MIND MELDERS These Roomba-like robots latch onto each other with metal clasps and merge their “nervous systems” to become bigger, centrally controlled bots of various shapes and sizes.
M. Dorigo and Nithin Mathews
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Magazine
In the Sept. 16 SN: Flexible brains learn with ease, making fair-minded machines, learning research hits classrooms, reading dodos’ bones, new battle of the sexes, tiny antennas, Southern Ocean upwelling in 3-D, black hole census and more.
Math & Technology
Topic Image Rail
Scientists have some new ideas for reducing irreproducibility and the problem of P values.
vedanti/pexels
NUCLEAR OPTION This nuclear power plant in Stade, Germany, was one of two approved in 1967. It closed in 2005.
Sorodorin/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Math & Technology
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Numbers
Film
Hidden Figures highlights three black women who were vital to the U.S. space program
"Hidden Figures" tells the untold story of the "human computers" who were essential to the launch of the U.S. space program.Screentime
Website tests predictive powers of the hive mind
Metaculus.com asks people to make predictions about the likelihood of future events. -
Computing
News
Winning against a computer isn’t in the cards for poker pros
Poker-playing computers beat professional players at heads-up no-limit Texas Hold’em.50 Years Ago
Speech recognition has come a long way in 50 years
Early versions of computer speech recognition relied on word sounds. Now, they add pattern recognition and a lot of statistics. -
Technology
50 Years Ago
50 years ago, West Germany embraced nuclear power
In 1967, Germany gave nuclear power a try. Today, the country is trading nukes for renewables.Feature
Machines are getting schooled on fairness
Machine-learning programs are introducing biases that may harm job seekers, loan applicants and more. -
Robotics
News in Brief
In these bot hookups, the machines meld their minds
A new type of robot can team up with its fellows to form a single-minded machine.News in Brief
Robot, heal thyself
Self-healing material is helping make more resilient robots.
