Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
Russia reports pressure glitch on cargo ship docked to ISS
Russia’s space agency reported an unexplained loss of pressure on Saturday in a cargo craft docked to the International Space Station but said there was no threat to the crew. Roscosmos said mission control specialists had detected a depressurisation in the cooling system of the Progress MS-21 cargo ship which is due to undock from the ISS on Feb. 18.
Chinese tech firms working on ChatGPT-style technology
The global buzz around Microsoft chatbot ChatGPT has spread to China, shoring up stocks in artificial intelligence (AI) related firms and prompting a flurry of local companies to announce rival projects. Like Microsoft and Google，Chinese tech giants such as Baidu and Alibaba as well as smaller start-ups have been working on AI projects for years.
Russia delays launch of relief ship to keep investigating space station leak
Russia is delaying the launch of a ship to bring two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut back from the International Space Station (ISS) while it investigates a pressure loss in another module, its space agency said on Monday. Roscosmos and the U.S. space agency NASA had said that a Soyuz MS-23 ship would be launched on Feb. 20 to bring back Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Frank Rubio.
Call of the wild? Hungarian research explores why your dog is prone to howling
When Hungarian animal behaviourist Fanni Lehoczki noticed the frequent howls of her Siberian husky “Bizsu” didn’t always provoke other dogs into a wolf-like response, it prompted the question – why are certain dogs more prone to howling? Researchers at Budapest’s Eotvos Lorand University where Lehoczki works examined whether certain dog breeds are more prone to howling and if this had anything to do with their genetic closeness to wolves.
At Mexico’s Chichen Itza site, researchers discover ancient ‘elite’ residences
Archaeologists have revealed a group of structures discovered at the famed Mayan Chichen Itza archaeological site in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, believed to have been part of a housing complex inhabited by the elite of the sacred city founded in the 5th Century AD. Archaeologist Francisco Perez Ruiz said there were no known residential groups in Chichen Itza, meaning the housing complex would represent “the first residential group where a ruler lived with his entire family.”
(With inputs from agencies.)
