A new fertility technique allows doctors to replace defective DNA found within a mother's egg with the DNA from another female donor. The result is a baby born with the DNA of two mothers. The first three-parent baby may potentially be born around Christmas of 2017. A new fertility technique allows doctors to replace defective DNA found within a mother's egg with the DNA Scientists will discover the truth behind "dark matter" Dark matter, a mysterious type of matter that makes up a little more than a quarter of the universe, is several experiments away from being detected. Dr. Katherine Freese, an expert in the field of dark matter, says 2017 may be the year "the 80-year-old dark matter puzzle will finally be solved."

Spanish lender Banco Santander SA has invested in two artificial-intelligence companies, part of the financial industry's increased focus on technology smart enough to mimic human thinking, sources familiar with the deals told Reuters. The bank's venture arm, Santander InnoVentures, bought stakes in Personetics Technologies, which provides automated customer service, and Gridspace, whose software can learn and interpret language the way a person would, the sources said. The size of the investments could not be determined and the sources asked not to be named because they were not allowed to disclose the information publicly. The deals underscore how lenders have become more interested in using artificial intelligence for a wide variety of tasks, including hiring, spotting fraud, improving call centers and recommending products for customers. Personetics, which has offices in New York, London and Tel Aviv, creates "chatbots" that can respond to customer questions through popular messaging platforms like Facebook's (fb) Messenger.

Staying up to date with rapidly evolving technologies in the ecommerce and marketing industries can be a daunting task. With a slew of new technologies out there, it is also not easy to pinpoint which ones are worth the venture. We analyzed the top 3 most successful technologies impacting the ecommerce industry today. In 2016, total retail sales across the globe reached a whopping $22.049 trillion estimation, up 6 percent from the previous year, according to eMarketer forecasts. EMarketer also predicts that sales will top $27 trillion in 2020, despite annual growth rates slowing over the next few years.

Asian fintech company 8 Securities has launched Chloe, a robo-advisor that constructs portfolios with exchange traded funds (ETFs) listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). To begin, customers must answer a short survey which will help Chloe set goals and target dates to achieve those goals. Each yen deposited is invested into a diversified global portfolio of TSE-listed ETFs that are monitored and optimised on a daily basis. These portfolios are diversified across 50 countries, 37 industries, and 4,324 stocks and bonds. The robo-advisor uses machine learning and hence, is expected to become more intelligent over time.

A group of Silicon Valley roboticists who developed Shakey, a pioneer mobile robot project, gathered last night at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., to dedicate the tall, wheeled machine as an IEEE Milestone. Joining the group were other robotics visionaries, IEEE officers and local IEEE section members, and fans of computing history. Shakey, developed at SRI International between 1966 and 1972, was honored as the world's first mobile, intelligent robot. "Stanford Research Institute's Artificial Intelligence Center developed the world's first mobile, intelligent robot, SHAKEY. It could perceive its surroundings, infer implicit facts from explicit ones, create plans, recover from errors in plan execution, and communicate using ordinary English. SHAKEY's software architecture, computer vision, and methods for navigation and planning proved seminal in robotics and in the design of web servers, automobiles, factories, video games, and Mars rovers."

As the Trump administration struggles to determine the future of a controversial executive order banning immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, the futures of international students from those countries hang in the balance. Even though the ban was struck down by a federal court and travel has resumed, the students still face uncertainty, especially since President Trump says he may issue a new version of the executive order. Not only are many indefinitely separated from their families, but their professional opportunities are also at risk. For students who have already achieved success in research or entrepreneurship during their time in the United States, the executive order is particularly troubling. One of the seven countries named in the executive order, Iran has long contributed to American intellectual advancement.

This week in the Substance ÉTS science review, we highlight articles on two topics that are top concerns for many people: Artificial Intelligence and the environment. Each quarter, The Economist publishes a fairly detailed review of a particular aspect of technology. In the first quarter of 2017, The Economist published seven articles describing the progress and limitations of language technology with, in addition, a glimpse of the future in this field. Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), in the US, are trying to figure out how MIT students solve a planning problem. They found that the strategies used by the majority of students could be described using a language called "linear temporal logic".

With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing Cloud strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @CloudExpo @ThingsExpo, June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is on the right path to Digital Transformation. Delegates to Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo will be able to attend 8 simultaneous, information-packed education tracks. There are over 120 breakout sessions in all, with Keynotes, General Sessions, and Power Panels adding to three days of incredibly rich presentations and content. Join Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo conference chair Roger Strukhoff (@IoT2040), June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA for three days of intense Enterprise Cloud and'Digital Transformation' discussion and focus, including Big Data's indispensable role in IoT, Smart Grids and (IIoT) Industrial Internet of Things, Wearables and Consumer IoT, as well as (new) Digital Transformation in Vertical Markets.

What emerging innovations should learning leaders keep on their radar? Chief Learning Officer magazine's Kellye Whitney discusses trends to keep in mind in her video blog, with artificial intelligence leading the pack. AI as a learning delivery method is on the rise, with multiple applications surfacing beyond the typical high tech use cases, and growing adoption by industries like healthcare, automotive, and finance. Recognizing AI's potential, Udacity recently partnered with IBM's AI unit Watson, Didi Chuxing, and Amazon's AI voice assistant Alexa to offer a nanodegree in developing artificial intelligence. IBM will assist with designing curricula, and Udacity is also working with companies like Google and BMW to hire graduates of the program.

Credit ratings have long been the key measure of how likely a U.S. consumer is to repay any loan, from mortgages to credit cards. But the factors that FICO and other companies that create credit scores rely on--things like credit history and credit card balances--often depend on having credit already. In recent years, a crop of startup companies have launched on the premise that borrowers without such histories might still be quite likely to repay, and that their likelihood of doing so could be determined by analyzing large amounts of data, especially data that has traditionally not been part of the credit evaluation. These companies use algorithms and machine learning to find meaningful patterns in the data, alternative signs that a borrower is a good or bad credit risk. These companies are still young, but to date, there isn't clear evidence that these approaches have greatly expanded the credit available, and lenders using them often charge high interest rates, according to a report by the National Consumer Law Center, a consumer advocacy group.