In a series of papers posted online in recent weeks, mathematicians have solved a problem about the pattern-matching card game Set that predates the game itself. The solution, whose simplicity has stunned mathematicians, is already leading to advances in other combinatorics problems. Invented in 1974, Set has a simple goal: to find special triples called "sets" within a deck of 81 cards. Each card displays a different design with four attributes--color (which can be red, purple or green), shape (oval, diamond or squiggle), shading (solid, striped or outlined) and number (one, two or three copies of the shape). In typical play, 12 cards are placed face-up and the players search for a set: three cards whose designs, for each attribute, are either all the same or all different.

U.S. drone operators had been stalking the baby-faced British terrorist for days with infrared cameras and other sensors before the order came to kill him. As night fell on April 25, a U.S. warplane dropped a guided-bomb that obliterated the SUV occupied by 23-year-old Raphael Saihou Hostey near Mosul, Islamic State's stronghold in Iraq. Hostey, a recruiter for the militants, was targeted by a U.S. military campaign that has singled out and killed more than 120 Islamic State leaders, commanders, propagandists, recruiters and other so-called high-value individuals so far this year, officials said. The leadership attacks have picked up recently due to intelligence collected by special operations teams on night raids, from captured militants, and from intercepts of emails, cellphones and other communications. The focus on Islamic State's command and control structure, including its recruitment and funding systems, has helped weaken the Sunni extremist group as Iraqi, Syrian and Kurdish forces press the militants on the battlefield.

App developers rely on user demographics to effectively target their audiences – but just how much information do your apps really reveal about you? According to a new study, it might be more than you think. Researchers analysed the app choices of thousands of Android users to determine the predictability of certain attributes, and found that apps can provide insight on your gender, age, and even income. Researchers analysed the app choices of thousands of Android users to determine the predictability of certain attributes, and found that apps can provide insight on your gender, age, and even income. In the paper, published to the journal arXiv, researchers with Verto Analytics in Finland and the Qatar Computing Research Institute created a model based on the demographic attributes and apps of 3,760 Android users.

Tech giant Google held its annual I/O developers conference I/O 2016 from May 18 to May 20. The well-known 3-day-event for developers all over the world kicked off with a 2 hour keynote by Google CEO Sundar Pichai who showcased previews of Google's latest products such as Google Assistant, Google Home, two messaging technologies Allo and Duo, and many more. Google's focus of this year's conference was on how to make people's life easier by offering them the right tools that can assist them at the right time and help them with small household tasks such as order movie tickets, make dinner reservations, check their flight tickets, etc. "Google Home is the stake in the ground in Google bringing a smart assistant into the home -- and in the bigger picture, a connected life within the future smart home that is built around their interfaces," Paul Erickson, senior analyst at IHS Technology said for TechNewsWorld. "A connected speaker is only one manifestation of that -- a Google voice interface could just as easily be part of mic-equipped smart appliances, smoke detectors, thermostats, and AV devices from different brands," he added. Trying to launch new products as a firm response to its competitors such as Amazon and Facebook, which are using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to their best interest, Google is making its best to help users with household tasks so that they can in turn focus on more important things going on in their lives.

Bots are showing themselves to be one of the darlings of adtech in 2016. They may potentially disrupt brand-consumer interaction as we know it, creating both opportunity and chaos for marketers. And yet, as with websites and apps, building an effective brand asset doesn't happen overnight -- or come without challenges. And that's certainly true for bots, whose technology is still very imperfect and will require extensive development before all is said and done. Even so, the benefits outweigh the risks, and brands should act now, as first movers will likely see major advantages. Previously, I spoke with more than a dozen executives to learn what bot implementations hold the most promise (See: 10 ways bots can surprise and delight your customers).

I'm sorry to be writing you under these circumstances; I wish I didn't have to. We've spoken a number of times, we've met in person, and you seem like a genuinely nice guy. I mean, it's not Jupiter Ascending, but still, there's nothing to it. It's got blood and guts, but no blood and guts, you know? So I've been thinking about what happened, and I think what happened is this: You made a film to bring a videogame universe to life.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your seafaring Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. Within the last 30 years half of all corals have died already. However, there are selective measures in restoring coral reefs by cultivating and eventually statically outplanting them on reefs.

Antibiotics are used to help tackle infections in both humans and animals, but their overuse has led to growing fears of bacteria becoming resistant to the drugs. Now scientists are turning to unexpected methods to find new antibiotics, and the latest help could come in the form of machines that have long been seen as the enemy - in science fiction at least. A new project is helping researchers discover new strains of antibiotic, by gathering bacteria from as many people as possible. A new project is helping researchers discover new strains of antibiotic, by gathering bacteria from as many people as possible. In the latest episode of BBC's Inside Science radio programme, Dr Adam Rutherford took swabs from a Dalek (pictured) in the BBC headquarters Dr Adam Roberts at University College London is leading a project named'Swab and Send', which encourages people to take samples from around their homes and send them to the lab. The project is still calling for people to get involved, by swabbing strange places in their homes and posting them to the UCL lab.

The sports fields are empty, the science labs closed. No babies have been born for years. Cut to a split screen of human and robots kissing passionately. "They're trapped!" says the narrator, voice like gravel. Words slam against the screen, a warning. Except Futurama's 2001 episode "I Dated a Robot", with its post-apocalyptic world of silvers and blues, wildly overestimated how long it would take before this fear became flesh. It's November 2015, and in Malaysia, where humidity is at 89% and it is almost certainly still raining, David Levy, a founder of the second annual Congress on Love and Sex with Robots, is free to talk on the phone – he is less busy than planned.

For the second time in months, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said "we will fight on to liberate every inch of our land". The last time Assad made a similar statement, he was scolded by the Russian ambassador to the UN who said this was not in line with the Kremlin's policies. At the time, it wasn't - Russia was pushing for a political settlement and was involved in efforts with the United States to bring about a cessation of hostilities to create a conducive atmosphere for peace talks. This time around, however, Assad has so far not been told off. Instead, Russia sent its defence minister to Iran's capital Tehran to take part in talks with his Syrian and Iranian counterparts.