Oil prices have fallen dramatically over last few years, forcing some major oil companies to take drastic actions such as layoffs, cutting investments and budgets, and more. In view of falling oil prices and the resulting squeeze on cash flows, the oil and gas industry has been challenged to adapt and optimize its performance to remain profitable while maintaining a long-term investment and operating outlook. Currently, oil and gas companies find it difficult to maintain the same level of investment in exploration and production as when crude prices were at their peak. Operations in the oil and gas industry today means balancing a dizzying array of trade-offs in the drive for competitive advantage while maximizing return on investment. The result is a dire need to optimize performance and optimize the cost of production per barrel.

Scientists are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help predict which embryos will result in IVF success. In a new study, AI was found to be more accurate than embryologists at pinpointing which embryos had the potential to result in the birth of a healthy baby. Experts from Sao Paulo State University in Brazil have teamed up with Boston Place Clinic in London to develop the technology in collaboration with Dr Cristina Hickman, scientific adviser to the British Fertility Society. They believe the inexpensive technique has the potential to transform care for patients and help women achieve pregnancy sooner. During the process, AI was "trained" in what a good embryo looks like from a series of images.

A mysterious circular rock formation on the surface of Mars has been captured by one of NASA's Orbiters. The formation was photographed by the Curiosity Rover this week and has excited alien hunters who invited speculation over how it came to be online. They suggested that the rocks were'arranged', laid out by another form of life, or that it was part of a larger, buried structure which has never before been seen. NASA's Curiosity Rover has captured a mysterious circular formation on rocks on the surface of Mars Alien hunters were excited by the images (above, after color enhancement) and suggested that the rocks had been'arranged' or could even be evidence of a larger, buried structure'Whatever we're seeing here, it's in a perfect circle and it's much different from the craters that we normally see on Mars and the moon and throughout the other planets in the solar system. This almost looks like these rocks were arranged in this circular formation.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted all sorts of strange features on the Martian surface, from deep pits to reptilian-looking craters. But, in a recent observation, the instrument caught a glimpse of something far more familiar. A stunning new image shows a look at the rocky mountainside terrain of Mars' Mount Sharp – and, appearing as a bright blue speck at the center, the Curiosity rover can be seen as it presses onward in its uphill mission. In a recent observation, the instrument caught a glimpse of something familiar. A stunning new image shows a look at the rocky mountainside terrain of Mars' Mount Sharp – and, appearing as a bright blue speck at the center, the Curiosity rover can be seen as it presses onward in its uphill mission Curiosity's top speed is 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) per second.

A large body of water separated the present-day North American continent into two halves during most of the late Cretaceous Period, between 95 and 66 million years ago, and because of the seaway linking the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, land animals on one side could not make it to the other, and would therefore evolve independently. One such genus of animals, trapped on the western half, was the horned dinosaur, whose remains have been found in western North America, as well as Asia. However, the discovery of a tooth in Mississippi provides evidence that horned dinosaurs were present in eastern North America as well. The fossil, dated to between 66 and 68 million years ago, is from a dinosaur closely related to Triceratops, the most well-known genus of horned dinosaurs. The find also suggests that there could have existed some land connection between the two land masses thought to be completely separate at the time. This is a tooth of a ceratopsid horned dinosaur from Mississippi.

"Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind," wrote the playwright John Milton in 1634. But, nearly 400 years later, technological advances in machines that can read our thoughts mean the privacy of our brain is under threat. Now two biomedical ethicists are calling for the creation of new human rights laws to ensure people are protected, including "the right to cognitive liberty" and "the right to mental integrity". Scientists have already developed devices capable of telling whether people are politically right-wing or left-wing. In one experiment, researchers were able to read people's minds to tell with 70 per cent accuracy whether they planned to add or subtract two numbers.

A device that can read people's minds by detecting their brainwaves has been developed in a breakthrough that could eventually enable people with "locked-in syndrome" to communicate. The system was only partially effective with a 90 per cent success rate when trying to recognise numbers from zero to nine and a 61 per cent rate for single syllables in Japanese, the researchers said. But, nonetheless, a statement about the research issued by the Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan said it showed that an effective device to read people's thoughts and relay them to others was possible in the "near future". They even suggested an "easily operated" device with a smartphone app could be ready in just five years. An electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to monitor people's brain waves while they spoke.

In February of 1880, the whaling ship Hope sailed north from Peterhead, Scotland, and headed for the Arctic. Her crew included a highly regarded captain, an illiterate but gifted first mate, and the usual roster of harpooners, sailors, and able-bodied seamen--but not the intended ship's surgeon. That gentleman having been unexpectedly called away on family matters, a last-minute substitute was found, in the form of a middling third-year medical student making his maiden voyage: a young man by the name of Arthur Conan Doyle. Conan Doyle was twenty when he left Peterhead and twenty-one when he returned. On Saturday, May 22nd, in the meticulous diary he kept during that journey, he wrote, "A heavy swell all day. I came of age today. Rather a funny sort of place to do it in, only 600 miles or so from the North Pole." Funny indeed, for a man who would come to be associated with distinctly un-Arctic environments: the gas-lit glow of Victorian London, the famous chambers at 221B Baker Street, and--further afield, but not much--the gabled manors and foggy moors where Sherlock Holmes tracked bloody footprints and dogs failed to bark in the night. Shortly after returning from the north, and long before writing any of the stories that made him famous, Conan Doyle told two tales about the Arctic--one fictional, the other putatively true. The first, in 1883, was "The Captain of the Pole-Star," one of his earliest published short stories. In it, a young medical student serving as the surgeon on a whaling ship watches, first in disbelief and then in dread, as his captain goes mad. Although winter is closing in, the captain sails northward into the Arctic until his ship is stuck fast.

Artificially intelligent robots and devices are being taught to be racist, sexist and otherwise prejudiced by learning from humans, according to new research. A massive study of millions of words online looked at how closely different terms were to each other in the text – the same way that automatic translators use "machine learning" to establish what language means. The researchers found male names were more closely associated with career-related terms than female ones, which were more closely associated with words related to the family. This link was stronger than the non-controversial findings that musical instruments and flowers were pleasant and weapons and insects were unpleasant. Female names were also strongly associated with artistic terms, while male names were found to be closer to maths and science ones.

In a feat reminiscent of the controversial victory by supercomputer'Deep Blue' over world chess champion Garry Kasparov, a computer program has managed to beat a string of professional poker players at the game. DeepStack, as it was called, defeated 10 out of 11 players who took part in a total of 3,000 games as part of a scientific study into artificial intelligence. The 11th player also lost, but by a margin that the researchers decided was not large enough to be statistically significant. This is not the first time a computer has won at poker. Libratus, a program developed by Carnegie Mellon University academics, won $1.76m (£1.4m) from professionals in January, for example.