News

ProteinNet: A standardized data set for machine learning of protein structure

Shenzhen’s Homegrown Cyborg

Huaqiangbei, the famed electronics bazaar in Shenzhen, China, hums with the chaotic unity of a thousand symbiotic organisms. Stacks of circuit boards, cables, and colorful components extend farther than the eye can see. Sellers hawk their wares from Tetris-like cubicles crammed around claustrophobic aisles.

Guide to Speech Recognition with Python

Far from a being a fad, the overwhelming success of speech-enabled products like Amazon Alexa has proven that some degree of speech support will be an essential aspect of household tech for the foreseeable future. If you think about it, the reasons why are pretty obvious. Incorporating speech recognition into your Python application offers a level of interactivity and accessibility that few technologies can match.

Connected cars — what are they and how to get started developing connected car apps

A giant aircraft carrier built from ice

Britain was losing the Battle of the Atlantic, with German U-boats sinking ship after ship. Enter Project Habakkuk, the incredible plan to build an aircraft carrier from ice.

ProPublica/Mother Jones Investigation Confirms IBM Layoffs Targeted Older Workers

IBM continued to lay off workers as discreetly as possible in 2017, reporting on them in employment news roundups on occasion. But sadly, for me, it became a little bit old news (not, of course, for those newly affected). IBM repeatedly cuts older workers and U.S. jobs, according to those laid off, and denies it.

Leaked data suggests Uber self-driving car program may be way behind Waymo

How Self-Driving Car Policy Will Determine Life, Death and Everything In-Between

Listening for illegal logging chainsaws using TensorFlow

Our team has built the world’s first scalable, real-time detection and alert system for logging and environmental conservation in the rainforest. Building hardware that will survive in the rainforest is challenging, but we’re using what’s already there: the trees. We’ve hidden modified smartphones powered with solar panels—called “Guardian” devices—in trees in threatened areas, and continuously monitor the sounds of the forest, sending all audio up to our cloud-based servers over the standard, local cell-phone network.

Could We Actually Nuke an Asteroid to Save Earth?

Two recent papers anticipate how nukes could be employed to either deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, or blow it into smaller, less hazardous chunks. One, published in Acta Astronautica, proposes a vehicle called the Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response (HAMMER), which could be deployed to nudge asteroids away from Earth, or in a worst case scenario, as a delivery mechanism for a nuclear device.