That's how long Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka has spent orbiting Earth. Upon returning from the International Space Station (ISS) today, Mr. Padalka became the most-experienced space flier on the planet, breaking the previous record for the longest amount of time spent in space, held by his countryman Sergei Krikalev, who completed 803 days over 6 missions. In just five missions, Padalka has him beat by 76 days. "I like to fly," he said in March, before launching on his latest mission. The space frontier has transformed during Padalka's twenty-plus years as a cosmonaut: The Mars Pathfinder and the Phoenix Mars lander explored Mars, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft landed on asteroid Eros, Cassini investigated Saturn's rings, Stardust brought comet dust back to Earth, and Dawn became the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.

NASA engineers appear to have found a way to restore a balky coolant pump on the International Space Station that may allow a station resupply mission to launch this week, as planned. The alternative is to delay the launch to allow two ISS crew members to conduct two or three emergency spacewalks starting this weekend to replace the faulty pump. Spare pumps are stored on the space station's truss – scaffolding the length of a football field. The truss supports the station's solar panels, radiators for station cooling, and other utilities, including two external cooling loops that transfer heat to the radiators. The cooling-system malfunction on the space station occurred Dec. 11.

Satellites are best known for helping smartphones map driving routes or televisions deliver programs. But now, data from some of the thousands of satellites orbiting Earth are helping track things like crop conditions on rural farms, illegal deforestation, and increasingly, poverty in the hard-to-reach places around the globe. As much as that data has the potential to provide invaluable information to humanitarian organizations, watchdog groups, and policymakers, there is too much of it to sift through in order to draw insights that could influence important decisions. A team of researchers from Stanford University, however, says it has developed an efficient way. By creating a deep-learning algorithm that can recognize signs of poverty in satellite images – such as condition of roads – the team sorted through a million images to accurately identify economic conditions in five African countries, reported the scientists in the journal Science on Thursday.

It's the holy grail of translation, a goal one researcher has called "more complex than building an atomic bomb." Smooth, immediate translations between people speaking different languages would be a remarkable achievement of enormous economic and cultural benefit. Some suggest that it won't happen until computers can express true artificial intelligence - something like C-3PO of "Star Wars" fame, whose knowledge extends far beyond mere vocabulary to an understanding of customs and cultures. Still, researchers are chipping away at the problem. Universal translation is one of 10 emerging technologies that will affect our lives and work "in revolutionary ways" within a decade, Technology Review says.

In October 2004 SpaceShipOne roared into space (twice) - the first privately funded spacecraft ever to reach suborbit, nearly 70 miles above Earth. A year later, "Stanley," a Volkswagen Touareg modified by Stanford University students, rumbled across some 130 miles of desert without a human driver, navigating the rough terrain guided by computer programs and sensors. In both cases, the designers were motivated to be the first to do something - and to win a cash prize. The Ansari X PRIZE for spaceflight paid out $10 million from a private foundation. The DARPA Grand Challenge for robotic vehicles awarded $2 million, put up by the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Cue the John Williams theme and roll the vanishing intro – Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi-training droids have arrived on the International Space Station (ISS). Or at least David Miller's versions have arrived. The free-floating spheres are set to test new concepts for "smart" satellites. Able to fly in precision formation, the robots may one day hold the key to building everything from huge space telescopes that can peer deeply into the universe to constellations of small, cheap satellites that can monitor changes on Earth. The shuttle Discovery last week brought the second of three droids that are undergoing experiments as they arrive.

In a decade or so, people may not have to tidy their house, clean up after the dog, or even nag their spouse to do chores. A friendly, human-like robot will take care of routine tasks, and it won't whine or fight back. If technologists' predictions bear out, this second coming of robots could be more pervasive than the first in the '60s, when industrial robots revolutionized manufacturing. Designed to mimic the look and gestures of humans, the new breed of personal robots eventually may have artificial skin and muscles, as well as eye and facial expressions, and they might speak more naturally. But for this rapidly evolving field to take off, scientists will have to improve the quality and reliability of electronics first, and companies will have to find the application that every household must have.

The cartoon superheroes were frustrated. They confronted a menacing robot that quickly repaired any damage they inflicted. It was made up of a swarm of microscopic robots - so-called nanobots - that could change its function and shape at will. Suddenly the swarm became fluid and flowed away. That cartoon scenario may seem entertaining. But the reality is startling.

For the past two decades or so, we have been involved with the design and development of numerous Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in Hong Kong. These expert systems deal with AI scheduling, optimization, or rostering. This site contains success stories of various AI systems developed for a wide variety of industries in Hong Kong, such as transportation, government, health, and food. These operations research (OR) related problems are solved using advanced Artificial Intelligence algorithms and techniques combined with robust and scalable fault-tolerant architectures. Many large corporations in Hong Kong depend on our AI technology to streamline their day-to-day operations and maximize their productivity and quality of service/product - companies like the MTR, Immigration Department, Hospital Authority, etc. Watch how MTR uses AI, developed by Dr. Chun, to schedule the precious "golden 2 hours" for the critical RailGen 2.0 project.

Do they really not have any understanding of the differences between the role of money and the role of deep analysis of problems combined with careful research and experiment to find good solutions? Insofar as many of those ministers have university degrees, I suppose that is just another manifestation of the inadequacies of the educational policies of previous governments, alongside the inadequacies of the processes of selection of ministers? There are four concepts of freewill (two of them incoherent and the other two compatible with determinism). Why Asimov's "laws of robotics" are unethical. Why Computing Education has Failed and How to Fix it Comments on the NHS IT disaster and suggestions for an alternative approach.