Some problems in science are so hard, we don't really know what meaningful questions to ask about them -- or whether they are even truly solvable by science. Consciousness is one of those: Some researchers think it is an illusion; others say it pervades everything. Some hope to see it reduced to the underlying biology of neurons firing; others say that it is an irreducibly holistic phenomenon. The question of what kinds of physical systems are conscious "is one of the deepest, most fascinating problems in all of science," wrote the computer scientist Scott Aaronson of the University of Texas at Austin. "I don't know of any philosophical reason why [it] should be inherently unsolvable" -- but "humans seem nowhere close to solving it." Now a new project currently under review hopes to close in on some answers. It proposes to draw up a suite of experiments that will expose theories of consciousness to a merciless spotlight, in the hope of ruling out at least some of them.

SAN FRANCISCO - The knock-down, drag-out battle in the video game world heads to the cloud as the premier industry event looks to adapt to a consumer shift to streaming services. New blockbuster titles will be on center stage as usual at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) opening in Los Angeles on Tuesday, but the big question for the sector will be how consumers play. The E3 opens with gamers gradually moving away from traditional console play and Google seeking to capitalize on that trend with a new Netflix-style service allowing people to play cloud-powered games on any connected device. Adapting to the new trends will be critical for players in the massive video game industry, which last year generated more than $135 billion globally, and $43.4 billion in the United States. According to the Entertainment Software Association, which runs E3, more than 164 million adults in the United States play video games, and 3 out of 4 U.S. households have at least one video game player.

Even as artificial intelligence (AI) is forecast to exceed human capabilities across a range of industries it is also predicted to augment human labor. In finance, AI is already helping financial advisors augment financial planning while enhancing investment strategy. And in medicine, AI diagnostics systems have proven to be far more accurate than doctors in diagnosing heart disease and cancerous growths. In fact, McKinsey lists some 400 use cases representing $6 trillion in value across 19 industries in which AI will augment human work. What will the impact of AI be on the nature of government?

Are you prepared for the Age of Machine Intelligence? That's a time when machines anticipate consumers' choices before they are made. That age is nearer than many people realize, according to author/futurist Mike Walsh, who said business leaders need to understand how the new reality impacts the decisions they make. The National Automatic Merchandising Association show, held last week in Las Vegas, made an appropriate setting for Walsh's message, given the number of exhibits and education sessions featuring artificial intelligence. While these new technologies impact many industries, the convenience services industry has experienced a significant boost in recent years thanks to AI, micro markets, cashless readers, digital signage, telemetry-based remote machine monitoring, smart sensor shelving, facial detection and voice technology.

What makes artificial intelligence intelligent? Is it able to learn from errors or recognize, say, the letters of the alphabet in a set of random shapes like a human can? These are some of the questions developers of AI ask. What began as sluggish programs on hulking machines has taken the form of code that anyone in a particular field could test out and manipulate to suit their needs. Jae Ho Sohn, a radiologist at the University of California at San Francisco, is adapting and working with an AI algorithm to analyze thousands of positron emission tomography (PET) scans to search for early signs of Alzheimer's.

Add Novant Health to the growing list of health systems that have opened institutes dedicated to artificial intelligence. The health system, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, launched the Novant Health Institute of Innovation & Artificial Intelligence (AI), which will use AI to enhance personalized patient care. The institute will focus on the advanced technologies required to provide highly personalized care and accelerated solutions with actionable data and insights for preventive prediction, diagnosis and treatment to Novant Health's patients, the health system said. Novant Health consists of 640 care locations, including 15 hospitals and hundreds of outpatient facilities and physician clinics servicing patients in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. To drive this work, Novant will partner with the health system's physicians as well as technology companies, research organizations, universities and other healthcare organizations to leverage the work already in place within Novant Health's digital products and services team.

However, reaching consensus is likely to prove difficult on some key issues, in particular those involving trade. Participating nations have clashing interests, most notably the U.S. and China. "First, I would like to stress the importance of tapping into data, which is the source of innovation," Hiroshige Seko, minister of economy, trade and industry, said at the beginning of the digital economy session. Seko said that "ensuring the free flow of data internationally is indispensable to the economic development of the world as a whole." He then introduced a concept called "Data Fee Flow with Trust," or DFFT, which he said would promote free data flows while securing trust related to privacy and security.

Jeff Bezos wants to colonize space in order to'save the Earth.' At Amazon's inaugural Re:MARS conference in Las Vegas, Bezos broke down how his rocket company, Blue Origin, could play a major role in the future of space exploration. Bezos recently unveiled Blue Origin's lunar lander, which is a key component of the company's plans to conduct space missions and explore the moon's surface. At Amazon's inaugural Re:MARS conference in Las Vegas, CEO Jeff Bezos broke down how his rocket company, Blue Origin, could play a major role in the future of space exploration The comments came during an interview with Jenny Freshwater, Amazon's director of forecasting. The interview was briefly disrupted by an animal rights protester, Priya Sawhney of Direct Action Everywhere, who grilled Bezos on the treatment of chickens at Amazon-affiliated farms, before being briskly whisked off stage.

According to a recent investigation, an estimated 33-50% of the world's coral reefs have undergone degradation, believed to be as a result of climate change. A strong driver of climate change and the subsequent environmental impact are greenhouse gases such as methane. However, the exact relation climate change has to the environmental condition cannot be easily established. Remote sensing methods are increasingly being used to quantify and draw connections between rapidly changing climatic conditions and environmental impact. A crucial part of this analysis is processing spectroscopy data using radiative transfer models (RTMs) which is a computationally expensive process and limits their use with high volume imaging spectrometers. This work presents an algorithm that can efficiently emulate RTMs using neural networks leading to a multifold speedup in processing time, and yielding multiple downstream benefits.