“Mom answered questions from grieving relatives after they had watched her cremation.” Marina Smith, a 87-year-old woman who passed away in June, was able to address the mourners at her own funeral in the UK — sort of, at … Continued
In what is set to be a world first, a robot lawyer will appear in a United States court next month, representing a client facing traffic charges. The artificial intelligence (AI) tool uses machine learning to match text and voice recognition … Continued
Riding on the shoulders of the Apollo generation, the Artemis missions will pave the way for humans to return to the moon, begin human exploration of Mars, and someday for humanity to reach the edges of our solar system and … Continued
Those words are: “You can’t predict the future, but you can weigh the probabilities.” Bezos’ financial advice was offered when he counseled his Twitter followers that it’s time to prepare for possible economic turmoil. The probabilities in this economy tell … Continued
Sitting on the Marine Atlantic ferry, I’m watching the Newfoundland skyline disappear on the horizon as I type away. I see the rocking of the ocean waves, inhale its salty breeze, feel and hear the buzz of the ship’s rumbling … Continued
Roads of the future could be lit by glowing trees instead of streetlamps, thanks to a breakthrough in creating bioluminescent plants. Experts injected specialized nanoparticles into the leaves of a watercress plant, which caused it to give off a dim … Continued
One of the main arguments against a rapid transition to renewable energy is the potentially enormous cost. But a new study shows that moving quickly could actually save us huge amounts of money compared to taking things slowly or doing … Continued
California is spending $20 million on a pilot project that will install more than a mile of solar panels over sections of important water sources, including canals — a futuristic effort to fight a devastating drought hitting California this summer with green … Continued
Scientists have successfully taught a collection of human brain cells in a petri dish how to play the video game “Pong” — kind of. Researchers at the biotechnology startup Cortical Labs have created “mini-brains” consisting of 800,000 to one million living … Continued
Cast your mind back, if you will, to 1965, when Tom Lehrer recorded his live album That Was the Year That Was. Lehrer prefaced a song called “So Long Mom (A Song for World War III)” by saying that “if there’s … Continued
How do 1.4 kg of brain tissue create thoughts, feelings, mental images, and an inner world? The ability of the brain to create consciousness has baffled some for millennia. The mystery of consciousness lies in the fact that each of … Continued
A California-based organisation wants to harness the power of machine learning to decode communication across the entire animal kingdom. But the project has its doubters A dolphin handler makes the signal for “together” with her hands, followed by “create”. The … Continued
Being gifted at performing the technical aspects of a job can take an employee only so far. To become a stellar employee or an admired leader requires an arsenal of skills that are harder to measure but critical … Continued
Futures studies is the systematic study of possible, probable and preferable futures. It can be used to help leaders and communities manage uncertainties and increase their resilience and innovation. We spoke with futurist Dr. Stuart Candy about the latest developments … Continued
“All we know is, we opened a gate. We just hope we didn’t open a Pandora’s box.” It looks like algorithms can write academic papers about themselves now. We gotta wonder: how long until human academics are obsolete? In an editorial … Continued
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN TRY TO CREATE YOUR OWN “EUREKA” MOMENTS. Have you ever had a great idea right before you fell asleep — only to forget it the next morning when you wake up? A new study says there’s … Continued
Today’s computers guzzle large amounts of electricity, raising concerns about the climate impact of technology. A breakthrough in superconducting electronics could reduce the power bill significantly, while also making computers far faster. The phenomenon of superconductivity was first discovered in 1911 … Continued
A vast array of 12,000 solar panels are set to become Europe’s largest floating solar park when they finish taking position atop the Alqueva reservoir this year. Supplying a third of the electricity to the nearby towns of Moura and … Continued
For the first time in recorded history, wind power was the second-largest source of electricity in the country for an entire day. That’s according to data from the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Hourly Electric Grid Monitor, which on March 29 spotted wind … Continued
Nasa is taking a step in a distinctly Star Trek direction with a new communication method it tested on the International Space Station (ISS). It’s called ‘holoporting’ and, as you’d expect, is a mix between a hologram and teleportation. And it resulted in … Continued