Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, certainly raised the profile of quantum computing a few notches last year, when he gamely--if vaguely1--described it for a press conference. But we've heard a lot about quantum computers in the past few years, as Google, I.B.M., and N.A.S.A., as well as many, many universities, have all been working on, or putting money into, quantum computers for various ends. The N.S.A., for instance, as the Snowden documents revealed, wants to build one for codebreaking, and it seems to be a common belief that if a full-scale, practical quantum computer is built, it could be really useful in that regard. A recent New Yorker article, for example, stated that a quantum computer "would, on its first day of operation, be capable of cracking the Internet's most widely used codes." But maybe they won't be as useful as we have been led to believe.

Every week The Job Shop Blog will bring you our 5 top science and technology news stories from around the web. This week: NASA Found a solar system with 7 Earth-like planets, SpaceX is launching tourists to the moon, computers that can code themselves, AIs are helping to save lives, and robot teachers could be commonplace by 2030. Scientists working with telescopes at the European Southern Observatory and NASA announced a remarkable new discovery: An entire system of Earth-sized planets. If that's not enough, the team asserts that the density measurements of the planets indicates that the six innermost are Earth-like rocky worlds. Three of the planets lie in the star's habitable zone.

NASA: where you can check out the uses of liquid nitrogen, purchase your very own star map and establish a healthy distrust of robots from a young age. Dad and Redditor Derwolfe took his 4-year-old daughter to the Johnston Space Center in Houston, Texas, for a day of educational fun recently, and it was mostly going ok-- until dessert. Frozen Yogurt robot at NASA made the cup to her exact specifications, showed it to her, and then took it back. "It was the funniest/worst thing I have ever seen," Derwolfe commented. He elaborated in the post that she had been asking about the frozen yogurt robot "10-12" times since after lunch.

The Amazon Echo can seem like your best friend--until it betrays you. That's because this device is different from anything else in your house. Alexa, the voice assistant that powers Echo and more, is always listening, sending what you say after using a "wake" word to Amazon's servers. Of course, Echo isn't the only voice-assistant speaker on the market, but it sits in millions of homes, and Alexa is headed to devices from companies like Ford, Dish, Samsung, and Whirlpool. Veteran civil trial attorney Gerald Sauer is a founding partner at Sauer & Wagner LLP of Los Angeles.

Machine learning is a hot topic in healthcare right now. One health IT expert told SearchHealthIT that he predicts machine learning and artificial intelligence will move quickly in the industry and be applied to many different use cases. The progression of healthcare IoT, or the Internet of Medical Things, is not without its challenges. Download a PDF of this exclusive guide now and learn how to overcome the obstacles: security, data overload, regulations, and more. This email address is already registered.

Though he has prided himself on being a master deal maker, President Donald Trump and his policies might be taking a toll on the economy. Tourism in the United States has taken a hit since Trump took office and implemented an executive order temporarily suspending immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, according to data released by travel search engine Kayak on Monday. Travel from the United Kingdom to the U.S. especially declined, the Guardian reported. Searches for flights from the U.K. to Tampa and Orlando plummeted by 58 percent, while searches for flights to San Diego dropped 43 percent. Searches for flights to Las Vegas and Los Angeles dropped 36 percent and 32 percent, respectively.

Support for the research and development of artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to play a significant part in a new national Digital Strategy to be announced later this week. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) indicated over the weekend that the strategy will include a major review into the potential for AI, and to identify its critical elements, to be led by Wendy Hall, professor of computer science at Southampton University, and Jermoe Pesenti, chief executive officer of AI company BenevolentTech. It will look at how government and industry could work together on developing AI. The strategy will also confirm funds of £17.3 million through the Engineering and Sciences Research Council to support develop the development of AI and robotics in UK universities. DCMS said this reflects the strategy's ambition for Britain to build on areas of strength and develop a global lead in technologies, including cyber security, connected and smart devices, autonomous vehicles as well as AI.

OSAKA – Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui said Tuesday the prefecture relaxed regulations regarding the approval system for opening schools after nationalist private kindergarten operator Moritomo Gakuen requested it, but denied the company influenced the local government's decision. "Compared to other Kansai area prefectures, the hurdles (to run private schools) in Osaka were quite high," Matsui said, adding the reason for the decision was to attract more schools. In April 2012, a few months after Matsui became Osaka's governor, the prefecture relaxed regulations. Nearly six months earlier in September 2011, Moritomo Gakuen head Yasunori Kagoike, who wanted to build an elementary school despite financial difficulties that might have disqualified it from getting prefectural approval, asked the Osaka to ease the rules. Moritomo Gakuen has been under fire recently following revelations of a questionable land deal and for distributing anti-Chinese and anti-Korean literature at its kindergarten.

Imagine you're part of a great swelling crowd, one of 60,000 people who fill up the cauldron of noise and chaos that is a sold-out football stadium. For you and everyone around you, the game is an open-air gathering place, a chance to steam and scream and worry about nothing except the other team's menacing D. To the security officials responsible for your safety, it is a constant source of worst-case-scenario planning. They install metal detectors; they enlist a kennel's worth of bomb-sniffing dogs; they plant concrete pillars around the perimeter to keep out cars; they train personnel in the dark art of bag searching; they even obtain a temporary flight restriction from the FAA to keep all aircraft above 3,000 feet for a radius of 3 miles. They spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours to keep you safe, yet they know that none of it can stop a 3-pound off-the-shelf drone from flying in and dropping something on the crowd. Whatever it is, you'll never see it coming, and because there is currently no legal way to bring down a drone with any accuracy or reliability, there's nothing anyone can do but wait for it. In the summer of 2015, Ross Lamm and Dave Romero watched just such a scenario unfold from within a skybox at a large university stadium. The head of security for the college, fearful of the damage drones could do, had decided to run a simulation of a drone attack inside his 60,000- capacity football stadium.

In March, I am launching our brand new AI Accelerator for BCS Women in association with BCS AI Special Interest Group (SIG). Based on broadcasts, panel sessions and social media discussions, about Artificial Intelligence (AI), its prime purpose is to make AI more relevant to women and encourage more females into computing. It is free - and open to men as well. However, at BCSWomen, we have recently published our latest Scorecard showing just 17% of people working in IT are women. Depressing, to put it mildly and especially considering all the initiatives that are going on to improve gender equality in this sector?