Artificial Intelligence
AI learned how to influence humans by watching a video game
New research used the game Overcooked to show how AI can learn to collaborate with — or manipulate — us.
Engineering Design
More Stories in Engineering Design
- Physics
How much fruit can you pull from a display before it topples?
About 10 percent of the fruit in a tilted market display can be removed before it will crash down, computer models show.
- Materials Science
Let’s learn about graphene
Scientists have been trying to understand and harness this material’s superpowers since its discovery in 2004.
- Physics
Neutrons are unveiling hidden secrets of fossils and artifacts
Images made with these particles have revealed details of dinosaur bones, mummies and more.
- Climate
Chemists make device to destroy planet-warming methane pollution
It can slash diffuse sources of this extremely potent greenhouse gas, such as from livestock barns and other sites.
- Tech
Synthetic biology aims to tackle disease and give cells superpowers
DNA machines and protein-mimicking nanotech could replace broken machinery in cells or even lead to made-from-scratch synthetic life.
- Physics
Before the ancient Egyptians, nature may have carved sphinxes
Steady ‘winds’ can carve clay blobs into lion-shaped landforms called yardangs, a new study suggests. One such yardang may have inspired the Great Sphinx of Giza.
- Tech
Balsa wood transistors could usher in ‘greener’ electronics
Researchers in Sweden coaxed wood to conduct electricity, then used it to make a climate-friendlier building block of electronics.
- Physics
Experiment: Where does a bouncing basketball’s energy go?
Let’s explore whether energy loss to heat could explain why a basketball doesn’t bounce back to its original height.
- Tech
Offshore wind farms could do far more than just make clean power
Offshore wind farms cost more than onshore ones. But their ability to make ‘green’ hydrogen and capture carbon dioxide could help this wind power pay off.
