You may well be yawning just reading this - it's contagious. Now researchers have looked at what happens in our brains to trigger that response. A University of Nottingham team found it occurs in a part of the brain responsible for motor function. The primary motor cortex also plays a part in conditions such as Tourette's syndrome. So the scientists say understanding contagious yawning could also help understand those disorders too.

Prerequisites: This is an advanced course, meant for upper-level undergraduates and beginning graduate students, but it is open to anyone. Good familiarity with algorithmic concepts is necessary. We will try to recall the concepts needed along the way. However, having taken a course in algorithms such as CS161 is particularly useful, otherwise it may be tough to follow the material. There is no textbook for the course, but we will catalogue some reading material found on the web as we go, and we will have lecture notes.

Researchers from the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have for the first time shown that neural networks - a form of artificial intelligence - can accurately analyze the complex distortions in spacetime known as gravitational lenses 10 million times faster than traditional methods. "Analyses that typically take weeks to months to complete, that require the input of experts and that are computationally demanding, can be done by neural nets within a fraction of a second, in a fully automated way and, in principle, on a cell phone's computer chip," said postdoctoral fellow Laurence Perreault Levasseur, a co-author of a study published today in Nature. The team at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), a joint institute of SLAC and Stanford, used neural networks to analyze images of strong gravitational lensing, where the image of a faraway galaxy is multiplied and distorted into rings and arcs by the gravity of a massive object, such as a galaxy cluster, that's closer to us. The distortions provide important clues about how mass is distributed in space and how that distribution changes over time - properties linked to invisible dark matter that makes up 85 percent of all matter in the universe and to dark energy that's accelerating the expansion of the universe. Until now this type of analysis has been a tedious process that involves comparing actual images of lenses with a large number of computer simulations of mathematical lensing models.

Researchers may have discovered the'ground zero' of Alzheimer's disease, paving the way to treatment that could halt condition in its tracks. A team of scientists at the University of North Carolina's Medical School conducted a series of experiments to look at different factors driving the disease in order to try and pinpoint a way to stop it in its tracks. Alzheimer's disease causes abnormal deposits of amyloid beta protein and tau protein in the brain, as well as swarms of activated immune cells. The team of researchers used different experiments to look at how the proteins and activated immune cells attack the brain and cause Alzheimer's-related symptoms. They also found that one medicine currently in development that blocks a specific protein - HDAC6, which originates from within neurons - show progress in preventing the damage that causes those symptoms.

A study of an ancient sea reptile's swimming technique could lead to more manoeuvrable and efficient flipper-driven submarines, scientists believe. Researchers used a robot in a water tank to investigate the unique four-flipper swimming technique of the extinct plesiosaur, a ferocious ocean predator. Their results raise the prospect of copying a design concept nature came up with more than 100 million years ago to power submersible vehicles. A study of plesiosaur propulsion could lead to more manoeuvrable and efficient flipper-driven submarines, scientists believe. Plesiosaurs used two near-identical pairs of flippers to propel themselves through the water.

Google's voice assistant is about to be available on a lot more devices beyond the Google Home and Android phones. The AI - which rivals Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Microsoft's Cortana - will now be found on a new set of third-party speakers and appliances, the company announced today at IFA the consumer electronics show in Germany. These devices will either come with Google Assistant built in (meaning you can talk to it) or will be compatible with it (meaning you can use the assistant to control it). Google Assistant- which rivals Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Microsoft's Cortana - will now be found on a new set of third-party speakers and appliances, the company announced today at IFA the consumer electronics show in Germany. Google's voice assistant is about to be available on a lot more devices beyond the Google Home and Android phones.

A survey of 50 Nobel laureates asked about the greatest threats to mankind has revealed that environmental issues such as over-population and climate change are the biggest threat. Meanwhile, the threat of nuclear warfare and infectious diseases and drug resistance follows in second and third place. Distortion or the truth and ignorant political leaders also ranked highly, with President Donald Trump called out by name in this category. The survey drew responses from almost a quarter of the living Nobel prize winners for chemistry, physics, physiology, medicine and economics. A survey of 50 Nobel laureates posed the question: 'What is the biggest threat to humankind, in your view?

Dating websites claim attraction can be predicted from the right combination of traitsm but a new study suggests singletons have little hope of finding true love online. Researchers found computer-based algorithms could predict who's hot and who's not -- but it could not unravel the mystery of unique desire for a specific person. The findings suggest we still can't circumvent the hassle and heartache of the dating process. Researchers found computer-based algorithms could predict who's hot and who's not -- but it could not unravel the mystery of unique desire for a specific person (stock image) The researchers used data from two samples of speed daters, who filled out questionnaires about more than 100 traits and preferences and then met in a series of four-minute dates. Afterwards, the participants rated their interactions, indicating level of interest in and sexual attraction to each person they met.

Hundreds of studies have told us that apes are smart - but just not as smart humans. But apes' intelligence may be entirely misunderstood because researchers have so far failed to measure it fairly and accurately. The study suggests that what we think we know about apes' social intelligence is based on wishful thinking and flawed science, and apes may actually be smarter than currently thought. One of the suggestions made by the researchers is to conduct studies where apes are'adopted' by humans to give the clearest available comparison between the two species. In order to improve upon flawed experimental designs in ape intelligence studies, researchers cited four possible remedies.

A prize of $1 million (£776,478) could be taken home by anyone who can build an app to solve a supposedly'simple' chess puzzle. Computer scientists at the University of St Andrews are challenging coders to crack the maths behind the solution to grab the cash prize. They believe a programme capable of achieving this would be so powerful it could accomplish nearly impossible tasks, including defeating online security measures. Their latest research suggests that it could take the software thousands of years to complete the calculations, however. Can you solve the Queens Puzzle?