One small flight for drones has the potential to be one giant step for science ... just ask researchers at Oregon State University. A group of scientists at the university recently captured rare footage of blue whales feeding in the Southern Ocean off New Zealand via drone. The stunning footage, narrated by Leigh G. Torres, expedition leader and principal investigator with the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State, provides a great deal of insight into what whales eat and how they decide what food is worthy of their time. SEE ALSO: Serene underwater footage shows whale's-eye view of Antarctica In a press release, Torres explained the footage clearly shows the blue whales' "lunge-feeding" process of suddenly lunging forward to eat a massive pack of krill. "Our footage shows this [lunge-feeding theory] in action," said Torres.

From phone support and mobile apps to ATMs and chatbots -- when it comes to customer service, banking automation has come a long way. However, the one missing piece that these automated banking features lack is a real human being to interact with during a transaction. That's something that Soul Machines, a New Zealand-based startup, is hoping to change. The company's new technological development is intended to bring back the human component to customer service without relying on actual people. To meet this goal, Soul Machines is producing artificial intelligence-powered avatars that are designed to emotionally engage with banking customers.

Researchers used a drone to capture rare aerial images of blue whale's feeding. Blue whales, the largest creature on Earth, get their energy by consuming krill - some of the smallest animals on Earth. With the drone, the researchers were able to gain an aerial perspective of a blue whale on its side, lunging to eat a large plume of krill in one big bite. In the video taken in New Zealand, the whale sees that there is a large krill patch in the water. Dr Leigh Torres, Assistant Professor at Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute, said that the behavior'is something we often see from the boat, and we see splashing and we can tell the animal turns on its side but - but with the drone we were able to get this remarkable new perspective'.

From selfie authentication to finance tools that respond to emojis to computer-generated avatars that look and act like real people, new technological tools are giving digital banking a makeover. The April PYMNTS Digital Banking Tracker looks at the various ways technology is changing the digital banking landscape. Banks and FinTechs are rolling out several new technological banking solutions aimed at enticing a new generation of banking customers. With more millennial consumers joining the banking systems, companies are turning to the technologies this generation uses on a daily basis to help them deliver more modern banking solutions. From selfie authentication tools to emoji-based transactions to virtual assistants, the past few weeks saw several companies make new additions to the banking toolbox.

The Labor MP Jim Chalmers was at a town hall meeting in Eagleby, Queensland this week when an older couple approached him. They were part of a crowd that turned up to see Bill Shorten's "Bill Bus", Labor's resurrected campaign bus from last year's election, on its way from Queensland to New South Wales as part of a two-week tour. Eagleby had been devastated by recent flooding, a painful hit for a suburb that only five years ago had twice the rate of unemployment than the state average. Chalmers said the couple wanted to talk about "the kids" – not their own necessarily, just young people. In a suburb where, according to the 2011 census, close to 50% of the workforce comprised labourers, tradesmen, technicians, machinery operators and drivers, where were the jobs going to come from when everything was getting automated?

Graduating university represents the culmination of years of hard work for most, but for Canberra man and paraplegic Paul Jenkins it marked something much more. Mr Jenkins has spent the past six months training in an exoskeleton device and on Tuesday realised his dream of walking on stage at Parliament House and accepting his two bachelor degrees from the University of Canberra. Paul Jenkins, left paralysed by a motorcycle accident, is the first person in Australia approved under the NDIS to use a robotic walker that allows him to walk with the help of crutches. Counter-terrorism police are investigating links to terrorism in the stabbing death of a man in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. Police hunt for two teenagers after a service station worker was stabbed to death near the ACT border on Thursday night.

We're surrounded by more and more connected devices we're calling the Internet of Things. We can turn our heating on from our phones on the commute home. Pegs can tell us when to bring the washing in so it doesn't get wet. Cars know the hazards ahead and warn us before we get there so that we can avoid them. Many of the'things' have been manufactured within the'Industrial Internet of Things' or'Industry 4.0'.

If you have seen the latest Wolverine movie, Logan, you might have noticed a crucial scene where automated trucks speed up and down the highways of the United States. Experts say artificial intelligence (AI) is coming sooner than you think and robotics will soon replace the work now being done by humans. And they will not just replace truck drivers -- think taxis, trains and even your local salad maker. In Australia, the jobs most at risk include those involving driving, according to Toby Walsh, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the CSIRO's technology unit, Data61. "There's a real financial imperative for developing autonomous cars," Mr Walsh said, adding the industry was currently worth around $1 trillion.

In the 2012 sci-fi film Prometheus, scientists release small drones into a mysterious tunnel complex to create a detailed 3D map of the caverns in minutes. Australian researchers plan to use a similar approach to explore parts of old mines that are unsafe to visit. The drones, which are controlled by a pilot, will be able to carry out safety checks by monitoring the build-up of water and checking the extent of roof collapses, and search for valuable mineral deposits that may have been missed. They are being developed by Craig Lindley and his colleagues at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's government research agency. The researchers' model is based on a commercial quadcopter.