More than 2,000 underwater AI-powered robots armed with lasers have been deployed at salmon farms to combat sea lice.

Developed by Norwegian company Stingray, these devices protect around 50 million salmon and trout from potentially deadly parasites — 24/7.

Traditional delousing methods, which involve hot water or high-pressure water jets, can seriously injure fish. According to Norway’s Fish Health Report, such treatments are a leading cause of death among adult farmed salmon.

Stingray’s robots use cameras and AI to detect parasites on swimming fish, then eliminate them with a green laser from up to 2 meters away — without damaging the fish’s scales.

🐟 AI-powered lasers are now protecting fish from parasites. Welcome to the future of aquaculture.

@science

🧠 Some kids' math struggles may be about strategy, not numbers

A Stanford University study published in JNeurosci suggests that children with developmental dyscalculia struggle not only with calculations but also with choosing how to approach a problem. Led by Oliver Lasnick, the team found that these children took longer to switch methods, were less responsive when difficulty changed, and — unlike other children — did not get better at choosing approaches over time. Brain activity in a particular system also differed between them and children more skilled at using strategies.

The study followed 68 children between the ages of 8 and 10.

The findings show differences in behavior and brain activity, not what causes them.

#neuroscience #dyscalculia #childdevelopment

@science

🪓 A Siberian dig may hold traces of an unknown Bronze Age culture

At Karyer Tai-1 near Novosibirsk, an expedition led by academician Vyacheslav Molodin excavated a Bronze Age sanctuary, with campfire traces and casting-mould fragments in a ditch, and sacrificed sable and fox bones in the pits.

A burial pit held a vessel matching the Petrovka culture, which lay hundreds of kilometres to the south-west, and a mould for casting a Seima-Turbino-type bronze celt.

Palaeogenetics at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics linked the local Baraba population to newcomers from modern Kazakhstan. Molodin says this may be a new culture of the developed Bronze Age — still a hypothesis, with digging resuming in 2027.

#archaeology #bronzeage #siberia

@science

🦠 Salmonella programmed to attack tumours, with a gel to hold it back

Researchers at Nanjing University engineered an attenuated Salmonella strain to carry anti-cancer nanobodies and paired it with a gel that keeps it under control, The Innovation reports. Tests were in mice.

Tumours appeal to the bacteria — low oxygen, no gut competitors — but multiplying Salmonella poisons the liver and spleen.

The gelator comes from isosteviol, a compound derived from stevia. It stays liquid in the syringe and sets in under a minute on meeting sodium in the abdominal cavity. Release is mechanical, not timed: at rest almost nothing, under gentle agitation about 80%.

Bacteria-induced weight loss fell by 82% (78.8% for the nanobody strain), livers and spleens stayed normal, and in a two-tumour model the gel helped four of five mice against one of five without it.

Caveats: mice only, it did not help every animal, and human trials are far off.

Photo: Rawpixelcom/Shutterstock/FOTODOM

#cancer #bacteria #nanobody

@science