Robert Gordon has written a magnificent book on the economic history of the United States over the last one and a half centuries. His study focuses on what he calls the "special century" from 1870 to 1970--in which living standards increased more rapidly than at any time before or after. The book is without peer in providing a statistical analysis of the uneven pace of growth and technological change, in describing the technologies that led to the remarkable progress during the special century, and in concluding with a provocative hypothesis that the future is unlikely to bring anything approaching the economic gains of the earlier period. The message of Rise and Fall is this. For most of human history, economic progress moved at a crawl. According to the economic historian Bradford DeLong, from the first rock tools used by humanoids three million years ago, to the earliest cities ten thousand years ago, through the Middle Ages, to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution around 1800, living standards doubled (with a growth of 0.00002 percent per year). Another doubling took place over the subsequent period to 1870. Then, according to standard calculations, the world economy took off. Gordon focuses on growth in the United States.

The private spaceflight company landed its Falcon 9 rocket for the sixth time in the last eight months early Sunday morning, pulling off the feat during the successful launch of the JCSAT-16 commercial communications satellite. The two-stage Falcon 9 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:26 a.m. EDT Sunday, carrying JCSAT-16 toward a distant geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). Less than 9 minutes later, the rocket's first stage came back for a pinpoint landing on the deck of a robotic ship called Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred miles off the Florida coast. A textbook touchdown had been anything but guaranteed. "Given this mission's GTO destination, the first stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing challenging," SpaceX representatives wrote in a pre-launch JCSAT-16 press kit.

Wee-Hyong Tok has decades of database systems experience, spanning academia and industry, including deep experience driving and shipping products and services that span distributed engineering teams from Asia and the United States. Before joining Microsoft, Tok worked on in-database analytics, demonstrating how association rule mining can be integrated into a relational database management system, Predator-Miner, which enables users to express data mining operations using SQL queries and provides opportunities for better query optimization and processing. Tok is instrumental in driving data mining boot camps in Asia and was honored as a Microsoft SQL Server Most Valuable Professional for several consecutive years because of his active contribution to the database community in Asia. He has co-authored several books, including the first book on Azure machine learning, Predictive Analytics with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, and has also published more than 20 peer-reviewed academic papers and journals. Tok holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the National University of Singapore.

The supercomputer swiftly cross-referenced a patient's genetic data to make a diagnosis that would have taken a human doctor weeks. In a world where big data is fast transforming healthcare across the globe, PCs could not only assist GPs, but eventually, replace them. Now, it appears that IBM's supercomputer Watson has greatly speeded up the diagnosis of a rare form of leukemia in a patient, and in doing so, may have saved her life. In January 2015, the patient was admitted to a hospital affiliated to the University of Tokyo's Institute of Medical Science in Japan. Doctors initially diagnosed her with acute myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer.

Automation will undoubtedly transform the workforce, the economy, and society as a whole. Robotics, sophisticated "AI" software, and other technologies will cause lasting and profound changes in the future. But that's no reason to ignore the problems we're facing right now. In fact, the best way to ensure that we have a more equitable economy tomorrow is by fighting for one today. Two recent commentaries addressed the "robot question."

Tesla is adding the word "autopilot" back onto its Chinese website after earlier reports suggested the electric car maker had deliberately removed after a crash involving the driver-assist technology. The company told The Washington Post on Monday that it had "mistakenly dropped" the term while updating translations across its websites. The Chinese-language site will now include the word "autopilot" followed by the phrase "zidong fuzhu jiashi," which in English means "automatic-assist driving." Tesla's marketing of its autopilot feature has come under mounting scrutiny in recent months amid a string of crashes linked to the technology. Autopilot is designed to keep a Tesla vehicle driving at a certain speed and within the lane markings, without crashing into other vehicles.

From a furtive Chinese character inked on a shoulder to a full arm sleeve, tattoos have enjoyed a revival in popularity in recent years. But soon they could do more than simply decorate the skin. Researchers have created temporary tattoos that can are sensitive to touch and can be used to control electronic devices like smartphones. Working in collaboration with Microsoft Research, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Media Lab produced the temporary tattoos, whichare called DuoSkin. Using gold leaf, the temporary transfers can be used as touch sensitive trackpads or to transmit information to a smartphone.

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

"By developing a sophisticated molecular builder, using state-of-the-art quantum chemistry and machine learning, in addition to drawing on the expertise of experimentalists, we discovered a large set of high-performing blue OLED materials," said Aspuru-Guzik, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, who led the research. "Following that validation, I am extremely excited to see this platform adopted for commercial development, utilizing its capabilities for the rapid screening of TADF materials." The algorithms dramatically reduce the computational cost of testing candidate molecules for new technologies. In addition to Kyulux's licensing of the software, three key researchers who developed the system in Aspuru-Guzik's research group and were co-authors on the Nature Materials publication have chosen to join Kyulux's computational chemistry group in Boston. Professor Aspuru-Guzik will also join the company as a part-time scientific advisor.

The German automaker is planning to release self-driving vehicles in China in 2021, Maximilian Doemling, senior manager for highly automated driving at BMW Group, announced over the weekend at an artificial intelligence summit in China, China Radio International first reported. Doemling said future BMW cars will be able to drive autonomously on the highway by "pressing the button." The automaker is working with Intel and Mobileye to develop its self-driving cars. Mobileye is an Israeli firm that develops cameras and software so cars can "see" the world around them. It's a client of General Motors, but recently ended its partnership with Tesla.