Spacewalking astronauts stepped out Friday to wrap up months of repair work on the International Space Station's big robot arm. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Japan's Norishige Kanai emerged from the orbiting complex as the sun rose over Peru's western coast, 250 miles below. The 58-foot robot arm had both of its aging mechanical hands replaced on spacewalks conducted in October and January. Friday's work involved bringing one of those old hands inside so it can be returned to Earth for a tuneup and then flown back up, and moving the other gripper to a long-term storage location outside. This last spacewalk in the series should have been completed by now, but was postponed because of complications with the robotic hand that was installed last month. Further delays were caused by this week's late arrival of a Russian supply ship.

We live in unprecedented times, where, unfortunately, increasingly things are not what they seem to be or what they should be. We have only been in this situation for less than 18 months, but it is rapidly affecting our lives on a daily basis. I am talking about fake news and how it has become one of the greatest threats to democracy, free debate and capitalism. Unfortunately, for many, fake news is not a problem at all. It is even Trump's favourite topic.

Is it only a property of self-aware beings? Is it built-in or has it evolved through interactions with the surrounding environment? Maybe it's the type of intelligence described by Stanislav Lem in Solaris. Or maybe it's a social phenomena of emerging cooperative behavioral patterns developed through social collaboration between multiple individual entities like humans, ants, neural cells, and even proteins. Our guess is that all answers are right.

The United States has unveiled its latest technological breakthrough – an all-terrain vehicle capable of driving itself while supporting the army's newly tested'robotic killer Humvees.' The new Polaris MRZR X is an optionally manned dune buggy ATV that can carry at least 1,000 pounds of equipment across the battle field. 'The MRZR is the preferred platform among infantry units and Special Forces worldwide, which helps make its integration and the transition from manned to unmanned systems easier for the warfighter,' said John Olson, the general manager of Polaris Government and Defense. Polaris Government and Defense is a division of Polaris Industries, the US manufacturer of all-terrain vehicles. 'The MRZR X maintains the MRZR mission profile and payload our customers are accustomed to, plus it has additional robotic and networked capabilities to further support war fighters,' Olson said. The new autonomous ATV incorporates technology from Applied Research Associates (ARA) and Neya Systems, two firms known for developing unmanned defense products.

WALTHAM, MA--Heralding its latest product as a breakthrough in artificial-intelligence technology, defense contractor Raytheon announced Friday it has built a military robot capable of composing heart-wrenchingly poignant poems about the relentless horrors of war. The robot, known as the Laureate-IV, reportedly uses sophisticated radar imaging to survey the carnage of war-torn landscapes and runs state-of-the-art facial recognition software to scan the terrified expressions of survivors, data it can then analyze using a complex poetic algorithm to create lyric verse with up to 40 times the pathos of poems produced by human writers. "With its 17.3 petaflop processor and bomb-proof titanium chassis, this robot can enter any combat zone and, employing poetic devices such as meter, enjambment, apostrophe, and symbolism, give full expression to the anguish and disillusionment war brings," said Raytheon CEO Thomas A. Kennedy, explaining that a single machine would be able to match the poetic output of several thousand PTSD-ravaged veterans. "Within minutes of deployment, the Laureate-IV can assess the situation on the ground and draft plaintive lines about what it's like to survive an IED ambush only to be left holding a 20-year-old's intestines in as he bleeds out from a shrapnel wound, his dreams for life disappearing with the wind-blown desert sands." "The result will be beautiful, hauntingly descriptive verse," the executive added.

The FDA cleared Viz.ai's clinical support tool on Feb. 13, allowing the software that alerts clinicians to the possibility of a stroke to be marketed in the United States. The product uses an algorithm to analyze CT images of the brain and send text notifications to neurovascular specialists if a large vessel blockage is present, according to the FDA's news release. The notification would be sent at the same time a radiologist is manually reviewing the images, potentially leading to faster treatment. Timely treatment is critical in stroke, the fifth-leading cause of death in the U.S. and a major cause of disability. About 795,000 Americans have a stroke each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Brooks asked government attorneys on Thursday if they found it credible that FBI special agent Robert Cessario wiped the computer because he had also used it to download personal medical records he wanted to keep private. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Jennen said he doesn't believe that explanation.

In December, Oakland-based U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam blocked the changes to President Barack Obama's health care law. The judge said the Trump administration failed to give the notice and comment period required before implementing the changes.

A recent helicopter crash in South Carolina may have been caused by a civilian drone. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident that resulted in a crash landing. The case would be the first known aircraft accident to be caused by a drone, though the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has long expressed concern about the possibility of such interference from consumer devices. A drone may be responsible for a recent helicopter crash. The crash occurred on Wednesday afternoon when a helicopter being piloted by a student and instructor came into contact with a small drone.

Humans will actually be very happy to meet aliens, according to new research. Hollywood might have led us to expect that an alien invasion would be greeted with tanks and guns. But some of the first serious research into how people would feel about meeting extraterrestrials shows that we would be far more positive than you might think. "If we came face to face with life outside of Earth, we would actually be pretty upbeat about it," said Arizona State University Assistant Professor of Psychology Michael Varnum. "So far, there's been a lot of speculation about how we might respond to this kind of news, but until now, almost no systematic empirical research."