Billions of tiny particles packed into rechargeable lithium-ion battery electrodes are responsible for storing charge and making it available when it’s needed to do work. X-ray movies of this process show the particles absorbing and releasing lithium ions as the battery charges and discharges. Now, in an important step forward, researchers have used a type […]
Computer science • Language • Linguistics • Medicine • Robotics
At a time when the mass media are full of predictions about the apocalyptic effect that AI will have on humanity, it is comforting to read two essays that show that the reality, for the moment, points in the opposite direction. The first of these reveals the excellent results that the application of natural language […]
risk The authors of this article are members of The European Lab for Learning & Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) Board: Nuria Oliver, Directora de la Fundación ELLIS Alicante & honorary professor Universidad de Alicante; Bernhard Schölkopf, , Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems; Florence d’Alché-Buc, Professor, Télécom Paris – Institut Mines-Télécom; Nada Lavrač, Research Councillor at […]
A novel computer memory design has been created by researchers, offering significant enhancements in performance while simultaneously addressing the pressing need to minimize energy consumption in internet and communications technologies. Projections suggest that these technologies could account for nearly one-third of the world’s electricity consumption within the next decade. A team of researchers has devised […]
artificial intelligence Authors: Archon Fung, Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, Harvard Kennedy School, and Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard University Could organizations use artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT to induce voters to behave in specific ways? Sen. Josh Hawley asked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this question in a May 16 […]
While for long in neuroscience, computers were used to model brain function, organoid intelligence, a new scientific field, aims to do the opposite by developing biological computers which would benefit from the efficiency of our most complex biological machine: the brain. Fear not. The objective is not to connect humans by their brains to power […]
Scientists have successfully demonstrated that autonomous methods can discover new materials. The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technique led to the discovery of three new nanostructures, including a first-of-its-kind nanoscale “ladder.” The newly discovered structures were formed by a process called self-assembly, in which a material’s molecules organize themselves into unique patterns. Scientists at Brookhaven’s Center for […]
Computer science • Condensed matter • Physics • Quantum physics
Last year’s Nobel Prize in Physics celebrated the fundamental interest of quantum entanglement, and also envisioned the potential applications in “the second quantum revolution” — a new age when we are able to manipulate the weirdness of quantum mechanics, including quantum superposition and entanglement. A large-scale and fully functional quantum network is the holy grail […]
Chemistry • Computer science • Condensed matter • Materials • Physics
Water has puzzled scientists for decades. For the last 30 years or so, they have theorized that when cooled down to a very low temperature like -100 ºC, water might be able to separate into two liquid phases of different densities. Like oil and water, these phases don’t mix and may help explain some of […]
Bringing together concepts from electrical engineering and bioengineering tools, scientists have produced genetic “devices” designed to perform neuromorphic computations like artificial neural circuits in bacterial cells. The genetic material was inserted into bacterial cells in the form of a plasmid: a relatively short DNA molecule that remains separate from the bacteria’s “natural” genome. Plasmids also […]