Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
Nanotube whiskers could aid robot-human interaction
Tiny hairlike sensors made from nanomaterials are more sensitive than existing devices to detect tiny pressures.
- Animals
Head cam shows how falcons track prey
Falcons use motion camouflage to capture flying prey, a new study shows.
- Tech
Jellyfish-like flying machine takes off
Mimicking sea creatures instead of insects leads to better hovering, scientists find.
- Computing
Materials’ light tricks may soon extend to doing math
A simulation paves the way toward metamaterials that can perform ultrafast complex mathematical operations using light waves.
- Tech
Reader favorites of 2013
For this issue, the editors selected the 25 most important and intriguing science stories of the year. But online readers seemed to point to a different bunch, showing just how subjective such an exercise can be.
- Health & Medicine
Forecasting system predicts peaks in flu outbreaks
A real-time forecasting system has accurately predicted the peak flu cases up to nine weeks before the outbreak.
- Computing
Fastest supercomputers
The new list of the world’s fastest computers, now in its 20th year, has China’s Tianhe-2 on top with a processing speed of 33.9 petaflops — or quadrillions of calculations per second.
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- Physics
Single atoms hold on to information
Minutes-long data storage by individual atoms beats previous record of tiny fraction of a second.
- Health & Medicine
The future of the robotic leg
While robotic legs have come incredibly far, the next step, integrating the function into the rest of the body, still has a way to go.
- Neuroscience
Mind to motion
Brain-computer interfaces promise new freedom for the paralyzed and immobile.
- Humans
Our Final Invention
Computers already make all sorts of decisions for you. Imagine if the machines controlled even more aspects of life and could truly think for themselves.
