Read the latest articles from Futurism (Page 990)

A robot just physically examined the radioactive fuel at the damaged Fukushima Nuclear Reactor. It's the first step toward an ongoing cleanup mission.
Robotics

Japan Sends Robot Into the Nuclear Hell of the Fukushima Reactor

It's like a Roomba — for nuclear waste.

By Dan Robitzski

WHO Says UN Should Reclassify Marijuana as Less Dangerous
Health & Medicine

WHO Says UN Should Reclassify Marijuana as Less Dangerous

The drug shouldn't be in the most restrictive category, says the WHO.

By Kristin Houser

President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive 4 (SPD-4) today, organizing all military space functions under a new Space Force.
Space Force

Trump Signs Directive: Space Force Will Be Run By Air Force

The plans still require Congressional approval.

By Victor Tangermann

QuadrigaCX has about two weeks left to its stay to raise the money it owes before anyone can sue, but a judge just appointed law firms to its customers.
Bitcoin

Users of Crypto Site Where Dead CEO Lost $196M Are Preparing Suit

The Nova Scotia Supreme Court appointed law firms Miller Thomson and Cox & Palmer.

By Dan Robitzski

The benefits of lab-grown meat will depend on scientists' ability to produce it sustainably, and right now, we don't know if that's even possible.
Future Society

Lab-Grown Meat Could Be Worse for the Environment

Growing meat isn't automatically cleaner than raising it.

By Kristin Houser

When employers provide fitness trackers, they're privy to all sorts of private medical information that they can potentially use to determine layoffs.
Health & Medicine

Bosses Are Spying on Employees With Work-Provided Fitness Trackers

"It's quite possible there will be effects on whether you are retained, promoted, demoted — who is first to be laid off."

By Dan Robitzski

Rather than attempt to interpret emoji and emoticons in online communications, some courts simply choose to ignore the symbols.
Future Society

Judges Are Struggling to Interpret Emoji in Court Cases

A lawyer warns about the rise of "emoji law."

By Kristin Houser

The FDA released a statement today warning that longevity companies advertising transfusions of young people's blood are likely scams.
Health & Medicine

The FDA Warns: Transfusions of Young Blood Are a Dangerous Scam

FDA Commissioner: "we’re concerned that some patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors"

By Dan Robitzski

Using the Netherlands-based Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), astronomers have added another 300,000 galaxies to our map of the universe.
Science & Energy

Scientists Just Discovered 300,000 New Galaxies

A new telescope delivers with its very first survey of the sky.

By Kristin Houser

"Swarm squadrons of network-enabled drones capable of confusing and overwhelming enemy air defenses" could fight alongside fighter jets in the British army.
Drones

The British Military Is Working on Anti-Aircraft Drone Swarms

"Swarm squadrons of network-enabled drones" could confuse and overwhelm the enemy.

By Victor Tangermann

A statistician is warning that scientists are leaning on machine learning algorithms to find patterns in data where none exist.
Machine Learning

Statistician: Machine Learning Is Causing A “Crisis in Science”

Many researchers now use machine learning to analyze data. There's just one glaring problem.

By Jon Christian

The Navy just awarded Boeing a contract to build a giant robot submarine, which it says will prowl the depths of the ocean autonomously.
Robotics

Navy’s Giant New Robot Sub Will Prowl Ocean For Months Autonomously

The Navy's working on a deadly new ocean hunter.

By Jon Christian

This weekend, Elon Musk took to Twitter to confirm that he'd left the research group OpenAI — citing disagreements with the group's direction.
Artificial Intelligence

Elon Musk Quits Research Group That Built “Fake News” Generator

Elon Musk: "I didn't agree with some of what [the] OpenAI team wanted to do."

By Jon Christian

According to a new study, the growth of the number of people who think the Earth is flat is directly tied to the growth of conspiracy theories on YouTube.
Future Society

New Research: YouTube Caused The “Flat Earther” Epidemic

"Their algorithms make it easy to end up going down the rabbit hole."

By Jon Christian

In a new essay, a law professor grappled with the specter of sex robots designed to look like children — and more about the complicated future of sexbots.
Robotics

This Researcher Is Worried About Child Sex Robots

The rise of sexbots is raising uncomfortable questions.

By Jon Christian

An anthropologist is making the case that long space missions, like a crewed trip to Mars, would require crew members with senses of humor.
Mars

NASA Is Studying Whether a Mars Crew Would Need a Class Clown

Knock knock.

By Jon Christian

The Australian government is gearing up to plant a billion new trees, as part of a vast campaign aimed to meet the climate targets.
Climate Change

Australia Is Planting a Billion Trees to Fight Climate Change

Could a worldwide tree-planting spree save the planet?

By Jon Christian

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover's last words weren't literally that "my battery is low line," the reporter behind the viral tweet clarified.
Mars

The Dead Mars Rover Didn’t Actually Say That “My Battery” Thing

Obviously.

By Jon Christian

An ambitious new analysis found that there's space to plant 1.2 trillion new trees — a number that would absorb more carbon than human emissions.
Climate Change

Research: Planting Trillions of Trees Could Cancel Out CO2 Emissions

Scientist: Trees are "our most powerful weapon in the fight against climate change."

By Jon Christian

A NASA director warned that Elon Musk's proposed Starship design was going to be "orders of magnitude" more difficult than any NASA project in history.
Starship

NASA Chief: SpaceX’s Starship Tougher Than Any NASA Project, Ever

Elon Musk's Mars plan is "orders of magnitude" harder than any NASA project in history, a NASA leader warned.

By Jon Christian