If you are concerned your partner might be cheating on you, look closely at his face.  A man's face may display clues on whether he has been unfaithful or stolen someone else's partner.  However, researchers found, women's faces do not provide any signs of infidelity.

When 751 men and women were shown pictures of male faces in a study, almost one in five were able to predict if that man would cheat or get together with someone in a relationship.

It helps women be wary of potential partners who are least likely to help raise a family.  Men, meanwhile, benefit from knowing those peers who may be planning to steal their wife or girlfriend.

The predictions were not always right but came in above the odds of getting it right through chance.  The key clue seems to be masculinity, as men with manly faces are more likely to pursue no-strings sex and have multiple partners.  Perhaps surprisingly, however, better looking men were no more likely to steal someone else's partner.

The study, from the University of Western Australia, states: 'From an evolutionary perspective, there are significant reproductive costs associated with having an unfaithful partner.  Both sexes risk losing valuable resources or even one's mate to a competitor.  In addition, men also risk being cuckolded and investing their resources in a genetically unrelated child.'

Our caveman past may be to blame for our ability to identify an untrustworthy man.  At that time, men needed to spot rivals so they were not providing scarce food and protection to children fathered by another man instead of their own.  Cavewomen might have lost an important partner if his head was easily turned and he ran off with someone else.

To test if we have indeed evolved to spot untrustworthy men, researchers presented people with 100 photographs of men.  They were asked to rate them on a 10-point scale for being 'unfaithful'.  The pictures were of men who had already provided information on their past infidelity.

The study results show both men and women successfully singled out those men who were untrustworthy with a success rate better than chance.  Among individuals, 14 to 18 per cent got it right with above-chance accuracy.

Photographs of the men's faces had previously been rated by other people for their masculinity, attractiveness and trustworthiness.  The results show that men and women were more likely to judge men with masculine faces as being unfaithful, and that this was likely to be correct.

The study states: 'Male masculinity signals men's tendency to adopt short-term mating strategies, with more masculine men having more sexual partners and having more positive attitudes towards uncommitted sex and multiple matings.'

It has been suggested that more attractive men are more likely to cheat, as other women will try to 'lure' them away.  But the study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, did not find that to be the case.  How 'untrustworthy' someone's face appeared was also not found to be important.

Researchers also asked men and women to predict how likely women in photographs were to be unfaithful, but they did not manage to do this.  That may be because women with feminine faces are not thought to be more likely to cheat, so any facial clues are less obvious.

The study did not find people could judge men's faces with high accuracy however, and the study concludes that 'we should not rely on our first impressions to make diagnostic judgment of unfaithfulness in everyday situations.'

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Lightning does indeed strike the same place twice, according to scientific research that has identified a new feature in the weather phenomenon.

Dutch experts used a new radio telescope called the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) to examine lightening strikes in more detail than ever before.  The telescope helped them to identify 'needle' structures inside the channels through which electrical charges flow during a lightening strike.   Leftover charges not released during the first lightening strike are stored in these needles and can trigger a second strike through the same channel, they found.

Researchers from the Groningen University in The Netherlands used LOFAR, which is made up of thousands of antennas spread across northern Europe, to make the finding.  LOFAR'S antennas are connected with a central computer through fibre-optic cables, which means they can operate as a single unit.  The telescope has been developed primarily for radio astronomy observations.  But their frequency range also makes it suitable for lightning research.

Discharges of electrical charge, which cause a lightening flash produce bursts in the VHF (very high frequency) radio band.  Professor Olaf Scholten, a physicist at the university, said: 'The reason why the needles have never been seen before lies in the "supreme capabilities" of LOFAR.  This finding is in sharp contrast to the present picture, in which the charge flows along plasma channels directly from one part of the cloud to another, or to the ground.'

Lightning occurs when strong upward drafts in the air generate static electricity in large and dense rainstorm clouds.  Parts of the cloud become positively charged and others negatively charged.  When this charge separation is large enough a violent discharge of electricity happens - also known as lightning.

A single flash cannot get rid of all the charged electrons flowing through lightening channels in one go.  Some remain stored inside structures that have been identified by scientists as 'needles'.

First author Dr Brian Hare, a member of Prof Scholten's lab, added: 'These needles can have a length of 100 metres (330ft) and a diameter of less than five metres (16ft) - and are too small and too short-lived for other lightning detection systems.  These data allow us to detect lightning propagation at a scale where, for the first time, we can distinguish the primary processes.  Furthermore, the use of radio waves allows us to look inside the thundercloud, where most of the lightning resides.'

