Is there a global theory for the shapes of fish? But for most of the history of biology, it's not the kind of thing anyone would ever have asked. Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha and the Wolfram Language; the author of A New Kind of Science; and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. Sign up to get Backchannel's weekly newsletter, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And it's now 100 years since D'Arcy Thompson published the first edition of his magnum opus On Growth and Form--and tried to use ideas from mathematics and physics to discuss global questions of biological growth and form. Stretch one kind of fish, and it looks like another. Yes, without constraints on how you stretch. It's not quite clear what this is telling one, and I don't think it's much. But just to ask the question is interesting, and On Growth and Form is full of interesting questions--together with all manner of curious and interesting answers. D'Arcy Thompson was in many ways a quintessential British Victorian academic, steeped in the classics, and writing books with titles like A Glossary of Greek Fishes (i.e. But he was also a diligent natural scientist, and he became a serious enthusiast of mathematics and physics. And where Aristotle (whom Thompson had translated) used plain language, with perhaps a dash of logic, to try to describe the natural world, Thompson tried to use the language of mathematics and physics.

Computer vision experts from around the world will gather in Venice this week at the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) to present the latest advances in computer vision and related areas. Research from Facebook will be presented in 15 peer-reviewed publications and posters. Facebook Researchers will also be leading and presenting numerous workshops and tutorials. Here is a complete list of Facebook research being presented at ICCV, organized by research topic. This paper develops a new system that, for each pixel in a photo, can predict to what object it corresponds as well as which object it corresponds to.

The National Weather Service has released its first winter weather predictions for the approaching season in the United States. But if the wildcard La Niña develops, it might shake some things up. The chances that it will develop are strong too, observations as well as computer models suggest that La Niña is likely to develop. If it does develop, Mike Halpert, the deputy director of the Climate prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that it will be "weak and potentially short-lived." Colder than normal conditions in the Pacific Ocean near the equator is what is commonly referred to as La Niña.

From Fukushima in Japan to Sellafield in the UK, the world is home to a number of sites that are contaminated with radioactive waste and require clean-up. The current techniques available to do this are expensive and time consuming – but a new'super hero' robot could help to cut both costs and time. The robot, called Avexis, is designed to fit through a 100mm access port in the flooded reactors at the Fukushima site, to locate and analyse melted fuel. Many areas around Fukushima are still being decontaminated, 58,000 people are still displaced from their homes and the local food industries have been crippled. Its designers hope that the robot will be ready to deploy at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant by February 2018.

How can artificial intelligence transform businesses? From real-world data, computers are learning to recognize patterns too complex, too massive, or too subtle for hand-crafted software or even humans. They and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the 2016 champs, use AI to put their teams at the top of their game. Retailers have been among the most active adopters of deep learning-powered intelligence. The consulting firm Gartner predicts that by 2020, 85 percent of customer interactions in retail will be managed by AI.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's Small UAS Rule (also known as Part 107) has provisions to obtaining waivers to the usual requirements for flying drones in the United States. For example, you're not generally allowed to fly drones at night, although the FAA has granted quite a few waivers allowing flight after dark. But another rule is that you can't fly drones over people who are not part of your operations, and until about a week ago, the FAA hadn't waived that rule for anybody. Now it has, for CNN. The FAA is allowing the cable news network to use a drone to obtain video over uninvolved people, even crowds assembled at places like sporting events.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Wednesday for the U.S. and India to expand strategic ties. He also pointedly criticized China, which he accused of challenging international norms needed for global stability. Tillerson's remarks on relations between the world's two largest democracies, ahead of his first trip to South Asia as secretary of state, risked endearing Washington to one Asian power while alienating another. Tillerson said the world needed the U.S. and India to have a strong partnership. He said the two nations share goals of security, free navigation, free trade and fighting terrorism in the Indo-Pacific, and serve as "the Eastern and Western beacons" for an international rules-based order that is increasingly under strain.

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You'll want the Google Pixel 2 XL if you're looking for the purest, most elegant Android experience possible in a 6-inch phone. You'll want the Pixel 2 XL if you're looking for a stunning display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, amazing portrait photography, and a ton of surprise-and-delight features made possible by Google Lens and the rest of Google's A.I. tool chest. When the Pixel 2 XL was announced on Oct. 4, Google reminded us that its machine learning engine is watching our every move to improve its A.I. algorithms. So, yes, the Pixel 2 XL's ever-Googley magic tricks may keep robophobes up at night. And you'll rightfully want one it if you're due for a phone upgrade. But if you already own the original Pixel, your decision is more difficult. The Pixel 2 XL kicks ass, but much of what makes it special--stock Android, the Google Photos experience, Google Assistant in the home button, and Google Lens--are available in the first-generation Pixel phones, too. To this extent, the Pixel 2 XL (and the smaller Pixel 2, which I'll review soon) are victims of Google's success at creating a cloud-first, machine-learning platform that spans #MadeByGoogle devices. The Pixel 2 XL feels great in the hand. Before we drill down into features, let's get straight to Pixel 2 XL specs.

Much has been written about the rise of autonomous vehicles with testing being conducted globally and the increasing number of consumers who are already enjoying the benefits. One of my colleagues, who juggles his time between our office in Cupertino and the vineyard and olive orchard he runs in Sonoma County (Trattore Farms), tells me he's taken full advantage of his Tesla's autopilot feature for his drives. It's not just the hands off driving potential that impresses him though; it's the way that his car, as part of a network of cloud-connected vehicles, is learning as the car documents data points and uploads them to the cloud in real time. So for example, if several Teslas log information at the same GPS point where their driver taps the brakes if their car approaches a dip in the road too fast, the algorithm directing autopilot through that location will automatically update and all the Teslas using autopilot at that location will automatically slow down. I've not had the chance to experience the Tesla autopilot for myself but I'm also seeing the power of data sharing and the IoT with my drone flying.