In 2011, Ian Burkhart, a college freshman, broke his neck while diving into a wave in North Carolina. His spinal injury left him paralyzed from the chest down, a quadriplegic, his brain no longer able to communicate with his limbs. Last week, neural engineers at Ohio State University, activated a computer chip that had been surgically implanted in Mr. Burkhart's brain, bypassing his spinal cord they rerouted his brain signals directly to his arm, and allowed him to pick up objects, stir liquids and play guitar video games - using his own thoughts. Dr. Ali Rezai, the surgeon and director of Ohio State's Center for Neuromodulation, implanted the eraser-head sized chip, using brain imaging to find the precise location with Mr. Burkhart's motor cortex that controls hand movements. The chip holds 96 "microelectrodes" that record the firing patterns of individual neurons.

Jody Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 together with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines for their central role in establishing the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. The US-based political activist is known across the world for her efforts to enhance understandings of security and related issues in the world today. She is also the chair of the Noble Women's Initiative that she founded in 2006 together with five other women Nobel Peace laureates. She, along with 20 of her fellow Nobel Peace laureates have called for a preemptive ban on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS)--weapons that could operate without human supervision once activated even in matters of killing human beings. The UN's Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) held their third informal government's meet in Geneva from 11-15 April.

As British Airways flight BA727 from Geneva approached the runway at London's Heathrow airport on Sunday, something unexpectedly hit the front of the plane. On board were 132 passengers and five crew. Thankfully, the aircraft was not damaged and landed safely. But a police investigation has been launched and, if the object is confirmed as a drone, it will be the first known collision of its kind in the UK. What can be done to stop this happening again?

Joshua, who has been driving his Tesla since July 2015, said that other motorists had spotted the truck driver's mistake Joshua, who has been driving his Tesla since July 2015, said that other motorists had spotted the truck driver's mistake. He said: 'There was a group of women in the black Sedan to my left and they went nuts about the guy and what he did. 'Once I was beside the truck as it slowed down on the ramp, the guy gestured "sorry" and I gave him an "it's okay" wave.' He said that he has done a lot of experimenting with his Tesla but had never tested the car's side collision avoidance - and was very impressed by it Joshua said that he has done a lot of experimenting with his Tesla but had never tested the car's side collision avoidance - and was very impressed by it. He said: 'Hands down the best car I have ever owned.

The Pentagon's once-secret submarine drones programme is being discussed in the open, with US defence secretary Ashton Carter hinting at their potential use in the disputed South China Sea. Surveillance is the initial function of these unmanned, undersea vehicles, which can operate in shallow water'where manned submarines cannot'. There are also plans to create a'Russian doll' or'mother' sub, which could release a number of far smaller drones to be mines, trackers or missile launchers, reports the Financial Times. The US military hopes the drone development would deter China from dominating the South China Sea. The countries of the South China Sea have long claimed rights to disputed international waters, but as its economic strength has grown, an increasingly confident China has built military bases on artificial islands and militarized one of the disputed Paracel Islands.

A financial trading firm's plan to make millions by building a mast higher than the Shard in rural Kent has suffered a setback after its proposals were challenged by Dover council. Vigilant Global is one of two companies hoping to build a communications mast designed to boost profits by shaving milliseconds off the time it takes to beam information to European markets. But the council questioned the tactics used by the firm in the planning process and cast doubt on whether local people would see the benefits that Vigilant says they will. In a 20-page document, council officials said Vigilant had provided "only scant detail of the purpose of the mast", instead choosing to focus on the potential benefits to the local community. "Of primary concern is the lack of detail of the main function and purpose of the mast," the council said, adding that the plan "appeared to relate to improvements in the financial field".

Jacob Katuva used to get up at dawn to cycle 12 miles from his village to collect water with his uncles and cousins when he was growing up in Kenya. Now he is part of a research team at the University of Oxford using cloud computing and mobile sensors to monitor water wells and help ensure that thousands of villages in rural Africa and Asia have a safe, secure supply of water. The time spent finding and carrying water, if local wells are not reliable, steals precious time from farming, making a living or going to school. It can even force people to revert to unsanitary water sources shared with animals. Water issues are tied to a cycle of poverty.

Amy Ingram, the artificial intelligence personal assistant from startup X.ai, sounds remarkably like a real person. The company designed her to take on the mundane tasks of scheduling meetings and e-mailing about appointments. If a bot had access to your calendar and was cc-ed on correspondence, why couldn't it do the work for you? After she made her debut in 2014, users praised her "humanlike tone" and "eloquent manners." But what most people don't realize about this artificial intelligence is that it isn't totally artificial: Behind almost every e-mail is an actual human--someone like 24-year-old Willie Calvin. Calvin, who worked as an AI trainer for X.ai before he said he quit in October, was part of the reason Amy never tripped up, sending the sort of blind response that reveals she's a bot.

Seems like Google's RankBrain AI is a Skynet in making because even the engineers working on it are unable to understand it. According to Paul Haahr, one of the company's top engineers working on the Google Search team said that Google's new RankBrain AI engine is actually more complex than thought before, and even some of Google's own staff is clueless how it is exactly working. The statement was made by Haahr at SMX West, a search marketing conference that was scheduled in San Jose, California between March 1 and 3. Google understands how RankBrain works but not really what it is doing. Haahr was responding to queries about Google's search products in general during the event's keynote, when someone questioned him about the company's latest addition, the RankBrain AI. The engineer's answer, as Barry Schwartz, SERoundtable reporter, and many other conference attendants confirmed on Twitter, was that many of Google's own engineers don't quite fully understand how the new RankBrain algorithm works. Google started working on RankBrain, an artificial intelligence system, during the past years under the supervision of top engineer John Giannandrea, an AI expert.

Chinese robotics researchers have created a humanoid robot named Jia Jia, who can move her arms, make different facial expressions, and respond to human conversation. Jia Jia, the product of three years' work by a team at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, greeted the assembled audience at her unveiling by saying: "Hello everyone, I'm Jia Jia. Jia Jia's limited motion and stilted speech shouldn't leave anyone in any doubt she's a robot. However, she looks fairly realistic, with a flexible plastic face, long flowing brown hair, and an eye-catching gold dress. According to the team's director, Chen Xiaoping, particular attention was paid to her eye movements and lip synchronisation.