News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Microsoft had big plans when it purchased Minecraft, the immensely popular open-world ‘sandbox’ game, back in 2014 for US$2.5 billion. Among them was to invest heavily in an educational revolution – the gamification of learning. It’s not hard to imagine how the logic-based mechanics of Minecraft’s construction system could help teach knowledge and practical skills in fields … Read more
By Emma Hart Ruby Fresson ROBOTS have come a long way in the century since Czech writer Karel Čapek used the word to describe artificial automata. Once largely confined to factories, they are now found everywhere from the military and medicine to education and underground rescue. People have created robots that can make art, plant … Read more
Successfully achieving nuclear fusion holds the promise of delivering a limitless, sustainable source of clean energy, but we can only realize this incredible dream if we can master the complex physics taking place inside the reactor. For decades, scientists have been taking incremental steps towards this goal, but many challenges remain. One of the … Read more
Sony’s Gran Turismo is one of the biggest racing game series of all time, having sold over 80 million copies globally. But none of those millions of players is the fastest. In a new breakthrough, a team led by Sony AI – the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) research division – developed an entirely artificial player … Read more
Current quantum computers are highly prone to errors, making them unlikely to be of practical use, but an artificial intelligence that spots and fixes mistakes could help Technology 10 February 2022 By Matthew Sparkes Quantum computers are still error-prone Bartlomiej K. Wroblewski / Alamy Current quantum computers make too many errors to ever be truly … Read more
Although meteorites are known to fall all over the world, the environment and unique processes in Antarctica make them somewhat easier to find on the pristine, snowy landscape. Still, collecting meteorites in Antarctica is physically grueling and hazardous work. But what if there was a “treasure map” which showed the most probable places to … Read more
Genetically identical fruit flies raised in the same environment still learn at different rates, suggesting that random differences in brain development may have evolved to produce variation in a species Life 2 February 2022 By Christa Lesté-Lasserre Fruit flies may have random variance to account for different learning styles Aleksandar Kitanovic / Alamy Genetically similar … Read more
The covid-19 pandemic has forced millions to participate in one of the biggest social experiments of our time. Nearly two years in, it’s time to take stock: what happens when workers abandon offices? Humans 15 December 2021 By Alice Klein Working from home has led to rises in productivity for some Experience Interiors/iStock THE covid-19 … Read more
Strange so-called fractional electrons are crucial to many chemical reactions, but traditional methods cannot model them – a problem that DeepMind has used machine learning to fix Physics 9 December 2021 By Leah Crane An artistic representation of molecules interacting DeepMind Machine-learning tools have taken us closer to understanding electrons and how they behave in … Read more