There was once a time, not so long ago, when scientists like Casey Holliday needed scalpels, scissors and even their own hands to conduct anatomical research. But now, with recent advances in technology, Holliday and his colleagues at the University of Missouri are using artificial intelligence (AI) to see inside an animal or a person -- down to a single muscle fiber -- without ever making a cut. Holliday, an associate professor of pathology and anatomical sciences, said his lab in the MU School of Medicine is one of only a handful of labs in the world currently using this high-tech approach. AI can teach computer programs to identify a muscle fiber in an image, such as a CAT scan. Then, researchers can use that data to develop detailed 3D computer models of muscles to better understand how they work together in the body for motor control, Holliday said.

There was once a time, not so long ago, when scientists like Casey Holliday needed scalpels, scissors and even their own hands to conduct anatomical research. But now, with recent advances in technology, Holliday and his colleagues at the University of Missouri are using artificial intelligence (AI) to see inside an animal or a person -- down to a single muscle fiber -- without ever making a cut. Holliday, an associate professor of pathology and anatomical sciences, said his lab in the MU School of Medicine is one of only a handful of labs in the world currently using this high-tech approach. AI can teach computer programs to identify a muscle fiber in an image, such as a CAT scan. Then, researchers can use that data to develop detailed 3D computer models of muscles to better understand how they work together in the body for motor control, Holliday said.

A large, now extinct frog called Beelzebufo that lived about 68 million years ago in Madagascar would have been capable of eating small dinosaurs, researchers have found. The discovery came after researchers measured the bite force of South American horned frogs, known as Pacman frogs because of their round shape and large mouth. The study found that these frogs have similar bite forces to those of mammalian predators, and the extinct frog may have had a bite as strong as that of a wolf or female tiger. A large, extinct frog called Beelzebufo that lived 68 million years ago would have been capable of eating small dinosaurs. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, analyzed the bite force of South American horned frogs from the living genus Ceratophrys, which are thought to be very similar to the extinct Beelzebufo frog.