Beth Newhart
Reporter, Technology and Mind & Behavior
Beth Newhart, based in Chicago, covers Mind & Behavior and Technology for The Academics Times. Beth is a journalist with experience covering culture, business, tech, finance, food, beverage and more. Her work has been featured in international publications, including BeverageDaily, DairyReporter, Crain Communications and Time Out Group. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Loyola University Chicago.
Autonomous social robots are designed for human communication and interaction, but are humans ready to integrate them into daily life? A South Korean study has revealed that working parents are open to the idea of using social robots in child care functions such as socialization, entertainment and consultation, but they are less interested in using them for educational purposes with their kids.
A prototype developed by engineers in South Korea can accommodate virtual reality experiences on a device resembling a pair of sunglasses, introducing a new optical system that drastically reduces the physical size of headsets and bringing VR technology closer to adoption.
Brain temperature differs from body temperature and is an important indicator of health after an injury, but it's difficult to measure without invasive procedures such as the implantation of temperature probes. A group of researchers has proposed a new biophysical model that can predict personalized brain temperature using data from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of individual brain tissue and vessel structures.
Employees dealing with work-induced stress can experience changes to their physiology, according to organizational behavior researchers, which may result in their personality traits fluctuating or even fundamentally changing over time.
Stressful situations alter brain activity in regions responsible for self-control, like the prefrontal cortex, but these changes in brain activity do not necessarily cause binge eating in people with eating disorders, according to new research, suggesting for the first time that the triggers for this behavior are more complex than previously thought.
In order to prevent another global pandemic, scientists have been exploring methods to better detect and contain new viruses before they spread. To that end, a group of engineers have developed an algorithm-based monitoring system that can be integrated into airports for early detection of coronavirus and other respiratory-virus outbreaks.
When presented with an opportunity to change or improve something, adults are more likely to rely on addition to correct a problem, instead of subtracting from it, a team of researchers determined in the first study to analyze additive and subtractive cognitive processes.
People who score high in personality traits that are a part of the "Dark Tetrad"—narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy and sadism—are more likely to interfere in the romantic lives of their family and friends when they dislike or disapprove of a significant other, a new study determined.
By smelling the sweat of other people, humans can differentiate between sweat that results from fearful or neutral situations, a new study proved, though it's more difficult to determine the level of fear a person is feeling based on sweat alone.
Fish farming in the U.S. is a labor-intensive practice that's falling behind more technologically advanced operations in other countries. But a group of engineers from Florida has invented a new robotics system based on machine-learning algorithms that can modernize the industry and automate water-quality monitoring in aquaculture.
A new study has provided preliminary evidence that women with high levels of phthalates, a chemical found in common plastics, in their system during pregnancy were more likely to have low levels of the hormone progesterone, and subsequently develop postpartum depression.
The unique pleasure that humans experience from music is a result of the way the brain's auditory and reward circuits communicate, according to a new study that proved this for the first time by stimulating regions of the brain with magnetic currents while people listened and reacted to music.