A focal point of president-elect Donald Trump's campaign, that manufacturing jobs have left the US in droves as a result of bad trade deals, could be based on a faulty premise. "America has lost nearly one-third of its manufacturing jobs since Nafta and 50,000 factories since China joined the World Trade Organization," says Mr Trump's official site, citing research from 2007 by the Economic Policy Institute. According to this narrative, the US's trade policies, growing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada, and China's "unfair subsidy behaviour" are to blame for the US's "deindustrialisation" and its disappearing middle class. The US did indeed lose about 5.6m manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010. But according to a study by the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, 85 per cent of these jobs losses are actually attributable to technological change -- largely automation -- rather than international trade.

Artificial intelligence and increasing automation is going to decimate middle class jobs, worsening inequality and risking significant political upheaval, Stephen Hawking has warned. In a column in The Guardian, the world-famous physicist wrote that "the automation of factories has already decimated jobs in traditional manufacturing, and the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining." He adds his voice to a growing chorus of experts concerned about the effects that technology will have on workforce in the coming years and decades. The fear is that while artificial intelligence will bring radical increases in efficiency in industry, for ordinary people this will translate into unemployment and uncertainty, as their human jobs are replaced by machines. Technology has already gutted many traditional manufacturing and working class jobs -- but now it may be poised to wreak similar havoc with the middle classes.

A pair of Republican congressmen, both of whom sit on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, contacted NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Tuesday, requesting more information from the space administration about a recent report supporting the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). The ARM program aims to intercept a near-Earth asteroid, grab a boulder from its surface using a robotic spacecraft and then coax said boulder into a stable orbit around the moon where it can be studied at leisure by future manned missions. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the HCSST, and Brian Babin (R-Texas), chairman of of the HSST space subcommittee, made the request because they reportedly feel that the incoming administration should be "unencumbered" by decisions made by the current one -- like what they want to do with the ACA -- and has access to "honest assessments" of ARM's value rather than "farcical studies scoped to produce a predetermined outcome." Specifically, the pair questioned a November 16th report which proposed that performing this mission would close five "strategic knowledge gaps" (SKGs), or subjects that NASA has said it needs additional experience or technologies in before it can continue its space exploration plans. These SKGs include everything from how to limit a crew's radiation exposure during round trip missions, how many such missions a crew could complete before radiation exposure becomes an issue or how to even land on and collect materials from the orbiting boulder.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp Says Going Public Is'A Possibility' Big data and IoT are transforming how wars are being fought. Technology is changing not just how we engage with our enemies but also the fronts on which we will engage them. It's also potentially promising to help bring about world peace. Autonomous stealth drones such as the Taranis produced by BAE Systems change the way traditional wars are fought. The Taranis (aptly named for the Celtic god of thunder) can fly to a preselected area on a programmed flight path, identify a threat, target that threat, and alert a human operator that it has identified a target.

Green light is given to the 2020 Mars ExoMars mission - but will Europe ever manage to land on the red planet? Not just for lonely men: Sex robots will let couples have... From a dazzling supermoon to a stunning meteor shower: Here... Are these the legs of Queen Nefertari? You could book a holiday on the MOON by 2026: Private firm... Not just for lonely men: Sex robots will let couples have... From a dazzling supermoon to a stunning meteor shower: Here... Are these the legs of Queen Nefertari? You could book a holiday on the MOON by 2026: Private firm...

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What do Donald Trump and a bee hive have in common? While this might sound like the setup to a bad joke or bit of political punditry, it's an important and meaningful academic question. To a collective behavior scientist, electing a president or choosing a new nest site are both choices that arise from the interactions of a large number of individuals. Joe Bak-Coleman (@jbakcoleman) is a Ph.D. candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University, where he is studying collective behavior. When bees need to find a new nest site, scouts will visit several potential locations.

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Artificial intelligence and increasing automation is going to decimate middle class jobs, worsening inequality and risking significant political upheaval, Stephen Hawking has warned. In a column in The Guardian, the world-famous physicist wrote that "the automation of factories has already decimated jobs in traditional manufacturing, and the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining." He adds his voice to a growing chorus of experts concerned about the effects that technology will have on workforce in the coming years and decades. The fear is that while artificial intelligence will bring radical increases in efficiency in industry, for ordinary people this will translate into unemployment and uncertainty, as their human jobs are replaced by machines. Technology has already gutted many traditional manufacturing and working class jobs -- but now it may be poised to wreak similar havoc with the middle classes.

As in the global survey, we are concerned with platform business models and the design choices that allow these business models to grow. We find the term platform, which is well-established in economic and management literature, offers a more useful and accurate term than some of the terms that have been used such as "share economy companies," "internet companies" or, even more broadly, "tech companies." Network effects are a key characteristic that distinguish platforms from other business models. As more users engage with a platform, the more attractive the platform becomes to potential new users. When more users attract more users, a dynamic is created that in turn triggers a self-reinforcing cycle of growth.