Mice can be tricked into thinking fake tails are their own, using the same "rubber hand illusion" that works in people. The illusion helps us understand how our brains create a sense of body ownership and awareness. The discovery that mice fall for the same trick could aid the development of prosthetic limbs and treatments for psychiatric disorders. In the human version of the trick, a person sits next to a rubber hand and their own hand is hidden. Stroking both hands at the same time tricks the person into feeling that the rubber limb is their own.

Next month, there's a world chess championship match in New York City, and the two competitors, the assembled grandmasters, the budding chess prodigies, the older chess fans -- everyone paying attention -- will know this indisputable fact: A computer could win the match hands down. They've known as much for almost 20 years -- ever since May 11, 1997. On that day, IBM's Deep Blue defeated the great Garry Kasparov who, after an early blunder, resigned in defeat. "I am ashamed by what I did at the end of this match. But so be it," Kasparov said.

Robbie Cooper, co-founder of Metapixel, has a vision. "I want fully animated, believable characters in a VR game or environment that react in a totally natural manner. To have that feeling of wanting to reach out and touch them because they're so real. That's how a VR world should be." He's not just dreaming about it: He and the Metapixel team are actually working towards making it possible.

A capsule carrying 5,300 pounds of food, clothing, spare parts, lab equipment, and science experiments arrived at the International Space Station Sunday morning. Astronauts grabbed the vehicle, called Cygnus, with a robotic arm and pulled it to the station for docking. Over the next month the crew will unload its contents while Cygnus remains tethered to the station. Ultimately, the space station crew will reload the empty vessel with about 4,000 pounds of trash and release it to burn up in the atmosphere in mid-November. But before the vehicle destroys itself, an onboard experiment called Spacecraft Fire Experiment-II, or Saffire-II, will intentionally start a small fire to test how zero gravity and limited oxygen affect flame size and the spread of fire.

We're getting used to sensors finding out what we're doing. Apparently they are now sufficiently sophisticated that they can even tell if I'm sitting up straight (yes Mom – BTW using a camera is almost cheating, you should be able to do this with just an accelerometer and a gyro). But what if I told you that those same IoT sensors can tell how you feel? And now they're even being programmed to change the way you feel! Hang on to your hat because it's about to get worse or better depending on your point of view.

Unlike most other lists of top experts, this one is a hand-picked selection, not based on influence or Klout scores, or the number of Twitter followers and re-tweets, or other similar metrics. Each of these experts has his/her own Wikipedia page. Some might not even have a Twitter account. All of them have had a very strong academic and research career in the most prestigious places. Jeffrey Hawkins is the American founder of Palm Computing (where he invented the Palm Pilot) and Handspring (where he invented the Treo).

Google's ad tracking data has been extended – potentially to watch over much of your life. Until recently, the site had important restrictions on the way that it could use your data. And perhaps one of the most important ones was the fact that Google worked hard to keep a massive database of web-browsing records separate from the personal information that it stores about people. Because of its huge range of products, Google knows a lot about specific people: for most internet users, it likely has their name, their addresses and a range of other personal information. And through its DoubleClick advertising network it has a huge set of information about people's web browsing history.

Bank of America debuted a virtual assistant bot today at Money2020, a fintech conference being held this week in Las Vegas. Named Erica, the bot uses artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to learn your personal spending habits and offer helpful advice. The bot will be available by voice command or plain text in Bank of America smartphone apps next year, according to CNBC. Erica is designed to be not just a virtual assistant but each customer's "personal advocate," said Bank of America head of digital banking Michelle Moore. It can tell you about your spending habits, notice if you spend more than usual on a certain product or category of products, present opportunities to reduce debt or save money, and alert you if your credit score dips.

We hope you like that better than us dying. For you impatient types, we'll return to normal Video Friday in two weeks, so if you have video suggestions, keep them coming as usual.

I should have known it'd be you, Teddy Roosevelt. I was keeping to myself, peaceably prepping rockets for Mars, and then your armada showed up. After all the gifts I sent! When you're swatting Yankee field cannons and battering rams with rockets and fighter jets, what's to complain about? I remember when we obsessed over absurdities like this in the Civilization games.