How consciousness emerges in the brain is the ultimate mystery. Scientists generally agree that consciousness relies on multiple brain regions working in tandem. But the areas and neural connections ...

Our bodies are constantly breaking down. Over time, their built-in repair mechanisms also fail. Knee cartilage grinds away. Hip joints no longer support weight. Treatments for breast cancer and other ...

I admit, since middle school, I’ve spent most of my downtime immersed in video games. There are the quintessential epics: Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, and Fortnite. And then there ...

Let a mouse nose around a house, and it will rapidly find food and form a strategy to return to it without getting caught. Given the same task, an AI would require millions of training examples and ...

If you’re not familiar with the concept of “world models” just yet, a storm of activity at the start of 2025 gives every indication it may soon become a well-known term. What large language models are ...

A couple months ago, friends and business contacts started asking me for a crash course on my professional research studying virtual environments. Their interest reflects an explosion—which you’ve ...

Our hands are works of art. A rigid skeleton provides structure. Muscles adjust to different weights. Our skin, embedded with touch, pressure, and temperature sensors, provides immediate feedback on ...

DNA is nature’s computing device. Unlike data centers, DNA is incredibly compact. These molecules package an entire organism’s genetic blueprint into tiny but sophisticated structures inside each cell ...

Despite the hype around AI in recent years, the technology’s disruptive impact has been fairly modest. Experts say that’s likely to change next year as AI agents force their way into all aspects of ...

With their bright blue bases, yellow gears, and exposed circuit tops, the 3D-printed robots look like a child’s toys. Yet as a roughly two-dozen-member collective, they can flow around obstacles ...

Scientists just unveiled the world’s tiniest pacemaker. Smaller than a grain of rice and controlled by light shone through the skin, the pacemaker generates power and squeezes the heart’s muscles ...

The project explores how life adapts to extreme environments—and hopes to inspire new drugs or even treatments to aid space travel. We’ve only scratched the surface of what thrives in the deepest ...