A New Ninth Planet?
For those upset by the recent downgrading of our solar system from nine to eight planets, there is a new hope! Research by scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) suggests that...
Do Neural Networks Dream of Electric Sheep?
Machine learning algorithms are algorithms that recognize patterns. One algorithm, the deep neural network, has been particularly successful. It identifies faces, drives cars, and even beats human players at...
Amoebas Don’t Mess Around
Using DNA Nets to Capture Organisms Why don’t you ever get sick from the same bug twice? The answer lies in the elaborate network of defenses that make up your immune system. The intimate relationship...
Strangest Alien Worlds
1,963. That is the number of confirmed exoplanets as of March 2016, according to NASA. With a backlog of 4,696 potential exoplanet candidates, the number is likely to keep rocketing upwards, just as it has...
Beyond Ethanol
New Bioenergy Crops for Biofuels “Using ethanol increases global warming emissions over the use of straight gasoline,” journalist Ed Wallace wrote in 2009 in an article for Bloomberg Businessweek....
DNA Machines On a Roll
Machines, motors, mechanization — what comes to mind when you hear these terms? Maybe something big and clunky; maybe something powerful and sleek. But my guess would be that your mind doesn’t jump to a...
Cage Molecules
Designing a Liquid That Can Swallow Gas Have you ever driven by an oil refinery or a really large power plant and wondered, “Gee, there’s a lot of carbon dioxide and other bad stuff entering the air?”...
Outer Space Makes Bacteria More Deadly
When we think of the dangers that space flight poses to humans, we tend to worry about macro problems. What if the shuttle’s engine fails? What if an asteroid hits the shuttle? What if the shuttle hits a...