The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

How did the supermassive black holes we’re now seeing in the early universe get so big so fast? Astrophysicist Sophie Koudmani is using sophisticated galaxy simulations to figure it out

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

SpaceX claims the fifth test flight of its Starship rocket will happen “within days”, but the Federal Aviation Administration has not yet approved the launch

A 6000-kilogram spacecraft will embark on a six-year journey to Jupiter to explore whether its icy moon Europa has the conditions to support life

The Euclid space telescope's massive “cosmic atlas” promises to shed light on fundamental questions in physics and cosmology

The largest and most ambitious Martian drone yet could carry kilograms of scientific equipment over great distances and set itself down on the Red Planet unassisted

Averting an asteroid strike will need many of the same skills we must hone to tackle climate change and future pandemics

SpaceX is preparing for the sixth test flight of Starship, the world's most powerful rocket. Next week's launch – if successful – will be the fastest turnaround yet

You might have heard about plans to establish a self‑sustaining city on Mars. Here’s what life would really be like on the Red Planet

A robot can hold a squash, pumpkin or melon in one hand, while it is peeled by the other

Between 2005 and 2021, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were more likely to make policy changes in the weeks after negative stories in the media

Roads with variable speed limits, designed to manage traffic flow, are normally adjusted according to simple rules, but a 27-kilometre section of the I-24 freeway near Nashville, Tennessee, is now overseen by an artificial intelligence

Devices that let people with paralysis walk and talk are rapidly improving. Some see a future in which we alter memories and download skills – but major challenges remain

After their initial training phase, AI algorithms can’t update and learn from new data, meaning tech companies have to keep training new models from scratch

A cyberterrorism charge in Pakistan connected to riots in the UK illustrates how authorities are reaching across borders to tackle disinformation, but bringing overseas suspects to justice won't always be possible

The US military has prioritised deploying high-altitude balloons that can carry out surveillance

Information on faces recognised, voice commands and internet searches can be extracted from an Amazon Echo smart assistant without help from the user or manufacturer

Supremacy, a new book from tech journalist Parmy Olson, takes us inside the rise of machine learning and AI, and examines the people behind it

Experiments show that viewers can usually identify video deepfakes of famous politicians – but fake audio and text are harder to detect

Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions and developments yet to come. This time, Rowan Hooper takes us to the early 2030s, when a technological step change enabled us to produce all the food we needed without the use of animals

Archaeologists are using AI and US spy satellite imagery from the cold war to find ancient underground aqueducts that helped humans survive in the desert

Artificial intelligence has more in common with ants than humans, says Neil Lawrence. Only by taking a more nuanced view of intelligence can we see how machines will truly transform society

Voice assistants can build profiles of their users’ habits and preferences, but the consistency and accuracy of these profiles vary

If artificial intelligence chatbots are fine-tuned to improve their responses using human feedback, they can become more likely to give deceptive answers that seem right but aren’t

In What's Next? Bill Gates digs into AI, climate, inequality, malaria and more. But the man looms too large for alternative solutions to emerge, says Bethan Ackerley

Gears just a few micrometres wide can be carved from silicon using a beam of electrons, enabling tiny robots or machines that could interact with human cells

The UK government's decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius surprisingly threatens the extinction of millions of website addresses ending in ".io", and no one is quite sure what will happen next

A new supercapacitor design that uses only water, clay and graphene could source material on Mars and be more sustainable and accessible than traditional batteries

Feedback digs into a baffling ad for a mobile game and identifies a new and devilish way to advertise a product online: make it as confusing as possible to encourage people to click (it worked on Feedback)

One day, doctors might be able to 3D print copies of your organs in order to test a variety of drugs, thanks to a new technique that uses light and sound for rapid printing

Oil and water can be separated efficiently by pumping the mixture through thin channels between two semipermeable membranes

AI and Google Street View have created 'digital twins' of living trees in North American cities – part of a huge simulation that could help make urban tree planting and trimming decisions

Tigerair has again cancelled flights in and out of Denpasar, and there is no sign of the dispute being resolved.

Scientists have found a new building block of life deep in the cold darkness of interstellar space.

