検索キーワード： ナレーター "Todd Mundt" すべてのカテゴリー

Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed an algorithm to help humanoid robots hit the ground without breaking themselves.

The robots didn’t really take over in 2015, but at times it felt as if that might be where we’re headed. There were signs that machines will soon take over manual work that currently requires human skill. Early in the year details emerged of a contest organized by Amazon to help robots do more work inside its vast product fulfillment centers.

According to Adam Tilton, when you get down to it, there really isn't that much of a difference between estimating the path and speed of a missile and figuring out what kind of exercise you're doing at the gym: it's all about using a sensor to measure a signal, and extracting that signal from the surrounding noise.

Does playing football cause permanent brain damage? If it wasn’t already, that question is now squarely in the zeitgeist thanks to Hollywood and Will Smith. The answer is not so straightforward, however. We are likely to learn a lot more about the subject in 2016 because so many labs are focused on concussion research right now. But scientists are only beginning to understand the details of how concussions - also a serious problem in the military - damage the brain.

The startup is exploring a molten chloride reactor concept, but says it remains committed to traveling wave reactors.

A new plant opening in Morocco signals the technology’s direction.

Researchers have begun to understand the economic and social damage caused by climate change.

While many scientists and climate change activists hailed December’s Paris agreement as a historic step forward for international efforts to limit global warming, the landmark accord rests on a highly dubious assumption: to achieve the goal of limiting the rise in global average temperature to less than 2 °C (much less the more ambitious goal of 1.5 °C), we don’t just need to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide to essentially zero by the end of this century.

The Islamic State is an Internet phenomenon as much as a military one. Counteracting it will require better tactics on the battlefield of social media.

China, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy, says it will deploy advanced nuclear reactors commercially by 2030.

“Where would you like to go?” Siri asked. It was a sunny, slightly dreamy morning in the heart of Silicon Valley, and I was sitting in the passenger seat of what seemed like a perfectly ordinary new car. There was something strangely Apple-like about it, though. There was no mistaking the apps arranged across the console screen, nor the deadpan voice of Apple’s virtual assistant, who, as backseat drivers go, was pretty helpful.

A climate scientist argues that public attitudes must change so that it is no longer acceptable to dump carbon dioxide in the sky.

There’s more than one way to read these stories. Sure, the subjects are inspiring and creative people. But these are not merely personality profiles.

Trenton, New Jersey, isn't the industrial powerhouse it once was, even if the slogan "Trenton Makes, the World Takes", first installed in 1935, still stands in 10-foot-tall letters across a bridge that spans the Delaware River to Pennsylvania. But a few minutes east of town, inside a warehouse belonging to Amazon, there are signs of another industrial transformation. Amazon's fulfillment center, located in the township of Robbinsville, is a dizzying hive of activity, with humans and machines working in carefully coördinated harmony.

SolarCity’s massive new manufacturing plant in Buffalo, New York, reflects a booming demand for solar power. Is it sustainable?

I'm sitting in Gordon Wetzstein's lab at Stanford University with a hacked-together prototype of a head-mounted display strapped to my face, using a wireless Xbox controller to manipulate a series of 3-D models: a lion, a chessboard filled with chess pieces, an espresso machine, and so on. The images are fairly simple, run-of-the-mill models—the kind that anyone could download from the Internet. What is interesting, though, is what happens as I stare at the models, turning them with the controller so I can inspect them from different angles.

Though virtual reality is still far from mainstream, 2015 was a big year for the industry as new headsets were introduced - some full-featured and powerful, some simple and portable - and companies announced new ways to control and capture VR imagery, too.

I recently got my own personal assistant, called Amy. My new helper is amazingly attentive and diligent, but also a bit strange. For one thing, she seems completely obsessed with organizing meetings and pretty much refuses to talk about anything else. Amy isn't a real person but a software agent that exists somewhere in the cloud and communicates with my contacts and me by e-mail, helping set up and reschedule meetings and other appointments.

Sports leagues should do more to protect children from the long-term problems that stem from hits to the head.

In a country of rigid teaching styles and scarce university slots, students and professors are exploring what online learning can be.