CAMBRIDGE, England--After a long push inspired by Silicon Valley, this centuries-old college town has taken on a new role as a modern, tech-industry hub. The reward has been a flood of jobs and money. The downsides have been the same sort of housing and traffic strains beleaguering the San Francisco Bay Area. Another, more recent complaint by some locals: Foreigners keep snapping up the best companies that have sprouted here. Cambridge's tech bona fides were validated afresh last month when Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank Group Corp. 9984 -0.17 % agreed to pay 32 billion for ARM Holdings ARMH -0.52 % PLC.

Technology companies are hurriedly snapping up startups in the field of artificial intelligence, and Intel Corp. INTC -0.32 % is the latest to join a buying spree fueled by one of the hottest trends in the tech sector. The chip maker on Tuesday announced plans to pay an undisclosed amount for Nervana Systems, a 48-employee company working on semiconductors, software and services to exploit a popular AI technique called deep learning. Intel's move follows a deal disclosed Friday by Apple Inc. AAPL 0.23 % to purchase Turi Inc., a Seattle-based specialist in the field. The two acquisitions add to a string of 31 purchases since 2011 of AI startups by large companies, according to venture-capital research firm CB Insights. Factoring in smaller acquirers, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP counts 29 related acquisitions so far this year, suggesting the total deal count for 2016 will top the 37 deals announced last year.

Is it possible to predict whether someone will commit a crime some time in the future? It sounds like an idea from the 2002 science-fiction movie Minority Report. But that's what statistical researcher Richard Berk, from the University of Pennsylvania, hopes to find out from work he's carried out this year in Norway. Is it possible to predict whether someone will commit a crime some time in the future? It sounds like an idea from the 2002 science-fiction movie Minority Report (pictured).

Being propelled in capsules along a pneumatic tube at speeds of up to 740mph (1,200km/h) might seem like something out of science fiction. But the concept of a super-fast Hyperloop train may be a reality soon as more and more cities are joining the race to build quicker transport. The latest city is Dubai, which will be hosting a competition looking for designs of a radical new mass transit system, able to carry passengers at speeds faster than some airliners. Being propelled in capsules along a pneumatic tube at speeds of up to 740mph (1,200km/h) might seem like something out of science fiction. But the concept of a super-fast Hyperloop train might be a reality sooner than you think.

Advanced robotic technology has allowed researchers to capture unprecedented footage of marine life surrounding the UK's tallest underwater mountains. The remarkable clips reveal a never-before-seen view of deep-sea creatures, including coral, monkfish, and many previously unknown species. Robots obtained high-definition videos from four seamounts in the North East Atlantic Ocean, and have even explored depths more than half a mile below the surface to reveal a deep-water coral that stands over six feet tall. Advanced robotic technology has allowed researchers to capture unprecedented footage of marine life surrounding the UK's tallest underwater mountains. To capture the deep-sea footage, researchers with the Deep Links project used the Isis remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

A tiny remote-controlled aircraft modelled on an insect will become Britain's latest weapon against terror. The Dragonfly drone – which can fit in the palm of a hand - will spy on enemy positions and gather intelligence for the military and British agents. It is inspired by the biology of a dragonfly, with four flapping wings and four legs to enable it to fly through the air seamlessly and perch on a windowsill to spy on terrorists. The gadget could even fly into heavily guarded rooms full of jihadists and provide soldiers on the battlefield a picture of what is going on. It is one of the futuristic pieces of kit currently being developed for the Ministry of Defence and the UK's security forces as part of the MoD's new innovation project.

A bit of healthy competition is often regarded as a good way of helping people improve their performance. But it seems we may owe our big brains to our tendency to size each other up too. A team of scientists have found that judging other people's standing in a group appears to have played a key role in the evolution of human brain size over the past two million years. Making judgement about other people is a complex task that requires us to made decisions using a range of information. This'sizing up' process (stock picture) can help us decide whether to cooperate with others and played a key role in the evolution of our brains According to the team, the research could also have future implications in developing intelligent and autonomous machines.

Implanting images into someone's mind sounds more like something that would happen in films such as Inception and Total Recall. But scientists have managed to use beams of light to create an image of something completely unknown in a mouse's brain. The findings suggest that the brain may be more easily moulded than previously thought, and could have a major impact on neuroscience and medicine. The thought of artificially implanting an image inside the mind might sound like a technique used by a hypnotist. But scientists have managed to use beams of light to create an image of something completely unknown in a mouse's brain The researchers were able to control and observe the brain of a living mouse using optogenetics.

If only walking through the airport always looked this dreamy. When everyone wants their 30 seconds of Internet fame, what happens to our IRL relationships? A whole lot of drama and angst, as imagined by Dmitry Nikiforov and Aleksei Korneev, the makers of Delete My Photos, a Russian film following a young man's dreams of developing a new dating app. As many parts of our lives are these days, their trailer is bathed in filters -- a unique approach to a tool that's as become second-nature as selfies. They ran key scenes through mobile photo editor Prisma, which uses convolutional neural networks to combine photos with artistic styles, modeled on, for instance, Van Gogh and Roy Lichtenstein.

A Learning System Based on Genetic Adaptive Algorithms.