Science of the Future
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What is ‘closed loop Bayesian optimization’ and how can it help us bake the perfect brownies?
A new scientific paradigm revolving around the use of algorithms is solving optimisation problems and increasing scientists’ efficiency – and ...
Meet your newest coworker: From retail to medicine to marketing, AI workers will soon abound
Artificial intelligence is increasingly making its way across industries, changing jobs from retail to medicine to marketing ...
AI can generate new protein patterns in seconds. What are the risks?
Nature took millions of years to design proteins. AI can generate meaningful protein sequences in seconds. While there are good ...
CRISPR gene doping: The next ‘big issue’ in world athletics
In 2020, the Polish developer CD Projekt Red launched Cyberpunk 2077, a video game that pulled players in to a ...
Viewpoint: How to take control back from AI and social media algorithms
Behavioral scientist Gerd Gigerenzer has spent decades studying how people make choices. Here’s why he thinks too many of us ...
Mood-logging earbuds? Fatigue-tracking hats? Brain-reading neurotechnology is on the horizon
Earbuds measure the mood of office workers, and hard hats track fatigue in truckers. Neurotechnology aims to do more—much more ...
Signs of recently-formed glacier ice found on Mars
Remnants of a modern glacier have been found near Mars' equator, suggesting ice may still exist at shallow depths in ...
Digital eternal life: Billionaires back research into lifespan-expanding drugs, immortality technology. Here’s why they might succeed
Reverse the aging process and live decades longer? Transfer your brain onto a database and achieve digital immortality? Humans one ...
Viewpoint: ‘Imagine grilling lab-grown steak on your patio with bricks made from bacteria’ — Regulations stymie US biomanufacturing benefits
Breakthroughs in biomanufacturing could position the U.S. economy for new possibilities that reshape industries — and maintain our global competitiveness ...
Smart farming: How digital agriculture can synergize with crop biotechnology to help food-insecure nations
Smart farming refers to managing farms using modern ICT to increase the quantity and quality of products while optimising the ...
‘Infusing beans with a new genetic blueprint’: Synthetic biology startup engineers soybeans to produce ingredients for cancer drugs, vaccines and infant formula
As a first-generation college student turned molecular biologist, Brian DeDecker imagines a day when these humble soybeans, which his family ...
Growing rice on Mars? Gene-edited rice might be able to grow in the Red Planet’s soil
Martian dirt may have all the necessary nutrients for growing rice, one of humankind’s most important foods, planetary scientist Abhilash ...
Offspring born from two males: Now that it has been achieved in mice, what are the prospects for humans?
Scientists in Japan say they have succeeded in breeding mice with two fathers, using eggs originating from male cells. While ...
Befuddled Congress struggles to understand (let alone regulate) AI
In recent weeks, two members of Congress have sounded the alarm over the dangers of artificial intelligence ...
De-extinction: The Second Coming
Ten years ago it burst into mainstream popular life: the possibility of resurrecting extinct species ...
Here’s how humans could explore the universe — without warp speed travel technology
The field equations of Einstein’s General Relativity theory say that faster-than-light (FTL) travel is possible, so a handful of researchers ...
110 years old and going strong: BioAge start-up uses AI to understand supercentenarian genetic factors that might help us live longer
The biotech industry niche focused on aging is expected to reach a market value of $65 billion over the next ...
Why do we feel fear or hatred toward robots?
AI was created to be helpful, but not all people see it that way. Scientists share why humans have an ...
Biocomputers: Human brain cells may run computers of the future
A “biocomputer” powered by human brain cells could be developed within our lifetime, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers who ...
4 theories about how the world as we know it might end
Humans have a macabre fascination with end of the world theories — will humankind go out with a bang or ...
Viewpoint: ChatGPT gets a lot wrong or garbled. That doesn’t mean it’s not useful.
It doesn’t take much to get ChatGPT to make a factual mistake ...
Will AI chatbots help address shortage of genetic counselors?
A text messaging-based approach to communication could provide a convenient avenue for patients to access genetic counseling ...
Viewpoint: Capitalism and technology — Whose interests does AI serve, and what unrecognized dangers about data privacy are around the corner?
A.I. researchers obsess over the question of “alignment.” How do we get machine learning algorithms to do what we want ...
Viewpoint: Producing more intelligent humans? Transhumanist philosopher Nick Bostrom ventures into eugenics-fraught science of the future
An overlapping set of movements— effective altruism, longtermism, and transhumanism, all with strong links to eugenics—have recently made news, thanks ...
Grains make up 70% of global cropland. Here’s how perennial grains, legumes, and oilseeds could dramatically improve sustainable farming
When left undisturbed, naturally-occurring vegetation tends to grow back year after year. In agriculture, this is also true of perennial crops ...
Fresh produce on Mars? Space-adapted genes help plants survive cosmic rays and low gravity
According to NASA, five major hazards appear during long spaceflights: space radiation, isolation and confinement, distance from Earth, low gravity, ...
Viewpoint: ‘How can we ensure that AI technologies currently being developed are used for the common good, rather than for the benefit of a select few?’
Over the past few years, the AI ethics discourse has revolved around two questions we have touched on already. How ...