After seven years of voicing Elena Ferrante’s ambitious heroine, the Italian actress brings Lenù Greco home.

Treat yourself to a Becky Lynch book signing, games with the Dropout stars, Kevin Smith’s Dogma, and so much more!

The Francis Ford Coppola film is now available to rentalopolis.

Gary is up to his usual schtick with Dani. Will he or the new stews ever learn? (Don’t answer that.)

Here’s everything you need to know about the allegations, diss tracks, and that $12 million NDA.

Who built this ripped, anatomically graphic snowman? Is there a world of snowmen offscreen waiting to be turned into sex objects for widows?

Ghost dads are so embarrassing.

Express Sport writers have decided who should replace Gary Lineker

Gary Lineker is the longest-serving Match of the Day host since the BBC first aired the show in 1964.

Ronnie O'Sullivan has agreed to compete in new snooker events.

Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker has sealed a new agreement with the BBC just hours after his exit was confirmed.

PGMOL chief Howard Webb has responded after referee David Coote was suspended for comments he appeared to make in a video.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

ICRA@40: 23–26 September 2024, ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

IROS 2024: 14–18 October 2024, ABU DHABI, UAE

ICSR 2024: 23–26 October 2024, ODENSE, DENMARK

Cybathlon 2024: 25–27 October 2024, ZURICH

Enjoy today’s videos!

Zipline has (finally) posted some real live footage of its new Platform 2 drone, and while it’s just as weird looking as before, it seems to actually work really well.

[ Zipline ]

I appreciate Disney Research’s insistence on always eventually asking, “okay, but can we get this to work on a real robot in the real world?”

[ Paper from ETH Zurich and Disney Research [PDF] ]

In this video, we showcase our humanoid robot, Nadia, being remotely controlled for boxing training using a simple VR motion capture setup. A remote user takes charge of Nadia’s movements, demonstrating the power of our advanced teleoperation system. Watch as Nadia performs precise boxing moves, highlighting the potential for humanoid robots in dynamic, real-world tasks.

[ IHMC ]

Guide dogs are expensive to train and maintain—if available at all. Because of these limiting factors, relatively few blind people use them. Computer science assistant professor Donghyun Kim and Ph.D candidate Hochul Hwang are hoping to change that with the help of UMass database analyst Gail Gunn and her guide dog, Brawny.

[ University of Massachusetts, Amherst ]

Thanks Julia!

The current paradigm for motion planning generates solutions from scratch for every new problem, which consumes significant amounts of time and computational resources. Our approach builds a large number of complex scenes in simulation, collects expert data from a motion planner, then distills it into a reactive generalist policy. We then combine this with lightweight optimization to obtain a safe path for real world deployment.

[ Neural MP ]

A nice mix of NAO and AI for embodied teaching.

[ Aldebaran ]

When retail and logistics giant Otto Group set out to strengthen its operational efficiency and safety, it turned to robotics and automation. The Otto Group has become the first company in Europe to deploy the mobile case handling robot Stretch, which unloads floor-loaded trailers and containers.

[ Boston Dynamics ]

From groceries to last-minute treats, Wing is here to make sure deliveries arrive quickly and safely. Our latest aircraft design features a larger, more standardized box and can carry a higher payload which came directly from customer and partner feedback.

[ Wing ]

It’s the jacket that gets me.

[ Devanthro ]

In this video, we introduce Rotograb, a robotic hand that merges the dexterity of human hands with the strength and efficiency of industrial grippers. Rotograb features a new rotating thumb mechanism, allowing for precision in-hand manipulation and power grasps while being adaptable. The robotic hand was developed by students during “Real World Robotics”, a master course by the Soft Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich.

[ ETH Zurich ]

A small scene where Rémi, our distinguished professor, is teaching chess to the person remotely operating Reachy! The grippers allow for easy and precise handling of chess pieces, even the small ones! The robot shown in this video is the Beta version of Reachy 2, our new robot coming very soon!

[ Pollen ]

Enhancing the adaptability and versatility of unmanned micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) is crucial for expanding their application range. In this article, we present a bimodal reconfigurable robot capable of operating in both regular quadcopter flight mode and a unique revolving flight mode, which allows independent control of the vehicle’s position and roll-pitch attitude.

