A human child can look at a cartoon picture of a chicken and recognize it is a chicken, but that is a show-stopper for machine learning. Unless it matches a cartoon chicken programmed in, it will not…

Engineers have developed and successfully demonstrated the value of a simple pulley mechanism to improve hand function after surgery. The device, tested in cadaver hands, is one of the first…

Taking over one neuron at a time. Credit: viipeer, CC BY-NC-SA By Nick Bostrom, University of Oxford Biological brains are unlikely to be the final stage of intelligence. Machines already have…

The iPhone 6 is apparently flexible, though that's a not a good thing; people are warping them when they sit down, and people without abnormal strength can simply twist them in their hands. But that…

Nature Publishing Group has announced that Nature Communications will only accept open access research submissions starting October 20th 2014. This is a big win for open access.  The 2013 Impact…

Preliminary results from a recent study show that a blood test, when used in psychiatric patients experiencing symptoms that are considered to be indicators of a high risk for psychosis, identifies…

Researchers have equipped a robot with a novel tactile sensor that lets it grasp a USB cable draped freely over a hook and insert it into a USB port. Its processing algorithm is faster, so it…

For future astronauts, the process of suiting up may go something like this: Instead of climbing into a conventional, bulky, gas-pressurized suit, an astronaut may don a lightweight, stretchy garment…

Mobile phones are in the hands of 80 percent of Americans so manufacturers are scrambling to find new ways to keep people buying the next model. Being able to use gestures in the space around the…

Anyone who tells you they have a super food or a potion to impact a complex trait is sellinf you something. Life is rarely simple. The things we care about most, from crop yields to disease risks,…