As artificial intelligence technology becomes ever more advanced, bots are walking a fine line: This week brings news of AI helping wheelchair users control their movements with simple facial gestures, on the one hand — but the possibility of robots hallucinating, on the other, to less than positive results. Meanwhile, the president of Microsoft is calling for stricter regulation of AI involved in facial recognition. If it’s nuance you seek, you’ll find plenty of ifs, ands and bots in this installment of 5 Coolest Things.
Tiny brainlike organs grown in the lab sent out electrical waves similar to those of premature babies, and an American machine claims the title of world’s fastest supercomputer. Whether human, humanoid or fully machine, brains are growing by leaps and bounds in this week’s coolest scientific discoveries. Plus: Supermaterials are stronger than ever, and a new advance offers hope for effective Ebola protection.
Neural networks can create fake fingerprints to fool biometric scanners, while elsewhere researchers are printing electric circuits onto temporary tattoos. This week, all the coolest discoveries fit to print also include a hopeful Parkinson’s treatment, better detection of food contamination, and a data-collection project that’s diving deep into the bowels of the world’s … bowels.
Mushrooms are producing electricity, wearable tech can regenerate frog legs, and a possible new particle could help physicists better understand the primordial soup of the universe. It’s a veritable gumbo of discovery in this week’s coolest scientific happenings.
Scientists have come up with a faster way to charge electric vehicles wirelessly, tiny flying robots can haul up to 40 times their weight, and data might travel with unprecedented security with a little help from quantum physics. It’s giddyup or get out of the way in this week’s coolest scientific discoveries.
A week of bio-inspiration: Scientists are figuring out how to use spider venom to treat cancer, and looking to plants for cues on making self-healing, carbon-fixing building materials. But the human body can be bio-inspiring too — so we’ve got a robot that can do parkour, as well, in the latest cool advances in science and tech.
The first commercial carrier fueled by recycled waste gas from a steel mill just flew across the Atlantic. In Japan, construction workers might get a break: Scientists there created a robot that can install drywall, among other building tasks. And in landlocked Indiana, researchers are looking to shrimp as an inspiration for more resilient building materials. It’s a real grab bag in this week’s most interesting scientific discoveries.
A robot helps peel lettuce, tiny viruses seek out E. coli in drinking water, computers give a hand to air traffic controllers, and a fascinating and highly mobile gene can facilitate communication within the body — and maybe help treat problems in there too. In this week’s coolest scientific discoveries, it takes a village.
In the future envisioned in this week’s coolest things, we’ll be using photosynthesis to harvest unlimited sustainable energy while emotionally sensitive robots fetch supplies from the cupboard and weirdly agile insect-inspired drones buzz around our heads. Plus: A strong magnetic field holds the possibility of fusion power, and astrophysicists dig under the surface of “nuclear pasta.” Astro, we’re not in “The Jetsons” anymore.
It’s been a banner week for artificial intelligence: Scientists have found or are looking for ways where AI can help diagnose depression, predict earthquakes and fly drones. They’ve also figured out ways to make microscopic robots swarm like bees. Getting a little too futuristic for you down here on the blue planet? Here, just step into this elevator …