It was already known a large amount of VHF emissions is produced at the growing tips of the negative channels.  The positive ones occur along the channel - not the tip.

The scientists developed a new algorithm for LOFAR data, allowing them to visualise the VHF radio emissions from two lightning flashes.  The antenna array and the very precise time stamp on all the data allowed them to pinpoint the emission sources with unprecedented resolution.

Professor Scholten said: 'Close to the core area of LOFAR, where the antenna density is highest, the spatial accuracy was about one metre.'

Furthermore, the data obtained was capable of localising 10 times more VHF sources than other three-dimensional imaging systems, with a temporal resolution in the range of nanoseconds.  This resulted in a high-resolution 3D image of the lightning discharge.

Professor Scholten: 'The VHF emissions along the positive channel are due to rather regularly repeated discharges along previously formed side channels, the needles.  These needles appear to drain the charges in a pulsed manner.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Nature.

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Boston Dynamics' robots can do more than just walk, jump and climb stairs.  In a new video, the company demonstrated just how powerful its Spotpower robot dogs have gotten, as a pack of them are shown pulling a truck across a parking lot.  All it takes is ten of the advanced robots to drag a vehicle that's in neutral gear.

Boston Dynamics noted that the robots were able to haul the truck at an approximately 1 degree angle uphill, though it doesn't say what the distance was or the duration of the haul.  That said, it still signifies a remarkable feat for the robot dogs, which were first introduced in 2017 as a four-legged nimble robot.

Boston Dynamics noted that its robot dogs are so advanced that they're now being rolled off the production line and will be available for a range of applications soon.  The company didn't specify just how the Spotpower will be put to work, but previous suggestions have included deployment in warehouses, disaster relief situations or even security purposes.  It's also unclear what the robots will be priced at or when they'll launch.   It comes as Boston Dynamics has said it hopes to have the Spotpower available for purchase by sometime this year.

A video shared by the firm last October showed the robot being put to use in the workplace.  In it, the firm said Spot autonomously navigated two construction sites in Tokyo and used a 'specialized payload for surveying work progress.'

Spot is just less than three feet tall and has 3D vision, as well as 17 joints to help it move nimbly.

Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert said earlier this year that he hopes Spot can be used in a variety of industries, including construction, delivery, security and home assistance.  Raibert also denied skeptics' beliefs that his firm's robots would one day be used to kill - insisting that they're more likely to take on the role of servant in the future.

Raibert said: 'We think about that, but that's also true for cars, airplanes, computers, lasers.  Every technology you can imagine has multiple ways of using it.  If there's a scary part, it's just that people are scary.  I don't think the robots by themselves are scary.'

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Microplastics can be carried along for miles by the wind, travelling efficiently through the atmosphere to reach the remotest of regions, a shock new study has found.

It is known microplastics can travel long distances via waterways, depositing fibres from human clothing, but little research has looked at their transport through the air.

A study of the air on a remote mountain in the French Pyrenees showed that significant amounts of microplastics were being deposited daily into the atmosphere from locations almost 60 miles away.

Plastic pollution on Earth is set to double by 2030, threatening wildlife and human health and microplastics are being increasingly found in remote areas of our planet.  Previously, microparticles have shown up in the Arctic, where the process of freezing and melting sea ice transports plastic particles.  They were recently found in the Forni mountain glaciers in Switzerland, confirming the widespread contamination of natural resources.

Evidence exists for microplastics being transported by air are also available, but mostly for dense megacities such as Dongguan in China and Paris in France.

Few studies have been carried out in remote regions where there is little human interference.  In the current study, scientists from Edinburgh analysed samples collected over five months taken from the air around various remote regions.  They found, on average, 249 fragments, 73 films and 44 fibres, were being deposited every day per square metre.

Employing a technique known as air mass trajectory analysis, the researchers calculated that the microplastics had been transported over a distance of 59 miles (95km).

The scientists say their findings show that microplastics can reach and affect remote, sparsely inhabited areas through atmospheric transport.  The process of freezing and melting sea ice in the Arctic makes it a particularly good transporter of plastic particles.  Even larvaceans found in the sea have been shown to provide a pathway for transporting microplastics into deep-sea food webs.

