Lifeboat Foundation

Kenneth Cukier reviews “Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI,” a collection of essays edited by John Brockman.

China is the world leader in facial recognition technology. But is the state using it to violate the human rights of its citizens?

The AI advances that brought you Alexa are teaching propaganda how to talk.

Squirrels mislabeled as sea lions and dragonflies confused with manhole covers are challenging algorithms to be more resilient to attacks.

In the future, we could record, optimize, and replay our memories — even after death.

The rules about what makes a good magnet may not be as rigid as scientists thought. Using a mixture containing magnetic nanoparticles, researchers have now created liquid droplets that behave like tiny bar magnets.

Magnets that generate persistent magnetic fields typically are composed of solids like iron, where the magnetic poles of densely packed atoms are all locked in the same direction (SN: 2/17/18, p. 18). While some liquids containing magnetic particles can become magnetized when placed in a magnetic field, the magnetic orientations of those free-floating particles tend to get jumbled when the field goes away — causing the liquid to lose its magnetism.

Continue reading “Permanent liquid magnets have now been created in the lab” »

Scientists at Berkeley Lab have made a new material that is both liquid and magnetic, opening the door to a new area of science in magnetic soft matter. Their findings could lead to a revolutionary class of printable liquid devices for a variety of applications from artificial cells that deliver targeted cancer therapies to flexible liquid robots that can change their shape to adapt to their surroundings. (Video credit: Marilyn Chung/Berkeley Lab; footage of droplets courtesy of Xubo Liu and Tom Russell/Berkeley Lab)

Stunning payload separation footage of the UP Aerospace SL-10 rocket. One of the four payloads deployed was a test version of the Maraia Capsule, a concept that was to be used to provide the inexpensive and autonomous on-demand return of small science samples from the International Space Station. Credit: UP Aerospace.

Refraction AI, founded by two researchers at the University of Michigan, joins a crowded field of self-driving delivery vehicles.