The invention of religion is a big bang in human history. Gods and spirits helped explain the unexplainable, and religious belief gave meaning and purpose to people struggling to survive. But what if everything we thought we knew about religion was wrong? What if belief in the supernatural is window dressing on what really matters--elaborate rituals that foster group cohesion, creating personal bonds that people are willing to die for. Anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse thinks too much talk about religion is based on loose conjecture and simplistic explanations. Whitehouse directs the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University. For years he's been collaborating with scholars around the world to build a massive body of data that grounds the study of religion in science. Whitehouse draws on an array of disciplines--archeology, ethnography, history, evolutionary psychology, cognitive science--to construct a profile of religious practices. Whitehouse's fascination with religion goes back to his own groundbreaking field study of traditional beliefs in Papua New Guinea in the 1980s.

In a village in western Africa, a tsetse fly bites a human, injecting a swarm of the deadly sleeping sickness-causing parasite Trypanosoma brucei into the bloodstream. Once inside its human host, the parasite spreads through the body, rapidly using its flexible flagellum to propel itself, eventually hiding the structure inside its body to evade the host's immune system once it is safely ensconced. Imagine a swarm of microscopic bots that mimics Trypanosoma brucei's behavior. In this case, though, instead of killing their hosts, the bots are designed to circulate through the bloodstream to perform highly-targeted drug deliveries and carry out invasive and delicate surgeries that may otherwise be too risky to perform. This is what a team of scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) are working toward.

Australian bank Westpac is to trial the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its digital banking systems, as it looks to automate customers' queries. With the rise of digital banking, Westpac's general manager of consumer digital, Travis Tyler, says it is looking at using "bots" to respond to customers' simple questions. One example includes the bank working on a "proof of concept" over the next six months for a digital system to provide answers to consumer questions about the best deposit rates available. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Tyler says: "If your term deposit is rolling over, and you simply ask, 'What's the best rate, this is what I want to achieve?', it will come back with the best options and you can simply say, 'Yeah, book it.'" Another example cited by Tyler includes answering simple questions about payments between accounts.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Law enforcement across the globe use semi-autonomous technology to do what humans find too dangerous, boring, or just can't. This week, the Cleveland Police had a few nonlethal ones on hand at the Republican National Convention. But even those can be outfitted to kill, as we saw in Dallas earlier this month when police strapped a bomb to an explosive-detonation robot, and boom: a non-lethal robot became a killer. If that thought scares you, you're not alone. Human rights activists worry these robots lack social awareness crucial to decision-making.

Back on the judging panel is Professor Noel Sharkey, a robotics expert who featured on the programme for five years. Sharing memories of his time on the show, he told the BBC he was initially hesitant to take part... I was a very reluctant judge for the first series of Robot Wars. I was concerned that being on a popular TV show might damage my reputation as a university professor and as an educator. Even after the first series, I thought that I should opt out - but then something quite remarkable happened.

MyBucks, the German listed FinTech company that holds three brands - GetBucks, GetSure and GetBanked, says its groundbreaking partnership with NGO (non-governmental organization) Opportunity International continues to take strides forward in their vision of bringing financial inclusion to the unbanked and underbanked in emerging markets - most specifically in Africa. In a bold move that is contrary to the current trend worldwide where banks are acquiring FinTech companies to add value and expand services, the partnership marks the first time a FinTech company has acquired banks to bridge the gap between the virtual and traditional worlds of banking. This is ultimately to enable faster, more efficient and less expensive access to financial services for clients. The conclusion of the acquisition of four banks and two microfinance institutions from Opportunity International will add Ghana, Tanzania and Mozambique to MyBucks country portfolio and regulatory approval has already been granted in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. This will increase its customer base to 1.5 million, and will also more than double its assets.

As the field of "big data" has emerged as a tool for solving all sorts of scientific and societal questions, one of the main challenges that remains is whether, and how, multiple sets of data from various sources could be combined to determine cause-and-effect relationships in new and untested situations. Now, computer scientists from UCLA and Purdue University have devised a theoretical solution to that problem. Their research, which was published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help improve scientists' ability to understand health care, economics, the environment and other areas of study, and to glean much more pertinent insight from data. The study's authors are Judea Pearl, a distinguished professor of computer science at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Elias Bareinboim, an assistant professor of computer science at Purdue University who earned his doctorate at UCLA. Big data involves using mountains and mountains of information to uncover trends and patterns.

With the unemployment rate falling to 5.3 percent, the lowest in seven years, policy makers are heaving a sigh of relief. Indeed, with the technology boom in progress, there is a lot to be optimistic about. Manufacturing will be returning to U.S. shores with robots doing the job of Chinese workers; American carmakers will be mass-producing self-driving electric vehicles; technology companies will develop medical devices that greatly improve health and longevity; we will have unlimited clean energy and 3D print our daily needs. The cost of all of these things will plummet and make it possible to provide for the basic needs of every human being. I am talking about technology advances that are happening now, which will bear fruit in the 2020s. But policy makers will have a big new problem to deal with: the disappearance of human jobs. Not only will there be fewer jobs for people doing manual work, the jobs of knowledge workers will also be replaced by computers.

It was a staggering feat, a car that went faster than the speed of sound. Two decades on, that record remains unchallenged. Back in 2007, a small team of British engineers headed up by Richard Noble and Andy Green decided to have a pop at the world land speed record once more. Back in 2007, a small team of British engineers headed up by Richard Noble and Andy Green decided to have a pop at the world land speed record once more. A rocket scientist was brought in to design the largest hybrid rocket system ever developed in the UK, a structural engineer was brought in to design the car's internal structure and I was invited to join the team along with Ron Ayers to ensure that this car would, indeed, remain a car and stay firmly planted on the ground.