Science Dinosaurs A'spectacular' dinosaur dome heads for the Smithsonian The famously thick-headed Pachycephalosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. A remarkably well-preserved dinosaur fossil has arrived at the Smithsonian's National Museum of National History. According to the institution's announcement, the nearly complete skull of a is set to make its public debut on December 22 in the FossiLab -the museum's working specimen preparation laboratory. "This skull is by far the most spectacular specimen of this type of dinosaur that we have at the museum," said Matthew Carrano, a paleontologist and the museum's Dinosauria curator.

After 35 years, the secretive CIA sculpture finally gave up its mystery, thanks to a novelist, a playwright, and some misplaced documents. But the chase to decode continues. Jim Sanborn couldn't believe it. He was weeks away from auctioning off the answer to Kryptos, the sculpture he created for the CIA that had defied solution for 35 years. As always, wannabe solvers kept on paying him a $50 fee to offer their guesses to the remaining unsolved portion of the 1,800-character encrypted message, known as K4--wrong without exception.

Geospatial Location Embedding (GLE) helps a Large Language Model (LLM) assimilate and analyze spatial data. GLE emergence in Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) is precipitated by the need for deeper geospatial awareness in our complex contemporary spaces and the success of LLMs in extracting deep meaning in Generative AI. We searched Google Scholar, Science Direct, and arXiv for papers on geospatial location embedding and LLM and reviewed articles focused on gaining deeper spatial "knowing" through LLMs. We screened 304 titles, 30 abstracts, and 18 full-text papers that reveal four GLE themes - Entity Location Embedding (ELE), Document Location Embedding (DLE), Sequence Location Embedding (SLE), and Token Location Embedding (TLE). Synthesis is tabular and narrative, including a dialogic conversation between "Space" and "LLM." Though GLEs aid spatial understanding by superimposing spatial data, they emphasize the need to advance in the intricacies of spatial modalities and generalized reasoning. GLEs signal the need for a Spatial Foundation/Language Model (SLM) that embeds spatial knowing within the model architecture. The SLM framework advances Spatial Artificial Intelligence Systems (SPAIS), establishing a Spatial Vector Space (SVS) that maps to physical space. The resulting spatially imbued Language Model is unique. It simultaneously represents actual space and an AI-capable space, paving the way for AI native geo storage, analysis, and multi-modality as the basis for Spatial Artificial Intelligence Systems (SPAIS).

Margaret W. Moodey was one of the first women to work at the Smithsonian in science. Beginning around 1900, Moodey worked as a scientific aide in the Smithsonian's Department of Geology. Her work included identifying, classifying, and cataloging samples, including gems and fossils. By 1924, an annual report notes that she "had the entire responsibility and care of the collection of cut gems." Moodey was an important resource for anyone seeking answers about the collection.

Depending on the people you talk to, architects approach artificial intelligence (AI) with a range of anticipation, skepticism, or dread. Some say algorithms will handle drudge work and free designers to focus on the more creative aspects of their jobs. Others assert that AI won't live up to its hype--at least not in the near future--and will make only marginal improvements in the profession. And a third group worries that software that learns on its own will put a lot of architects out of work. Science fiction writers have been imagining robots that think like human beings for more than 100 years.

January Littlejohn's lawyer explained how the school treated her like she was a danger to her child on'Fox News Primetime.' A new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution features an interactive display that incorporates the first "genderless voice assistant." The voice assistant, known as "Q," is located at the FUTURES exhibit and the Smithsonian's website describes it as a voice that "was synthesized by combining recordings of people who identify variously as male, female, transgender, or nonbinary." "By mixing multiple voices together, Q's makers have created a voice'for a future where we are no longer defined by gender, but rather by how we define ourselves,'" the website says. The genderless voice system was developed over the last few years by a Danish company called Virtue Nordic and it describes itself as "like Siri or Alexa but without the gender."

Amazon Web Services Inc. has commissioned its first-ever major art piece, a site-specific sculpture powered by artificial intelligence and designed by artist and architect Suchi Reddy that will be the centerpiece of the Smithsonian's "Futures" exhibit. The artwork, called "me you," was unveiled today in the 90-foot-tall central rotunda of the Smithsonian's historic Arts and Industries Building in Washinton, D.C. It's an important locale as America's first national museum and because the interactive sculpture itself is nearly two stories tall. The sculpture takes up the center of the room, with a base that appears to have large fiber-optic cables sticking out of it toward people with inviting circular interfaces that Reddy (pictured, right) called "mandalas." Rising from the center of the sculpture is a broad, segmented series of panels called a "totem" upon which colorful kinetic patterned lights flow upward, representing interactive futures spoken to the artwork by the public. The idea of the artwork is to present how humans and technology interface and evolve together, Reddy told SiliconANGLE in an interview while she demonstrated the sculpture in action.

The artificial intelligence at the heart of a new art exhibit, "me you," does not judge you necessarily, but it does analyze and interpret what you have to say. Sponsored by Amazon Web Services, the sculpture by artist Suchi Reddy listens to what you have to say about the future and renders your sentiment in a display of colored lights and patterns. The artwork is a centerpiece of a new exhibit at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, which is opening to the public for the first time in 20 years. The exhibition, called Futures, opens Nov. 20. Viewers are invited to interact with the sculpture, which listens for the words "My future is …" at several circular listening posts integrated into the sculpture.

With coyote attacks on humans in cities and suburbs making headlines – coyotes injured two people in Chicago earlier this month – officials could tap into a data repository to get a better handle on what's bringing the area's animals into such close proximity to humans. Called eMammal, the tool has been around for several years in one form or another and has helped researchers manage camera-trapping projects. It uses a data pipeline that takes images and metadata from the field through a cloud-based review processes and into SIdora, a Smithsonian Institution data repository. To date, eMammal has data on more than 1 million detections of wildlife worldwide, including in cities. Smithsonian researchers collaborated with others at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Conservation International and the Wildlife Conservation Society to develop an open standard for camera trap metadata -- the Camera Trap Metadata Standard -- as part of the eMammal project. Camera traps are ruggedized cameras that researchers place in forests, jungles, grasslands, cities and elsewhere to capture images of mammals.

This year, three Washington-based museums of the Smithsonian Institution deployed a half-dozen four-feet-tall, humanoid robots, nicknamed Pepper, to answer visitors' questions and tell stories, using voice, gestures and an interactive touch screen. They also dance, play games and pose for selfies. Rachel Goslins, director of the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building and overseer of the robots' deployment, said she has been "blown away" by visitors' reactions to them. Pepper, she added, "feels totally aligned with the museums' mission. We are asking people to be present, engaged, to have a communal experience. We're not making you look at your phone even more; we're creating a playful, joyful human experience."