Recent expeditions to collect samples in the Arctic found record levels of microplastics and fragments that included polyethylene, nylon, polyester and cellulose acetate.  High levels of paint and nylon particles were also obtained.

Environmental charity WWF International has warned plastic waste in the oceans could reach 300 million tons in just over a decade.  That would double the amount of plastic in the ocean, which took more than half a century to build up between 1950 and 2016.  Almost a third of all plastics produced, or 104 million tons annually, will find their way into the oceans and natural world.

The full report of the study was published in Natural Geosciences.

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Fully autonomous vehicles may still technically be on the horizon, but according to CEO Elon Musk, Tesla's dominance of the market is already 'game, set, and match.'

In an interview with MIT researcher, Lex Fridman, Musk claims that the company should achieve its quest for fully autonomous vehicles in as little as six months, and at the most, in one year.

As reported by Ars Technica, Musk said that the vehicles could come to fruition 'maybe even toward the end of this year,' adding, 'I'd be shocked if it's not next year at the latest.'

While Musk's claims that Tesla will be delivering the world's first fully autonomous vehicles on an expedited timeline, the forecast has raised the eyebrows of industry skeptics who say the company's overblown projections constitute false advertising at best.

In a report in March, one autonomous expert called Musk's prognostications 'unconscionable.'

'Claiming its vehicles will soon be "feature complete" for full self-driving is one more step in the unconscionable practices that Tesla is already engaged in with Autopilot — overselling its capabilities and reliability when marketing its vehicles and then blaming the driver for not reading the manual and paying constant attention when the technology inevitably fails,' said Dean Pomerleau, of Carnegie Mellon University in a CNN report.

This isn't the first time that Musk has handed down aggressive timelines for the company's autonomous vehicles.  In 2015, the Tesla executive estimated that the vehicles would be on the road, well, two years ago.

'It's a much easier problem than people think it is,' Musk told Fortune four years ago.  But it's not like George Hotz, a one-guy-and-three-months problem.  You know, it's more like, thousands of people for two years.'

Steady advancements in software and hardware have propelled self-driving cars into unprecedented territory — Tesla's own models are now pioneering one of the first readily available pieces of software that allow semi-automated driving -- but barriers for fully autonomous vehicles still abound.  Current systems still require a human operator to be present at the wheel to intervene in the event of an unforeseen safety hazard, like a pothole or in some cases intentionally designed stickers that cause the car to swerve into oncoming traffic.

Waymo, the Google-backed competitor to Tesla's race for autonomous cars, has worked aggressively to gain permits for its self-driving vehicles on the road, deploying a fleet of taxis in Arizona this month.  Waymo taxis still currently come equipped with a human overseer.

No one can say for sure when fully autonomous vehicles will begin to be regularly deployed on roadways, but according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, they will likely come beyond 2025.

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Conjuring up unique ways to test the limits of the body through sport is about the most human exercise that people can engage in.  That is exactly why artificial intelligence is joining in on the fun.

Design firm AKQA says that it has introduced the world's first-ever sport designed by artificial intelligence which it calls, 'speedgate.'

The game, according to the firm, was created by feeding rules from 400 different sports into a neural network and letting a computer combine them based on three key factors.  Researchers say they wanted the final product to be easy to learn, accessible to all athletes, and be physically engaging, or a 'good work out' as they put it.  The results from AKQA's experiment look a little something like if Rugby combined with Quidditch and then added just a sprinkle of Lacrosse to the amalgam.

In practice, the game works by placing competitors in a pill shaped field — two teams of six players each — and then having them work together to pass or kick a ball through three different 'gates' created by parallel posts.

What really stands out in speedgate, however, is in its name.  The ball has to move every 3 seconds otherwise players incur a penalty, ensuring a pace befitting of the title of 'sport.'

While artificial intelligence may have done the grunt work of mapping out ideas, rules, parameters, and even logos and taglines for the sport, in the end it was up to humans to determine exactly what worked and what didn't.

Speedgate, says AKQA, was selected out of three finalists and was the result of human testing and honing of the AI's thousands of outputs.  In some suggested sports, the official ball was the size of a yoga ball, some were played in a gym, others used rackets, but in the end they landed on speedgate.

As reported by Fast Company, the outputs weren't all created equally.  The system also sent out fairly inane suggestions like 'pommel horse sawing,' which the team described as 'two people sit on pommel horses on opposite sides of a giant log, they rock back and forth with a saw.'  According Engadget, speedgate may be in its fledgling stage as a sport, but that doesn't mean there's not room for a more professional future.

