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Assumptions about how children learn to read have been disproven by research

Was there a civilization on Earth before humans?

Schmidt is the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (a.k.a. GISS) a world-class climate-science facility. One day last year, I came to GISS with a far-out proposal. In my work as an astrophysicist, I’d begun researching global warming from an “astrobiological perspective.”

Why Tesla is having a harder time than SpaceX

SpaceX debuted a powerful new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, and has successfully launched seven orbital missions. Tesla has struggled to produce its Model 3 electric sedan at promised rates, raising questions about the company’s cash flow and encouraging short-sellers. On March 23, a driver was killed after his Tesla’s autopilot system steered the car into a barrier, though the system is not intended to be used without a driver’s hands on the wheel.

Scientists Make a Molecule by Manipulating Just Two Atoms

The physics here isn’t too hard to understand. Scientists have long been able to push around single atoms within clouds of many atoms. In this case, they used two optical “tweezers” at two specific wavelengths.

Voters could decide whether to split California into three smaller states

Waymo Applies to Put Autonomous Cars on CA Roads Without Safety Drivers

Sweet Potato DNA Challenges Theory That Polynesians Beat Columbus to America

Sea Turtles Use Magnetic Fields to Find Their Birthplace Beach

Watch artificial intelligence create a 3D model of a person—from just a few seconds of video

Robot cognition requires machines that both think and feel

In the quest to create intelligent robots, designers tend to focus on purely rational, cognitive capacities. It’s tempting to disregard emotion entirely, or include only as much as necessary. But without emotion to help determine the personal significance of objects and actions, I doubt that true intelligence can exist – not the kind that beats human opponents at chess or the game of Go, but the sort of smarts that we humans recognise as such.