For anything Sports Science related that doesn’t require its own separate discussion.

Just four per cent of talented teen academy prospects make it to the top tier of professional football (called soccer in US), a new study has shown. A sample of nearly 200 players, aged between 13-18, also revealed only six per cent of the budding ballers even go on to play in lower leagues. The University of Essex researchers discovered the players who succeeded excelled in self-confidence, ball reception skills, dribbling and coaches’ subjective technical assessments. The study — published…

In 2018, Arthur Ashkin won the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing optical tweezers: laser beams that can be used to manipulate microscopic particles. While useful for many biological applications, optical tweezers require extremely controlled, static conditions to work properly. “Optical tweezers work by creating a light ‘hotspot’ to trap particles, like a ball falling into a hole. But if there are other objects in the vicinity, this hole is difficult to create and move around,” says Romain Fleury, head…

Scientists at the University of Bath, (UK), working in collaboration with industrial partner, Integrated Graphene, have created a new type of chemosensor (demonstrated for lactic acid sensing) which functions with electricity but without the need for reference electrodes or battery power. Scientists at the University of Bath, UK, introduce breakthrough carbon-based sensor for detecting lactic acid levels in saliva — avoiding the need for an electrical power source. Underpinned by a Gii-Sens electrode platform, the Gii chemosensor could have potential…

In sports training, practice is the key, but being able to emulate the techniques of professional athletes can take a player’s performance to the next level. AI-based personalized sports coaching assistants can make this a reality by utilizing published datasets. With cameras and sensors strategically placed on the athlete’s body, these systems can track everything, including joint movement patterns, muscle activation levels, and gaze movements. Using this data, personalized feedback is provided on player technique, along with improvement recommendations. Athletes…

The body clock has a significant impact on the performance of NBA players, according to study published in the peer-reviewed journal Chronobiology International. The authors say their findings, from more than 25,000 matches, show elite basketball coaches and teams should consider the physical and mental effects of time zone travel when planning games and preparing for games. A first of its kind, the research is based on the achievements at home and away of NBA (National Basketball Association) league players…

A new study from NC State University combines three-dimensional embroidery techniques with machine learning to create a fabric-based sensor that can control electronic devices through touch. As the field of wearable electronics gains more interest and new functions are added to clothing, an embroidery-based sensor or “button” capable of controlling those functions becomes increasingly important.Integrated into the fabric of a piece of clothing, the sensor can activate and control electronic devices like mobile apps entirely by touch. The device is…

Robotic exoskeletons designed to help humans with walking or physically demanding work have been the stuff of sci-fi lore for decades. Remember Ellen Ripley in that Power Loader in Alien? Or the crazy mobile platform George McFly wore in 2015 in Back to the Future, Part II because he threw his back out? Researchers are working on real-life robotic assistance that could protect workers from painful injuries and help stroke patients regain their mobility. So far, they have required extensive…

Astronauts have been able to track their muscle health in spaceflight for the first time using a handheld device, revealing which muscles are most at risk of weakening in low gravity conditions. An international research team, including the University of Southampton and led by Charité University in Berlin, monitored the muscle health of twelve astronauts before, during and after a stay on the International Space Station (ISS). Findings published in Nature Scientific Reportsindicate that the astronauts’ daily exercise regime was…

Performing a new task based solely on verbal or written instructions, and then describing it to others so that they can reproduce it, is a cornerstone of human communication that still resists artificial intelligence (AI). A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has succeeded in modelling an artificial neural network capable of this cognitive prowess. After learning and performing a series of basic tasks, this AI was able to provide a linguistic description of them to a ”sister” AI,…

Researchers from the University of Waterloo got a valuable assist from artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help capture and analyze data from professional hockey games faster and more accurately than ever before, with big implications for the business of sports. The growing field of hockey analytics currently relies on the manual analysis of video footage from games. Professional hockey teams across the sport, notably in the National Hockey League (NHL), make important decisions regarding players’ careers based on that information.…