AKQA is currently in talks with the Oregon Sports Authority about establishing intramural leagues and is actively promoting potential players to start their own leagues.

To help immerse players in the idea of speedgate, the game even has its own philosophy, also created by the game's artificially intelligent founder.  'Face the ball, to be the ball, to be above the ball.'

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Thanks to a feature associated with the Find My iPhone security app, a new report says tens of thousands of fully-functioning iPhones donated every year end up being scrapped for parts.

According to a report by Colorado Public Interest Research Group, CoPIRG, a feature called 'activation lock' which is meant to lock users' iPhone's in the event that they're stolen or lost, also prevented 66,000 phones from being reused over a three year period.

The Wireless Alliance, a nationwide electronics recycling facility who was cited in the group's study, said that one in four phones they received in 2018 had an activation lock still present.

'While the activation lock is intended to deter thieves by making stolen phones unusable and therefore not worth stealing in the first place, it has also resulted in making a surprisingly high number of donated or handed-down phones unusable, having negative impacts on our environment and the used phone marketplace,' reads the report.

Most mobile users can attest to the effectiveness of Find My iPhone for locating lost devices; the app allows users to track and secure their phone with an iCloud login using GPS location, by activating a siren so the phone can be located audibly, and, of course, by locking the phone to maintain security.

The downside is iPhone donors who fail to turn the feature off before handing their phones over for reuse effectively ensure no one — even well-meaning and legitimate owners — can use the device.

'If someone does not turn off the activation lock on their phone before they drop their phone in a donation box, their phone can’t be reused as a whole device and will be unusable,' reads the report.

The results, says the report, could end up significantly impacting the environment.  In the U.S. alone, 416,000 phones are discarded every day and many of them eventually end up in landfills.  This means not only more garbage buried in the Earth but also ensures that the environmental footprint of manufacturing phones continues to widen.  According to Apple, 77 per cent of the greenhouse gas the company produces come from the manufacturing process alone.

To help counteract the process CoPIRG says manufacturers and recyclers should work arm-in-arm to develop a system by which phones with activation locks present can be unlocked and recycled.  That process could involve using a database of phone identification numbers to verify whether or not the device has been reported stolen or alternatively a notification could be sent to the donor allowing them to unlock the phone remotely.

In the meantime, however, anyone looking to pass their phone on to another person may just have to rely on following a few simple steps.

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Painted cycle lanes do not make roads more safe for cyclists as an alarming number are found reduce the distance motorists gave cyclists, an Australian study claims.

Motorists passing bikes on roads where there were cycle lanes were found to pass an average of 15 inches (40cm) closer than on roads with no cycle lanes.  The study suggests the painted lanes mean that there is less of a conscious requirement for drivers to provide safe additional passing distance.

The largest of its kind, the study followed 60 cyclists in Melbourne who rode their bicycles on their commutes with a device called a 'MetreBox'.  These were installed to quantify the distance that motor vehicle drivers provide when passing cyclists.

More than 18,000 vehicle passing events from 422 trips were recorded were an alarming number of cars came too close in proximity to the cyclists.  One in three overtakes in high-speed zones were deemed a 'close pass' and 124 passing events came within less than 23 inches (60cm) of the cyclist.

Most Australian States and Territories have either legislated or begun trials of minimum passing distance laws to provide greater safety for cyclists.  These laws legislate a minimum distance of one metre when the speed limit is 60km/h or less, and 1.5 metres when the speed limit is greater than 60km/h.

Doctor Ben Beck, who lead the study, said: 'We know that vehicles driving closely to cyclists increases how unsafe people feel when riding bikes and acts as a strong barrier to increasing cycling participation.'

Doctor Beck, who's also Monash University's Deputy Head of Prehospital, Emergency and Trauma Research said that more protected cycle lanes need to be created.  He said that the lanes made cyclists more liable to be subjected to close overtakes.

He explained: 'Specifically, passing events on roads with a bicycle lane and a parked car were on average 40 cm closer than events on roads with no bicycle lane or parked cars.  The magnitude of that ­difference is quite substantial.'

Research findings suggest that marked on-road bicycle lanes, particularly alongside parked cars, are not the optimal solution for protecting people who ride bikes.  Specifically, passing events that occurred on a road with a bicycle lane and a parked car had an average passing distance that was 40cm less than a road without a bicycle lane or a parked car.

