Computing

Replacing humans with digital simulations could make clinical trials faster and safer

High-precision metrology based on the peculiarities of the subatomic world

Beyond virtual and augmented reality

A technology called “fully homomorphic encryption” is so secure that even future quantum computers won’t be able to crack it

Election officials also rely on high-speed scanners, envelope openers and good old-fashioned paper

Much like spoken language, Internet memes take on shifting political meanings according to context

Instead of shutting down whole cities, we can use big data to take a more targeted approach

What 1990s Internet protest movements share with today’s disinformation campaigns

Until programmers recognize their own internal biases, the software they create will be problematic

A new budget-friendly virtual-reality system helps researchers study the brains of small animals

Artificial intelligence still needs to bridge the “sim-to-real” gap. Deep-learning techniques that are all the rage in AI log superlative performances in mastering cerebral games, including chess and Go, both of which can be played on a computer. But translating simulations to the physical world remains a bigger challenge.

A robot named Curly that uses “deep reinforcement learning”—making improvements as it corrects its own errors—came out on top in three of four games against top-ranked human opponents from South Korean teams thatincluded a women’s team and a reserve squad for the national wheelchair team. (No brooms were used).

One crucial finding was that the AI system demonstrated its ability to adapt to changing ice conditions. “These results indicate that the gap between physics-based simulators and the real world can be narrowed,” the joint South Korean-German research team wrote in Science Robotics on September 23. 

A familiar concept from chaos theory turns out to work differently in the quantum world