The Times has assembled a panel of distinguished and diverse writers who will regularly contribute to the Books section. The 10 authors who make up the Los Angeles Times Cultural Critics At Large have published works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. They have won dozens of prizes. A majority have deep connections to Southern California, even though they hail from four different nations. They will help expand the literary conversation, challenging ideas and broadening readers' understanding of literature and culture within the contemporary moment.

Tsetse flies feast on animal blood. When they do so, humans can get Trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, which starts as exhaustion and fever, and can lead to death if left untreated. In animals, the tsetse's bite can develop into paralysis. Tsetse flies are limited to sub saharan Africa, where they infect at least 10,000 people a year. It's a mess of an insect, but an organization in Spain thinks they have a solution, and they're going to use drones to deliver it. "Drones Against Tsetse" is a project by spanish dronemaker Embention, together with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

It may not be good news for anyone who finds insects creepy. Scientists have proved they can control how beetles fly and walk by turning them into cyborgs. Researchers fitted giant flower beetles, which measure two inches long and weigh around 0.3 ounces, with radio transmitter backpacks and wired them to their limbs. This allowed them to electrically stimulate muscles in the insects' legs so they could control their walking speed, gait and direction. Scientists have shown they can control the movement of giant flower beetles by inserting tiny electrodes into their muscles.

Students at Lebanese American University (LAU) participate in a hardware design workshop that leverages the tools of the fourth Industrial Revolution. We are in the midst of the greatest industrial revolution in human history. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4ID) is an economic transformation a thousand-times wider and deeper than anything that has come before it. "The changes are so profound that, from the perspective of human history, there has never been a time of greater promise or potential peril," according to Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF). The 4ID is characterized by the confluence of next generation technologies like: quantum computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, autonomous transportation and robotics, the Internet of Things, additive manufacturing including 3D printing, biotechnology, and more generally; the merging of the digital and physical worlds.

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While fans eagerly await the release of the'Tom Clancy's The Division' game, Ubisoft Entertainment and BETC Paris announce the launch of Collapse, a realistic, local and global end of society simulator. Collapse is an interactive digital experience, created by BETC Paris to promote Ubisoft's upcoming online open world action role-playing game, 'Tom Clancy's The Division'. Based on the game's fictive yet realistic storyline, which takes place in a society on the brink of destruction, Collapse is an end of society simulator that uses real data to create a personalized experience of events to set the scene before the game launches on March 8. Collapse is a powerful reminder of the fragility and complexity of the interdependent systems that we rely on daily – power, transport, banking, hospitals and communications. When one fails, others follow, creating a deadly domino effect that can cripple society in a matter of days. Through a sequence of interactive storytelling, Collapse takes viewers through the consequences of the fictional Variola Chimera pandemic, demonstrating how quickly the cities and society that we take for granted can fall apart. Launching on March 8, 2016, Tom Clancy's The Division (TCTD) is set in a society on the brink of collapse.

And the artificial intelligence chatbot that didn't survive a day on the Internet. Plus: Reviewing Santiago Calatrava's latest, how to be unprofessional and the "Grand Theft Auto" modification that may have you watching for hours on end. Time has Russian drone footage that provides an overview of what remains of the old Silk Road crossroads, as well as the contemporary human settlement of Tadmur that sits nearby. About 80% of the artifacts appear to be largely intact. The country's antiquities chief says repairs will take five years.

Many people around the world have more Denisovan DNA than previously thought, which has contributed to their sense of smell and ability to thrive at high altitudes, according to a study released Monday. Researchers know that modern humans with ancestry outside of Africa inherited up to 2.1 percent of their DNA from Neanderthals. But far less was known about Denisovans, who are believed to have shared origins with Neanderthals and account for up to 5 percent of DNA in some present day populations. The latest work, from a research team at Harvard Medical School and UCLA, developed a world map of ancient DNA. In doing so, they found that populations in Oceania populations had the highest percentage of ancient DNA – 2 percent Neanderthal and 5 percent Denisovan - while South Asians had more Denisovan DNA – 0.1 percent in Sherpas - than expected.

They died out more than 40,000 years ago but the legacy left by two prehistoric species of early humans is far more widespread than had been previously believed. Scientists have discovered a surprising number of bloodlines around the world carry fragments of DNA from Neanderthals or their sister species, the mysterious Denisovans. Their analysis suggests that our modern human ancestors appear to have interbred with the Denisovans just 100 generations after their trysts with Neanderthals. Scientists have produced new maps showing the levels of Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry around the world. And the study has unearthed some surprising new benefits these illicit encounters have gifted to modern humans living today.

From the street, through Beijing's heavy smog, it can sometimes be hard to make out IBM's Chinese headquarters: a towering office building with a distinctive undulating architectural flourish and a large company logo at the top. But just a short distance away, on the northeast outskirts of the capital, IBM computer scientists are using artificial intelligence to develop what they think will be a way to manage China's notorious and chronic pollution problem more successfully. The team is using complex computer models and machine learning to calculate how pollution will spread across the city. The researchers can now produce pollution forecasts, with a resolution of a kilometer square, up to 10 days in advance. These predictions can also tell the government how it might act to avoid the worst scenarios--for instance, by shutting certain factories, or by reducing the number of cars on the road.