To say that radiology in the NHS is drowning in work volume is an understatement. In May 2016 the Royal College of Radiologists highlighted the results of a national workforce survey, including the fact that 230,000 studies a month were stuck in a backlog of over 31 days and that spending to reduce these backlogs had increased by 57%. The story is the same in Scotland, where over £5.25 million per annum is spent on outsourcing. No-one seems to have the answer to this crisis, and with the current state of NHS underfunding it doesn't look likely that one will emerge any time soon. Over the pond, however, there is a huge push towards solving radiology's problems -- and the UK is being left behind.

Of all the wonders of technology, perhaps the most stunning is its ability to transform entire industries. The retail sector will never be the same since the advent of e-commerce. Robotics and autonomous machines are transforming our factories, forever changing what it means to be a factory worker. "Shared economy" networks are reinventing the taxicab and hospitality industries. Few would cite a bricks and mortar industry like construction in this context, but according to some of the top contractors in Canada, this is about to change.

Canada is a country with a relatively small population of just about 36 million people, but its citizens have still been busy inventing, innovating and entertaining. In the run up to Canada Day, we asked BBC readers to tell us what they thought were some of the biggest contributions the country has made to the world. Here are some of those suggestions. The list of Canadian singers, actors, comedians and entertainers is extensive. Readers flagged artists Shania Twain, Celine Dion, Drake, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Arcade Fire, Alanis Morissette and Justin Bieber as just a handful of the musicians who have achieved global fame and swept awards shows for their work.

Oft cited as the blow that is knocking the wind out of the services business, AI has flexed its disruptive muscle. While Uber's advanced algorithms have produced efficiencies in ride sharing and differential pricing that have proved difficult for traditional taxi fleets to compete against, AirBnB is using advanced AI to find the perfect match between host and guest, creating an experience that will shine in comparison to high cost hotel rooms. But AI is more than a disruptive force that will displace businesses or replace workers – the technology is moving mainstream to provide decision support in an increasingly broad range of traditional sectors. A good example of this mainstreet extension of AI can be found in the experience of Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc., which is using IBM's Watson to optimize exploration. Goldcorp is one of the largest gold mining operations in the world; however, mining in general is characterized as a'high risk, high reward' activity in which ore discovery can have a significant impact on profitability.

The Order of Canada marks its 50th anniversary this year with 99 new appointments on its Canada Day honours list, including renowned figures from the fields of law, government, entertainment and sport, as well as Canadians whose contributions are less widely known. The list includes soccer star Christine Sinclair, television host Alex Trebek, actor Catherine O'Hara and Globe and Mail editorial cartoonist Brian Gable. Three people were named to the highest rank, Companion of the Order of Canada: former Supreme Court Justice Marshall Rothstein, National Arts Centre president Peter Herrndorf and The Prince of Wales. Nineeteen people were named Officers of the Order of Canada, including former spymaster Richard Fadden, hockey player Mark Messier and actor Michael Myers. There were 77 people named as members of the Order, including opera singer Tracy Dahl, historian Bill Waiser, public health nurse Cathy Crowe and Indigenous leader Terrance Paul.

MindBridge AI needs to expand to meet demand, and founder Solon Angel says its $4.3-million seed round is just enough to take the company to the next level. The Ottawa-based firm develops artificial intelligence technologies aimed at preventing fraud, alerting auditors to suspicious or anomalous activity in the books. Just a few months ago, MindBridge AI was selected to participate in the Bank of England's FinTech accelerator program, where it will use its AI Auditor tool in collaborations with the massive institution. The round, which officially closed last Friday, includes members of Ottawa's Capital Angel Network and Fresh Founders, as well as funds such as Toronto-based MaRS Investments and Montreal-based Real Ventures. Mr. Angel tells OBJ that the round will allow MindBridge AI to meet the international demand for its product.

Languages, like human bodies, come in a variety of shapes--but only to a point. Just as people don't sprout multiple heads, languages tend to veer away from certain forms that might spring from an imaginative mind. For example, one core property of human languages is known as duality of patterning: meaningful linguistic units (such as words) break down into smaller meaningless units (sounds), so that the words sap, pass, and asp involve different combinations of the same sounds, even though their meanings are completely unrelated. It's not hard to imagine that things could have been otherwise. In principle, we could have a language in which sounds relate holistically to their meanings--a high-pitched yowl might mean "finger," a guttural purr might mean "dark," a yodel might mean "broccoli," and so on.

Our ability to spot social signals may have changed the way we see colour, new research has found. The light receptors in our eyes are well-adapted to spot key social colour-changes, such as a blushing or angry face. These emotions can change facial blood-flow, forcing a subtle colour change that we have evolved to spot - an adaptation that allows humans to predict behaviour. The researchers found that human eyes are so good at spotting these colour changes that they can accurately read the facial mating signals of a female macaque monkey better than a digital camera. Our ability to spot social signals may have changed the way we see colour, new research has found.

At a Calgary branch of ATB Financial, one of the bank's latest recruits educates customers about financial literacy, plays music, challenges them to an impromptu dance-off and, naturally, takes a selfie. A four-part look at how robots are changing the way we work. Pepper, the new hire, doesn't have the most sophisticated skill set at this point -- for one thing, she can't make financial transactions -- but she's made a big leap forward in becoming the first customer service robot in Canadian banking. At some point, Pepper, developed by SoftBank Robotics Corp., could be programmed to do more complicated tasks. But for now, Edmonton-based ATB Financial is more interested in gauging how people react and figure out which customer situations the robot best fits in.

At a Calgary branch of ATB Financial, one of the bank's latest recruits educates customers about financial literacy, plays music, challenges them to an impromptu dance-off and, naturally, takes a selfie. Pepper, the new hire, doesn't have the most sophisticated skill set at this point -- for one thing, she can't make financial transactions -- but she's made a big leap forward in becoming the robot in customer service in Canadian banking. At some point, Pepper, developed by SoftBank Robotics Corp., could be programmed to do more complicated tasks. But for now, Edmonton-based ATB Financial is more interested in gauging how people react and figure out which customer situations the robot best fits in. "This isn't … the world's going to be run by robots or something like that," chief executive Dave Mowat said.