The rapid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) has raised fears about whether robots could act unethically or soon choose to harm humans. Some are calling for bans on robotics research; others are calling for more research to understand how AI might be constrained. But how can robots learn ethical behavior if there is no "user manual" for being human?
Tech
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab have developed a new imaging device that consists of a loose bundle of optical fibers, with no need for lenses or a protective housing.
The fibers are connected to an array of photosensors at one end; the other ends can be left to wave free, so they could pass individually through micrometer-scale gaps in a porous membrane, to image whatever is on the other side.
In the early 1990s, drug production in Colombia diversified to include heroin as well as cocaine, and since then the country's role in the heroin trade has substantially increased. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Colombia produced approximately 70 to 100 metric tons of heroin between 1998 and 2004. Studies have found an increase in local heroin use since the mid-1990s. This is a strong cause for concern, given the potential for HIV to spread through networks of injection drug users and disseminate to the general public.
UPTON, NY--Graphene, the two-dimensional powerhouse, packs extreme durability, electrical conductivity, and transparency into a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon. Despite being heralded as a breakthrough "wonder material," graphene has been slow to leap into commercial and industrial products and processes.
When you want to preserve a place or enhance a space, sometimes the best approach is to take a laser to it.
Not a cosmetic surgeon's scalpel, or a sci-fi blaster. Rather, a 3-D laser scanner that can measure your space with millimeter accuracy -- and help you visualize it in the future down to very tiny details.
A team of computer scientists from the University of Maryland, Stanford University and Microsoft Research is the first to solve a game theory scenario that has vexed researchers for nearly a century. The game, known as "Colonel Blotto," has been used to analyze the potential outcomes of elections and other similar two-party conflicts since its invention in 1921. Until now, however, the game has been of limited use because it lacked a definitive solution.
The nanowires, with diameters as small as 200 nanometers (billionths of a meter) and a blend of materials that has also proven effective in next-generation solar cell designs, were shown to produce very bright, stable laser light. Researchers say the excellent performance of these tiny lasers is promising for the field of optoelectronics, which is focused on combining electronics and light to transmit data, among other applications.
Physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a nanolaser, a thousand times thinner than a human hair. Thanks to an ingenious process, the nanowire lasers grow right on a silicon chip, making it possible to produce high-performance photonic components cost-effectively. This will pave the way for fast and efficient data processing with light in the future.
MADISON, Wis. -- When you're on the go and your smartphone battery is low, in the not-so-distant future you could charge it simply by plugging it into your shoe.
An innovative energy harvesting and storage technology developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison mechanical engineers could reduce our reliance on the batteries in our mobile devices, ensuring we have power for our devices no matter where we are.
Imagine if the picture window in your living room could double as a giant thermostat or big screen TV. A discovery by researchers at the University of British Columbia has brought us one step closer to this becoming a reality.
Imagine that you're buying a box of chocolates for a loved one on Valentine's Day, and the store is offering a free gift if you buy a slightly inferior box of chocolates instead of the best chocolates in the store. Which do you buy?
You are more likely to go for the inferior box, according to new research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
In a world-first, researchers from Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) have performed cardiac MRI imaging using a 7T MRI scanner in a patient-based study. 7T MRI imaging is a powerful new technology that allows high resolution images of the beating heart, and has the capability to provide valuable information of the myocardial (heart muscle) tissue structures.
ARGONNE, Ill. (Feb. 5, 2016) - Just as a photographer needs a camera with a split-second shutter speed to capture rapid motion, scientists looking at the behavior of tiny materials need special instruments with the capacity to see changes that happen in the blink of an eye.
Radical new ways of removing CO2 from the atmosphere could prove to be a risky business -- according to an environmental scientist at the University of East Anglia.
Techniques put forward include growing crops to be burned in power stations, large-scale tree plantations, adding biochar to soil, adding nutrients to sea water to boost plankton and seaweed, and using chemicals to extract CO2 from the atmosphere -- to be buried deep underground.
Four empty lots in Chicago's South Side bear scars of the past. Their surfaces are strewn with construction debris and foundation rubble. However, the most incriminating evidence of the past lies beneath the surface, in the soil.