The huge cultural authority science has acquired over the past century imposes large duties on every scientist. Scientists have acquired the power to impress and intimidate every time they open their mouths, and it is their responsibility to keep this power in mind no matter what they say or do.

It’s 7 AM, April 13th, 2025. Your smart clock rouses you from a dreamless sleep and you climb from bed as your house comes to life. The bathroom light turns itself on and the shower begins to heat its water. After washing off, you throw on a T-shirt which has been perfectly fit for your body.

In mid-January, a group of computer scientists and biologists from the University of Vermont, Tufts, and Harvard announced that they had created an entirely new life form — xenobots, the world’s first living robots.

As I was being wheeled out of the post-anesthesia care unit at Mount Sinai, three incisions across my abdomen freshly glued shut and fentanyl warm in my veins, a nurse bustled over. “Your pictures, dear,” she said, tucking a colorful strip of photos into my sweatshirt like a garnish.

I am honestly not sure whether fish have any concept of bees. I am equally unsure whether bees have any concept of fish. I am even more unsure whether bees and fish could be friends, if they knew that the other existed. But thanks to robots, it turns out that the answer is definitely yes.

The Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) was a project by Robotic Technology Inc. (RTI) and Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. to develop a robotic vehicle that could forage for plant biomass to fuel itself, theoretically operating indefinitely.

Author Adrienne Mayor discusses the myths that contained the first blueprints for artificial intelligence

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/audio/2018/nov/02/the-ancient-greeks-warned-us-about-ai-chips-with-everything-podcast

The eerie possibility of robots manipulating humans crops up in science fiction tales like Ex Machina or Battlestar Galactica.

A new report suggests that the marriage of AI and robotics could replace so many jobs that the era of mass employment could come to an end If you wanted relief from stories about tyre factories and steel plants closing, you could try relaxing with a new 300-page report from Bank of Ame

A new report suggests that the marriage of AI and robotics could replace so many jobs that the era of mass employment could come to an end If you wanted relief from stories about tyre factories and steel plants closing, you could try relaxing with a new 300-page report from Bank of Ame

When science fiction writers first imagined robot invasions, the idea was that bots would become smart and powerful enough to take over the world by force, whether on their own or as directed by some evildoer. In reality, something only slightly less scary is happening.

1.Perkowitz S (2004) Digital people: from bionic humans to androids. Joseph Henry Press, WashingtonGoogle Scholar2.Lars and the Real Girl (2007) Directed by Craig Gillespie. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer & Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, USAGoogle Scholar3.

This story is part of our special coverage, The News in Crisis. When Republican Steve King beat back Democratic challenger Kim Weaver in the race for Iowa’s 4th congressional district seat in November, The Washington Post snapped into action, covering both the win and the wider electoral trend.

Monkeys have been shown to mourn a robot baby they accepted as one of their own. In a new BBC show, Spy In The Wild, the monkeys gather around the artificial creature and appear to go into a state of grief.

Male beetles trying to mate with this decoy female get 4,000 fatal volts of electricity. An emerald ash borer hovers, checking out the female forms below him. He’s drawn by how light plays across their bodies. He picks one, approaches, initiates physical contact—and is zapped by 4,000 volts.

Defecating ducks, talking busts, and mechanised Christs — Jessica Riskin on the wonderful history of automata, machines built to mimic the processes of intelligent life.

President Obama has warned that ATMs and airport check-in kiosks are contributing to high unemployment. Sen. Marco Rubio said that the central challenge of our times is "to ensure that the rise of the machines is not the fall of the worker.

It’s 7 AM, April 13th, 2025. Your smart clock rouses you from a dreamless sleep and you climb from bed as your house comes to life. The bathroom light turns itself on and the shower begins to heat its water. After washing off, you throw on a T-shirt which has been perfectly fit for your body.

Parents already put their children under intense pressure to compete in the world. Will gene editing make it worse?

‘Lowly Machines to Overtake Man, Rule Universe’ (1948)