[ City University Hong Kong ]

The Parallel Continuum Manipulator (PACOMA) is an advanced robotic system designed to replace traditional robotic arms in space missions, such as exploration, in-orbit servicing, and docking. Its design emphasizes robustness against misalignments and impacts, high precision and payload capacity, and sufficient mechanical damping for stable, controlled movements.

[ DFKI Robotics Innovation Center ]

Even the FPV pros from Team BlackSheep do, very occasionally, crash.

[ Team BlackSheep ]

This is a one-hour uninterrupted video of a robot cleaning bathrooms in real time. I’m not sure if it’s practical, but I am sure that it’s impressive, honestly.

[ Somatic ]

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

IROS 2024: 14–18 October 2024, ABU DHABI, UAE

ICSR 2024: 23–26 October 2024, ODENSE, DENMARK

Cybathlon 2024: 25–27 October 2024, ZURICH

Humanoids 2024: 22–24 November 2024, NANCY, FRANCE

Enjoy today’s videos!

Not even ladders can keep you safe from quadruped robots anymore.

[ ETH Zürich Robot Systems Lab ]

Introducing Azi (right), the new desktop robot from Engineered Arts Ltd. Azi and Ameca are having a little chat, demonstrating their wide range of expressive capabilities. Engineered Arts desktop robots feature 32 actuators, 27 for facial control alone, and 5 for the neck. They include AI conversational ability including GPT-4o support which makes them great robotic companions.

[ Engineered Arts ]

Quadruped robots that individual researchers can build by themselves are crucial for expanding the scope of research due to their high scalability and customizability. In this study, we develop a metal quadruped robot MEVIUS, that can be constructed and assembled using only materials ordered through e-commerce. We have considered the minimum set of components required for a quadruped robot, employing metal machining, sheet metal welding, and off-the-shelf components only.

[ MEVIUS from JSK Robotics Laboratory ]

Thanks Kento!

Avian perching maneuvers are one of the most frequent and agile flight scenarios, where highly optimized flight trajectories, produced by rapid wing and tail morphing that generate high angular rates and accelerations, reduce kinetic energy at impact. Here, we use optimal control methods on an avian-inspired drone with morphing wing and tail to test a recent hypothesis derived from perching maneuver experiments of Harris’ hawks that birds minimize the distance flown at high angles of attack to dissipate kinetic energy before impact.

[ EPFL Laboratory of Intelligent Systems ]

The earliest signs of bearing failures are inaudible to you, but not to Spot . Introducing acoustic vibration sensing—Automate ultrasonic inspections of rotating equipment to keep your factory humming.

The only thing I want to know is whether Spot is programmed to actually do that cute little tilt when using its acoustic sensors.

[ Boston Dynamics ]

Hear from Jonathan Hurst, our co-founder and Chief Robot Officer, why legs are ideally suited for Digit’s work.

[ Agility Robotics ]

I don’t think “IP67” really does this justice.

[ ANYbotics ]

This paper presents a teleportation system with floating robotic arms that traverse parallel cables to perform long-distance manipulation. The system benefits from the cable-based infrastructure, which is easy to set up and cost-effective with expandable workspace range.

[ EPFL ]

It seems to be just renderings for now, but here’s the next version of Fourier’s humanoid.

[ Fourier ]

Happy Oktoberfest from Dino Robotics!

[ Dino Robotics ]

This paper introduces a learning-based low-level controller for quadcopters, which adaptively controls quadcopters with significant variations in mass, size, and actuator capabilities. Our approach leverages a combination of imitation learning and reinforcement learning, creating a fast-adapting and general control framework for quadcopters that eliminates the need for precise model estimation or manual tuning.

[ HiPeR Lab ]

Parkour poses a significant challenge for legged robots, requiring navigation through complex environments with agility and precision based on limited sensory inputs. In this work, we introduce a novel method for training end-to-end visual policies, from depth pixels to robot control commands, to achieve agile and safe quadruped locomotion.

[ SoloParkour ]