A group of researchers from Shanghai built a customizable circuit that operates entirely with DNA, a groundbreaking step towards general-purpose DNA computing. Continue reading Scientists create a customizable circuit made from DNA
Are you talking to a human or a chatbot? Ask them this question to find out. Continue reading Unmasking AI with a Single Question
by Nathan Druckerfigures by Daeun Jeong As the U.S. recovers from the pandemic and shores up its environmental defenses from a rapidly changing climate, federal money is being spent like never before. Simultaneously, the exceedingly competitive global economy is driving lawmakers to thrust the American economy into the 21st century. One result of this fervor is a potentially vast increase in federal funding for science … Continue reading Competing Visions of Science Funding in Congress
Researchers at MIT and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard are working on developing a universal flu vaccine. Continue reading Towards a Universal Flu Vaccine: Targeting the Stem of the Problem
Researchers have developed a fast, cheap, and quantitative antibody test to allow us to understand how COVID-19 affects our immune response. Continue reading Fighting COVID-19 with a Faster, Cheaper, and Quantitative Antibody Test
by Christopher Rota figures by Hannah Zucker When the first Apollo program astronauts set foot on the Moon in 1969, their footsteps inspired a generation. This opened a new realm of possibility for what humans can achieve with the necessary motivation and resources. Now, just over 50 years later, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has put the wheels in motion to lay down a fresh … Continue reading Should We Help NASA “Shoot for the Moon” Again?
Forgiveness is associated with humans, but may play an integral role in human-robot interactions. A study asks whether we can forgive a robot for commiting a crime. Debating forgiveness rather than punishment, the study adds another ethical dimension to our perception of AI.
Continue reading Study asks, can we forgive robots?
by Isabella Grabski figures by Jovana Andrejevic Clinical trials are critical to study the safety and effectiveness of new drugs, but they are no small endeavor. The cost of a clinical trial can range anywhere from $7 million to over $50 million, and they can take up to a decade to fully complete. Not only can this represent a substantial strain on a pharmaceutical company, it also … Continue reading Virtual Clinical Trials: Testing new drugs from afar
by Nivanthika K. Wimalasena figures by Rebecca Clements Imagine going in for a surgery where the surgeon, instead of looking down and seeing only your swollen leg, can see the exact location of your fracture before making a single incision. Now imagine that this doesn’t require x-ray vision or the stuff of science fiction, but is possible through augmented reality (AR), used to overlay an image … Continue reading Augmented Medicine: the power of augmented reality in the operating room
by Alex Cabral figures by Sean Wilson In 2003, with the completion of the Human Genome Project, the entire human genome was sequenced for the first time. The sequencing cost nearly $1 billion and took 13 years to complete. Today, the human genome can be sequenced for about $1000 in less than two days. Industry leaders hope to bring that cost down to just $100 within … Continue reading The Computer Science behind DNA Sequencing