In a battle of AI versus AI, researchers are preparing for the coming wave of deepfake propaganda

An investigative journalist receives a video from an anonymous whistleblower. It shows a candidate for president admitting to illegal activity. But is this video real? If so, it would be huge news—the scoop of a lifetime—and could completely turn around the upcoming elections. But the journalist runs the video through a specialized tool, which tells her that the video isn't what it seems. In fact, it's a "deepfake," a video made using artificial intelligence with deep learning.

NASA finds hurricane Delta packing heavy rainfall

NASA's satellite rainfall product that incorporates data from satellites and observations found that Hurricane Delta was bringing along heavy rainfall as it headed to the U.S. Gulf Coast on Oct. 9.

More than 40% of women suffer from constipation during pregnancy and right after childbirth

Women are 2-3 times more likely to suffer from constipation during pregnancy and right after childbirth than at any other time in their life, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows.

Turning a hot spot into a cold spot: Fano-shaped local-field responses probed by a quantum dot

Optical nanoantennas can convert propagating light to local fields. The local-field responses can be engineered to exhibit nontrivial features in spatial, spectral and temporal domains. Local-field interferences play a key role in the engineering of local-field responses. By controlling local-field interferences, researchers have demonstrated local-field responses with various spatial distributions, spectral dispersions and temporal dynamics. Different degrees of freedom of the excitation light have been used to control local-field interferences, such as polarization, beam shape and beam position, and incidence direction. Despite remarkable progress, achieving fully controllable local-field interferences remains a major challenge. A fully controllable local-field interference should be controllable between a constructive interference and a complete destructive interference. This would bring unprecedented benefit for the engineering of local-field responses.

Perceptions of body image linked to sexual dysfunction

After working with adolescents for several years before her time at the University of Missouri, Virginia Ramseyer Winter noticed most of the teens she interacted with were dissatisfied with their bodies, regardless of the size and shape of their body.

Airbnb requires hosts to commit to enhanced cleaning

Airbnb said Thursday it will require hosts to comply with enhanced cleaning procedures as part of its effort to reassure guests and local officials during the coronavirus pandemic.

Experts: Warming makes Delta, other storms power up faster

Hurricane Delta, gaining strength as it bears down on the U.S. Gulf Coast, is the latest and nastiest in a recent flurry of rapidly intensifying Atlantic hurricanes that scientists largely blame on global warming.

Locals flee as strengthening hurricane barrels toward southern US

The US national guard was mobilized and people on the Louisiana coast evacuated from their homes Friday as a strengthening hurricane bore down that officials say threatens a deadly storm surge and flash flooding.

During a highly partisan time in our nation, survey shows broad bipartisan support for a stronger focus on science

A recent survey commissioned by Research!America on behalf of a working group formed to assess America's commitment to science shows overwhelming support for science across political parties. A strong majority of Americans agree that "the COVID-19 pandemic is a disruptive event and requires urgent refocusing of America's commitment to science."

Rapid bedside testing is faster than standard centralised PCR testing for COVID-19

Point-of-care-testing for suspected COVID-19 reduces time to results and may improve infection control, suggesting these tests might have clinical advantages over widely used laboratory PCR methods.

Young people hospitalized with COVID-19 face substantial adverse outcomes

While older age is widely recognized as a risk factor for increased morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19, younger patients have received less attention as a population vulnerable to adverse clinical outcomes. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital analyzed records from 419 hospitals using the Premier Healthcare Database to study the clinical trajectories of 3,222 hospitalized COVID-19 patients aged 18-34. Findings were published as a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers found that over one-fifth of the patients (21 percent) required intensive care, 10 percent required mechanical ventilation and 2.7 percent died. For comparison, the team wrote, the death rate of those in the same age group hospitalized with heart attacks is approximately half of that figure.

UK early years sector needs new strategy to recruit and support male staff, says study

The UK's early years sector—staffed 96% by women and facing a longstanding recruitment crisis—needs a radical new strategy to gender-diversify its workforce, according to a new report, published today.