Ten million driverless cars are expected to hit the road by 2020, according to a recent Business Insider report. Google and Apple are racing to join the automotive industry. Traditional car manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in R&D. There are many reasons to believe that the car of the future will be autonomous. If so, we should expect people to identify less and less with their vehicles.

Discovering the secrets of the universe is not a task for the timid and the impatient; there's a need to peer into the deepest reaches of outer space and try to make sense of distant galaxies, stars, gas clouds, quasars, halos, and black holes. "Understanding how these objects behave and how they interact gives us answers to how the universe was formed and how it works," says Kevin Schawinski, an astrophysicist and assistant professor in the Institute for Astronomy at ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The problem is that traditional tools such as telescopes can see only so far, even with radical advances in optics and the placement of observatories in space, where they are free of the light and dust of Earth. For instance, the Hubble Telescope changed the way astrophysicists and astronomers viewed deep space by delivering far clearer images than previously possible. Of course, in this context, distance and time are inextricably linked.

How is computer security different in a high-performance computing (HPC) context from a typical IT context? On the surface, a tongue-in-cheek answer might be, "just the same, only faster." After all, HPC facilities are connected to networks the same way any other computer is, often run the same, typically Linux-based operating systems as are many other common computers, and have long been subject to many of the same styles of attacks, be they compromised credentials, system misconfiguration, or software flaws. Such attacks have ranged from the "wily hacker" who broke into U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) computing systems in the mid-1980s,42 to the "Stakkato" attacks against NCAR, DOE, and NSF-funded supercomputing centers in the mid-2000s,24,39 to the thousands of probes, scans, brute-force login attempts, and buffer overflow vulnerabilities that continue to plague high-performance computing facilities today. On the other hand, some HPC systems run highly exotic hardware and software stacks. In addition, HPC systems have very different purposes and modes of use than most general-purpose computing systems, of either the desktop or server variety. This fact means that aside from all of the normal reasons that any network-connected computer might be attacked, HPC computers have their own distinct systems, resources, and assets that an attacker might target, as well as their own distinctive attributes that make securing such systems somewhat distinct from securing other types of computing systems. The fact that computer security is context- and mission-dependent should not be surprising to security professionals--"security policy is a statement of what is, and what is not, allowed,"7--and each organization, will therefore have a somewhat distinctive security policy.

British scientists have developed the world's smallest surgical robot which could transform everyday operations for tens of thousands of patients. From a converted pig shed in the Cambridgeshire countryside, a team of 100 scientists and engineers have used low-cost technology originally developed for mobile phones and space industries to create the first robotic arm specifically designed to carry out keyhole surgery. The robot, called Versius, mimics the human arm and can be used to carry out a wide range of laparoscopic procedures – including hernia repairs, colorectal operations, and prostate and ear, nose and throat surgery – in which a series of small incisions are made to circumvent the need for traditional open surgery. This reduces complications and pain after surgery and speeds up recovery times for patients. The robot is controlled by a surgeon at a console guided by a 3D screen in the operating theatre.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. Arend Hintze is a renowned assistant professor of Integrative Biology and Computer Science from Michigan State University. By day, he work on artificial intelligence technologies, trying to bridge the gap between humanity and machine. But by night, he is haunted by the consequences of his research. When the critics rose voice against the ethical nature of AIs, and were dismissed by so called shallow AI researchers, he came forward and put on his views on the same. And honestly, it does make sense.

Police forces hold more than 20million mugshots and this risks undermining public confidence, a watchdog has warned. Professor Paul Wiles, the independent Biometrics Commissioner, said there was a real danger the number of facial recognition images stored would rocket. He said the lack of laws controlling the use of the crime-fighting technology risked damaging confidence in the UK's model of policing by consent. Forces store more than 20million pictures and videos, known as custody images, taken at police stations of people they have arrested or questioned. Professor Paul Wiles, the independent Biometrics Commissioner, said there was a real danger the number of facial recognition images stored would rocket.

Locals in Reykjavik are now getting their takeaways delivered by drone. The world's first operational drone delivery service has launched this week in Iceland's capital city. The company behind the service plans to scale it up in the next few months to make hundreds of drone deliveries each day. If you order a takeaway while in Reykjavik, there's a good chance it will be delivered to you by a drone. The world's first operational drone delivery service has launched this week in Iceland's capital city Deliveries are made by Flytrex's autonomous delivery drone'Mule'.

While you might think that having sex behind your partner's back would count as cheating, it seems that many people don't think this is the case if the other'person' is a robot. A shocking new study has revealed that 40 per cent of Britons don't see sex with a robot as cheating. Despite this, one in three Britons said they would be'horrified' if one of their friends started a relationship with a robot, with 16 per cent saying they would try to convince them to abandon it. While you might think that having sex behind your partner's back would count as cheating, it seems that many people don't think this is the case if the other'person' is a robot. A shocking new study has revealed that 40 per cent of Britons don't see sex with a robot as cheating The new sex robot survey was commissioned by UK online streaming service, Now TV.

The death of a man strapped to a chair for 46 hours in a San Luis Obispo County jail puts a focus on the conditions for mentally ill inmates in California's county jails. Here are the stories you shouldn't miss today: Andrew Holland's legs and arms were shackled to a chair in a jail observation cell, where he sat in his own filth, eating and drinking almost nothing, for nearly two days in January. He was naked except for a helmet and mask covering his face and a blanket that slipped off his lap. San Luis Obispo County jail officials say Holland, who had schizophrenia, was restrained because he had been hitting himself in the head and was kept there because he refused to not harm himself further. Within 40 minutes of being unbound, he had stopped breathing. Holland's death has provoked outrage, a $5-million legal settlement and questions about the way California jails handle a growing number of mentally ill inmates.

There are 15,000 new cases in the UK every year.