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The coiled structure of the umbilical cord - the vital link between a baby and its mother during pregnancy - plays an important role in helping to keep babies healthy in the womb, according to new research led by The University of Manchester. Working with colleagues at Manchester St Mary's Hospital and the University of Malaysia , the researchers used mathematical modelling to understand how the cord's unique twisted shape affects the way oxygen, nutrients and heat are exchanged before birth.

A new study reveals that the UK's gender pay gap is larger than official estimates because the data used calculate it is not weighted properly to account for jobs in small, young, private sector organisations. Researchers at UCL, Bayes Business School, the University of the West of England and the University of Stirling reviewed the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which is used to calculate the UK gender pay gap.

Researchers have captured the first clear view of the hidden architecture that helps shape a simple multicellular organism, showing how cells work together to build complex life forms. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS ) , a team of British and German scientists revealed the structure of the extracellular matrix in Volvox carteri, a type of green algae that is often used to study how multicellular organisms evolved from single-celled ancestors.

New research has cast doubt on the long-held theory that our galaxy, the Milky Way, will collide with its largest neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy, in 4.5 billion years-time. Scientists used data from NASA's Hubble and the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescopes to simulate how the Milky Way, Andromeda and their most massive satellite galaxies could evolve over the next 10 billion years.

Single-cell analysis of over 120,000 cells reveals how mitochondrial DNA mutations accumulate with age and may affect ageing and neurodegeneration. New research published in Nature Communications into hidden mutations in mitochondrial DNA - the blueprints for the 'powerhouse of the cell' - has uncovered how high mutational levels coincide with later life and link to ageing markers.

Neat lanes are the norm at road crossings - until people start veering off at critical angles, then chaos ensues. Zebra crossings generally showcase the best in pedestrian behaviour, with people naturally forming orderly lanes as they cross the road, smoothly passing those coming from the opposite direction without any bumps or scrapes.

Scientists have developed a new mathematical model to help people understand the risks posed by AI and assist regulators in protecting privacy. AI tools are increasingly being used to track and monitor people both online and in person, posing challenges for anonymity and privacy. For example, AI tools are being trialled to automatically identify individuals from their voices in online banking, their eyes in humanitarian aid delivery, or their faces in law enforcement.

AI tools are increasingly being used to track and monitor us both online and in-person, yet their effectiveness comes with big risks. Computer scientists at the University of Oxford have led a study to develop a new mathematical model which could help people better understand the risks posed by AI and assist regulators in protecting peoples' privacy.

What can exploding stars teach us about how blood flows through an artery' Or swimming bacteria about how the ocean's layers mix' A collaboration of researchers, including from the University of Cambridge, has reached a milestone toward training artificial intelligence models to find and use transferable knowledge between fields to drive scientific discovery.

Researchers have developed a platform for the interactive evaluation of AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT. Anyone using an LLM, for any application, should always pay attention to the output and verify it themselves Albert Jiang A team of computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians and cognitive scientists, led by the University of Cambridge, developed an open-source evaluation platform called CheckMate, which allows human users to interact with and evaluate the performance of large language models (LLMs).

The springtime emergence of vast swarms of cicadas can be explained by a mathematical model of collective decision-making with similarities to models describing stock market crashes. Pick almost any location in the eastern United States - say, Columbus Ohio. Every 13 or 17 years, as the soil warms in springtime, vast swarms of cicadas emerge from their underground burrows singing their deafening song, take flight and mate, producing offspring for the next cycle.

Mathematicians are using their expertise to improve IVF success rates, according to a new study. A team of researchers have redesigned the needle used in IVF procedures, helping to increase the likelihood of having a baby through this treatment. The study, published in the Journal of Biomechanics, is a culmination of five years research into fertility.

Applying machine learning to find the properties of atomic pieces of geometry shows how AI has the power to accelerate discoveries in maths. Mathematicians from Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham have, for the first time, used machine learning to expand and accelerate work identifying 'atomic shapes' that form the basic pieces of geometry in higher dimensions.

Self-cleaning cicadas could help design new tech which will make our cars cleaner, scientists say. A type of large insect known as a cicada is able to keep its wings clean of dust and dirt through a remarkable process which could be applied in modern technology. The texture of the cicada wing is unusually repellent to water - known as being "super hydrophobic".

Researchers have determined how to build reliable machine learning models that can understand complex equations in real-world situations while using far less training data than is normally expected.

For the first time, a mathematical model for reaching sexual climax has been successfully calculated. 'Don't overthink it' finds the research, which could be used to improve treatment of some conditions. The mathematical model focuses on male arousal, with a formula for female climax to follow. University of Sussex mathematicians have developed the first ever mathematical model of how to reach sexual climax, as revealed in a new paper.

Novel research from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) examining the human walk has been able to predict leg and foot proportions using collisional geometry. The findings suggest why modern humans have a knee halfway down their legs, short heel and toes, a stiff, longer midfoot, and why a comfortable step is two to three feet long.

A new programme aims to extract useful information from huge, complex datasets. Bath mathematicians will be building models to identify big dataset anomalies. A new UK-wide research programme that aims to extract useful information from huge, complex datasets has been launched. As part of the programme, mathematicians from the University of Bath will be developing tools to identify dataset anomalies that point to serious problems that might otherwise go undetected.

A new mathematical model that predicts how a tossed stone will skim across the surface of water has potential applications in aircraft design, finds a study involving UCL researchers. The mathematical model, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A , factors together the possible shapes and weights of a stone, the different speeds and directions of a throw and the momentum and pressure of the water as the stone impacts.

New research published in Nature explains how an international team of researchers have, for the first time, experimentally implemented a type of quantum cryptography considered to be the 'ultimate', 'bug-proof' means of communication.