It's no secret that electronic components aren't biodegradable, although some engineers have attempted to develop more eco-friendly versions over the years. A team of researchers at the UK's National Physical Laboratory took on the challenge and wound up creating a circuit board that dissolves in hot water. The device melts away after being submerged, leaving 90 percent of its resistors and capacitors available for reuse. Compared to traditional circuit board recycling, which salvages only two percent of the electronic components, this is a major breakthrough in reducing e-waste. Leave it to one of the world's largest tech companies to bring a modular smartphone to market.

Facebook built its fortune on the internet, that non-physical space where people share updates and digital videos with friends. But deep inside its Silicon Valley headquarters, Facebook engineers have stocked a new lab with computerized lathes, industrial mills and tools for making physical goods. Model maker Spencer Burns, looks over a globe under construction inside a 5 axis vertical milling machine during a tour of Area 404, the hardware R&D lab, at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park. Facebook engineers have stocked a new lab with computerized lathes, industrial mills and tools for making physical goods. The lab is dubbed Area 404, an inside joke playing off the'error 404' message that internet users see when they try to visit a web page that can't be found.

Computational biologists answer biological and biomedical questions by using computation in support of--or in place of--laboratory procedures, hoping to obtain more accurate answers at a greatly reduced cost. The past two decades have seen unprecedented technological progress with regard to generating biological data; next-generation sequencing, mass spectrometry, microarrays, cryo-electron microscopy, and other high-throughput approaches have led to an explosion of data. However, this explosion is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the scale and scope of data should allow new insights into genetic and infectious diseases, cancer, basic biology, and even human migration patterns. On the other hand, researchers are generating datasets so massive that it has become difficult to analyze them to discover patterns that give clues to the underlying biological processes. Certainly, computers are getting faster and more economical; the amount of processing available per dollar of computer hardware is more or less doubling every year or two; a similar claim can be made about storage capacity (Figure 1). In 2002, when the first human genome was sequenced, the growth in computing power was still matching the growth rate of genomic data. However, the sequencing technology used for the Human Genome Project--Sanger sequencing--was supplanted around 2004, with the advent of what is now known as next-generation sequencing. The material costs to sequence a genome have plummeted in the past decade, to the point where a whole human genome can be sequenced for less than US 1,000.

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.