'Our results demonstrate that a single stripe of white paint is not sufficient to protect people who ride bikes,' Dr Beck said.

The study said that in situations where the cyclist is in the same lane as the motorist, the driver is required to perform an overtaking manoeuvre.  Whereas in situations where the cyclist is in a marked bicycle lane, the motorist has a clear lane ahead and not required to overtake.

'As a result, we believe that there is less of a conscious requirement for drivers to provide additional passing distance,' said Dr Beck.

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A new study into the unique evolution of human intelligence has raised ethical concerns after Chinese scientists implanted human brain genes into monkeys to boost their development.

Researchers inserted human versions of MCPH1, a gene that scientists believe plays a role in the development of the human brain, into 11 rhesus monkeys.  They found the monkeys' brains -- like those of humans -- took longer to develop, and the animals performed better in tests of short-term memory as well as reaction time compared to wild monkeys.  However, the monkeys did not grow bigger brains than the control group.

The test, the latest in a series of biomedical experiments in China to have fuelled medical ethics debates, has already drawn ethical concerns, and comparisons with dystopian sci-fi 'Planet of the Apes'.

It was conducted by researchers at the Kunming Institute of Zoology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, working with US researchers at the University of North Carolina.  The study was published last month in Beijing-based journal National Science Review.

'Our findings demonstrated that transgenic nonhuman primates (excluding ape species) have the potential to provide important -- and potentially unique -- insights into basic questions of what actually makes human unique,' the authors wrote.

The monkeys underwent memory tests requiring them to remember colours and shapes on a screen, and were subjected to MRI scans.  Only five of the monkeys survived into the testing stage.

The authors said the rhesus monkey, though genetically closer to humans than rodents, is still distant enough to alleviate ethical concerns.  However, some questioned the ethics of the experiment.

Jacqueline Glover, a University of Colorado bioethicist said: 'You just go to the 'Planet of the Apes' immediately in the popular imagination.'

'To humanise them is to cause harm.  Where would they live and what would they do?  Do not create a being that can't have a meaningful life in any context,' she told MIT Technology Review.

Larry Baum, a researcher at Hong Kong University's Centre for Genomic Sciences, downplayed sci-fi comparisons and said: 'The genome of rhesus monkeys differs from ours by a few per cent.  That's millions of individual DNA bases differing between humans and monkeys.  This study changed a few of those in just one of about 20,000 genes.  You can decide for yourself whether there is anything to worry about.'

Baum added that the study supported the theory that 'slower maturity of brain cells might be a factor in improving intelligence during human evolution.'

In January, Chinese scientists unveiled five macaques cloned from a single animal that was genetically engineered to have a sleep disorder, which all developed signs of mental problems including depression, anxiety and behaviours linked to schizophrenia.  They said the study was intended to aid research into human psychological problems.

And last year, Chinese researcher He Jiankui shocked the scientific community after revealing that he had successfully gene-edited twin girls born in November to prevent them from contracting HIV.

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Hard work really does pay off say scientists who found that perseverance leads to better grades and higher achievement in school.

Being passionate is not enough to ensure academic success say researchers, who identified 'grit' as a key to success.  This is defined as effort in pursuing long-term goals, and the determination to continue one’s efforts in spite of adversity.  Experts think that the finding could help create new training to help children develop the skill and help ensure their future successes.

Experts from the Academy of Finland studied more than 2,000 students from Helsinki.  They were followed through their academic career from age 12-16, which is from sixth grade until the end of ninth grade in local school years.

Researchers found that the factor that best predicts grit was commitment to goals, with previous academic achievement playing no role in developing the skill.

Professor Katariina Salmela-Aro, who led on the study, said: 'Grit means that a young person really invests in his or her studies and does not give up easily.  A key element of grit is high persistence in the face of difficulties and setbacks.  The essential finding is that these factors together are the key to success and well-being.  Mere purpose without grit does not lead to anything, but grit needs a purpose.  Our study shows the power of grit.  The results persist even if we control for personality traits, such as conscientiousness and academic persistence. '

Professor Salmela-Aro also thinks it is important to develop new interventions, practices and trials to enhance grit in children and adolescents.  She added: 'Young people should see the meaning of everyday school work as part of life in a broader context and establish achievable goals for themselves.  School must also serve as a place where it is safe to fail and learn to cope with setbacks.  One must not be discouraged by setbacks, but draw strength and new energy from them!'

The full report was published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

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