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AI-radar system tracks subtle health changes by assessing patient’s walk

Engineering and health researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a radar and artificial intelligence (AI) system that can monitor multiple people walking in busy hospitals and long-term care facilities to identify possible health issues.

The new technology—housed in a wall-mounted device about the size of a deck of cards—uses AI software and radar hardware to accurately measure how fast each person is walking. A paper on their work, “Non-contact, non-visual, multi-person hallway gait monitoring,” appears in Scientific Reports.

“Walking speed is often called a functional vital sign because even subtle declines can be an early warning of health problems,” said Dr. Hajar Abedi, a former postdoctoral researcher in electrical and computer engineering at Waterloo.

The loser’s brain: How neuroscience controls social behavior

Social hierarchies are everywhere—think of high school dramas, where the athletes are portrayed as the most popular, or large companies, where the CEO makes the important decisions. Such hierarchies aren’t just limited to humans, but span the animal kingdom, with dominant individuals getting faster food access, higher mating priority, and bigger or better territories. While it’s long been thought that winning or losing can influence the position of an individual within a social hierarchy, the brain mechanisms behind these social dynamics have remained a mystery.

In iScience, researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) investigate the neurological basis of social hierarchy in male mice, pinpointing the neurons they believe crucial in determining these social hierarchy dynamics.

“You may think that being dominant in the is all about , like size. But interestingly, we’ve found that it seems to be a choice, based on ,” said Professor Jeffery Wickens, head of the Neurobiology Research Unit at OIST and co-author on this study. “The involved in these decisions is well conserved between mice and humans, so there are likely useful parallels to be drawn.”

The Door That Opens to Another Universe: The True Science Behind SCP-4357 “Slimelord”

What if a simple apartment door in Boston opened into another universe?
SCP-4357, also known as “Slimelord,” is one of the strangest and most human anomalies ever recorded — a hyperspatial discontinuity leading to a world of intelligent slug-like beings with philosophy, humor, and heartbreak.

In this speculative science essay, we explore what SCP-4357 means for physics, biology, and the idea of consciousness itself. How could life evolve intelligence in a sulfur-rich world? Why do these beings mirror human culture so closely? And what happens when curiosity crosses the line into exploitation?

Join us as we break down the science, ethics, and wonder behind one of the SCP Foundation’s most thought-provoking entries.

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🌌 Because somewhere out there, even the slugs have opinions on Kant.

Smart blood: How AI reads your body’s aging signals

Could a simple blood test reveal how well someone is aging? A team of researchers led by Wolfram Weckwerth from the University of Vienna, Austria, and Nankai University, China, has combined advanced metabolomics with cutting-edge machine learning and a novel network modeling tool to uncover the key molecular processes underlying active aging.

Their study, published in npj Systems Biology and Applications, identifies aspartate as a dominant biomarker of physical fitness and maps the dynamic interactions that support healthier aging.

It has long been known that exercise protects mobility and lowers the risk of chronic disease. Yet the precise molecular processes that translate physical activity into healthier aging remain poorly understood. The researchers set out to answer a simple but powerful question: Can we see the benefits of an active lifestyle in elderly individuals directly in the blood—and pinpoint the molecules that matter most?

Geomagnetic disturbances caused by sun may influence occurrence of heart attacks, especially among women

An article published in the journal Communications Medicine points to a correlation between disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field resulting from solar storms and an increase in the frequency of heart attacks, especially among women.

The authors reached this conclusion by analyzing data from the public health network of São José dos Campos, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, recorded between 1998 and 2005, a period considered to be one of intense solar activity.

Focusing on hospital admissions for myocardial infarction, the analysis included information from 871 men and 469 women. Data from the Planetary Index (Kp-Index), an indicator of variations in Earth’s geomagnetic field, were also incorporated into the statistical analysis.

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