new study found that even if we did have the infinite power to artificially cool enough of the oceans to weaken a hurricane, the benefits would be minimal. The study led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science showed that the energy alone that is needed to use intervention technology to weaken a hurricane before landfall makes it a highly inefficient solution to mitigate disasters. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-artificial-ocean-cooling-weaken-hurricanes.html Earth Sciences Sat, 10 Sep 2022 05:56:06 EDT news582008162 For about a decade now, mathematicians and mathematics educators have been weighing in on a particular debate rooted in school mathematics that shows no signs of abating. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-simple-viral-math-equation-stumped.html Mathematics Mon, 29 Aug 2022 09:54:02 EDT news580985641 If you are in a major city anywhere in the world, it is probably quite easy to grab a cheap hamburger from a nearby fast-food restaurant. But what you may not realize is that the meat in that cheap burger can actually illustrate a grand narrative about how humans have shaped the planet. From the land used to raise cattle for beef consumption, to the water used to feed those cattle, to the fuel used to transport the beef all over the world, the human progress that enables us to easily buy a burger—and, for that matter, hop on a plane, charge our phones, and take part in the multitude of activities that make up our everyday experiences—has changed the biosphere. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-human-environment-interactions-website.html Environment Wed, 03 Aug 2022 11:00:10 EDT news578741964